This special edition of Brazilian Journalism Research interrogates and collates the links between entrepreneurialism and journalism, in emergent journalistic practices and socioeconomic models. The growing recognition of entrepreneurial values and practices in the journalism domain has occurred against a backdrop of interlinked changes in journalism and media in the economic, technological, social, ideological and regulatory terrains. These are most prominent not only in the emergence of new digital actors and new configurations of national and international media landscapes but also in the reframing of normative journalistic practices, organisational structures, modes of production, distribution and financial sustainability. In this vein then, entrepreneurial journalism delineates new relations between actors, publics and domains of activity (Hang and Van Weezel, 2005; Mitchelstein and Boczkowski, 2009; Lee-Wright et al., 2012; Mercier and Pignard-Cheynel, 2014; Carbasse, 2015; Grohmann et al., 2019).
Taking shape in a movement which moves beyond traditional journalism boundaries (Neff et al., 2005) these transformations have created favourable conditions for new editorial projects to grow outside of traditional legacy, corporate or mainstream media. They exist as heterogeneous independent structures where journalists are confronted with operational challenges and financial obstacles that question any hard divide between editorial and business operations, which are little understood. New journalistic techniques and products are developed and iterated through a process of experimentation outside of normative practices. Whether they openly embrace the ‘entrepreneurial journalism’ label (Briggs, 2011) as distinguished at least in part from the other non-salaried forms of employment such as freelance (De Cock and De Smaele, 2016) or whether they adhere to certain entrepreneurial competences and general qualities without wanting to be overtly labelled, these journalistic projects are united by a certain level in their journalistic practices of deindustrialization and decentralisation. They necessitate new definitions and understandings hinged on flexible structures and new manners of doing and financing journalism.
In deploying new values, logics and competencies, entrepreneurial journalism sparks important implications for the journalistic domain, socio-professional practices, meta-discourse and redefinitions of access to the profession. Increasingly blurred boundaries between journalism and other sectors of civil society and business domains brings into question the very foundations of professional cultures and paradigms (Lewis and Usher, 2013). In parallel, these changes bring about increasingly individualistic approaches to journalism careers, prompting different degrees of self-employment and development of ‘own brand’ journalism with bespoke definitions of professional success, both in the terrains of economic and personal development (Standaert, 2016).
Over the past 15 years there has been a growing interest in entrepreneurial journalism, the term most cited in the literature, as an object of study in its own right despite the fact a precise definition remains contested, not least against other forms of entrepreneurialism from other cultural and creative industries (Rafter, 2019). Efforts of definition “vague enough to result in a variety of constructed meanings” (Vos and Singer, 2018) delineate based on interactions between economic and editorial motivations, reception to innovative technologies or creative forms of journalism production, somewhat detached from the constraints of traditional media.
Scholarly attention in the literature to the challenges and opportunities emerging from the terrain have been thus far fragmented, and only partially address emergent models for these types of practice as well as their mode of operandi. There exist persistent gaps in surfacing workable models in the local, national and international landscape (Damian-Gaillard et al., 2009; Briggs, 2011; Meyer, 2011; Dvorkin, 2012; Berkey-Gerard, 2012; Brouwers, 2017; Salles, 2019), effective business models in Western markets (Bruno et Nielsen, 2012; Sirkkunen et Cook, 2012; Naldi and Picard, 2012; Charon, 2015; Robinson et al., 2015; Nicholls et al., 2016), the degree of compatibility and recognisable formats to tie down and redefine entrepreneurial identities and meta-journalistic discourse with the link to atypical ways of working (Benedetti et al., 2015; Carbasse, 2015; Carlson and Usher, 2016; Fulton, 2016; Porlezza and Splendore, 2016; Siapera and Papadopoulou, 2016; Vos and Singer, 2016; Mathisen, 2018; Liang, 2020; Nel et al., 2020), the implications of precarious working and changed career trajectories (Cohen, 2015; Standaert, 2016; Anciaux et al., 2018; Leung and Cossu, 2019), or the importance of entrepreneurial journalism training in modern journalism curricula from student and trainer perspectives (Baines and Kennedy, 2010; Hunter and Nel, 2011; Ferrier, 2013; Chimbel, 2016; Rafter, 2016; Broersma and Singer, 2020; Buschow and Laugemann, 2020; Caplan et al., 2020).
In order to address these gaps in existing research and to synthesise available findings and theorising, contributions to this special issue are welcomed in the following areas, but are not limited to:
- What structural affordance do digital and platforms play in the link(s) between journalism and entrepreneurialism?
- How have social, political and regulatory contexts affected the closeness between journalism and entrepreneurialism, for better or worse?
- What are the new market approaches to journalism in these contexts and has it led to the emergence of sustainable models to produce, distribute or pay for journalism?
- In what ways does entrepreneurialism contribute to innovation in journalistic formats or the reconfiguration of journalism roles?
- How do entrepreneurial competencies play out in daily routines, professional practices or career management for journalists?
- How has the concept of a journalist entrepreneur evolved, been redefined or integrated in the past decade?
- How have journalists, audiences, public stakeholders or socioprofessional groups shaped and defined our understanding of entrepreneurial journalism?
- How is entrepreneurialism shaped, welcomed or integrated in the meta-discourse of local, national or international journalists groups?
- What tensions exist for journalist entrepreneurs and how are they shaped or negotiated?
- How is entrepreneurial journalism included in journalism curricula and what changes are needed?
- Exploration of methodological challenges and opportunities to researching entrepreneurial journalism
- What challenges and impacts on the operations and sustainability of entrepreneurial journalism did arise within the global sanitary and economic context? What adaptations are needed by actors in this space?
Both single-country and comparative research are welcome, as well as both theoretical and empirical manuscripts. Quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods approaches can be used also action research or critical theory. Conceptual and theoretical advancements in understanding entrepreneurial journalism are welcomed. The intention is to draw together a theoretically and methodologically rich set of interdisciplinary perspectives to deepen knowledge around these questions.
Articles must be 40,000 to 55,000 characters (including references and spaces) submitted by November 30 2021.
The BJR accepts manuscripts in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English. Authors submitting in Portuguese, Spanish or French must provide an English translation a month after receiving acceptance for publication.
No payment from the authors will be required.
The
manuscripts must be submitted via the journal’s electronic platform.
Contact for more information: bjreditor@gmail.com and renaud.carbasse@com.ulaval.ca
Instructions for authors:
Date of manuscript submission November 30 2021
Notification of acceptance: April 30 2022
Date of publication: August 30 2022
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