Multiple Media, Convergent Processes, and Divergent Products: Organizational Innovation in Digital Media Production at a European Firm

Abstract

This article addresses the intersection of two underexplored themes in studies of cultural production in traditional and digital media: the role of technology in news work and the processes that shape media convergence. The authors analyze organizational innovation in digital media production at GMS, a European firm that operates print and broadcast outlets in several specialized news markets. Between 1994 and 2003, GMS went from a phase of digital media experimentation under-taken by teams located within each existing newsroom, to the creation of a separate unit handling the online content of all print and broadcast newsrooms, to the ongoing integration of news production into a single newsroom per specialized market that generates different products for the various outlets in each market. This analysis illuminates how adopting online technologies has involved shifts in the locus of content creation in a path of increasing convergence in production processes but continued divergence of media products.

Agenda y uso de fuentes en los titulares y noticias centrales de los medios informativos chilenos. Un estudio de la prensa impresa, online, radio y televisión

“…En tanto, según la perspectiva generalista (Benson, Blach-Ørsten, Powers, Willig & Zambrano, 2012), las estructuras, procedimientos y valores profesionales regulan la producción de noticias de manera uniforme. Los periodistas toman decisiones similares, independientemente del tipo de medio en que trabajen (Reich, 2011), producto de estar sujetos a prácticas similares y creencias establecidas dentro del campo periodístico en un contexto cultural determinado (Bourdieu, 1998), así como por la convergencia tecnológica y organizacional de los medios (Boczkowski & Ferris, 2005;Cook, 1998).…”

La presencia de rol cívico, de servicio y de info-entretenimiento en las noticias de cultura y espectáculos del periodismo chileno

“…Los estudios que han comparado más de una plataforma informativa dentro del campo de los medios de comunicación han medido otros aspectos de las noticias como las agendas noticiosas (Valenzuela y Arriagada, 2009) o rutinas periodísticas (Boczkowski y Ferris, 2005;Singer, 2004;Reich, 2011), entre otros.…”

“…De acuerdo con esta perspectiva, la similitud entre medios también se debe por la convergencia tecnológica y organizacional (Cook, 1998;Boczkowski y Ferris, 2005), así como por estar insertos en un mismo contexto cultural (Bourdieu, 1998).…”

Multi-platform media and the miracle of the loaves and fishes

“…Of particular relevance to our study is earlier work on how the transition to a multi-platform approach has changed processes of production (Bennett & Strange, 2014;Quinn, 2005;Schlesinger & Doyle, 2015). The research presented here is informed by an extensive body of earlier literature concerning the way that newsrooms and news production practices have changed on account of digital convergence (Achtenhagen & Raviola, 2009;Deuze, 2004;Domingo, 2008;García Avilés & Carvajal, 2008;Spyridou, Matsiola, Veglis, Kalliris, & Dimoulas, 2013) and, related to this, the challenges for newspapers of embedding a fully integrated approach to content production (Bressers, 2006;Erdal, 2011) and of facilitating innovation (Boczkowski & Ferris, 2005;Mico, Masip, & Domingo, 2013).…”