The Margins of Journalism

by Lenka Waschková Císarová, Scott A. Eldridge (Editor)

Overview

This book explores the margins of journalism: the peripheral journalists and media organisations who have been overlooked in our efforts to understand a changing journalistic field. Seeing local journalists as unmapped agents of the journalistic field, this book provides a comprehensive study of local journalism in the post-socialist, post-transitional Czech media system, and conceptualises these actors as unique agents within the journalistic field. Informed by Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, it adopts an inductive approach, presenting the stories of specific journalists derived from interviews and participant observation in the places where they work, alongside surveys of local newspapers. From these studies, this book systematically maps these peripheral, journalistic actors and their positions in the journalistic field, accounting for their relationships and the trends shaping Czech journalism to give voice to those who are not usually heard – journalists on the margins.

"… a fine-grained examination into the struggles and successes of local newspaper journalists adjusting to a digital era. It demonstrates how shining a light on their unique - often underexplored - practices can provide broader learnings for the future of journalism." Professor Kristy Hess, Deakin University, Australia.

"This rich and insightful contribution directs our attention to the important but often under researched margins of journalism, and as such it contributes to a wider understanding of what it means to be a journalist." Professor Agnes Gulyas, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783034351669
Publisher:	Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Publication date:	11/25/2024
Series:	Frontiers in Journalism Studies , #1
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lenka Waschková Císařová is Associate Professor at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. She studies local journalism, the transition of media systems, and peripheries of journalistic work. She is editor of Voice of the Locality (2017), and author of a monograph and numerous journal articles and chapters on news and media. She previously worked as a local journalist.

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables – Preface – Acknowledgements – The margins of journalism – Individuals on the margins – Habitus, capitals, and practices of an individual on the margins – Newspapers on the margins – Disposition and position of a newspaper on the margins – The margins of journalism revisited: Alongside journalism – Appendix – Index.

Editorial Reviews

Grounded in robust primary data, collected through a rigorous mixed-method research design and guided by Bourdieu’s theory of action, this book provides fresh understanding of the dynamics of the periphery and what it means to be on the margins of journalism. Unveiling layers of periphery within the context of a post-socialist and post-transitional media system, often overlooked in dominant Westernised study of journalism, this book provides a fresh and insightful perspective. This rich and insightful contribution directs our attention to the important but often under researched margins of journalism, and as such it contributes to a wider understanding of what it means to be a journalist.” —Professor Agnes Gulyas, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.

From the Publisher