Download Acceleration in Journalism: A Theoretical Approach to a Complex

Proposal for the International Conference
“Journalism in Transition: Crisis or Opportunity?”
March 28-29, 2014, Thessaloniki, Greece
European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)
Journalism Studies Section
Title:
Acceleration in Journalism:
A Theoretical Approach to a Complex Phenomenon
Presenter:
Dr. Uwe Krüger
Institut für Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft
Abteilung Journalistik
Burgstr. 21
04109 Leipzig
Germany
Phone: ++49-341-9735756
Fax: ++49-341-97-35799
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.uni-leipzig.de/journalistik
Date:
September 27, 2013
Acceleration in Journalism:
A Theoretical Approach to a Complex Phenomenon
The term „acceleration“ is often used to characterize recent trends in society, media and
journalism – mostly, unfortunately, not as an analytic term but as an unreflected buzz phrase
to express a feeling that everything has become faster (Starkman 2010, Rosenberg/Feldman
2008, Gleick 1999). Hachmeister (2012) points out that “the term has become so banal that it
cannot be used anymore at all. But nevertheless, it is probably the meta-word for everything
that has been going on recently”. In contrast, I want to show that this term can be highly
useful to understand transition processes in journalism.
Sociologist Hartmut Rosa (2013: 66) describes acceleration as an increase in quantity per time
unit or, logically equivalent, as reduction of time quantum per fixed quantity unit. He
distinguishes three forms of “social acceleration”: (1) technological acceleration, (2) the
acceleration of social change, and (3) acceleration in the pace of life (ibid.: 71-80). Inspired by
his theory, I argue that acceleration processes in journalism may have occurred since the
beginning of the Digital Age – and partly before – in the following respects:
1. Reduction of the period between event and coverage: With technological change,
2.
3.
4.
5.
journalists ever since have been able to cover events more quickly. This development
now culminates in the boom of web-based “real-time journalism” (live blogs, live
tickers, live streams) where journalists have almost no time for fact-checking and
reflection.
Increasing attention to events with a short time horizon: Research on news values has
revealed that events that occur suddenly and fit well with the news organization’s
schedule are more likely to be reported than those that occur gradually. As the
publication frequencies increase with new technologies, I presume that important
long-term trends are even less likely to receive much coverage.
Faster rotation of personell, e.g., within an editorial staff, between staffs or between
journalism and public relations (Mükke 2009: 457). This phenomenon can have
advantages but may also lead to loss of expert knowledge, institutional memory and
professional identity.
Increased density of journalists’ working days (through an increased amount of tasks,
both journalistic and non-journalistic) and, thereby, a reduction in time per task:
According to two representative surveys among German journalists in 1993 and 2005,
the available time for journalistic research has declined from 140 to 117 minutes per
day, while the time effort for organization and administration has risen from 69 to 78
minutes, for technical tasks from 50 to 84 minutes and for PR and marketing from 0 to
9 minutes (Weischenberg/Malik/Scholl 2006: 80). This may directly impair the
substance of journalistic content.
Increased density of journalistic products, e.g., through an increased frequency of
cuts and reduced length of sound bites in television news: In the German news
broadcast ARD-Tagesschau, from 1975 through 1995 the average length of sound
bites has declined from 26 to 12 seconds, while the number of news clips within the
15-minutes TV format has increased (Zubayr/Fahr 1999: 643, see also Hallin 1992).
This may impair the understandability and memorability of news for the audience.
6. Reduced length of issue-attention cycles and increased alteration of discussed issues.
The higher publication frequencies of new media increase the demand for new
information and issues. This may impair the ability of players to generate enough
political pressure to cause effective change.
As indicated, scattered empirical data exists to some of these aspects. Nevertheless,
systematic research on time structures in journalism is required. If data showed acceleration
processes that have led to a declining quality of coverage, to an erosion of media’s
orientation function and to a dysfunctional public debate, it would be time for a debate about
those time structures.
References:
Gleick, James (1999): Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything. New York: Pantheon.
Hachmeister, Lutz (2012): Journalismus und digitale Geschwindigkeit. Deutschlandfunk,
20.01.,
http://diskurs.dradio.de/thema/neuer-journalismus/page/3/
(accessed
on
17.09.2013)
Hallin, Daniel C. (1992): Sound Bite News: Television Coverage of Elections, 1968-1988.
Journal of Communication Vol. 42 (2), pp. 5-24.
Mükke, Lutz (2009): ‚Journalisten der Finsternis‘. Akteure, Strukturen und Potenziale deutscher
Afrika-Berichterstattung. Köln: Herbert von Halem.
Rosa, Hartmut (2013): Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity. New York: Columbia
University Press.
Rosenberg, Howard/Feldman, Charles S. (2008): No Time to Think. The Menace of Media Speed
and the 24-hour News Cycle. New York: Continuum.
Starkman, Dean (2010): The Hamster Wheel. Why Running as Fast as we can is getting us
Nowhere. Columbia Journalism Review, September/October, pp. 24-28.
Weischenberg, Siegfried/Malik, Maja/Scholl, Armin (2006): Die Souffleure
Mediengesellschaft. Report über die Journalisten in Deutschland. Konstanz: UVK.
der
Zubayr, Camille/Fahr, Andreas (1999): Die Tagesschau: Fels in der dualen Brandung? Ein
Vergleich von Inhalten und Präsentationsformen 1975 und 1995. In: Wilke, Jürgen (ed.):
Massenmedien und Zeitgeschichte. Konstanz: UVK, pp. 638-647.