Journalism as a field of discursive production – performativity, form and style. Issue 1 (1st April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mateus, Samuel
• Is Part Of: Catalan journal of communication & cultural studies. Volume 10:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 63
• Page End: 77
• Publication Date: 2018-04-01
• Subjects: Mass media -- Social aspects -- Spain -- Catalonia -- Periodicals; Communication and culture -- Spain -- Catalonia -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Communication and culture -- Periodicals; Motion pictures -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Television broadcasting -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 302.2309467
• DOI: 10.1386/cjcs.10.1.63_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1757-1898

Abstract

By focusing on the emergence and development of journalistic conventions and professional routines it is possible to understand the prominent role of journalism in the social construction of meaning. In this article, we theoretically examine journalism as a special field of discursive production. The field of journalism presents more than the facts it gathers and reports. The institutionalized retelling of events is a very distinct way to put meaning on them. We suggest journalism is a historically and culturally bounded discourse whose performative nature is at the core of its moral authority and social credibility. In addition, the performative discourse of journalism invites us to extend the concept to include, for example, the conventions of style and form. The historical transformations journalism took may, thus, be looked at as efforts in the battle for performative discourse involved in the process of a mimetic (re)construction of the social world.