Abstract
All phases of media production involve a large volume of work that becomes routinized as a matter of necessity. The regularities of behaviour and thinking that result from these routines give rise to empirical generalizations and the possibility of theorizing about what is going on (McQuail, 2010: 308).
Inside the TV Newsroom: Profession under Pressure: A Newsroom Ethnography of Public Service TV Journalism in the UK and Denmark is a detailed book analysing the daily routines of journalists in two countries. The newsroom observations and relating the practices to theory make the book an original one for communication and media studies.
Research on the production of mass media is not an easy task, which is why these works are rare. Besides, the doors of the communication sector are not readily accessible to academics, but the author ‘gains access by being similar’, namely by saying ‘I am one of you!’ (p. 57). This makes Line Hassall Thomsen’s book a very interesting and valuable one. A journalist, researcher and anthropologist, Line explores the everyday working of TV newsrooms during a period of 18 months (2007–2008). Besides the ‘intensive fieldwork’ (p. 6), she also kept in touch with the newsrooms for 10 years until 2017. The methodology used is participant observation with an ethnographic approach.
The aim of the research project is to investigate the values of journalism as a profession in the newsrooms of two public and two commercial broadcasters in the United Kingdom and in Denmark, namely the BBC and DR, and ITV and TV2, respectively, making it possible to compare different media cultures. Expecting to see differences in the newsrooms, she surprisingly observes similar working routines and similar ideals. The news journalists are ‘between ideals and everyday working condition’, sharing common professional values and culture. The question posed is, How do journalists ‘struggle towards being a “good journalist”’ in their everyday routines in the newsrooms? (p. 7).
The journalists’ ideal of doing ‘good work’ is defined either as ‘best practice’ or as ‘work that betters the world’ (p. 256). The responses to the question of what makes a good news story lead to the identification of eight factors. A good news story is something new, is interesting to people, is a story personally relatable, is informing and educating the audience, is relative to other events, is geographically dependent, is unique and is helping better the world (p. 244).
The book is well designed and explanatory in eight chapters with sub-divisions. The study/project is clearly discussed in all parts. Although there are unavoidable repetitions, the writing flows smoothly from chapter to chapter. In Chapters 1 and 2, the early works and theories of news production and journalism as a profession with its norms and values are discussed. A new approach to the study of professionalism, namely media anthropology, is proposed. Participant observation of the production of news is suggested as a means of analysis. In Chapter 3, the focus is on the four newsrooms and the journalists working in different divisions. How do they define themselves and the other? The competition and the shared struggle to overcome economic challenges are explained. In Chapters 4 and 5, the focus is on the organisation. How is the organisation designed and structured, and what are the effects of this on journalistic practice? How have the new circular-shaped newsrooms changed the feelings and behaviour of the journalists? In Chapter 6, the unity and the strong ties among journalists defined as ‘family bonds’ (p. 199) are emphasised. Chapter 7 discusses one of the core findings of the study, namely how journalists are connected to the classic ideal of being a ‘good’ journalist. Chapter 8 presents an overall conclusion to the study, which can be identified as a new take on understanding professionalism – a shared value among journalists across all four broadcasters.
This book is the outcome of extensive observation and theoretical scrutiny. The observations are related to substantial theory and research. It centres on vital journalistic questions and is well presented. The ethnographic approach to communication studies is original. However, using different theories of different origins in order to explain the findings of the fieldwork is confusing. While adopting a multitheoretical standpoint may be useful as a way of explaining certain practices, it is generally expected that a research project would aim towards theory building.