Carrasco, Silvia. 2022. Disciplining news practices in the age of metric power: a networked ethnographic study of everyday newswork in a Spanish media group. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]

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Abstract or Description

This thesis investigates the encounter of journalists with metrics in the quantified newsroom. Drawing on scholarship on news production, the critical political economy of media, the sociology of quantification and the Foucauldian approach to power and resistance, the thesis asks who decides which metrics matter in news production and what is the role of metrics in the newsroom. Drawing on a networked ethnography, the study examines the production and circulation of metrics within the Spanish media group Atresmedia and in particular in the news department of the television station La Sexta. In so doing, the thesis follows the flow of metrics into the newsroom and identifies the nodes that determine the repackaging of metrics. Finally, the thesis interrogates the journalists' consumption, interpretation and use of metrics. Empirically, the thesis is based on a 17-week networked ethnography, including 44 semi-structured interviews with journalists, data analysts and executives. The empirical data are presented in four levels: (1) The data ecosystem, (2) the institutional stage of metrics production, (3) the news team practices in the lights of metrics, and (4) the individual professional consumption of metrics. Drawing on the empirical analysis, the thesis argues that the metrics that arrive at the newsroom are crafted, re-packaged and re-signified to subtly convey disciplinary techniques that permeate the process of news production whilst also engendering resistance, with consequences for news products, news programming, audiences, and journalistic autonomy. Ultimately, the research contributes to understanding of the relationship between journalism and metrics. It also provides insights into the debates about the future of journalism in a challenging economic, social and political climate.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00031494
Additional Information:	This is an edited version of the thesis, with third-party copyright material removed.
Keywords:	news production process, journalism research, metrics, networked ethnography, television news, news media management, journalistic autonomy, journalistic professional identity, audience orientation, audience oriented editors, engagement, virtual newsroom, whatsapp, mobile sourcing, Spanish television, La Sexta TV, Atresmedia, making news, news business, Foucault
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Media, Communications and Cultural Studies
Date:	31 January 2022
Item ID:	31494
Date Deposited:	21 Feb 2022 17:22
Last Modified:	07 Sep 2022 17:19
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/31494

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