Organizational studies

Sociology of media organizations

Why study media organizations?

• Many organizational sociologists or media studies scholars argue that the source of mass culture within a society (and, to a lesser extent, high or folk culture) is not mad individual geniuses but, in fact, organizations that resemble producers of any mass commodity

Why study media organizations?• Media organizations have a set of ‘functions’ to

perform in any society– Lasswell; Lazarsfeld & Merton; Wright

• Highly public organizations creating works that draw widespread attention

• Significant economic impact• Time spent, other social effects• Cultural products have a number of unusual

characteristics, calling for unusual structures– Uniqueness of ‘creative’ organizations

Press organizations are considered crucial

• The press, especially, is thought to be crucial to a working democracy– Inform the electorate– Spark debate– Provide a channel for communication between

the public and the elite– Serve as a watchdog on government

Press myths

• Crusading journalist, loner fighting corruption

• Fourth estate, acting as gadfly – Watchdog on government– Conflictual relationship

• Holding up a mirror to society– Simply reacting to, and transcribing, the

important events of the day

Press myths

• Hard-bitten, fiercely independent editors standing up for the downtrodden against the powerful of society– “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the

comfortable”

Film, entertainment myths

• Talented, wild and crazy individuals giving expression to unique and innovative ideas– Mad geniuses driven by an inner need to

express themselves through their art

• Social self-examination through cultural expression

• Powerful studio system controlling talent and money, producing a “star system”

Entertainment myths

• Shallow, narcissistic, deviant stars caught up in a world of mirrors and adoration– “Sex, drugs, and Rock & Roll”

Organizational sociologists look at the culture industry

• Scholars attempt to determine how a “product” that is supposedly based on unique, uncertain and occasional leaps of inspiration or else the unpredictable ebb and flow of social events can be produced and disseminated on a regular schedule, with the same format, hour after hour, day after day, week after week

Common characteristics of all organizations apply to media

• Goal-directed– Survival– Profit-oriented– Seek control over suppliers, clients

• Bureaucratized, routinized behaviors– Hierarchical structure

• Complex set of functions• Role positions• Departmentalization

Additional concerns

• How do organizations control, allow, support the development of creative products?– Highly uncertain audience response to products

• Blockbusters v. ‘art’

• What organizational structures and routines are developed in order to meet the demands of content production?– “routinizing the unexpected”

• What is the influence of organizational structure on the content ultimately produced and disseminated?

• How are interorganizational/institutional relationships developed and maintained? How do these relationships influence the content generated and distributed?

• How do media organizations stand in relation to the state and the public? The powerful?

Press organizations

• The most heavily-studied of creative organizations

• Blossoming of organizational studies in the 1970s– Tuchman– Gans– Fishman– Roshco– Epstein– Sigal– Sigelman– Schudson– Schiller

Influences on the news product

• Individual journalist• News department• News organization• Corporation• Technology• Profession• Industry• Inter-institutional influences• Nation/culture

• The daily agenda of reports produced by the media and called "news" is not the inevitable product of chance events; it is the result of decisions made within a news organization. (Epstein, 1981)

Let’s look at a given ‘event’

• A J-walker in a run-down area of town is hit by an SUV driving too fast late at night.

• Is this ‘news’?– From the standpoint of the individual journalists it may

be hard to predict– However, organizational and professional norms for

content make the call easier• WLEX• WUKY• Herald-Leader

If the event is picked up by a news organization it is “news”

• How much play does it get?– Front page/top story?

• Who is a source for the story?• What information is included in the story?

– Photos/video?• What is the actual verbal construction of the

story?– Adjective/metaphor– Framing– Headline/subheads

What then?

• Is there a follow-up?

• Is there another piece meant to give context to the story?

• Are subjects allowed a response to the presentation?– I was NOT drunk!

News is a constructed product

• Organizations construct several routines and controls put in place to see that the ultimate ‘story’ and show conform to accepted practice– Inverted pyramid– Story types– Objectivity (both sides)– Editing system– Meeting at beginning of day to determine stories to

cover, conflicts among ‘desks’ about what should be covered, etc.

How are organizational approaches to news maintained?

• Socialization of new journalists to ‘editorial policy’– Breed

• Hiring practices– Sigelman

• Professional training

How are views of news/professional norms maintained over distance?

• Elite media serve as models for those further down the status totem, with those yet lower looking to dailies/affiliates in the larger regional cities, etc.

• Journalists prepare themselves to move upmarket by pre-socializing themselves

• Journalism schools with curricula and texts that are developed based on national models

Organizational practices

• Television—the role of the anchor– Story structure wrapped by anchor (intro,

questioning, extro)– Popularity is critical to success of show

• National anchors have great power in determining structure of news show

– Movement toward “on-air personalities” and away from seasoned journalists

Organizational practices

• Commitment to enterprise journalism– Usually quite low (Gans, Sigelman)– Declining due to economics

• Acceptance, use of, publicity from PR sources– Widespread, though there are limits imposed by

professional norms– Significantly reduces costs of production

• Sex, drugs and mayhem in February (ratings hypo)

• National news focuses on geography near to network headquarters– May be less so due to technological change

Reduction of uncertainty• Routines

– Beat system (“newsnet”) (Tuchman)

• Regular features– Weather– Sports

• Maintenance of material for slow days– “Feature stories”– PR content– Enterprise stories

• Newswires, content sources

Journalism as a profession

• Institutionalization (university departments)• Development of organizations• Publications critiquing practice

– Columbia Journalism Review

• Awards/ceremonies• Professional “ideology”

– News values– Objectivity– Watchdog role (on government)

Professional culture

• “Public’s right to know”– Pictures of victims– Rape stories, etc.– Demand for access to official information,

access to private individuals involved in public issues, events

• First Amendment philosophy

Professional expertise

• “Nose for news”

• What are news values?– Characteristics of events that make them

appropriate for construction as news

Professional culture v. organizational demands

• At times in conflict—profit v. public service– “When MBAs rule the newsroom”

• Most often complementary or mutually supportive– “Public’s right to know” how a woman whose

child was just found dead feels

Newsworker explanations

• Objectivity– Separation of editorial from hard news– Balancing– Facticity– Neutrality– Reliance on official sources

• Typifications (Tuchman)

Influence of the owner

• Socialization of newsworkers– Breed

• Ability to fire employees– Rarely exercised

• Budgeting• Choice of management• Public persona• Ideology--belief in rights of ownership

Influence of owner (counterbalance)

• Professional norms• Independence of management

– Professional revolution in management philosophy

• Public demands for objective news coverage– Organized groups

– Politicians

• Market influences

Influence of powerful (government)

• Source of news– News, by definition, about government action

– Expectations of readers/viewers

– Provide regular content that can be processed• Newsnet

• Can influence news play– “Scoops”

– Access

– “Background”

Influence of the powerful

• Interpersonal influence– Friendship, “capture”– Stroking, personal access to parties, etc.

• Journalists no longer represent working class—high paid, privileged group

• Professionalization of press relations– PR professionals– College courses, curriculum development,

ethics

Influence of the economic system

• Information products

• “Natural monopoly”Public goods

UnderproductionGovernment subsidy

Advertising

Substitution of “audience attention” sold for end-user sales of content

Impact of cable (end-user) substitution for broadcast

Press organizations react to the economic system

• Do not act as a “quasi-public service”– Profit-oriented organization

• Budgeting for various activities– Low budget for foreign news, correspondents– Washington bureau seen as a sign of quality– “Metro pull-back”

• Need to generate advertising– Acceptance of PR content

• Positive relations with advertisers• Cheap content

– Topical determination according to advertiser demands• “Auto section”