‘Our newsroom in the cloud’: Slack, virtual newsrooms and journalistic practice

Abstract

Virtual newsrooms have enormous potential: enabling journalists around the world to pool their knowledge, skills and perspectives within joint projects, such as the Panama Papers. These virtual newsrooms are supported by Online Collaborative Software (OCS), the most popular of which is Slack. But although many of the world's top news organisations now use Slack, there is no empirical research examining its impact on workplace processes or culture. This article presents the results of a year-long ethnographic study of a global digital news outlet, whose remote journalists collaborate, almost exclusively, via Slack. We found that the platform deepened relationships and enabled new creative practices across geographic regions. However, it also contributed to the erasure of the line between private and professional spheres for workers, and introduced new opportunities for management to shape newsroom culture. We argue that the concept of 'space' as developed by Harvey can helpfully frame the analysis of these new, important digital platforms.

Creativity and Innovation in Technology-Mediated Journalistic Work: Mapping out Enablers and Constraints

“…Technologies that facilitate work in dispersed teams can be termed Online Collaborative Software (OCS; see e.g., Bunce, Wright, and Scott 2018) and examples of such technologies include chat-based applications like Slack and Microsoft Teams and video-conferencing software like Zoom, Google Hangouts and Skype. Slack, specifically, has been widely adopted by media organizations and has recently also drawn the attention of scholars (Bunce, Wright, and Scott 2018; Paul and Sosale 2020; Moran 2020).…”

“…Previous research has noted that these types of technologies, when used for work purposes, increase knowledge sharing and reduce hierarchies (Gibbs et al 2015;Hendrickson 2009) as well as facilitate information dissemination and idea generation (Razmerita, Kirchner, and Nabeth 2014;Turban, Bolloju, and Liang 2011). In media organizations, collaborative technologies have increased lateral, egalitarian decision making (Hendrickson 2009) and supported extensive collaboration between geographically dispersed team members (Bunce, Wright, and Scott 2018). In contrast, there are also signs that collaborative technologies have not enhanced journalists' capacities for collaboration and that editorial, business and IT sectors in media organizations remain secluded from each other (Westlund and Krumsvik 2014;Ess 2014).…”

“…Our approach is novel also compared to previous work on creativity in newsrooms which often adopts a media management perspective (e.g., Malmelin and Virta 2016;Virta and Malmelin 2017;Banks et al 2002). Importantly, we add to the ongoing discussion on technology-mediated, remote work in journalism (e.g., Bunce, Wright, and Scott 2018), which, at the time of writing, is especially timely due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing journalists to work from home. Our findings and especially the understanding of the relevance of PSCC in journalistic work can be useful for journalism practitioners as they can assist in generating creativity supporting practices for technology-mediated work, as well as encourage new cultures of experimentation and innovation in media organizations.…”

“…However, the context for experimentation and innovation, as well as other journalistic work, is changing as work is increasingly done in dispersed teams with the help of communication technology. These technologies allow journalists to work collectively despite geographical and/or temporal dispersion and they have been reported to lend themselves to more knowledge sharing, open discussions as well as lowering hierarchies (e.g., Bunce, Wright, and Scott 2018;Gibbs et al 2015;Hendrickson 2009). Importantly, communication technology has the potential to shape creativity and innovation by changing the practices of idea and information sharing (Razmerita, Kirchner, and Nabeth 2014;Turban, Bolloju, and Liang 2011).…”

Reconstructing investigative journalism at emerging organisations

“…One such example of a technological affordance is the ability for investigative journalists to draw on collaborative online software. In a recent article, Bunce, Wright and Scott (2018) use the collaborative online software technology Slack as a case study to explore the ways in which digital technology is now intertwined with the organisation of journalistic practice and the creation of virtual newsrooms, and entire virtual news cultures, with all of their opportunities and challenges. An awareness of how technology is being shaped socially (Singer, 2004;Domingo, 2006) is particularly useful for the development of a strategy to exploit technological affordances to greatest effect.…”