This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Carlson, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Order versus access: news search engines and the challenge to traditional journalistic roles

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY, USA, mcarls10{at}slu.edu

This article examines tensions between new media forms and traditional journalistic practice through the rise of news search engines that index news stories from across the web. Specifically, Google News is taken up as a case study because of its popularity and its insistence on not using human editors. Conflicting normative articulations of journalism arise between traditional news and news search engines: the former promotes an interpretive order through purposefully structuring the news product to create a meaningful map of what is important, while the latter promotes diversity through creating easy access to different viewpoints and multiple versions of a story without legitimating one view over another. As a result, tensions form around questions of what journalism does and what it should do.

Key Words: Google • journalism • journalistic authority • new media

References

• Ang, I. ( 1985) Watching Dallas . London: Methuen .
• Bennett, W.L. (1983) News: The Politics of Illusion. New York: Longman .
• Bennett, W.L., L. Gresssett and W. Haltom (1985) ` Repairing the News: A Case Study of the News Paradigm ', Journal of Communication 35(1): 50—68 .[CrossRef][Web of Science]
• Berkowitz, D. (2000) ` Doing Double Duty: Paradigm Repair and the Princess Diana What-a-story ', Journalism 1(2): 125—43 .[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Breed, W. (1955) ` Social Control in the Newsroom: A Functional Analysis ', Social Forces 33: 326—35 .[CrossRef][Web of Science]
• Carey, J. (1986) `The Dark Continent of American Journalism', pp. 146—96 in R. Manoff and M. Schudson (eds) Reading the News. New York: Pantheon .
• Carey, J. (1989) Communication as Culture. New York: Routledge .
• comScore (2006) `Number of Search Queries Gain in March, Google Leads the Way', 17 April, URL (consulted May 2006): http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=802
• Cyberjournalist.net (2006) ` Top News Sites for May', 27 June, URL (consulted July 2006): http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/003577.php
• Dahlgren, P. (1992) `Introduction', pp. 1—23 in P. Dahlgren and C. Sparks (eds) Journalism and Popular Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE .
• Delaney, K. (2005) ` Yahoo "Hybrid" Now Dominates News Web Sites ', Wall Street Journal 14 April: B1 .
• DiMaggio, P., E. Hargittai, C. Celeste and S. Shafer (2004) `Digital Inequality: From Unequal Access to Differentiated Use', pp. 355—400 in K. Neckerman (ed.) Social Inequality. New York: Russell Sage Foundation .
• Dube, J. (2004) ` Could Google News Be Sued for Libel? ', Cyberjournalist.net, 5 June, URL (consulted July 2006): http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/001346.php
• Eason, D. (1988) `On Journalistic Authority: The Janet Cooke Scandal ', pp. 205—27 in J. Carey (ed) Media, Myths, and Narratives: Television and the Press. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE .
• Eveland, W., K. Marton and M. Seo (2004) ` Moving Beyond "Just the Facts": The Influence of Online News on the Content and Structure of Public Affairs Knowledge ', Communication Research 31(1): 82—108 .[Abstract]
• Fishman, M. (1980) Manufacturing the News. Austin: University of Texas Press .
• Gallagher, D. (2003) ` Deal May Freshen Up Google's Links ', New York Times 24 February: C5 .
• Galtung, J. and M. Ruge (1965) ` The Structure of Foreign News ', Journal of Peace Research 2: 64—90 .[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Gans, H. (1979) Deciding What's News. New York: Vintage .
• Gardner, H., M. Csikszentmihalyi and W. Damon (2001) Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet. New York: Basic Books .
• Gitlin, T. (1980) The Whole World is Watching. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press .
• Glasgow University Media Group (1976) Bad News. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul .
• Graber, D. (1984) Processing the News: How People Tame the Information Tide. New York: Longman .
• Hackett, R. (1984) ` Decline of a Paradigm? Bias and Objectivity in News Media Studies ', Critical Studies in Mass Communication 1: 229—59 .
• Hall, S. (1973) Encoding and Decoding in Television Discourse. Birmingham, UK: Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham .
• Hall, S., C. Critcher, T. Jefferson, J. Clarke and B. Roberts (1978) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order. London: Macmillan .
• Hargittai, E. (2004) ` Internet Access and Use in Context ', New Media and Society 6(1): 137—43 .[CrossRef]
• Herman, E. and N. Chomsky (1988) Manufacturing Consent. New York: Pantheon .
• Kelly, J. (2005) ` Read (but Not All!) About It ', Washington Post 11 February: C9 .
• Kesmodel, D. and V. Vara (2005) ` A Mixed Blessing: News Portals Like Google News and Topix Attract Masses, But Irk Some Editors ', Wall Street Journal Online 23 March, URL (consulted September 2007): http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB111151985359286597-hBb39gbCuTKJA1_hmsIeXHdB0gQ_20050422.html?mod=blogs
• Kinsley, M. (2002) ` Computers Go Too Far; Hey — That's My Job You're Automating! ', Washington Post 29 November: A43 .
• Kovach, B. and T. Rosenstiel (2001) The Elements of Journalism. New York: Three Rivers Press .
• Kramer, S. (2003) ` Google News Creator Watches Portal Quiet Critics With "Best News" Webby ', Online Journalism Review 25 September, URL (consulted September 2005): http://www.ojr.org/ojr/kramer/1064449044.php
• Lasica, J.D. (2004) ` Balancing Act: How News Portals Serve Up Political Stories ', Online Journalism Review 24 September, URL (consulted September 2005): http://www.ojr.org/ojr/technology/1095977436.php
• Leo, J. ( 2005) ` Googling the Future ', US News and World Report 16 May: 60 .
• Levy, S. (2005) ` Living by Google Rules; Mining the Web is Only Part of It. The Search Giant Faces Growing Pains and Fierce Competition ', Newsweek 11 April: 11 .
• Lippmann, W. (1922) Public Opinion. New York: Free Press .
• Livingstone, S. (1998) Making Sense of Television, 2nd edn. London: Routledge .
• Macht, J. (2002) ` Invasion of the Robo-Editors; Automated News Services Can Gather Headlines in a Flash. Is There Still Room for the Human Touch? ', Time 14 October: 95 .
• McCombs, M. and D. Shaw (1972) ` The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media ', Public Opinion Quarterly 36(2): 176—87 .[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Moloch, H. and M. Lester (1974) ` News as Purposive Behavior: On the Strategic Use of Routine Events, Accidents and Scandals ', American Sociological Review 3: 101—12 .[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Morley, D. (1980) The Nationwide Audience. London: BFI .
• Negroponte, N. (1995) Being Digital. New York: Knopf .
• New York Daily News (2002) ` Web News ', 27 October: 7 .
• Outing, S. (2005) ` The Article Page: New Kingpin of Online News? ', Editor and Publisher Online 22 April, URL (consulted September 2005): http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/stopthepresses_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000893246
• Palser, B. (2002) ` The Out-of-Towners: For Many Local News Sites, a Good Chunk of Readers Don't Live Around Here Anymore ', American Journalism Review November: 66.
• Park, R. (1940) ` News as a Form of Knowledge ', American Journal of Sociology 45: 669—86 .[CrossRef]
• Pool, I. (1990) Technologies without Boundaries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
• Radway, J. (1984) Reading the Romance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press .
• Reese, S. (1990) ` The News Paradigm and the Ideology of Objectivity: A Socialist at the Wall Street Journal ', Critical Studies in Mass Communication 7: 390—409 .[CrossRef][Web of Science]
• Schlesinger, P. (1978) Putting `Reality' Together. London: Constable .
• Schudson, M. (1978) Discovering the News. New York: Basic .
• Schudson, M. (1995) The Power of News. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
• Shafer, J. (2002) ` Automated News ', Slate 24 September, URL (consulted September 2005): http://slate.msn.com/id/2071499/
• Shapiro, A. (1999) The Control Revolution. New York: Public Affairs .
• Siebert, F., T. Peterson and W. Schramm (1956) Four Theories of the Press. Urbana: University of Illinois Press .
• Sigal, L. (1973) Reporters and O ficials: The Organization and Politics of Newsmaking. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.
• Singer, J. (2003) ` Who Are These Guys? The Online Challenge to the Notion of Journalistic Professionalism ', Journalism 4(2): 139—63 .[Abstract]
• Sreenivasan, S. (2003) ` Currents: Technology Corner ', Columbia Journalism Review May: 11.
• Sunstein, C. (2001) Republic.com. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
• Tewksbury, D. (2003). ` What Do Americans Really Want to Know? Tracking the Behavior of News Readers on the Internet ', Journal of Communication 53(4): 694—710 .[Web of Science]
• Tewksbury, D. and S. Althaus (2000) ` Differences in Knowledge Acquisition Among Readers of the Paper and Online Versions of a National Newspaper ', Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 77(3): 457—79 .[Web of Science]
• Tuchman, G. (1978) Making News. New York: Free Press .
• Ulken, E. (2005) ` Non-Traditional Sources Cloud Google News Results ', Online Journalism Review 19 May, URL (consulted September 2005): http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050519ulken/
• van Dijk, J. (2004) `Divides in Succession: Possession, Skills, and Use of New Media for Societal Participation', pp. 233—54 in E. Bucy and J. Newhagen (eds) Media Access: Social and Pyschological Dimensions of New Technology Use. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates .
• Walker, L. (2002) ` Google News, Untouched by Human Hands ', Washington Post 26 September: E1 .
• Weaver, D. and C. Wilhoit (1986) The American Journalist. Bloomington: Indiana University Press .
• White, D. (1950) ` The "Gatekeeper": A Case Study in the Selection of News ', Journalism Quarterly 24: 383—90 .
• Winch, S. (1997) Mapping the Cultural Space of Journalism. Westport, CT: Praeger .
• Zelizer, B. (1992) Covering the Body: The Kennedy Assassination, the Media and the Shaping of Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press .

Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 29, No. 6, 1014-1030 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0163443707084346


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Carlson, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?