The aim of the project is to elucidate the role of journalistic organizations’ middle management in organizing journalistic work, in particular concerning the development of editorial control systems. Central to the perspective of the study is the relation between editorial routines and the creativity they facilitate. This raises the question of individual journalist’s autonomy in relation to the editorial organization’s cooperative processes in journalistic work.
The following questions guide the research:
1. What kind of control systems can be found in different media (newspapers, magazines, television)?
2. How are control systems related to the planning of journalistic work?
3. What is the role of middle management between everyday routines and the heads of the organization?
4. How is creativity directed in journalistic work? How formal is the work and how much room is left for individual solutions?
5. What kind of co-operation structures do control systems include? How open are they to interaction outside editorial offices?
The study targets four to six editorial offices representing different types of media. They are asked what kind of editorial control systems they have and how they have evolved in the 2000s. The research material consists of internal documents from the editorial organizations, and interviews of middle managers and their subordinates. The project starts in late 2011 and ends at the beginning of 2013.
Contact person:
Research director Pentti Raittila
tel +358 400 615 212
pentti.raittila (at) uta.fi
Researcher:
Kari Koljonen
Tel. +358 3 3551 8967
kari.koljonen (at) uta.fi
Partner: Helsingin Sanomat Foundation
Duration: 2011 – 2013