New Interdependencies of Journalism

The research theme New Interdependencies of Journalism focuses on how novel interdependencies are changing journalism. We particularly ask how digital transformations affect journalism’s autonomy and its functions. In doing so, we address the ways that journalism is embedded within society, and explore how journalism both shapes and is shaped by the social world in which it is situated.

While in earlier decades we might have considered these relationships in terms of journalism confronting new digital challenges, adapting to each in turn, we now observe journalism’s relationships with the rest of the social world as rendered fundamentally different.

By adopting an interdependent perspective, we understand journalism not simply as an institution reflecting society onto itself, or as a field responding to change by adapting to new technologies and business models in a digital and datafied society, but as an institution (and profession) that is interwoven in the changes societies at large experience.

As such, we acknowledge that in order to understand change in journalism, we need to focus on its entangled relationships with other fields, institutions and actors in society at all levels, from sources to producers and audiences to platforms.

The New Interdependencies of Journalism theme group in particular focuses on interdependencies found in relationships with sources, business models, platforms, technologies, audiences, and civic and governmental institutions. By explaining how these relationships have altered the role and function of journalism in society, we show how journalism itself can be conceptualised in new ways.

Keywords: journalism; interdependencies; media ecologies; digital transformations; digital technology; journalistic autonomy; function and role of journalism; audiences; platforms.

Conveners: David Cheruiyot & Chrysi Dagoula