Taking It to the Streets: Qualitative Research into Journalism

259 Pages·5.648 MB·English

by  Iorio, Sharon Hartin(Editor)

Qualitative
Research in Journalism
Taking It to the Streets
Qualitative Research
in Journalism
Taking It to the Streets
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Qualitative Research
in Journalism
Taking It to the Streets
Edited by
Sharon Hartin Iorio
Wichita State University
3 Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
New York London
Copyright © 2004 by Lawrcncc Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form,
by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without
prior written permission of the publisher.
First published by
Lawrcncc Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, NJ 07430
This edition published 2011 by Routlcdgc
Rout ledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
711 Third Avenue 2 Park Square, Milton Park
New York, NY 10017 Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Qualitative research in journalism : taking it to the streets /edited by Sharon
Hartin Iorio.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-4398-1 (cloth : alk. Paper)
ISBN 0-8058'4399-X (pbk.: alk. paper)
PN4784.R38T35 2003
070.407*2—dc21 2003046235
CIP
The editor dedicates this volume
to the journalists who provided interviews,
gave their time to this project in countless ways,
and work daily to provide accurate information
to the general public
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Contents
Foreword—Jay Rosen
Preface
About the Contributors
Part I
Qualitative Method Journalism—Sharon Hartin lorio
Connected Research: The Chicago School
Precedent—Lewis A. Friedland and Kathryn B. Campbell
The Changing News Paradigm: From Objectivity
to Interpretive Sufficiency—Clifford G. Christians
Part II
Qualitative Case Study Methods in Newsroom Research
and Reporting: The Case of the Akron Beacon Journal—
Tanni Haas
Focus Groups Newsroom Style—Susan Willey
Oral and Life Histories: Giving Voice
to the Voiceless—Renita Coleman
viii CONTENTS
7 Focused Interviews—Sharon Hartin lorio 109
8 Ethnographic Journalism—Janet M. Cramer and Michael 127
Me Devitt
9 Inventing Civic Mapping—Kathryn B. Campbell 145
10 Textual Analysis in Journalism—John L. “Jack” Morris 163
11 Scientists and Storytellers: The Imperative of Pairing 175
Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches in
Communication Research—Swsan Schultz Huxman
and Mike Allen
12 Academic/Professional Partnerships: Newsrooms 193
and Community—Jan Schaffer
Glossary 213
Author Index 227
Subject Index 233
Foreword
When I look over the landscape of journalism today, I see changes that are al­
most geological in kind—the plates are shifting, the continent grinds in motion.
Familiar features arc still there, hut from basin to range there are strange forma­
tions, and new aspects appear. Below the surface much goes on. The ground
rises where before there was nothing to build on. Old ground cracks and sinks.
The hardest problem in journalism today may be to map it, to draw borders
around the practice and define what’s within or beyond. Is there an audience for
serious news? One of the ways we struggle is to map the space available for jour­
nalism. The imagined line between “news” and “entertainment” is another.
Does the border separating journalism from other creative treatments of real­
ity by the media complex run through counties, or through companies, or sec­
tions of the newspaper, portions of the broadcast schedule, segments in the
Today Show? Probably it runs through individuals—journalists—producers of
news who sway one way, then another; feel commercial pressure, resist it,
make space for themselves and for journalism, then lose it, regain it here, give
it up over there. Where is journalism in a company like the American newspa­
per giant, Gannet, which is sometimes devoted to the practice with, let us say,
half a heart? Where is “journalism” in that screaming empire known as Fox?
Somewhere in the mix.
Difficulties in saying who is a journalist make for unstable ground in the prac­
tice. When did former political operative Tim Russert become one, and why is
Net gossip Matt Drudge not one? We may be used to questions like that. But
now with the Internet the possibility of opening a solo practice in journalism has
returned, and we are little used to that. Put up a website with good reporting and
commentary and you may be successfully practicing journalism, even though no
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