Journalistic relations and values in the networked era:a case study of The Guardian

In this article, I enquire into the ways that journalists negotiate their relationships, now that social media dominate the practices of journalistic newsrooms. Drawing on a Discourse Theory framework, I view journalism as a symbolic practice that is constituted through the discourse of journalists. I draw additionally on pragmatic sociology in order to approach journalists as reflexive practitioners who ground their agreements with others on a plurality of moral values. Studying the case of British news organisation The Guardian and analysing a series of newsroom interviews, I show how journalists develop a series of qualifications in order to negotiate their relationships. My findings demonstrate that journalists have indeed expanded the range of their interlocutors. This shift is associated with the inculcation of journalists with the networking logic of social media. Journalists, however, criticise social media as hostile platforms that confine people within their social circles, as carriers of unreliable journalism, and as profit-driven publishers. I claim that this contradiction allows the journalists to connect with others as representatives of an institution, which, unlike social media, upholds its civic commitments. Nonetheless, by attaching themselves to the market-friendly logic of social networking journalists are exposed to market heteronomy.