Foreign objects? Web content management systems, journalistic cultures and the ontology of software

Bibliographic Data

ID7477484
AuthorsSusan Rodger (0000-0002-1544-8743, corresponding author), Scott Rodgers (Birkbeck, University of London)
Year2014
Volume16
Issue1
Pages10-26
Publication date2014-08-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-8849 • E-ISSN: 1741-3001
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1464884914545729
OpenAlexW2150949517
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited36

Research on ‘digital’ journalism has focused largely on online news, with comparatively less interest in the longer-term implications of software and computational technologies. Drawing upon a 6-year study of the Toronto Star, this article provides an account of TOPS, an in-house web content management system which served as the backbone of thestar.com for 6 years. For some, TOPS was a successful software innovation, while for others, a strategic digital ‘property’. But for most journalists, it was slow, deficient in functionality, aesthetically unappealing and cumbersome. Although several organizational factors can explain TOPS’ obstinacy, I argue for particular attention to the complex ontology of software. Based on an outline of this ontology, I suggest software be taken seriously as an object of journalism, which implies acknowledging its partial autonomy from human use or authorization, accounting for its ability to mutate indefinitely and analysing its capacity to encourage forms of ‘computational thinking

Autonomy · Epistemology · Journalism · Knowledge management · Media studies · Object (grammar · Ontology · Political science · Sociology · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Media Studies and Communication · Radio, Podcasts, and Digital Media · Law · Software

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