Convergence Culture in European Newsrooms

Journalism Studies, 2014

Like many news media organisations, European public service broadcasters are adapting their corporate strategies to the specific demands of the evolving communicative environment. Digitisation and convergence have been usually presented as an opportunity to reinvent Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) into Public Service Media, by producing and delivering (news) content across traditional radio, television and new online platforms. While investment in digital facilities has set the basis for a more integrated operation amongst the different news media outlets, finding a workable template to implement professional cross-media practices has been more complex than expected. With the aim of exploring key challenges of convergence affecting PSB newsrooms, this article presents a multiple-case study that investigates current convergence processes of five European mid-sized public broadcasting corporationsthe UK's BBC Scotland, Spain's CCMA and EITB, Norway's NRK and Flemish-Belgian' VRT. Combining an array of qualitative methods, the study focuses on specific convergence parameters, including newsrooms' physical structure and management, cross-media production routines and workflows, degree of multi-skilling in journalists, professional identities, and attitudes towards convergence. Findings show that public broadcasters tend to follow a similar pattern in basic aspects, like grouping radio, television and online newsrooms together in the same physical space, even if this model has different outcomes in terms of cooperation across media and journalists' involvement.

Aslib Proceedings, 2008

Purpose -This article reports on research conducted inside British national media organizations. Interviews were conducted with journalists working in newsrooms at the BBC, Sky News, The Guardian and the Financial Times. The research was designed to investigate the impact on the working practices of journalists of the process of production convergence -the trend towards news reporting in more than one medium in formerly single-medium organizations. The article describes the changes that are taking place and the ways journalists are reacting to them. Methodology/approach -Interviews were conducted with 20 journalists during 2002 and 2003. Findings -The data shows that while multimedia news is becoming well-established, the multimedia journalist has been slow to arrive. This is because of the pressures that multi-media working add to the journalist's daily routine and a concern over the impact on the quality of output. Research limitations/implications -The media environment is evolving rapidly and research findings on this topic quickly go out of date, but the findings presented here offer valuable insights into the news production processes operating in British national media organizations and the ways journalists are adapting to, and are likely to continue to adapt to, changes in production technologies and changed systems of working. Originality/value -The research reported here is the first to focus on journalistic practice in a converging media environment.

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2008

This article deals with the work of journalists in newsrooms that produce content for multiple media: print, radio, television, the internet and others. It builds on the relevant literature about the implementation of newsroom convergence in Europe and the USA. Specifically, the study analyses change in journalistic practice and newsroom workflow in the newsrooms of two Spanish multimedia groups: (a) La Verdad Multimedia, a regional media group owned by Vocento, which publishes the newspaper La Verdad, the online site La Verdad.es, the local radio station Punto Radio and the television station Punto TV; and (b) Novotécnica, a regional independent company which publishes the newspaper La Voz de Almería and also owns both Radio Almería (Cadena Ser) and Localia television. Researchers interviewed reporters and news directors and observed newsroom practices. The results suggest the emergence of two different models of newsroom convergence: the integrated model and the cross-media model,...

2009

Durchgeführt mit Unterstützung der KommAustria gemäß §11 Abs. 3 PresseFG 2004

This article introduces the concept of de-convergence to analyse recent changes in the newsroom at the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. While the concept of convergence or multimedia journalism has been introduced worldwide, de Volkskrant decided to separate their print and online newsroom. In this de-converged model the traditional print journalist has made a comeback, no longer charged with multimedia tasks. De Volkskrant initially anticipated the digital age by developing a cross-media strategy in which an integrated newsroom would serve multiple platforms. However, the lack of a solid business model and cultural resistance of reporters hindered these ambitions. By creating a new digital newsroom for all the web titles the chain owns, it is argued that convergence on a vertical level (within a brand) has given way to horizontal convergence (within the publishing house). The article analyses the factors which influenced decision-making and how these forms of (de)convergence affect journalism practice and the newspaper brand. Findings are based on an in-depth ethnographic study.

Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, 2008

This article deals with the work of journalists in newsrooms that produce content for multiple media: print, radio, television, the internet and others. It builds on the relevant literature about the implementation of newsroom convergence in Europe and the USA. Specifically, the study analyses change in journalistic practice and newsroom workflow in the newsrooms of two Spanish multimedia groups: (a) La Verdad Multimedia, a regional media group owned by Vocento, which publishes the newspaper La Verdad, the online site La Verdad.es, the local radio station Punto Radio and the television station Punto TV; and (b) Novotécnica, a regional independent company which publishes the newspaper La Voz de Almería and also owns both Radio Almería (Cadena Ser) and Localia television. Researchers interviewed reporters and news directors and observed newsroom practices. The results suggest the emergence of two different models of newsroom convergence: the integrated model and the cross-media model, each with a different production system, newsroom organization, degree of journalists' multi-skilling and business strategy.

Journalism Practice, 2009

Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, 2011

A paradox of contemporary sociology is that the discipline has largely abandoned the empirical study of journalistic organizations and news institutions at the moment when the media has gained visibility in political, economic, and cultural spheres; when other academic fields have embraced the study of media and society; and when leading sociological theorists have broken from the disciplinary cannon to argue that the media are key actors in modern life. This article examines the point of journalistic production in one major news organization and shows how reportersand editors manage constraints of time, space, and market pressure under regimes of convergence news making. It considers the implications of these conditions for the particular forms of intellectual and cultural labor that journalists produce, drawing connections between the political economy of the journalistic field, the organizational structure of multimedia firms, new communications technologies, and the qualities of content created by media workers.