Boundary Work and Journalism: Charting a Key Concept in Journalism Studies

• In Event: Journalistic Boundary Work

Abstract

As a variety of social, political, economic, and technological influences reshape the media environment for news production and circulation, fundamental questions such as “what is journalism?” and “who is a journalist?” have become more pressing. At bottom, these are questions of boundaries—of determining how journalism comes to be demarcated from non-journalism, journalists from non-journalists, and so on. These are more than symbolic contests for control; they also mark a material struggle over resources. Although boundary work matters, there has been a lack of conceptual cohesiveness in what scholars mean by the term “boundaries” or in how we should think about specific boundaries of journalism. This paper offers a state-of-the-art analysis of boundary work and journalism. Most significantly, we refine a typology—of expansion, expulsion, and protection of autonomy—that organizes existing research on journalistic boundary work and highlights emerging opportunities for conceptual and empirical development.

Authors

• Matt Carlson, Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communnication, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Seth C. Lewis, U of Oregon