Negotiating Change: Communicative Performances at a City Magazine

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Organizational Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Within the interpretive tradition, organizations can be understood through their discursive approaches to culture, management, and organizational communication. These three components come together within communicative performances. This study used an ethnographic approach to explore three specific types of communicative performances as outlined by Trujillo (1985): explanatory, interpersonal, and political. Although addressed in a variety of settings, these performances can be effective strategies within an industry facing significant change: the media. This study assessed how a local news organization, a city magazine, invoked communicative performances in light of a shift in its approach to journalistic norms and market orientation after the loss of a key advertiser. Ultimately, the managers of the news organization used explanatory and political performances to explain the loss of the advertiser, describe how the organization would “survive” the loss, and justify its shift in market orientation to improve the company’s economic viability.

Authors

• Joy Michelle Jenkins, U of Missouri

• David Wolfgang, U of Missouri