Journalism’s Central Tendencies

Journalism&s; has been variously defined around a set of practices, roles, products, and processes, and each of these have helped give journalism a sense of ubiquity in modern societies. This chapter focuses on the core as reflected in a set of familiar practices and maps a traditional centrepoint around which dominant narratives of what journalism &s;is&s; have revolved. By understanding this core, the dynamics of a core–peripheral mapping of the field where interlopers are excluded from field belonging can be explored. One of the critiques of traditional approaches to understanding journalism is the way analysis can prioritize highly familiar media forms and traditional notions of journalism at the expense of alternative conceptual visions of what journalism might be, or what it might become. The chapter demonstrates that prevailing views of journalism have significant flaws, and people need to understand how such views came to prominence to introduce arguments of a more heterogeneous field, integrating interlopers.

Journalism · Media studies · Political science · Sociology · Media Studies and Communication