To celebrate the relaunch of our NT&T network we organized a two-day workshop on Thursday September 20th and Friday September 21st 2018 in the historic city of Ghent. The workshop was designed to be an informal, small-scale and all-plenary meeting with lots of time for interaction.
Interested in what this event was all about? Check out our Preconference Pecha Kucha series here!
Date: 20/09/2018 & 21/09/2018
Place: Ghent University, Campus Tweekerken, Sint Pietersplein 7, room 15.06.120.009
14.30 - 16.00: Individual sessions (discussant: Diana ben-Aaron)
Challenges and possibilities of multi-platform journalism in multilingual contexts
- Lucile Davier
Multi-platform production—or convergent journalism—is often presented in a critical light (Quandt and Singer 2009; Larrondo et al. 2016; Reich 2016). How do reporters working in a bilingual environment make sense of it? This study is informed by 12 semi-structured interviews and over 45 hours of direct observation conducted at a regional newsroom of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Production of news for radio, TV, Internet, and social media is experienced rather positively by journalists producing long-form reports and negatively by journalists covering daily news. While investigative reporters see convergence as an opportunity to focus on content, other journalists experience it mainly as an increase in production paces and required skills.
Cross-cultural constructions of blame and responsibility in the news
- Jen Cope
Blame discourse is an increasing component of political, financial, and corporate rhetoric, and is becoming increasingly globalised. I firstly discuss my recent cross-cultural media discourse study on the Global Financial Crisis in US, UK and Australian newspapers (Cope, 2016; 2018; forthcoming), which uniquely distinguishes between opinion writers communicating blame (primarily invoking negativity), and communicating responsibility (generally invoking positivity by attempting to move beyond the Crisis). I then outline my research plans to examine how cross-cultural media represent political rhetoric in debates on immigration and nationalism. Revolving around blame and responsibility, these topics elicit strong partisan and prejudicial reactions. The study aims to develop media literacy skills and help disrupt normalised perceptions of prejudice.
“What people want”: a collaborative citizen science project between a newspaper, university and governmental agency
- Sofie Verkest
The relationship between journalists and scientific experts is often represented as binary, problematic and the root cause of distortion of information (Colson, 2011; Samuel, Williams, & Gardner, 2017; Sumner et al., 2014; Williams & Gajevic, 2013). In recent years, however, several forms of collaboration between journalists, scientific experts and scientific institutions (and their PR staff) have become more frequent (Williams & Gajevic, 2013) and their relationship appears to run more smoothly than often thought (Maeseele, 2013; Peters, 2013, 2014). In this case study of a large scale citizen science project on air quality set up by a newspaper, university and governmental agency in Belgium, we take a closer look into their collaboration and how the different actors negotiate and coproduce news values. The analysis presented here draws on interviews with key players in all three domains as well as observations of meetings involving the different partners in the project.
16.30-18.30 - Data session led by Marcel Burger, Laura Delaloye & Gilles Merminod
Scrutinizing data from the newsroom
- Marcel Burger, Laura Delaloye & Gilles Merminod
University of Lausanne
Data sessions provide the opportunity to dive into the ‘details’ of recorded interaction in the newsroom. But what do the ‘details’ tell us about the everyday life of news production? How can we link theses observations with a reflection on journalism practices and media ideologies? And under what conditions? We address these issues in a piece of data from a morning editorial meeting in the newsroom of the Swiss public broadcast. The focus is on the negotiation of journalists reflecting on why they do what they do.
8.30 - 10.00: Individual sessions (discussant: Colleen Cotter)
The Discourse of “Soli”: Insights into the practices of Ghanaian journalists
- Maame Afua Nikabs
The giving of tokens, often monetary, to journalists in the course of newsgathering is an established practice in Ghanaian journalism; there is shared understanding of what “Soli” – short for “Solidarity” – means and how it functions. Research suggests it affects objectivity, story selection, placement and language use (Agbemenu and Tandoh 2015, Diedong 2006) all relevant to linguistic scrutiny.
Adopting an approach rooted in interactional sociolinguistics and ethnographic fieldwork, I investigate the process of news production in Ghana, the practice of journalists on-the-job, and their relationships with their sources as a way to understand the part Soli plays in the journalistic undertaking.
Post-Journalism in a Postcolonial Context? Shifting Caribbean Perspectives on News
- Sanne Rotmeijer
In light of the call to de-westernize journalism (studies) and to de-couple its link to democracy (Broersma & Peters 2017; Hanitzsch & Vos 2018), I will present shifting discursive constructions of what news is and should be in a Dutch Caribbean context: news for, with, and by the people. Building on ethnographic fieldwork among reporters, journalists, and news bloggers in and beyond newsrooms in Curaçao and St. Maarten in 2015/16, I will argue that shifting perspectives on news should be understood in relation to local (post)colonial dynamics and the global mediascape. “Western” notions of (post-)journalism are continuously negotiated and take on new social and political meanings in a postcolonial context.
“We don’t want to be the first, we want to be the best!” - Introducing ‘quality’ online sub-editing practices at a newspaper in digital transition
- Astrid Vandendaele & Jana Declercq
This paper discusses the changing role of the sub-editor in news production as the digital presence of newspapers increases. Sub-editors have always had a significant role in finalizing core messages of news stories and framing them, for instance through writing headlines. This role has become more prominent in online news: sub-editors (and other online news workers) now systematically ‘test’ various versions of a headline before selecting a ‘winner’ to appear on the broadsheet’s website, social media and newsletter. Drawing on fieldwork data collected by the first author, we analyze this process focussing on the continuous back and forth between the online newsmakers’ ‘journalistic gut feeling’, their awareness of their broadsheet’s brand, and the need to gain ‘clicks’.
| Thursday 20 September | |
| 12.00-14.00 | Lunch & Registration |
| 14.00-14.30 | Introduction Astrid Vandendaele, Daniel Perrin, Geert Jacobs |
| 14.30-16.00 |
Individual sessions (discussant: Diana ben-Aaron) Lucile Davier, Challenges and possibilities of multi-platform journalism in multilingual contexts Jennifer Cope, Cross-cultural constructions of blame and responsibility in the news Sofie Verkest, “What people want”: a collaborative citizen science project between a newspaper, university and governmental agency |
| 16.00-16.30 | Coffee break |
| 16.30-18.30 | Data session led by Marcel Burger, Laura Delaloye & Gilles Merminod |
| 19.30 | Dinner at Club Het Pand |
| Friday 21 September | |
| 8.00-8.30 | Welcome, coffee |
| 8.30-10.00 |
Individual sessions (discussant: Colleen Cotter) Maame Afua Nikabs, The Discourse of “Soli”: Insights into the practices of Ghanaian journalists Sanne Rotmeijer, Post-Journalism in a Postcolonial Context? Shifting Caribbean Perspectives on News Astrid Vandendaele & Jana Declercq, “We don’t want to be the first, we want to be the best!” - Introducing ‘quality’ online sub-editing practices at a newspaper in digital transition |
| 10.00-10.15 | Coffee Break |
| 10.15-12.00 | Position Paper writing session led by Felicitas Macgilchrist and Tom Van Hout |
| 12.00-12.15 | Coffee break |
| 12.15-13.00 | Brainstorm session led by Daniel Perrin |
| 13.00-14.00 | Lunch, including wrap-up by Ellen Van Praet |
Ghent University, Campus Tweekerken Sint-Pietersplein 7 Gent
How to get to Ghent?
From the airport
There are two main airports in Belgium: Zaventem Airport and South-Charleroi Airport. There are a number of transportation options from both airports; we recommend using public transportation. More information about public transportation options from South-Charleroi Airport can be found here. Zaventem Airport has its own train station, located on level -1 of the terminal. More information on public transportation options from Zaventem Airport can be found here.
By train
Ghent has several train stations; we advise you to travel to Gent-Sint-Pieters Station. All national train schedules can be consulted here; international train connections can be consulted here.
How to get to the venue?
By bus
Our venue is a twenty minute bus ride away from the Gent-Sint-Pieters Station. Buses 72 (Oostakker), 76 (Lochristi-Wachtebeke), 71 (Oostakker), 78 (Lochristi- Lokeren), 77 (Lochristi-Beervelde), 58 (Eeklo-Brugge), 55 (Zelzate Busstation), 35 (Beervelde-Lokeren) and 34 (Wetteren) all stop at Heuvelpoort (feel free to ask the bus driver to give you a sign when you reach this stop), which is a short walk away from our venue.
By taxi
There is a taxi rank at the Gent-Sint-Pieters Station, located on level -1 (below the bus station).
There are numerous taxi companies in Ghent; all are licensed and work with the same rate. Two large companies are:
- V-Tax: 00329 222 22 22
- Taxi Gent: 00329 333 33 33
A taxi ride during the day within the city will cost you € 8.50 for the first 3 km and € 2.30/km for the following kilometers.
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