Understanding the “Sowetans”: journalism as a product of organisational culture

Abstract

Journalism scholarship includes a large focus on organisations, with studies of newsroom socialisation, routines and cultures. Much of this scholarship conceptualises newsrooms as sites of journalism, defined by similar production processes, routines and professional ideologies. The emphasis on similarities across news outlets and individual journalists causes the specifics of particular organisations – and their power to shape journalism practice – to disappear from view. Approaches drawn from organisational psychology and management theory demonstrate that particular conditions shape the cultures of individual organisations, which may make them substantially different from other organisations. Drawing on the work of theorist Edgar Schein, the article explores the ways in which the practices of journalists are conditioned by the working environment in which they are socialised. By applying Schein’s tools of analysis to the case of a daily South African newspaper, the Sowetan, I demonstrate the usefulness of deploying organisational culture as an analytical concept to understand journalism organisations. I argue further that it may not be possible to fully grasp journalism work without understanding the specific context of the organisation in which it is practised, and that the study of journalism would benefit from drawing on organisational approaches from outside the field.

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