The Changing Context of News Work: Liquid Journalism for a Monitorial Citizenry

Abstract

In this paper, the relationships between theories of (new) citizenship and (new) journalism are explored.The meaning of citizenship has changed in the last few decades.People still tend to be seen by most politicians, scholars, and journalists alike as citizens that need to inform themselves widely about issues of general interest so that they can make an informed decision at election time.However, this model of the informed citizenry is a thing of the past -a prescriptive and rather elitist notion of both how people should make up their minds and what (political) representation means to them.Today's citizen is not only critical, self-expressive, and distinctly anti-hierarchical (Beck, 2000), he is also what Schudson (1999) calls "monitorial": scanning all kinds of news and information sources for the topics that matter to him personally.People are not necessarily disengaged from the political process, they just commit their time and energy to it on their own terms.This individualized act of citizenship can be compared to the act of the consumer, browsing stores of a shopping mall for that perfect pair of jeans -it is the act of the citizen-consumer.In journalism, a similar trend is emerging, where traditional role perceptions of journalism influenced by its occupational ideologyproviding a general audience with information of general interest in a balanced, objective, and ethical way -do not seem to fit all that well with the lived realities of reporters and editors, nor with the communities they are supposed to serve.In the context of a precarious and, according to the International Federation of Journalists, increasingly "atypical" professional work life, ongoing efforts by corporations to merge and possibly converge news operations, and an emerging digital media culture where the consumer is also a producer of public information, the identity of the journalist must be seen as "liquid" (Bauman, 2000).Such a liquid journalism truly works in the service of the network society, deeply respects the rights and privileges of each and every consumer-citizen to be a maker and user of his own news, and enthusiastically embraces its role as, to paraphrase James Carey, an amplifier of the conversation society has with itself.During the Summer of 2007, temporary or "transient" nightclubs were built in Barcelona and Lisbon (after an earlier 2006 tryout in Berlin) under the brand name Kubik."Designed by Berlin-based urban design agency ModulorBeat and light artist Andreas Barthelmes, Kubik is built from stacked, reused International Journal of Communication 1 (2008) The Changing Content of News Work 849 water tanks [ . . .] Kubik's 275 illuminated cubes house a bar and lounge from Sunday through Wednesday, and a club from Friday through Saturday." 1 Earlier in 2007, marketing agency Herrmann International Asia together with the Australian arm of Brown-Forman Beverages Worldwide organized the SoCo Cargo Experiment, created for the Southern Comfort brand.This equally temporary club concept consisted of 12-metre long shipping containers stacked side-by-side and on top of each other, with adaptable interiors containing a bar, a stage, and lounge areas.The container club premiered on Sydney's Cockatoo Island in October 2006, and then popped up at festivals in Melbourne (February 2007) and Adelaide (March 2007). 2 A similar re-use of shipping containers comes from Singapore-based Venue VBOX, offering clients a portable store in a shipping container, which can be set up anywhere temporarily.3 In May 2007, the Russian vodka brand Stolichnaya launched a Stoli Hotel in Los Angeles, working with different agencies such as TTC PR, Legacy Marketing Partners, and Fly Communications.4 This 10,000square-foot "pop-up" hotel was designed and built within an empty garage or hall space and was taken down after a month to be moved to other cities like New York, Chicago, and Miami.5 Marketing firm Trendwatching explains the growing popularity of "pop-up" retail, hotels, clubs, and other forms of consumerist leisure with the concept of "transumerism": designing and implementing novel and innovative shopping and entertainment opportunities aimed at consumers who are always on the move, "as consumers are slowly but certainly mirroring travel behavior in daily life.After all, in our Experience Economy, the temporary, the transient, is increasingly being valued if not worshipped on a daily basis."6 Of course, it would be easy to critique the choice of venues and materials for these marketing efforts.Shipping containers, empty or abandoned urban spaces -it all invokes disturbing images of refugees suffocating (as has happened in cargo containers at U.S. and European harbours), of homeless people seeking shelter, of tens of thousands hurricane Katrina evacuees forced to temporarily live in the Louisiana (New Orleans) Superdome.It is the reappropriation of the modes, tools, and trash of economic globalization at the hands of the very industries that enabled it to accelerate.What is a more salient issue here, though, is the shift in focus on living, eating, and socializing toward experiences that are intrinsically temporary, transitory, a moment in time that cannot be relived or revisited.As such, these examples underscore contemporary modern life -a life lived from moment to moment, always in the here and now, in a context of seemingly constant and disruptive change, and restlessness, as well as an overall anxious feeling of being part of a "runaway world," as Anthony Giddens (2002) states.In this feature essay, I would like to couple this crucial observation with a critical debate on the (future) role of professional 1

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