a manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies
DESCRIPTION
Closing keynote delivered at the MeCCSA 2014 conference at Bournemouth University, January 10.TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies
Plenary session: “Where are we going?”Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
Cardiff University(@KarinWahlJ)MeCCSA 2014
Bournemouth University
![Page 2: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Introduction• Conference theme: “Media and
the margins”– Engagement of marginalised and
minority groups with the media• The margins of media practice:
Paying attention to the underdog• Journalism Studies: Focused on
elite media practices
![Page 3: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Cultural studies • Media, communication and cultural studies: Disciplinary ideological
commitment to the underdog• Emphasis on questions of power, hegemony and the politics of
signification– Class, gender– Popular culture– Lived experience
![Page 4: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
The dominant paradigm and the political economy of academia
• Journalism studies: Tension between commitment to the margins and pressure to study privileged forms of practice
• The field of anthropology: “Studying down”• Journalism studies: “Studying up”
– Engaging in elite research (Conti and O’Neil 2007)
![Page 5: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
![Page 6: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
![Page 7: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Consequences: Emphasis on elite practices
• Newsroom-centricity: Focus on material space of media production
• Emphasis on the routines, cultures, and production processes of elite newsrooms: Ignoring less glamorous, marginalised but numerically dominant forms
• Universalising the experience of elite sites of practice
![Page 8: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Neglect of marginal practices outside the newsroom
• Westernised view of media practice.• Neglect of casualised and free-lance media work.
– E.g. 28% of journalists are now self-employed (Journalists at Work, NCTJ, 2012)
• Specialist work: E.g. arts, business, features• Focus on prestigious professional specialisations, e.g.
political journalists and foreign correspondents• BUT: Increasing work on alternative journalism
![Page 9: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Consequences: Neglect of local journalism
• Only 10% of journalists work in national newspapers; 5% in national TV (Journalists at Work, NCTJ, 2012).
• Work on regional and local media often focused on regional production sites of national news organisations (cf. Aldridge 2006)
• Small body of research on local media (e.g. Franklin 2006; Williams et al. 2013)– Hyperlocal blogs
![Page 10: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Emphasis on technological change and innovation
• Turn to questions of technological change and innovation (Cushion and Blumler 2013)
• Journalism and Journalism Studies: Most read and cited articles deal with convergence, technological change, social media and blogs.
• Broader trend across the field: Excitement over potential of new technologies to empower producers and audiences– E.g. MeCCSA presentations: How marginalised groups use new
technologies• Utopian tales in the face of depressing material circumstances
where “Survival is Success” (e.g. Bruno and Kleis Nielsen 2012; Ryfe 2012)
![Page 11: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Neglect of failure• Less interest in failure and resistance to
change and innovation• Less interest in structural inequality/”digital
divide” among news organisations • Media studies: Focus on successful, “cult”
or “quality” media texts• Social movements: Focus on national and
transnational movements of high visibility (e.g. Occupy) as opposed to local/unsuccessful/marginal activisms
![Page 12: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Sexing up scholarship? The political economy of the academy
• Researchers more likely to gain institutional approval and prestige, grant money, publications and promotions from a study of elite and innovative organisations and practices.
• Methodological and epistemological necessity for studying marginalised practices: It “no longer seems plausible to presume a generalised view of ‘journalism’ as an undifferentiated culture or shared professional canon” (Cottle 2000: 24).
• Pedagogical intervention: Training future media professionals.
![Page 13: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Where are we going: De-centring research
• Overcoming newsroom-centricity: “Blowing up the newsroom” (Anderson 2011)
• Looking at systemic failure/breakdown: E.g. sociology of failure (Clarke and Perrow 1996)– Critical work on systemic failure of news organisations (e.g. Glasgow
Media Group)– Body of work on ethnography of journalism: failure of technological
change (e.g. Domingo and Paterson 2011; Ryfe 2012)– Ryfe, Can journalism survive: “A story of failures that anticipates the
slow demise of the model of journalism as mass communication” (Domingo 2013)
![Page 14: A manifesto of failure for media, communication and cultural studies](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061222/54c2ff184a7959007f8b464b/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)