Out of bounds? How Gawker’s outing a married man fits into the boundaries of journalism

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 581-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edson C Tandoc ◽  
Joy Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Interpretive Community ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
Journalistic Practice ◽  
Conde Nast

Gawker ignited a controversy when it published an article about a married Conde Nast executive who allegedly sought the services of a gay escort. The popular blog eventually removed the article following condemnation from readers and other journalists. Guided by the frameworks of boundary work and field theory, this study analyzed 65 news articles and 2203 online comments and found that journalists and audiences problematized Gawker’s identity as a journalistic organization and evaluated the article based on traditional standards of newsworthiness, audiences asserted their role in journalism’s larger interpretive community, and that the larger interpretive community assessed the article based on the ethics of outing. Investigating the discourse generated by this critical incident is important because it identifies where journalists and readers draw the boundaries of legitimate journalism, specifies the place of ethics in boundary discourse, and informs journalistic practice about the phenomenon of outing in the news.

The power of the cover: Symbolic contests around the Boston bombing suspect’s Rolling Stone cover

Journalism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy Jenkins ◽  
Edson C Tandoc
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Cultural Meaning ◽  
Cover Story ◽  
Interpretive Community ◽  
Rolling Stone ◽  
Boston Marathon ◽  
Journalistic Field ◽  
Shed Light

Rolling Stone ignited a debate in July 2013 when it published a cover featuring alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The online version of the cover story drew comments expressing criticism and support of the cover. A qualitative analysis of comments posted within the first week of the cover story shed light on the image’s institutional meaning for Rolling Stone and cultural meaning for readers. Assessing this cover as a critical incident, this study shows how readers, through their comments, participated in the ongoing boundary work in the journalistic field, joining journalism’s interpretive community in defining professional roles, norms, and routines.

Five ways BuzzFeed is preserving (or transforming) the journalistic field

Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edson C Tandoc
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
New York ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
New York Times ◽  
News Values ◽  
The New York Times ◽  
Journalistic Field ◽  
Journalistic Practice

Guided by field theory and the concept of journalistic boundary work, this study seeks to examine whether BuzzFeed, a new agent in the journalistic field, is participating in the preservation or transformation of the journalistic field. This is carried out by comparing its news outputs with those of The New York Times based on the markers – or boundaries – that defined traditional journalistic practice, particularly news values, topics, sources, formats, and norms. The analysis found that while news articles produced by BuzzFeed are exhibiting some departures from traditional journalistic practice, in general, BuzzFeed is playing by the rules, which might explain its legitimation as a recognized agent in the field.

Between social spaces

2020 ◽  
pp. 136843102090525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sida Liu
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Social Forms

Sociologists often imagine society as spaces, yet how social spaces are related remains ambiguous in most theories. In developing his field theory, Bourdieu used extensively the concept of homology to describe the structural similarities across fields, but he had not taken seriously the spaces between fields or how fields are related to each other. Adopting the Simmelian approach of formal sociology, this article outlines six basic social forms by which social spaces are related. It argues that relations between social spaces can be understood along two dimensions: heterogeneity and social distance. In terms of heterogeneity, social spaces can be kindred, symbiotic or oppositional. In terms of social distance, they can be linked, nested or overlapping. These social forms of interspatial relations are constituted by the boundary work of a variety of actors, including guardians, brokers and space travellers. The article provides a general vocabulary for thinking about how social spaces are related and how they interact across boundaries.

scholarly journals Hybrid professionalism in journalism: Opportunities and risks of hacker sources

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Di Salvo ◽  
Colin Porlezza
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Online News ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
News Magazine ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Journalistic Field ◽  
Shed Light

Hackers have a double relevance with regard to the transformation of the journalistic field: first, they have established themselves as journalistic actors, even if their work may sometimes seem unfamiliar. Second, hackers have not only become important sources for information but they are also a topic of public interest in a data-driven society increasingly threatened by surveillance capitalism. This paper critically discusses the role of hackers as news sources by analyzing the “stalkerware” investigation carried out by the online news magazine Motherboard. Drawing from field theory and boundary work, the article sheds light on how hackers exert an increasing influence on journalism, its practices, epistemologies, and ethics, resulting in an increasing hybridization of journalism. Journalism has become a dynamic space, in which hackers are not only becoming relevant actors in the journalism field, but they often represent the only sources journalists have to shed light on wrongdoings. Hence, hackers are increasingly defining the conditions under which journalism is carried out, both in terms of its practices as well as in its normative framework.

The Journalist and the Murderer revisited: What interviews with journalism subjects reveal about a modern classic

Journalism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 575-591
Author(s):  
Ruth A Palmer
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
City Area ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Journalistic Practice

Do journalism subjects invariably feel betrayed and misrepresented by journalists, as Janet Malcolm claims in her seminal 1990 book The Journalist and the Murderer? If not, what explains the ongoing appeal of her now famous conclusion? Based on interviews with 83 people who were named in newspapers in the New York City–area and a southwestern city, this article takes up these questions by putting journalism subjects’ own descriptions of their experiences with the journalistic process in dialogue with Malcolm’s central argument. I conclude that Malcolm’s conman–victim model for the journalist–subject relationship fails, in some key ways, to describe journalism subjects’ experiences; and yet, Malcolm does capture important emotional truths at the heart of the journalist–subject encounter. In the end, the hyperbolic versions of the journalist and subject she portrays may continue to resonate not because they are strictly accurate, but because they play a role in journalistic boundary work, simultaneously probing and reinforcing the boundaries of acceptable journalistic practice.

scholarly journals Changing the meaning of peer-to-peer? Exploring online comment spaces as sites of negotiated expertise

2010 ◽  
Vol 09 (01) ◽  
pp. A01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Claire Shanahan
Keyword(s):  
Peer Interaction ◽  
Peer Interactions ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
Scientific Expertise ◽  
National Newspaper ◽  
Personal Expertise

This study examines the nature of peer-to-peer interactions in public online comment spaces. From a theoretical perspective of boundary-work and expertise, the comments posted in response to three health sciences news articles from a national newspaper are explored to determine whether both scientific and personal expertise are recognized and taken up in discussion. Posts were analysed for both explicit claims to expertise and implicit claims embedded in discourse. The analysis suggests that while both scientific and personal expertise are proffered by commenters, it is scientific expertise that is privileged. Those expressing scientific expertise receive greater recognition of the value of their posts. Contributors seeking to share personal expertise are found to engage in scientisation to position themselves as worthwhile experts. Findings suggest that despite the possibilities afforded by online comments for a broader vision of what peer-to-peer interaction means, this possibility is not realized.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document