Churnalism: Revised and revisited

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Accepted Manuscript (AM)

Author(s)
Johnston, Jane
Forde, Susan
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2017
Size
File type(s)
Location
License
Abstract

Just under a decade ago the term “churnalism” moved into mainstream journalism discourse, describing in less-than-complimentary terms the recycling process of news production which drew increasingly on wire service copy and public relations (PR) subsidies. Davies’ 2008 book Flat Earth News and Cardiff University researchers Lewis, Williams, and Franklin (2008) were to popularise the term that would become part of the vernacular of an industry on the brink of major change. To be fair, the concept of “churn” and churnalists was earlier coined by Tony Harcup in his book Journalism (Harcup 2004), in which he cites BBC journalist Waseen Zakir’s description of how wire service copy had eroded original news production. However, the “assembly line in the news factory” and the “two primary conveyor belts” of wire services and PR (Davies 2008, 74) were to be seared into the journalistic psyche forever by Davies’ polemic, which laid the blame of churnalism on the “dark arts”, “pseudo-events” and out-ofcontrol commercialism.

Journal Title

Digital Journalism

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

5

Issue

8

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Digital Journalism, Volume 5, Issue 8, 943-946, 06 Sep 2017, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2017.1355026

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Communication and media studies

Social Sciences

JOURNALISTS

AGENCIES

NEWS

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Johnston, J; Forde, S, Churnalism: Revised and revisited, Digital Journalism, 2017, 5 (8), pp. 943-946

Collections