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Abstract
This paper provides an intellectual history of the media sociology of the 1970s and early 1980s, as epitomized by a selection of newsroom ethnographies (the “newsroom studies”) that were published during this time. With a focus on the United States, I identify several discourses in both the intellectual and broader socio-political context that were contemporary with the research and whose influences can be seen in these seminal studies. In particular: organizational theory—of the Marxist variety, a critique of professionalism, and the social construction of reality; as well as a broad rejection of institutional authority and a liberal call for pluralism. Having identified these influences, I ask what sort of blind spots this historically specific intellectual constellation produced, and how these blind spots still influence the media sociology of today. I conclude that the intellectual and socio-political contexts of the newsroom studies led their authors to over-emphasize organizational constraints, and to focus narrowly on the most influential news outlets and their official sources; contemporary ethnographies have placed greater emphasis on journalistic agency and on the networked nature of newswork, though I question whether an emphasis on organizational constraints is not still politically warranted.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank for their comments on various drafts of this paper: Herb Gans, Michael Schudson, Jeff Pooley, and Liz Breese, as well as the participants in the third NYU/Columbia University Media Sociology Forum and the 2013 Media Sociology pre-conference at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.