Download full text
(external source)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v10i1.4390
Exports for your reference manager
Newsworthiness as a Governing Principle in Public Sector Communication
[journal article]
Abstract This article examines what qualifies as news when public agencies in Sweden claim to engage in media work. We unwrap and explore what happens when ideas about "newsworthiness" enter the practice of public sector communication. What becomes news, and how? What kinds of content are favored, how are st... view more
This article examines what qualifies as news when public agencies in Sweden claim to engage in media work. We unwrap and explore what happens when ideas about "newsworthiness" enter the practice of public sector communication. What becomes news, and how? What kinds of content are favored, how are stories told, and what voices are heard? The ideas of newsworthiness in a public sector context are here conceptualized as a logic of appropriateness that governs civil servants' media work. We base our analysis on a three-year case study of a Swedish county council’s digital news channel, VGRfokus. The analysis focuses on how ideas of newsworthiness are constructed and mirrored in and through the content of VGRfokus, as well as how they are reflected and acted upon by communications professionals working at the news channel. We suggest that ideas of newsworthiness may function as a governing principle and tone down or even hide conflicts and tensions between key values of bureaucracy and market, otherwise often manifested in public sector communication.... view less
Classification
Communicator Research, Journalism
Interactive, electronic Media
Free Keywords
VGRfokus; bureaucratic values; civic information; digital news channel; logic of appropriateness; market values; media work; newsworthiness; public sector communication; strategic communication
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
Page/Pages
p. 88-98
Journal
Media and Communication, 10 (2022) 1
Issue topic
New Forms of Media Work and Its Organizational and Institutional Conditions
ISSN
2183-2439
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed