Extending the professional borders or maintaining the status quo? Union membership as boundary work

IF 2.7 2区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Journalism Pub Date : 2024-07-24 DOI:10.1177/14648849241265207

Birgit Røe Mathisen, Anders Graver Knudsen

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Disruption and changes within the profession of journalism instigate boundary disputes. In this article, we analyse boundary work ‘in the making’, with the debate about membership rules within the Norwegian Union of Journalists as a case. The research question asked is: How do positioning and rhetoric in the membership debate evoke boundary struggles in journalism, and how do they reflect the internal professional hierarchy? Theoretically anchored in the sociology of professions, this study is based on qualitative text analysis of debate articles in the specialist magazines Journalisten and Medier24, as well as qualitative interviews. The findings suggest two main positions. On the one hand, a struggle to protect pure professional identity, values, and integrity. On the other, arguments regarding union power and impact and the contention that in today’s digital media landscape journalism in practice involves a wide range of competencies. The two positions suggest a tension between white-collar professionalism and blue-collar unionism. This study contributes to our understanding of the shifting boundaries of journalism, and how changes in external conditions also impact upon internal professional identity.

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扩展专业边界还是维持现状？作为边界工作的工会会员资格

新闻职业内部的混乱和变化引发了边界争端。在本文中，我们以挪威记者联盟内部关于会员资格规则的辩论为例，分析了 "正在形成中 "的边界工作。我们提出的研究问题是：会员资格辩论中的定位和修辞是如何唤起新闻业的边界斗争的，它们又是如何反映内部专业等级制度的？本研究以职业社会学为理论基础，对专业杂志《新闻记者》（Journalisten）和《媒体》（Medier24）上的辩论文章进行了定性文本分析，并进行了定性访谈。研究结果表明了两种主要立场。一方面，为保护纯粹的职业身份、价值观和诚信而斗争。另一方面，是关于工会权力和影响力的论点，以及在当今数字媒体环境下新闻实践涉及广泛能力的论点。这两种立场表明了白领专业主义与蓝领工会主义之间的紧张关系。本研究有助于我们理解新闻业边界的变化，以及外部条件的变化如何影响内部职业认同。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journalism COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

7.90

自引率

10.30%

发文量

123

期刊介绍： Journalism is a major international, peer-reviewed journal that provides a dedicated forum for articles from the growing community of academic researchers and critical practitioners with an interest in journalism. The journal is interdisciplinary and publishes both theoretical and empirical work and contributes to the social, economic, political, cultural and practical understanding of journalism. It includes contributions on current developments and historical changes within journalism.