Hope as a Portal to Change: Reimagining Journalism’s Value(s)

Amanda Daniëlle Brouwers; Tamara Witschge

doi:10.6092/issn.1971-8853/11238

Authors

Amanda Daniëlle Brouwers Department of Media Studies and Journalism, University of Groningen
Amanda Daniëlle Brouwers is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism at the University of Groningen. She is currently specializing on the topics of entrepreneurial journalism, tacit knowing, and podcasting.
Tamara Witschge Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries; Department of Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7642-4868
Tamara Witschge (PhD) is Applied Professor of Crossmedia at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries and Professor of Media and Cultural Industries at University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Her research explores the ways in which cultural, technological, economic and social changes are reconfiguring journalism and other cultural industries, with a particular focus on innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. She is co-editor of the Sage Handbook of Digital Journalism (2016) and co-author of Changing Journalism (2011) and Beyond Journalism (2020, with Mark Deuze).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/11238

Keywords:

Pressure, Hope, Entrepreneurial Journalism, Innovation, Autoethnography

Abstract

In this article, we explore how normative understandings of what "proper journalism" is affects journalistic practices, particularly for those who are trying to develop new types of practices. Drawing on the autoethnography of one of the authors of this article, who is both an academic and an entrepreneurial journalist, we explore how explicit and implicit norms of journalism, and the central values they imply, impact individual experiences of doing journalism. We highlight the pressure that these dominant values and understandings can induce and explore an alternative value that can help guide innovation in journalism. We argue that putting the value of “hope” centrally in the discourse and practice of journalism can help change journalism for the better. By seeing how hope is a driver of change in entrepreneurial journalism - as its practitioners see what is possible, but not yet actual - we provide a new conceptualization of innovation in journalism. In redirecting our attention away from pressure, and toward hope, we also redirect our focus to what is possible in the field. By doing so we can tap into the huge potential for change journalism’s hopeful practitioners endeavor to realize.

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Hope as a Portal to Change: Reimagining Journalism’s Value(s)

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