Situating journalistic coverage: The value of applying a practice theory framework for researching local community radio production

Abstract

This chapter presents a reflexive and practice-focussed approach to researching radio journalism in local community contexts. By applying a theoretical frame through which media production is seen as arrays of situated ‘doings and sayings’, not only practitioners and their interactions with technology are considered but also the surrounding material infrastructures and immaterial, yet no less significant, relational structures and understandings. The theoretical framing is derived from the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Theodore Schatzki. A fine tuned methodological strategy is illustrated through the case study of a research project on UK community radio to discern the sector’s role in locality-based mediated socialities. The fieldwork was ethnographically oriented and combined a practice-as-research component, where the researcher was embedded as a volunteer. Her first-hand experiences yield insights such as social capital usage in negotiating access to news sources. The title ‘Situating journalistic coverage’ conveys the situatedness of the activities being investigated and the practitioners’ locally dedicated interests. It also refers to the data-gathering strategy; site specific yet not losing sight of wider contexts. The examples of empirical evidence indicate the academic value of subjective, ‘on the ground’ findings. This approach positions community radio activities alongside professional practice in the same journalistic field of cultural production.