Given the interdisciplinary nature of digital journalism studies and the increasingly blurred boundaries of journalism, there is a need within the field of journalism studies to widen the scope of theoretical perspectives and approaches. Theories of Journalism in a Digital Age discusses new avenues in theorising journalism, and reassesses established theories.
Contributors to this volume describe fresh concepts such as de-differentiation, circulation, news networks, and spatiality to explain journalism in a digital age, and provide concepts which further theorise technology as a fundamental part of journalism, such as actants and materiality. Several chapters discuss the latitude of user positions in the digitalised domain of journalism, exploring maximal–minimal participation, routines–interpretation–agency, and mobility–cross-mediality–participation. Finally, the book provides theoretical tools with which to understand, in different social and cultural contexts, the evolving practices of journalism, including innovation, dispersed gatekeeping, and mediatized interdependency. The chapters in this book were originally published in special issues of Digital Journalism and Journalism Practice.
"Theories of Journalism in a Digital Age: An exploration and introduction 1. Actors, Actants, Audiences, and Activities in Cross-Media News Work: A matrix and a research agenda 2. Who and What do Journalism? An actor-network perspective 3. Tracing Digital News Networks: Towards an integrated framework of the dynamics of news production, circulation and use 4. The Notion of the ""Blurring Boundaries"": Journalism as a (de-)differentiated phenomenon 5. The Material Traces of Journalism: A socio-historical approach to online journalism 6. Journalism as Cultures of Circulation 7. Place-based Knowledge in the Twenty-first Century: The creation of spatial journalism 8. From Grand Narratives of Democracy to Small Expectations of Participation: Audiences, citizenship, and interactive tools in digital journalism 9. When News is Everywhere: Understanding participation, cross-mediality and mobility in journalism from a radical user perspective 10. The Relevance of Journalism: Studying news audiences in a digital era 11. Innovation through Practice: Journalism as a structure of public communication 12. Politicians as Media Producers: Current trajectories in the relation between journalists and politicians in the age of social media 13. Gatekeeping in a Digial Era: Principles, practices and technological platforms 14. Charting Theoretical Directions for Examining African Journalism in the ""Digital Era"""
Steen Steensen is Professor of Journalism and Head of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on digitalization and journalism. Laura Ahva is a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Communication, Media and Theatre at the University of Tampere, Finland. She has published articles in Journalism Studies, Journalism and Digital Journalism, and in various edited collections.
