IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/meanco/v10y2022i1p99-109.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Media Work as Field Advancement: The Case of Science Media Center Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Buschow

    (Faculty of Media, Bauhaus‐Universität Weimar, Germany)

  • Maike Suhr

    (Faculty of Media, Bauhaus‐Universität Weimar, Germany)

  • Hauke Serger

    (Faculty of Media, Bauhaus‐Universität Weimar, Germany)

Abstract

In the wake of the news industry’s digitization, novel organizations that differ considerably from traditional media firms in terms of their functional roles and organizational practices of media work are emerging. One new type is the field repair organization, which is characterized by supporting high-quality media work to compensate for the deficits (such as those which come from cost savings and layoffs) which have become apparent in legacy media today. From a practice-theoretical research perspective and based on semi-structured interviews, virtual field observations, and document analysis, we have conducted a single case study on Science Media Center Germany (SMC), a unique non-profit news start-up launched in 2016 in Cologne, Germany. Our findings show that, in addition to field repair activities, SMC aims to facilitate progress and innovation in the field, which we refer to as field advancement. This helps to uncover emerging needs and anticipates problems before they intensify or even occur, proactively providing products and tools for future journalism. This article contributes to our understanding of novel media organizations with distinct functions in the news industry, allowing for advancements in theory on media work and the organization of journalism in times of digital upheaval.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Buschow & Maike Suhr & Hauke Serger, 2022. "Media Work as Field Advancement: The Case of Science Media Center Germany," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(1), pages 99-109.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v:10:y:2022:i:1:p:99-109
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4454
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher Buschow & Maike Suhr, 2022. "Change Management and New Organizational Forms of Content Creation," Springer Books, in: Matthias Karmasin & Sandra Diehl & Isabell Koinig (ed.), Media and Change Management, chapter 0, pages 381-397, Springer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Salla-Maaria Laaksonen & Mikko Villi, 2022. "Editorial: New Forms of Media Work and Its Organizational and Institutional Conditions," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(1), pages 1-4.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v:10:y:2022:i:1:p:99-109. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.