From convergence to Webvergence: Tracking the evolution of broadcast-print partnerships through the lens of change theory

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

Volumn 86, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 257-276

  Thornton, Leslie Jean ^a   Keith, Susan M ^b  

^a ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b State University of New Jersey   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

MASS MEDIA; MODELING; MULTIMEDIA; THEORETICAL STUDY; WORLD WIDE WEB;

NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 70349638104     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769900908600201     Document Type: Article

References (138)

1. "Eight Major Trends," in "The State of the News Media 2004: An Annual Report on American Journalism," Journalism.org, 2004, available at http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.com/2004/narrative-overview-eight. asp?media=l
2. "Tribune Buys Times Mirror," NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, http: / / www.pbs.org / newshour/bb / media / jan-juneOO/ tribune-3- 21.html, March 21, 2000 (accessed January 30, 2009).
3. Lucia Moses, "TV or not TV?" Editor & Publisher, August 21, 2000, 22, available at http://www.allbusiness.com/services/business-services- miscellaneous-business/4729605-l.html.
4. Frank Ahrens, "Newspaper-TV Marriage Shows Signs of Strain," Washington Post, January 11, 2007, sec. D p. 1, available at http: / / www. washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/AR2007011002408.html.
5. Laura Castaneda, "Teaching Convergence," Online Journalism eview, March 6,2003, available at http:/ / www.ojr.org/ojr/education/ 046983385.php;
6. Joe Foote, Convergence Challenge," Feedback 43 (win ter 2002): 7-13;
7. Joe Murray, "Adapt or Die: A 10-Step Survival Guide for Journalism Schools Stuck in the Fourth Estate," August 2007, avail able at http://stream.kent.edu/gmurray/JMC/Adapt-Or-Die.pdf;
8. Stephanie Paterik, "One-Track Curriculum a Thing of the Past in Communications," LJWorld.com, August 11, 2001, available athttp://www2.ljworld.com/news/2001/aug/ll/onetrack-curricu lum-a/;
9. Larry Pryor, "A Converged Curriculum: One School's Hard- Won Lessons," Online Journalism Review, February 24, 2005. Available at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050224pryor/index.cfm;
10. Stephen Quinn, "Convergence and the Implications for Journalism Education," in Cross-Media Service Delivery, ed. Diomidis Spinellis (Norwell, MA:Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), 13-24;
11. Max Utsler, The Convergence Curriculum: We Got It. Now What Are We Gonna Do With It?" Feedback 42 (summer 2001): 1-5.
12. Federal Communication Commission regulations that went into ffect in the 1970s prohibited cross ownership of newspapers and TV sta tions in shared local markets (with some exceptions grandfathered in),but those rules did not prohibit partnerships among print and broadcast entities. Mara Einstein, Media Diversity: Economics, Ownership and the FCC (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004), 20-21. And, in fact, several newspapers made short-lived attempts to use broadcast technology for delivering text stories, often on local-access cable channels, during the 1980s.
13. See Hugh M. Beville Jr., "The Audience Potential of the New Technologies: 1985-1990," Journal of Advertising Research 25 (April-May 1985), RC3-RC10;
14. Jacalyn Klein Butler and Kurt E. M. Kent, "Potential Impact of Videotext on Newspapers," Newspaper Research Journal 5 (fall 1983): 3-12;
15. Rich Gordon, "The Meanings and Implications of Convergence," in Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizon of Journalism, ed. Kevin Kawamoto (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), 57-73.
16. U.S. Convergence Tracker, (n.d.), available at http:/ /www.media center.org/convergencetracker;
17. Carrie Anna Criado and Camille Kraeplin, "The State of Convergence Journalism: United States Media and University Survey" (paper presented at the annual meeting of AEJMC, Kansas City, MO, August 2003);
18. Larry Dailey, Lori Demo, and Mary Spillman, "Most TV/Newspaper Partners at Cross Promotion Stage,"Newspaper Research Journal 26 (fall 2005): 36-49;
19. Sonya Forte Duhe, Melissa Mortimer, and San San Chow, "Convergence in North American TV Newsrooms: A Nationwide Look," Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 10 (summer 2004): 81-104.
20. Pablo J. Boczkowski, "The Processes of Adopting Multimedia and Interactivity in Three Online Newsrooms," Journal of Communication 54 (June 2004): 197-213;
21. Michel Dupagne and Bruce Garrison, "The Meaning and Influence of Convergence," Journalism Studies 7 (April 2006): 237-55;
22. José Alberto Garcfa Aviĺ es and Miguel Carvajal, "Integrated and Cross Media Newsroom Convergence," Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 14 (May 2008): 221-39;
23. Edgar Huang, Lisa Rademakers, Moshood A. Fayemiwo, and Lillian Dunlap, "Converged Journalism and Quality: A Case Study of the Tampa Tribune News Stories," Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 10 (winter 2004): 73-91;
24. Gracie Lawson-Borders, Media Organizations and Convergence: Case Studies of Convergence (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006);
25. Jane B. Singer, "More than Ink-stained retches: The Resocialization of Print Journalists in Converged Newsrooms," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 81 (winter 2004): 838-56;
26. Jane B. Singer, "Strange Bedfellows? The Diffusion of Convergence in Four News Organizations," Journalism Studies 5 (February 2004): 3-18.
27. Larry Dailey, Lori Demo, and Mary Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum: A Model for Studying Collaborations Between Media Newsrooms," Atlantic Journal of Communication 13 (August 2005): 150- 68;
28. Garcia Aviĺes and Carvajal, "Integrated and Cross-Media Newsroom Convergence," 221-39;
29. Wilson Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering: A Test of the Impact of Institutional Isomorphism,"Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 82 (autumn 2005): 494-515;
30. B. William Silcock and Susan Keith, "Translating the Tower of Babel?Issues of Definition, Language and Culture in Converged Newsrooms," Journalism Studies 5 (August 2006): 610-627
31. Laura Castãfeda, Sheila Murphy, and Heather Jane Hether, "Teaching Print, Broadcast, and Online Journalism Concurrently: A Case Study Assessing a Convergence Curriculum," Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 60 (spring 2005): 57-70;
32. Edgar Huang, Karen Davison, Stephanie Shreve, Twila Davis, Elizabeth Bettendorf, and Anita Nair, "Bridging Newsrooms and Classrooms: Preparing the Next Generation of Journalists for Converged Media," Journalism & Communication Monographs 8 (2006): 221-62;
33. Vincent F. Filak, "The Impact of Instructional Methods on Medium-based Bias and Convergence Approval," Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 61 (spring 2006): 48-61;
34. Camille Kraeplin and Carrie Anna Criado, "Building a Case for Convergence Journalism Curriculum," Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 60 (spring 2005): 47-56;
35. Deb Halpern Wenger, "Cross-training Students Key in Multimedia World," Quill 93(March 2005): 28-29;
36. Scott C. Hammond, Daniel Petersen, and Steven Thomsen, "Print, Broadcast and Online Convergence in the Newsroom," Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 55 (summer 000): 16-26;
37. Ann Auman, "The Convergent Mindset in Journalism Education: How Team Teaching Transforms Students and Faculty in a Media Convergence Program," in Proceedings of World Conference on E- Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2006, ed. T. Reeves and S. Yamashita (Chesapeake, VA: AACE, 2006), 1025-1029
38. Dupagne and Garrison, "The Meaning and Influence of Convergence," 237-55;
39. Stan Ketterer, J. Steven Smethers, and Bonnie Bressers, "But, Will it Play in Lawrence? Audience Perceptions of Convergence on the Lawrence Journal-World, News 6 and LJWorld.com" (paper presented at the annual meeting of AEJMC, San Antonio, August 2005);
40. Stan Ketterer, Tom Weir, and J. Steven Smethers, "Case Study Shows Limited Benefits of Convergence," Newspaper Research Journal 25 (summer 2004): 29-38;
41. Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering," 494-515;
42. Stephen Quinn,"Convergence's Fundamental Question," Journalism Studies 6 (February 2005): 29-38;
43. Silcock and Keith "Translating the Tower of Babel?" 610-627.
44. Ann Auman and Jonathan Lillie, "An Evaluation of Team-teach ing Models in a Media Convergence Curriculum," Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 62 (winter 2008): 360-75;
45. Dale Cressman and Quint Randle, "Back to Basics: A Decade of Convergence at BYU" (paper presented at Media Convergence: Cooperation, Collisions and Change, Provo, UT, October 15, 2004);
46. Deb Halpern Wenger, "The Road to Convergence and Back Again," Quill 93 (September 2005): 28-29.
47. Camille Kraeplin and Carrie Anna Criado, "Surveys Show TV/Newspapers Maintaining Partnerships," Newspaper Research Journal 27 (fall 2006): 52-65;
48. Larry Dailey, Lori Demo, and Mary Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum Redux: Does the Web Jeopardize Newspaper Television Partnerships?" (paper presented at the annual meeting of AEJMC, Chicago, August 2008).
49. Silcock and Keith, "Translating the Tower of Babel?" 610-627
50. Wilson Lowrey, "Staying the Course or Thinking it Through? Explaining News Managers' Attitudes About Newspaper-TV Partner ships" (paper presented to the International Communication Association, New York City, May 2005).
51. Pierre C. Bé langer, "Online News at Canada's National Public Broadcaster: An Emerging Convergence," Canadian Journal of Communi cation 30 (2005): 411-27;
52. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence ontinuum Redux"
53. Silcock and Keith, "Translating the Tower of Babel?" 615-16;
54. Bob Papper, "TV Websites Helping the Bottom Line," RTNDA Communicator (May 2006): 36-39;
55. Bob Papper, "Net Worth: Station ebsites are Growing in Size and Complexity, but do They Turn a Profit?" RTNDA Communicator (May 2007): 12-16.
56. Kurt Andersen, "You Must be Streaming," New York, February 19, 2007, available at http://nymag.com/news/imperialcity/28152/;
57. Beth Lawton, "Newspapers' Online Video: Executive Summary," Newspaper ssociation of America, May 7, 2008, available at http://www.naa.org/ Resources/Articles/Digital-Media-Online-Video-Survey/Digital-Media-Online-Video- Survey.aspx
58. Web sites were considered to be convergence partners in Duh́ Mortimer, and Chow, "Convergence in North American TV Newsrooms," 81-104, but that study was conducted more than five years before the research described in this article.
59. See Laura K. Smith, Andrea H. Tanner, and Soyna Forte Duh́, "Convergence Concerns in Local Television: Conflicting Views from the Newsroom," Journal of Broadcasting &'Electronic Media 51 (December 2007): 555-574 for a study that considered Web sites but did not survey newspapers or the largest U.S. TV stations.
60. Kurt Lewin, Field Theory in the Social Sciences (New York: Harper, 1951).
61. See, for example, Dwayne Winsock, "Netscapes of Power: Convergence, Consolidation and Power in the Canadian Mediascape," Media, Culture & Society 24 (November 2002): 795-819.
62. For background on this sort of technological convergence, see Steven Schnaars, Gloria Thomas, and Caglar Irmak, "Predicting the Emergence of Innovations from Technological Convergence: Lessons from the Twentieth Century," Journal of Macromarketing 28 June 2008): 157-168
63. Rich Gordon, "Convergence Defined," Online Journalism Review, November 13, 2003, available at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/business/ 1068686368.php;
64. Stephen Quinn and Deirdre Quinn-Allan, "The World- Wide Spread of Convergence Journalism" (paper presented to the Journalism Education Conference, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia, November 29-December 2, 2005, 5-9).
65. Duh́, Mortimer, and Chow, "Convergence in North American TV Newsrooms," 92.
66. Duh́, Mortimer, and Chow, "Convergence in North American TV Newsrooms," 93.
67. Criado and Kraeplin, "The State of Convergence Journalism."
68. Kraeplin and Criado, "Surveys Show TV/Newspapers Main taining Partnerships," 57.
69. Smith, Tanner, and Duh́, "Convergence Concerns in Local Tele vision," 562.
70. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum," 150-168
71. The idea of the continuum was first presented as Larry Dailey, Lori Demo, and Mary Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum: A Model for Studying Collaboration Between Media Newsrooms" (paper presented to AEJMC, Kansas City, August 2003).
72. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum," 153.
73. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "Most TV/Newspaper Partners at Cross Promotion Stage," 36-49;
74. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum Redux," 13;
75. Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering," 503.
76. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "Most TV/Newspaper Partners at Cross Promotion Stage," 47.
77. Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering," 504.
78. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum Redux."
79. Ketterer, Smethers, and Bressers, "But, Will it Play in Lawrence?";
80. Ketterer, Weir, and Smethers, "Case Study Shows Limited Benefits of Convergence," 29-38.
81. Dupagne and Garrison, "The Meaning and Influence of Con vergence," 237-255
82. Vincent F. Filak, "Cultural Convergence: Intergroup Bias Among ournalists and Its Impact on Convergence," Atlantic Journal of Communication 12 (2004): 216-34;
83. Filak "The Impact of Instructional Methods " 48-61.
84. Silcock and Keith "Translating the Tower of Babel?" 610-627.
85. Kurt Lewin, "Group Decision and Social Change," in Classic Readings in Organizational Behavior, 4th ed., ed. J. Steven Ott, Sandra J. Parkes, and Richard B. Simpson (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth 2008), 429-433
86. See also Tupper Cawsey and Gene Deszca, Toolkit for Organizational Change (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007), 41-43.
87. Edgar H. Schein, "Kurt Lewin's Change Theory in the Field and in the Classroom: Notes Toward a Model of Managed Learning," Systems Practice 9 (February 1996): 27-47, available at http://www.sol-ne. org / res / wp / 10006.html
88. Karl E. Weick and Robert E. Quinn, "Organizational Change and Development," American Review of Psychology 50 (1999): 372.
89. Lewin, "Group Decision and Social Change," 429-33.
90. See also Cawsey and Deszca, Toolkit for Organizational Change, 41-43.
91. Dorwin Cartwright, ed., Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theo retical Papers by Kurt Lewin (London: Tavistock, 1952), 228-229
92. Bernard Burnes, "Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change: A Re-appraisal," in Organization Change: A Comprehensive Reader, ed. Warner Burke, Dale G. Lake, and Jill Waymire Paine (San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, 2008), 241.
93. Bernard Burnes, "Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change: A Re-appraisal," Journal of Management Studies 41 (September 2004): 977-1002.
94. See also, Bernard Burnes, "Kurt Lewin and Complexity Theories: Back to the Future?" Journal of Change Management 4 (December 2004): 309-325
95. David Buchanan, Louise Fitzgerald, Diane Ketley, Rose Gollop,Jane Louise Jones, Sharon Saint Lamont, Annette Neath, and Elaine Whitby, "No Going Back: A Review of the Literature on Sustaining Organizational Change," International Journal of Management Reviews 7 (September 2005): 189-205.
96. Schein, "Kurt Lewin's Change Theory," paragraph 1.
97. Weick and Quinn, "Organizational Change and Development," 362.
98. W. Warner Burke, Organization Change: Theory and Practice (Thou sand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002), 141.
99. It was assumed that relatively few television stations in markets 101 through 210 or newspapers with circulations smaller than 25,000 would have the resources to be attractive convergence partners.
100. Because there is no list of online news professionals, contacting these new study subjects required a multi-stage process. Initially, their names were obtained through one author's contacts in the Online News Association and by searching staff lists on newspaper and TV station Web sites for titles such as "online editor."
101. That rate was higher than the 20% return rate reported in Smith, Tanner, and Duh́ "Convergence Concerns in Local Television," 555-74;
102. the return rates of 25.6% and 20.7% recorded, respectively, in Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "Most TV/Newspaper Partners at Cross Promotion Stage," 36-49
103. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum Redux"; and the rate of 37% reported in Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering," 501. The return rate was comparable to the rates of 40% and 38% from newspapers and TV sta tions, respectively, reported in Kraeplin and Criado's first survey, but lower than the 53% and 47% return rates Kraeplin and Criado reported in their second survey.
104. See Kraeplin and Criado, "Surveys Show TV/Newspapers Maintaining Partnerships,"
105. See Kraeplin and Criado, "Surveys Show TV/Newspapers Maintaining Partnerships," 56.
106. Circulation categories used were those employed by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
107. Kraeplin and Criado, "Surveys Show TV/Newspapers Main taining Partnerships," 57.
108. Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering," 503.
109. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "Most TV/Newspaper Partners at Cross Promotion Stage," 36-49;
110. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum Redux," 14.
111. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum Redux," 12;
112. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "Most TV/Newspaper Partners at Cross Promotion Stage," 41;
113. Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering," 500.
114. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum," 150-168.
115. Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering," 504.
116. Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering," 504
117. Callinan, "TV reports next step in Phoenix convergence strategy"
118. Martin Kaiser, "Convergence: Cooperation Logical, but Challenging," The American Editor, July 2000, available at http://www.asne.org/kiosk/ editor /OO.july / kaiserl.htm.
119. Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering," 504.
120. Those percentages were greater than the 12.1% of discontinued partnerships found in a 2007 study by Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, though the difference might be explained by the difference between the groups surveyed.
121. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman examined the prevalence of partnerships at all U.S. daily newspapers, including very small dailies found to be less likely than larger newspapers to support partnerships
122. See Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum Redux," 14.
123. There was no statistically significant difference in responses about the two time periods from the television respondents (mean "now": 4.13, N=52; mean "five years ago": 3.75, N=46; t=1.13, df=96, p=.26), and the difference for the newspaper respondents only approached significance at the p=.05 level (mean "now": 4.24, N=116; mean "five years ago": 4.71, N=115; f=1.87, df=229, p=.054). It is interesting to note, however, that the means for the earlier period (broadcast = 3.75, print = 4.71) indicate that broadcast respondents recalled cross-platform partnerships as having being more important five years before the survey was conducted than newspaper respondents did.
124. TV mean for 2008: 1.12, N=75; mean for five years earlier: 2.36, N=69, f=14.06, df=142, p<.0001. Figures are based on responses to the questions "How important is the Web site at your station?" and "How important was the Web site at your station five years ago?" To allow for f-tests, data were converted from nominal form of the available responses ("very important," "somewhat important" or "not very important") to numerical form. The response "very important" was assigned the value 1, "somewhat important" was assigned the value 2, and "not very important" was assigned the value 3. Because of the different scales used, the reported importance broadcast respondents assigned to Web sites cannot be compared with the importance assigned by newspaper respondents.
125. Silcock and Keith, "Translating the Tower of Babel?" 623.
126. Joan V. Gallos and Edgar H. Schein, Organization Development (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2006), 143.
127. Pamela Shoemaker and Stephen D. Reese, Mediating the Message: Theories of Influences on Mass Media Content (New York: Longman, 1996).
128. Janet Kolodzy, Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting Across the News Media (Lanham, MD: Rowman &Littlefield, 2006), 29.
129. Filak, "The Impact of Instructional Methods"
130. Filak, "Cultural Convergence"
131. Silcock and Keith, "Translating the Tower of Babel?"
132. For example, Lowrey, "Commitment to Newspaper-TV Partnering"
133. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "Most TV/Newspaper Partners at Cross Promotion Stage"
134. Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, "The Convergence Continuum Redux"
135. Dupagne and Garrison, "The Meaning and Influence of Convergence."
136. Schein, "Kurt Lewin's Change Theory." There was evidence in answers to open-ended survey questions of skepticism of the benefits of print-broadcast partnerships, uncertainty about what sort of journalism the partnerships would produce, and anxiety about learning new meth ods of news dissemination.
137. Schein, "Kurt Lewin's Change Theory."
138. Richard Perez-Pena, "Newspaper Circulation Continues to Decline Rapidly," New York Times, October 27, 2008, available at http://www.ny times.com /2008/10/28/business / media /28circ.html.