Croteau&Hoynes: Media/Society, 5th Edition Instructor Resource
Chapter 4: Media Organizations and Professionals
Purpose and Goals of the Chapter
This chapter continues the focus on the production of media, but
shifts the emphasis to the internal workings of media organizations and the activities of media
professionals. We explore the ways that media professionals, working within specific
organizational constraints, develop strategies and adhere to conventions in their daily work. And
we focus on the professional norms and organizational premises that both shape media
production and are shaped by economic, political, and historical forces. This chapter is intended
Outline of Key Chapter Themes
Media professionals respond to economic and political constraints; these constraints do not
simply determine action within media organizations.
Media professionals use widely shared conventions, adopt specific roles, and establish work
routines that are disseminated through processes of professional socialization.
Organizational premises serve as a kind of social structure within media organizations.
New professional norms develop as new forms of media and new media occupations
develop.
Chapter Outline
1. Decision making for profits: imitation, hits, stars
Problems of production
oHigh cost
oUnpredictable audience
Media firms’ strategies for success
oImitation
Copying
Past hits
Sequels
oStars and the hit system
Organization of media work based on stars
Stars are the physical embodiment of hits
Stars increase the chance of hits
2. The organization of media work
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Croteau&Hoynes: Media/Society, 5th Edition Instructor Resource
Study of media personnel, organization, and culture
Media production is not arbitrary: “conventions” are used
News routines and conventions
o“News holes” to fill
oDetecting news before anything even happens
Beats – sites where news is likely to take place
Rounds – schedule for visiting locations and talking to sources
Beats and rounds are work routines that define what reporter is
exposed to
oTechnology and the new news routines
Taking audience into account
Growth of entertainment and talk show-type programming
3. The rise of user-generated contents
Users and mainstream media
oAudience comments and contributions
oExample: CNN iReport
Pro-Am efforts
oProfessional and amateur collaboration
oExamples: The Guardian, Fort Myers News-Press
Collaborative creation
oAll amateur
oExample: Wikinews
Citizen journalism
oEvery citizen can be a news reporter
oExample: OhMyNews
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Croteau&Hoynes: Media/Society, 5th Edition Instructor Resource
“Merchants”
The case of editorial decision making
oThe work of the book editor
Importance of the channels
oScholarly publishing
Informal rules and practices
5. Norms on the Internet, new media, new organizations
More informal mechanisms
oNew languages
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