Tradisjonsforankrede og digitaldreide lokaljournalister. En hverdagssosiologisk studie av norsk lokaljournalistikk i en brytningstid

The Norwegian local journalism has gone through critical changes during the last years, due to digital transformation and economical decline. Journalists experience the tension between tradition and innovation. This thesis scrutinizes how local journalism actors experience their professional everyday life and their vocational role in a time of digital changes. It further explores which tensions the intersubjective experiences carry. Data from semi-structured interviews with 16 local journalists and editors forms the basis for the research, and the theoretical framework is everyday sociology, with emphasis on the sociological phenomenology of Alfred Schutz and Berger & Luckmann. Methodologically, the study follows a sociological phenomenological approach. The thesis shows how changed working conditions affect the perceived meaning of work, the professional understanding, the perception of audience and journalistic quality, as well as the significance of the community in local journalism. Through the concepts of “relevance system” and “relevance structures” the analyses show how ideal-typical “traditional anchored” and “digital oriented” local journalists divergently hierarchize perceived meaning, professional values and journalistic relevance. While the traditionalists emphasise a critical, demarcated and autonomic professional role, the digital oriented journalists underscore public-mindedness, service orientation and storytelling. In addition, the analyses reveal that the measurability of online readership leads to a diminished focus on locally framed journalism. Increased demands of work effort and efficiency cause a tension between desktop reporting and fieldwork. This change strains the proximity affordance, which traditionally has been the distinctiveness and strength of local journalism. Everyday working demands also lead to resignation and declined attachment among a large part of the journalists. In an overall perspective, the analyses point towards a tension between what is measurable – the quantified online readership, and what cannot be measured – the social significance of local journalism. The thesis suggests that the local mission of local journalism is weakened, that professional values are under pressure and that the news production is becoming more commercialized.