A future of journalism beyond the objectivity–dialogue divide? Hybridity in the news of entrepreneurial journalists

Abstract

As pioneers of new ideas and practices, many entrepreneurial journalists spearhead the change of journalism towards hybridity. By applying appraisal theory, this article examines a hybrid of objectivity and dialogue in daily news articles by five entrepreneurial journalism outlets – Axios, MustRead, National Observer, The Skimm and the Voice of San Diego. For comparative purposes, a dataset from three legacy media outlets was also analysed. The results show that the entrepreneurial journalism outlets employ journalistic dialogue in otherwise stylistically objective news texts notably more often than do legacy media outlets. Dialogic registers provide subtle, non-partisan assessments of events and issues and make the news more informal. Such a hybrid form of journalism serves the functions of sense-making, establishing an interpersonal connection between ‘private’ audiences and ‘public’ news, and connecting journalism with fields outside of its core. By doing so, the hybrid journalism of entrepreneurial journalists offers a distinctive vision of the futures of news journalism.

Perceptions versus performance: How routines, norms and values influence journalists’ protest coverage decisions

“…Like routines and practices, professional norms, and in particular the importance of objectivity, emerged as fundamental in journalists’ coverage decisions. While research increasingly suggests that objectivity is not the end-all-be-all core of journalism that it once was (Ruotsalainen et al, 2019), for these respondents, objectivity was at the heart of protest reporting and professional identity. They didn’t take stances, they didn’t participate in ‘partisan’ protests, and they strove to cover ‘both sides’ of the story.…”

The Concept of Hybridity in Journalism Studies

“…The hybrid media system, then, was a system in which newer networked media and legacy mass media coexisted, interacted, and interpenetrated, and Chadwick went on to examine their relationships in the production of political information. By now there is a large and vibrant literature invoking the notion of a hybrid media system and examining such phenomena as the creation of new news genres to target market niches (Bødker 2017; Ruotsalainen et al 2019); “produsage,” “audience” activity and understandings of news (Edgerly and Vraga 2019, 2020; Papacharissi 2015); and the uses of social media by journalists (Gulyas 2017; Hermida 2013; Ottovordemgentschenfelde 2017).…”

Introduction: Hybrid journalism? Making sense of the field’s dissolving boundaries

“…In addition to such specific events, hybridity has also been discussed in a special issue of the scholarly journal "Journalism" (Mast, Coesemanns, & Temmermann, 2017). Moreover, several articles (e. g., Deuze & Witschge, 2018;Mellado et al, 2017;Papacharissi, 2015;Ruotsalainen, Hujanen, & Villi, 2019;Witschge et al, 2019) as well as books (e. g., Chadwick, 2013;Deuze & Witschge, 2020) have been published that discussed the topic from many different perspectives and contributed significantly to push the concept to the core of scholarly debates.…”