JOURNALISM TO GO

Abstract

This paper contends that to understand how audiences engage with journalism in the contemporary age, we must conceive of news consumption not just as something we do, but as something we do in a particular place. It considers the experience(s) of consuming journalism, and reflects upon the influence “space” has in this equation. I ask how news consumption is integrated into, and shapes, the social spaces of everyday life, and how this may be transforming. The title, “Journalism to Go”, thus has a tripartite meaning relating to changing notions of space, speed, and convenience in journalism. Specifically: journalism is now produced to facilitate increasingly mobile places of consumption (Space); journalism is now produced to adjust for the faster pace of the information age (Speed); and journalism is now produced to interact with and provide multiple channels of access for audiences (Convenience). This paper demonstrates the analytic importance of the first of these by considering data generated through Barnhurst's “Life History & The Media” project, which details young adults’ stories of media use. This analysis uncovers that moments of media consumption do not simply take place in space; rather, the spaces of everyday life are produced through these socio-cultural practices.

Keywords:

• audience studies
• experience
• mobility
• news consumption
• space

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks to Kevin Barnhurst for his permission to use data from the “Life History & The Media” project and for his encouragement.

Notes

1. Project directed by Kevin Barnhurst, University of Illinois, Chicago, http://www.uic.edu/depts/comm/lifehist/.

2. The complete instructions for participants are available at http://www.uic.edu/depts/comm/lifehist/Documents/Text/lhinstructions.html.

3. All stories are available at http://www.uic.edu/depts/comm/lifehist/LHMPReadUS3.html.