Reading list on innovation and organizational change in news media/journalism

Below a reading list on academic research on innovation and organizational change in news media/journalism that Alessio Cornia, Annika Sehl and have developed for our ongoing work on how public service media and legacy private sector media across a range of countries in Europe are adapting to a changing media environment.

Thoughts/recommendations? Email or comments for suggestions!

NERD ALERT — this particular list is focused on academic research. Obviously there is much excellent writing elsewhere.

READING LIST ON INNOVATION AND ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE IN NEWS MEDIA/JOURNALISM

The list covers the following theoretical/thematic areas:

1. Comparative research on media systems
2. Institutionalism (general theory)
3. Institutionalism applied to change in news organisations
4. Newsroom ethnographies and journalism studies
5. Media management

1. Comparative research media systems

Key readings

• Hallin, D. C. & Mancini, P. (2004). Comparing media systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Brüggemann, M., Engesser, S., Büchel, F., Humprecht, E., & Castro, L. (2014). Hallin and Mancini revisited: Four empirical types of western media systems. Journal of Communication, 64: 1037-1065.

2. Institutionalism (general)

Key readings

• DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell. W. W. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review, 48 (2): 147–60.
• Scott, R. W. (2008). Institutions and Organisations: Ideas and Interests. Third edition. Sage. 7 “Institutional Processes and Organisations” (pp. 149-180) (Simple and clear explanation of issues such as: legitimacy, isomorphism, organisational structure and institutional context, strategic responses and sources of divergence) (available at: GTC Library, HM 786 Sco).
• Fligstein, Neil, and Doug McAdam. 2012. A Theory of Fields. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, chapters 1 and 4.

Other readings

• Reed, M. I. (1992). The Sociology of Organisations: Themes, Perspective and Prospects. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Cap 4: Theory Groups and Research Programmes (pp. 172-176, ‘Institutionalists’) (Focus on institutional isomorphism). (GTC Library, HM 131 Ree)
• Powell, W. W. & DiMaggio, P. J. (1991) The New Institutionalism in Organisational Analysis. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 13 ‘The Structural Transformation of American Industry’. (empirical application of the theory focusing on Institutional Change). Chap. 14, ‘Institutional Origin and Transformations’. (see previous point) (GTC Library, HM 131 Pow).
• Padgett, John Frederick, and Walter W. Powell. 2012. The Emergence of Organizations and Markets. Princeton, NJ; Woodstock: Princeton University Press.

3. Institutionalism applied to change in news organisations

Key readings

• Lowrey, Wilson. 2011. ‘Institutionalism, News Organizations and Innovation’. Journalism Studies 12 (1): 64–79.
• Lowrey, Wilson, and Chang Wan Woo. 2010. ‘The News Organization in Uncertain Times: Business or Institution?’ Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 87 (1): 41–61.

Other readings

• Nordqvist, M., Picard R. G., & Pesamaa O. (2010). Industry associations as change agents: The institutional roles of newspaper associations. Journal of Media Business Studies. 7(3): 51-69.
• Cook, Timothy E. 1998. Governing with the News: The News Media as a Political Institution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chap. 4 ‘The institutional news media”.
• Ryfe, David M. (2016). News Institutions. In T. Witschge, C. W. Anderson, D. Domingo, & A. Hermida (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of digital journalism (pp. 370-382). SAGE.

4. Newsroom ethnographies and journalism studies

Key readings

• Boczkowski, Pablo J. 2004. Digitizing the News: Innovation in Online Newspapers. Inside Technology. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
• Mitchelstein, E. & Boczkowski, P. (2009). Between tradition and change: A review of recent research on online news production. Journalism, 10(5). Section on: “The process of innovation in online journalism” (pp. 566-568).
• Weiss A. S. & Domingo D. (2010). Innovation processes in online newsrooms as actor-networks and communities of practice. New Media & Society, 12(7): 1156-1171. The article explores two different theoretical approaches to frame innovation in online media: actor-network theory and community of practice.
• Ekdale et al. (2015). Making change: diffusion of technological, relational, and cultural innovation in the newsroom. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, pp. 1-21. DOI: 10.1177/1077699015596337

Other readings

• Anderson, C. W. 2013. Rebuilding the News: Metropolitan Journalism in the Digital Age. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Usher, N. (2014). Making news at the New York Times. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
• Paterson, C. & Domingo, D. (Eds.) (2008). Makin online news: The ethnography of new media production. New York: Peter Lang.
• Lewis, S. C., & Westlund, O. (2015). Actors, actants, audiences, and activities in cross-media news work. Digital Journalism, 3(1), 19–37.
• Gillespie, Tarleton, Pablo J. Boczkowski, and Kirsten A. Foot, eds. 2014. Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

5. Media management

Key readings

• Küng, L. (2008). Strategic management in the media. London: Sage Publications.
• Küng, L. (2015). Innovators in digital news. London: I.B. Tauris.

Other readings

• Maitlis, S. & Christianson, M. (2014). Sensemaking in organisations: Taking stock and moving forward. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(19): 57-125.
• Teece, D. J., Pisano G., & Shuen A. (1997) Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 18(7): 509-533.
• Lischka J. A. (2015) How structural multi-platform newsroom features and innovative values alter journalistic cross-channel and cross-sectional working procedures. Journal of Media Business Studies, 12(1): 7-28.
• Courtney, Hugh, Jane Kirkland, and Patrick Viguerie. 1997. ‘Strategy Under Uncertainty’. Harvard Business Review. November 1. https://hbr.org/1997/11/strategy-under-uncertainty.
• Christensen, Clayton M., Michael E. Raynor, and Rory McDonald. 2015. ‘What Is Disruptive Innovation?’ Harvard Business Review. Accessed November 22. https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation.