Abnegation, accommodation and affirmation: three discursive modes for the institutional construction of independence among national news agency executives in Europe

Rantanen, Terhi ORCID: 0000-0002-5345-6699 and Kelly, Anthony (2020) Abnegation, accommodation and affirmation: three discursive modes for the institutional construction of independence among national news agency executives in Europe. Journalism, 21 (12). 1896 - 1912. ISSN 1464-8849

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Abstract

The relationship between the ownership form of news agencies and their independence has long figured centrally in debates about the quality of news agency operations. Drawing on a discursive institutional framework, this article explores how national news agency executives in Europe perform a narrated role in the discursive construction of their organizations’ internal and external independence. We set out the concept of independence discourse, which we define as the variety of ways in which news agency executives use claims about the economic independence and the internal and external autonomy of their organizational operations. Based on a discourse analysis of elite semi-structured interviews with 20 European news agency executives, we identify three discursive modes for the institutional construction of independence: (1) abnegation, (2) accommodation and (3) affirmation. These discursive modes represent a set of public and private approaches to discursively negotiating the power of both state/government and shareholders/owners. We conclude by arguing for an expanded concept of independence, one which offers an account of the complex array of forces shaping news agency operations today.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jou
Additional Information:	© 2020 The Authors
Divisions:	Media and Communications
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Date Deposited:	01 Oct 2019 12:48
Last Modified:	01 Oct 2024 03:46
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/101792

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