The value(s) of journalistic 'innovation': Developing a critical conceptualization and research agenda

In the last decades ‘innovation’ has become something of a buzzword within journalism. It is widely regarded as an important antidote against the persistent struggle to successfully adapt to the digital era, driving the idea that journalism should reinvent itself. This chapter challenges the self-evidence with which journalistic ‘innovation’ has been embraced as a necessary solution to safeguard journalism’s future. It develops a conceptual framework to study journalistic innovation and outlines a critical research agenda, calling for more reflexive, longitudinal and transnational research. It starts off by problematizing innovation as a value-laden and therefore contested concept, which meaning is performatively established. As such, it presents ‘sociotechnical imaginaries’ as fruitful research lens to study the discursive strategies with which specific understandings of innovation are legitimized and naturalized. Drawing attention to the power dynamics involved in this, field and practice theory is introduced as a way to elucidate the – culture-specific and path-dependent – way journalistic actors (i.e. journalists, outlets and intermediary organizations) strategically exploit ‘innovation’ to reinforce their position within the field and sustain it for the future by furthering their specific agenda of change. Ultimately, this chapter is call for a more reflexive and critical understanding of journalistic ‘innovation’.