En wat doen we online? Crossmediale dilemma's op de Nederlandse nieuwsredactie

What about online? Cross-media dilemmas at Dutch newsrooms

Established news media have embraced media convergence - the cooperation between (formerly separated) media platforms - in response to technological, economical and cultural changes in the current media landscape. The main research question answered in this thesis is how news organisations approach and implement media convergence and which factors underlie the success of convergence in journalistic practice. The study is based on ethnographic research in the (Dutch) newsrooms of De Volkskrant, Het Financieele Dagblad, BNR and NOS Nieuws.

Although, the editorial management of each case study recognised the ongoing (journalistic) changes, they initially responded with policy plans that were overly ambitious, resulting in a failure to implement these plans in daily practice. Following this, the management was unable to formulate a clear vision regarding their online platform. For journalists, the new editorial routine was unclear and often unrealistic. The dominant (traditional) news routines stayed firmly in place. When convergence was being implemented, the focus was mainly on organisational change, while this impacts the professional culture in particular. Creating opportunities to incorporate innovation and being able to communicate about these changes are essential tasks that weren’t carried out by members of the editorial management and coordinators on the floor. Those in charge were not fully involved with the online platform, preventing a common journalistic culture from being established.

The corresponding factors underlying the extent to which convergence is implemented successfully are strong leadership, an innovative organisational structure and communication in relation to cultural changes.