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Journalism academics, a little thread for you. Today I put into practice one of the very first things I learned as a graduate student in 1981 trying to master the existing literature on how professional journalists work— and how they work together to make this product... news. 1/
First "big" thing I got from that literature, especially the giants, Herb Gans and Gaye Tuchman, you have to focus on routines. That's where a newsroom lives, in a sense: in the reps. Production routines. When Tuchman called objectivity a strategic ritual, it meant: a routine. 2/
In the way I organized my mind as a grad student, "routines, importance of..." was like a triple threat. It told you where to look, what to study, what to try to explain. Wanna change journalism? That means changing its routines. Defenses of journalism are themselves routines. 3/
Routines, dammit! are why I made the "production of innocence" a central term in my press criticism. pressthink.org/2011/08/why-po… "Both sides think we are biased against them, we must be doing something right..." is a little production routine for establishing press innocence: 4/
Of course once you learn about them from a great sociologist a focus on "routines" seems pretty obvious. That never bothered me. I just kept using it to distinguish between current events in American journalism, and this slower moving thing: the routines in most newsrooms. 5/
For the last few years, I have been studying membership models in news. But I am still mining the same vein— focus on the routines! The latest report from my (grant-funded) research project, @membershippzzle, is about "memberful routines." We collected examples from all over. 6/
We also mapped out a definition: By "memberful routines" we mean normal ways of operating that incorporate members and produce value for a news organization, which is how they got to be routines in the first place. 7/ membershippuzzle.org/articles-overv…
Thesis: Membership models for the support of public service journalism ought to include in their operating style more routine ways to engage members and draw from their knowledge. To move that development along is why we did the report released today. membershippuzzle.org/articles-overv… 8/
So, my academic friends, why do I trouble you with these slightly obsessive notes on a key concept's career? Because I have always agreed with the advice: don't fall in love with your ideas. But "routines!" was not my idea. Sociologists more learned than I was— It was theirs. 9/
If I had not "fallen" for their proposal — look to its routines if you want to understand American journalism — I would never have found my subject. PressThink means routines of the mind in journalism. It's been 38 years since that light bulb. I'm still reading by its glow. END
