The Margins of Journalism

List of figures and tables

Figure 1: Number of local newspapers in the Czech Republic

Figure 2: Distribution area

Figure 3: Frequency of publication

Figure 4: Copies sold per issue

Figure 5: Type of ownership

Figure 6: Longevity of publication

Figure 7: The sub-field of journalism on the margins

Table 1: Capitals on the individual level

Table 2: Comparison of local newspapers in the Czech Republic

Table 3: Capitals on the organisational level

Table 4: Habitus, forms of capital, and practices of the class fractions of individual agents

Table 5: Forms of capital and practices of classes of organisations

Preface

When as a 16-year-old high school student I saw my first published article in a newspaper, I knew that I was a journalist. I had no doubt that I was already “part of the circus” and would probably have been startled had anyone questioned it. I assumed that if I did everything right – followed the editor’s rules about genre, made use of various sources, behaved, and wrote ethically – I would meet the requirements of the job and meet them well: the job of journalist.

Two years later, I began my career with a similarly straightforward and naïve perception of what being a journalist involved. I assumed that the local newspaper that employed me marked the beginning of a homogeneous career. Five years later, after working in larger newsrooms and in different forms of media, I had already learned that the smallest newsrooms on the margins of journalism are in many ways unique. What drew me to them most of all was the “voicelessness” of the local press, despite the fact that these newspapers gave a voice to so many. The boundaries of its relevance were very strictly drawn. While newspapers could have an unassailable position within the localities they served, they were largely invisible at national level. It was as if wider society could not appreciate their position within the media system. It became my goal to emancipate these peripheral newsrooms, to transcend arbitrary boundaries to give them a greater voice, and to highlight the wider impact they have.

In my attempt to emancipate the unseen and the underestimated in journalism, I have focused my study on the framework of a media system in the Czech Republic, which is both post-socialist and, after more than thirty years of transition to democracy, also post-transitive. Writing about these things in the context of non-American and non-British media can sometimes be frustrating: the de-westernisation of journalism studies is devoutly desired, loudly discussed – and seldom achieved.

When I exchanged my career as a journalist for that of academic, I was in some respects disappointed by who the researchers considered to be a journalist. From their point of view, I would certainly not have merited the description when I was sixteen. I was thus aware of a kind of blindness in those who look at journalism from the outside.

For me, stepping into this area of research meant closing a gap. At first, and without realising it, I unconsciously returned to the terminology and style of my journalistic days. It was like putting on an old coat. My knowledge of the environment of the small newsroom was both an advantage and, it would turn out, a disadvantage. It gave me an opportunity to observe and evaluate developments and differences from what I had experienced and what I now witnessed, and often, did so at opportune moments. It helped me to break through the reserve of my communication partners – the journalists. At the same time, from both my journalistic experience and my position as a scholar, it was sometimes difficult to find anything positive and optimistic in their remarks, especially since they were ready to express blunt, emotional views about their job, title, colleagues and sometimes the locality in which they worked.

All of this has shaped my attention to researching the local newspapers of the Czech Republic, a snapshot of a larger concern facing journalism studies that is timely – these journalists on the outskirts of the news industry need to find their voice – and urgent, as if they do not, they will “die”. One of the local editors-in-chief describes his mingled frustration and resignation in these terms: “I’m already so calm that I’m almost clinically dead.” Within a global media environment where the local and peripheral are at once necessary, and overlooked, and simultaneously unique, and ubiquitous, understanding the ways in which these local newspapers have experienced the recent years of digital transition give us insights into journalism writ large. And they give us reason to pause and reflect on the conditions in which these newspapers and local media are struggling.

Despite the wary prognosis summarised above, local journalists are still breathing, and their strength seems to draw upon common roots. It is time to give these peripheral actors a voice and by reflecting on their difficulties enable them to find their salvation.

Acknowledgements

This book is the result of sabbatical leave throughout the academic year 2019–2020. The long period gave me the opportunity to focus primarily on research, and at last to carry out my long-delayed plan of conducting a deep investigation into the gradual disappearance of local newspapers and local journalists in the Czech Republic. The year enabled me not only to travel and visit the newsrooms of local newspapers, meet the journalists there, discuss with them and observe them, but to complete data analysis, write this book, start writing several articles¹ and finally to bring the subject of local newspapers and local journalists to wider attention. In addition, the creative part of this period was supported by a grant from the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education & Research (OeAD-GmbH) via the Aktion Österreich-Tschechien, AÖCZ-Habilitationsstipendium, so I was able to spend half a year in Vienna and analyse, write, and discuss my work with colleagues from the Universität Wien.

I am immensely grateful for the whole year. When for the first time in my sixteen-year academic career I was relieved of teaching and everyday duties, I once again found simple pleasure in reading scholarly articles and books, in being creative, and above all in my ability to “hear” my own thoughts and ideas again. For all this, many thanks are in order.

First of all, I would like to thank the many journalists, entrepreneurs and other local newspaper workers who made it all possible, both those who repeatedly filled in survey questionnaires, and the many who talked to me, discussed with me, argued with me and helped me.

Many thanks also go to colleagues from Masaryk University who made this year-long adventure possible, from the then dean of the Faculty of Social Studies, Břetislav Dančák, through the then head of my home Department of Media Studies and Journalism, Jakub Macek, to Rudolf Burgr, who took over my duties in the teaching and administration. Similarly heartfelt thanks must go to two colleagues from the Universität Wien, Folker Hanusch and Phoebe Maares.

I offer special thanks to the friendly colleagues who readily and helpfully discussed my thoughts and ideas – Barbora Vacková, Johana Kotišová and Benjamin Ferron. The completion of the project would have been unthinkable without the help of my student assistant, Anna Svobodová, who organised a collection of questionnaires and transcribed interviews. For this, much thanks.

As the writing of the book progressed, my copy editor Andrew Crisell became my most loyal supporter. He ensured that the English text was fluent, with the aim of making it as stylish and beautiful “as a polka dot dress”. Moreover, he gave me confidence in the moments that I was losing faith, and for that I am infinitely grateful.

However, the greatest influence on the final shape of the text had Scott Eldridge, editor of the series Frontiers in Journalism Studies for Peter Lang. I especially appreciate his collegial editorial approach – professionally rigorous, respectful, and friendly in discussions.

I would also like to thank the Peter Lang publishing house for the support, and all their employees who did not hesitate to help and support me, namely Elizabeth Howard, Acquisitions Editor for Media and Communication, for her accommodating attitude.

My largest thank-you goes to my friends Martina Fojtů and Monika Metyková, and especially to my family. They always reminded me that somewhere behind the laptop screen there is real life.

Brno, December 2023

Lenka Waschková Císařová