The Digital Story Innovations team: a case study on digital journalism innovation at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

(1)

The Digital Story Innovations team:

A case study on digital journalism

innovation at the Australian

Broadcasting Corporation

Master’s thesis Journalism and Media

University of Amsterdam

Anna Livia Céline Benders

UvA-net ID: 10088121

Thesis coordinator: dhr. prof. dr. M.J.P. (Mark) Deuze

June 18

th

_{, 2018}

(2)

Preface

I woke up at 4 this morning, because the air was vibrating. I am buzzing with the energy of new possibilities that lie ahead. My stomach is aching from excitement about a future that has never felt as unknown as in this very moment. And from the pure joy to end a chapter and to, for the first time in months, write something non-academic. No literature, no referencing, just words.

The story about how this thesis came about is a classic tale of a series of events and meetings leading up to what I hope will result in my graduation today. In October 2014 I boarded an airplane to Perth. It was a one-way ticket. I knew no one and I had no plan. Upon arrival, someone I had met only once a few years earlier, who happened to be from Perth, wrote me that I should go meet his 60 year old dad. I had no particular intention of spending my days hanging with a relative strangers’ father, but was so surprised by the Australian hospitality that I decided I was going to be a yes-woman.

I ended up spending an entire month at Bryan Bourke’s house in Claremont. We went for early morning swims in the ocean, ate Thai food and he helped me pick out a car that later became my (temporary) house. We also watched TV. Every Monday, we religiously watched Four Corners and talked about what we had seen until late in the evening. Now I know that he is the face of a dying breed of Australians still willing to sit down in front of a television at a set time, to look at what the investigative reporters had dug up for him that day. With every Four Corners show, I became more convinced that I wanted to become an investigative journalist.

Fast forward to November 2017. My professor Mark Deuze was stood in front of a classroom of journalism students, talking about his Beyond Journalism project. Over twenty of his former students had gone to different parts of the world to study journalism start-ups and this year he wanted to shift his gaze to innovative units embedded in existing media organisations, he explained. The ABC

immediately came back to mind. Once home, I started to search the internet: “ABC Four Corners innovation”, “ABC Four corners multimedia”, “ABC Four Corners digital journalism”. Bingo.

There it was. An article written by Kimberley Porteous introducing her new Digital Story Innovations team, with a link to a crafty digital production on mortgage stress the team had made in collaboration with Four Corners. In no time I wrote my research proposal, but when back in the classroom the next morning I had lost all hope as I came to my senses. I had no savings, the ABC was on the other side of the world and the chances of anyone saying yes to a random Dutch student shadowing their every move for weeks seemed slim at best.

(3)

I raised my hand in hesitation as the rest of the classroom started laughing. “Well you are a lucky then, because I know the woman who set up that team at the ABC and I am meeting her while I am on my book tour in Australia in a couple of weeks.”

My mind was blown.

And so it happened. Within weeks I had found someone to sublet my room in Amsterdam, applied for two scholarships, which got me just enough money for a return ticket, and I was on my way to Sydney – where I spent the first weeks staying at my friends’ house looking for a room I could afford, doing field

research at the ABC by day, and working on my first ever investigative article for the Dutch newspaper NRC by night.

After moving three times in three weeks, the end of my field research was

approaching and two doctors were threatening to sue me if I went on publishing a story about them continuing to practice abroad despite being struck off the

register. Needless to say, the story was published and thankfully no one was sued. I was happy and exhausted and had found the most beautiful home to spend my last months in Sydney in.

Journalists need stories to make sense of the world around them. Maybe this is just one of them. Maybe it is all coincidence, but as cheesy as it sounds,

sometimes all stars just seem to align and you find yourself exactly where you need to be. Which, in my case, was in a most amazing beach house in Freshwater, overlooking the ocean while transcribing my interviews.

I am so thankful to Kimberley Porteous, Stephen Hutcheon and the DSI team members for granting me full access and cooperation to study how the team innovates. It was a privilege to observe the work of such talented and passionate media professionals. To Bryan Bourke for letting me stay with him for a month in 2014 and for introducing me to the journalism of the ABC and to Kat for hosting me that first week in Sydney. A big thank you also to my parents and friends for putting up with me whinging about my thesis and to Mark Deuze for introducing me to Kimberley and for guiding me to the end of my degree. And I am so grateful for all those special moments and for the wonderful people I met in Sydney. It has been a rollercoaster.

(4)

Introduction

“The last decade has been one of creative destruction in the news industry” (Bruno & Nielsen, 2012, p. 1). And this is not just the case in Europe. Globally journalism is in a state of transition. Newspaper circulation is down, television ratings are plummeting and advertisers are moving away from legacy media. Thousands of journalists have been laid off and newsrooms are largely empty. Those who are still working continuously have to work harder with fewer resources at their disposal (Bruno & Nielsen, 2012; Deuze & Witschge, 2017). As the Internet is becoming ever more prevalent in people’s everyday lives,

audiences are turning away from legacy platforms. Moving into a digital era, media organisations are obliged to reinvent themselves in order to survive in this

environment – and the online arena offers plenty of opportunities to do so. It is in this context that a new generation of journalism start-ups has emerged. Since the beginning of the millennium online start-ups have started to surface around the world (Deuze, 2017). According to Bruno and Nielsen they “have jumped on the web wagon with passion and pioneering spirit” (2012, p. 8). Simultaneously, legacy media organisations are trying to innovate from within in an attempt to cater to younger audiences who almost exclusively consume news on their smartphones and more often than not access articles via social media (Westlund, 2012). In doing so, they experiment with the recombination of existing media forms and the creation of new media formats and tools, the introduction of tech staff and the use of various distribution methods and platforms (Deuze, 2007; Deuze & Witschge, 2017; Doyle, 2013; Jenkins, 2013).

But only passion and motivation in itself will not cut it. The transition to online platforms proves to be difficult to say the least. The digital arena is a very different playing field where audiences are scattered and distractions are omnipresent. People generally spend a fraction of the time on a webpage compared to the time they used to invest in reading the newspaper or watching television. As Bruno and Nielsen describe it: “More people spend more time online, but not necessarily on news” (2012, p. 95).

In this highly competitive online media industry, many journalism start-ups fail to find sustainable business-models. Coming back to the notion of creative

destruction, Bruno and Nielsen argue that ‘creative’ is not the only element of the term that goes for both legacy media and start-ups. ‘Destruction’ does not only afflict established media, but new entrants too (2012, p. 6).

This case study focuses on digital journalism innovation at the Australian

Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). This year, the organisation is celebrating its 85th

year of existence and with over 4000 employees the ABC is the largest government funded broadcaster of Australia. But its broadcast and radio programs show similar patterns of audience decline as their counterparts in Europe and the United States.

(7)

The ABC is has been facing funding cuts resulting in a series of redundancy rounds in the past years. In March 2017, 200 jobs were lost in what the managing director, Michelle Guthrie, calls a tough strategy to bring transformational change to the national broadcaster. “We lack the flexibility to quickly adjust to the fast-changing audience trends,” Guthrie said in an address to staff. “Our reach on television and radio is declining and digital is struggling to bridge the divide” (ABC, 2017). What followed was a restructure axing the recognised television program Lateline that had been running for 27 years. The latest in this succession was the ABC’s announcement in April 2018 of new government funding cuts that could possibly see 20 state and territory jobs lost in favour of new digital

positions.

The ABC, much like other legacy media worldwide, is thus trying to transform itself into a more flexible and digitally oriented workspace. Part of this strategy is the formation of the so-called Digital Story Innovations (DSI) team – the subject of the present case study. The team consisting of nine producers, developers, data journalists and digital designers from in- and outside of the ABC, are appointed to cater to new and younger audiences. As stated by Kimberley Porteous, the

founder of the DSI team, in a backstory published on the ABC website, the team members aim to make engaging online, mobile-first, interactive and multimedia stories. They work closely together with the ABC’s existing news and current affairs programs to achieve this.

In order to study groups such as the DSI team at the ABC, consisting of people moving both within and outside of the company, Grabher (2002) suggests we turn our gaze away from the media firm as a generally unproblematized, coherent and unitary economic actor and start focussing on the emerging project ecology of shifting teams of people both inside and outside the company and the organisational practices surrounding these projects.

The ABC’s Digital Story Innovations team is one such project-based team. The present thesis therefore aims to shed light on the inner workings, the project ecology and the successes and challenges the team encounters when innovating, in an attempt to build on and possibly add to the body of research dedicated to change and innovation in the journalism industry.

This case study will be part of a larger research project led by prof. Mark Deuze called Beyond Journalism. The name derives from the need for professional journalists to go and perform beyond journalism. In order to survive in today’s media arena “journalists have to be committed well beyond what any profession could ask for – without most of the securities, comforts and benefits enjoyed by being a member of a profession” (Deuze & Witschge, 2017, p. 11).

Thus far journalism and media alumni at the University of Amsterdam have conducted over twenty case studies of journalism start-ups, operating on the outside (and often in opposition to) legacy news media worldwide. As of this year, the focus of the project has shifted to innovative units operating within existing

(8)

media organisations. The project aims to gain a better understanding of what constitutes media innovation and start-up culture from inside a media firm (also

known as intrapreneurship,see Boyles, 2016), thereby contributing to the

discussion about possible futures for journalism in a time of creative destruction. The present thesis is one of the first to target start-ups within an existing legacy media company, such as the ABC’s Digital Story Innovations team. The present case study will study the DSI team’s position and the way in which they innovate within the confines of the ABC’s walls. In this context the main research question will be as follows:

What makes the role and position of the DSI team specifically innovative within the ABC and how does the team operationalize their stated mission and tasks?

To answer this research question, the following sub-questions will be answered: 1. How does the DSI team fit into the innovation history of the ABC? What

has been retained from previous innovative projects?

2. What is the DSI team’s assignment? And how will the team’s efforts be measured or benchmarked?

3. What makes the DSI team specific within the ABC in terms of composition, management, tasks, activities and assignment?

4. How does the DSI team evaluate itself and its own efforts in terms of being innovative? And what is the team’s view on the ABC as an innovative organisation?

5. What kind of media productions does the DSI team make? And how does the innovation come about?

6. What obstacles does the DSI team face that stand in the way of innovation?

7. Does the DSI team benefit from being part of the ABC, as opposed to starting a new brand in journalism?

In the theoretical framework in chapter 2 this thesis will firstly draw on concepts emerging from journalism and innovation research in order to discuss different streams of thought that could prove relevant to contextualise the present case study. Chapter 3 will outline the methodology used during the field research and analysis. Consequently the findings from the observations, documents and interviews with the team members will be thematically grouped and analysed in the results in chapter 4. The conclusion in section 5 will then illustrate the main lessons learned from this case study and discuss the limitations and suggestions for further research.

(9)

(10)

2. Theoretical framework

This chapter will outline relevant concepts from prior research on journalism and innovation, to embed the present case study in theory and place it in perspective. To this effect it will first focus on the ways news work has changed in a period of transition to the digital realm and on how this impacts the very definition of what constitutes journalism today in section 2.1, to then illustrate how legacy media companies are responding to the digital turn by trying to innovate its processes, products and mindset whilst not losing sight of its traditional products in 2.2. Thereafter, section 2.3 will discuss literature on the journalism start-up scene to relate what is happening within legacy media companies to how innovation comes about in new media ventures. Consecutively, 2.4 will pay attention to how media incumbents are incorporating innovative units such as the DSI team into their organisation and the tensions that may arise from doing so. Finally, section 2.5 will conceptualise the notion of digital storytelling, as this is what the DSI unit engages in.

2.1 Journalism in the transition to digital news work

The common perception of journalists is very much geared toward a romanticized idea that is perpetuated by popular culture. Being a (political) watchdog, reporting the truth in an objective manner and invocating the publics right to know, are all elements that shape the public’s understanding of the traditional core mission of journalists (Fulton 2015, p. 363). In spite of important changes in the field of journalism, this perception of the profession and the image of a journalist behind a typewriter are stereotypes that remain very much alive.

However, the Internet has given rise to the opportunity not only for legacy media organisations, but also for new journalism brands and bloggers to enter the online journalism market, raising a question concerning professional identity: who can be considered journalists in the digital era? Participants in Fulton’s study on bloggers suggest that those who self-identified as journalists had all previously worked at traditional media while those coming into the online space via other professional fields (such as Information Technology, the public service sector or marketing and sales) doing similar type of work, were very wary of using the occupational term. (2015, p. 367). This seems to underline the key position of legacy media not only in the traditional media landscape, but also in the online environment.

Deuze and Witschge (2017) argue that technological disruption has altered news work as well as news consumption. “Many newspapers or broadcast organisations are in a process of transforming into fully digital organisations. They adopt a digital first strategy or develop new online services that aim to provide added value for which users and advertisers are willing to pay” (Leurdijk, 2015, p. 5). Leurdijk (2015) explains that consumers nowadays expect to read the news as it breaks. Digital first refers to media spreading news online as soon as it is available through various digital platforms such as websites, mobile apps and social media

(11)

accounts. In many cases a digital first approach implies that editors prioritise digital content over traditional content (p. 16).

Following the introduction of touch-screen mobile devices, legacy news media have started developing mobile news applications (Westlund, 2012, p. 11). These advancements have led news organisations to invest in mobile technology, with some media stating that they have adopted a “mobile-first” strategy (Westlund, 2012, p. 13). As noted in the description of the DSI team’s mission on the ABC website, the unit is an example of a team with a mobile-first strategy. As later sections of this chapter will illustrate, such a strategy dramatically changes the type of work that is done within newsrooms.

Transitioning to digital, the nature of news work has changed greatly, as

traditional journalists more often than not are expected to deliver online content as well as traditional media products. This in turn requires digital skills that were previously unheard of or separate from the creative process of writing or

producing a story for newspapers or broadcast. The burden of selling the media productions has increasingly shifted from the marketing departments to the journalists themselves. A new type of journalist is born. “The term

“entrepreneurial journalism” […] marries two parts long needing to be separate, even at times in one individual, the entrepreneurial journalist: the business side of the enterprise and the journalistic side of the enterprise” (Wagemans, Witschge & Deuze, 2016, p. 165-166). This often results in a heightened daily workload. Deuze and Witschge state that “journalists working in newsrooms consistently report having to do more with fewer colleagues and less resources” (2017, p. 6). The skills needed to enter the profession have also evolved. Functions such as technical staff, designers, producers and programmers have multiplied and are shaping the practice of journalism and its output (Deuze & Witschge, 2017, p. 7). Once hired at a news firm the skill-evolution does not stagnate. In fact, according to Malemin and Virta (2015), given the changing requirements of journalism work, working in a modern media firm asks for an ongoing improvement of skills and competencies (p. 7). Especially technological skills are important to foster in a changing media scene, as technological evolution has created new ways to reach audiences, allowing for a more engaging experience by mixing genres, media-forms and outlets to tell stories.

Where journalists used to work fairly autonomously and newsrooms operated separately from each other, news workers nowadays are increasingly expected to collaborate with other journalists, newsrooms or technical professionals on multi-media stories. Malmelin and Virta (2015, p. 7): “One of the changes in the field of journalism has been the growing importance of collaboration and teamwork.” This increasing cooperation between different parts of the media organisation is commonly referred to as convergence (Deuze, 2017, p. 140). News organisations are thus transitioning into a ‘post-industrial era’ in which they “reorganize

(12)

decentralized, team-based managerial and working style” (Deuze & Witschge, 2017, p. 9).

In addition, the news consumer that was once unknown to the producers and journalists is now more visible then ever: “Online content delivery enables the service provider to use the audience data collected to adjust, modify and improve content offerings, even down to the level of individual users” (Doyle, 2013, p. 119). In fact, having this audience data readily available may greatly impact the choices made on the work floor. In a dwindling media industry, ignoring what the audience wants is not an option.

In light of these changes in the journalism industry Deuze and Witschge (2017) propose to move beyond the limitations framing the debate around what

journalism is and who can be considered a journalist, stating that different types of journalism that have appeared inside or outside of traditional news organisations do not necessarily have different or opposing core values, ideals and practices of the occupation, even though they produce vastly different kinds of news and journalism (p. 4). Instead Deuze and Witschge urge a dynamic definition of journalism in which it is considered “a networked practice involving a distributed variety of actors and actants (including co-creating audiences as well as robots producing news), including an emerging global start-up scene of news work while recognizing the permanence of meaning-giving structures such as newsrooms” (2017, p. 6). This thesis will use this definition of journalism throughout the case study, as it encompasses the type of news work done by the DSI team.

In conclusion, changes in the journalism industry have altered news work and therefore the definition of journalism. These developments require studying journalism as a dynamic entity in the context of its transition to digital platforms, allowing for a widening definition of news work that moves beyond the traditional journalism practices.

The present study chooses to focus on the DSI team, as it is solely concerned with making digital productions as part of a large media organisation traditionally known for its broadcast and radio productions. As stated on the ABC website the team works in project-based collaborations, has a mobile-first strategy and has a unique composition of technical as well as editorial staff. As such the DSI team can be seen as exemplary for the changes happening in newsrooms, making it an interesting team to study in the face of the shift to digital. In an attempt to answer the research questions, this thesis will illustrate how this team composition and the required new management style facilitate or impede innovative efforts and how they exemplify the changes in the profession of journalism.

2.2 Innovation in journalism

Innovation implies change and where legacy media have been facing continuous incremental change in the past, they are now confronted with the disruptive force of the Internet. As Naldi and Picard (2012) note: “Many established news

(13)

organisations are faltering and having difficulty transforming themselves into Internet operators (p. 70).

Since the mid 90’s media companies worldwide have started to experiment with some form of cross-media collaboration between previously separated divisions, newsrooms or personnel (Deuze, 2007). In the past decade newspapers and broadcasters alike have found themselves having to create and maintain an online presence alongside their main ‘media products’ such as newspapers or television programs. As Deuze (2007) points out, research in several countries shows journalists are getting increasingly accustomed to this new reality – meanwhile revealing the “distinctive character of online journalists” (p. 142).

Literature shows a certain degree of reluctance when it comes to embracing these innovations within the organisation. Interviewees in a Finnish case study

emphasize that “the magazine business has deeply rooted practices that are highly resistant to change” (Malemin and Virta, 2015, p. 7). Studies from around the world confirm that this is not only the case in the magazine business, but also in print and broadcast media. Reportedly people feel anxious, distrustful and even threatened by the process of convergence. Deuze (2007) argues that “the shift from individualistic single-media journalism to team-based, collaborative multimedia journalism creates particular tensions in the industry and among journalists, and challenges the “nature” of journalistic culture in general, and individual journalists in particular” (p. 146).

According to Küng (2013) most legacy media organisations worldwide are in decline because they are facing two paradoxes. Firstly, “doing the right thing for existing markets and products can cause organisations to fail in new ones” (p. 11). This is likely to influence the ABC, as too much emphasis on broadcast and radio will ultimately mean they will have less time and money to spend on online journalism innovation. Secondly, “the need to optimise current operations and boost productivity often militates against being innovative and adaptive” (p. 11). Baumann adds to the list of dualities the fact that most media organisations are organised around projects with employees working together on a task-by-task basis. “These temporary project networks overlap the traditional hierarchical organisational structures of the permanent media entity” (2013, p. 80). In other words: the day-to-day practices and organisational structures can create a number of dualities that may impair or influence a smooth innovation process.

This is not to say that growth is impossible. It is achievable through innovation, which in turn demands organisational change (Küng, 2013, p. 12). As put by Storsul and Krumvik: “the existing media industry knows that the rules of the game are changing, and in order to survive they must innovate their products, processes, positions or even their paradigms” (2013, p. 18) The DSI team is set out to do precisely that, as the unit aims to transcend divisions between

(14)

Storsul and Krumvik’s innovation theory is a helpful lens to analyse the current developments in the media landscape as a whole, and those at the ABC in particular. According to this theory there are several types of media innovation. Product innovation refers to the invention of new media platforms, genres or

communication patterns. Process innovation relates to the way in which these media products are made and delivered. These processes can happen inside as well as outside of the organisation. Position innovation refers to how the organisation changes or frames its position within a certain context. Paradigmatic innovation stands for the organisation’s change of business model, mindset and values (2013, p. 16-17). This theory will be used to analyse the innovative efforts of the DSI team in an attempt to answer how the role, practices and position of the DSI team specifically brings about innovation within the ABC at large.

To delve a little further into process innovation in a broadcast setting for the purpose of this case study, it is useful to look into Doyle’s (2013) research, as it shows how innovation is influenced by user behaviour and competition – two factors likely to influence decision-making at the ABC. As audiences are increasingly reluctant to watch appointment television, they spend more time online where they consume content when it suits them. For broadcasters this means they are now competing against everything a consumer can possibly engage in on the Internet. In order to sustain audience flow, one way to react to this user behaviour is to opt for a multi-platform approach to distribute content – meaning innovating its processes of product-creation and delivery. Content on digital platforms can guide viewers to engage with television content, thereby creating an opportunity for broadcasters to grow their audience. MTV is used as an example because of its effective strategy of seeding teasers and trailers on several platforms to create an audience prior to the linear transmission of a new television

programme.

Exactly how legacy media can use these opportunities to their advantage remains an understudied subject in the literature. This thesis will be a step towards

breaking down and understanding how the DSI uses the opportunities brought about by digitisation to innovate online journalism. Using Doyle’s findings is helpful in understanding the operational strategies the DSI unit employs to tackle audience decline, and can provide an answer to the research question of how the team operationalizes its mission of attracting new audiences. Using Storsul and Krumsvik’s innovation theory in the present case study will showcase if, how and in what ways the DSI team is changing and improving the ABC’s products, processes, position and paradigm.

2.3 Journalism start-ups worldwide

Disillusioned by the inability of some media incumbents to adapt to changing circumstances, some journalists decided to set out on their own. Around the turn of the century this resulted in a surge of journalism start-ups worldwide (Bruno and Kleis Nielsen 2012; Deuze 2017; Naldi and Picard 2012). Throughout this research a journalism start-up will be defined as an organisation that is not

(15)

affiliated to traditional legacy media, mainly operating in the digital space, producing innovative journalistic products (Bruno and Nielsen, 2012, p. 3-4). Despite the commitment devoted to these enterprises most start-ups ultimately fail due to bad business plans or lack of capital. As Bruno and Nielsen (2012) note: quality journalism has a price tag. Entrepreneurial enthusiasm and

experience in the field do not guarantee success (p. 8). After examining nine start-ups throughout Europe they conclude that none of them have found a sustainable business model for online journalism. All of them are having a hard time breaking even. Likewise, each of the 21 cases of journalism start-ups worldwide that have been studied in the ‘Beyond Journalism’ project led by Deuze, struggle to make ends meet.

So why is it that online news ventures are struggling to keep afloat? Bruno and Nielsen blame it on legacy media still dominating the online market. Having great advantages in resources and being well known to the general public they can attract a much larger audience and therefore revenue than new entrants in the digital space. Looking at the ABC’s new digital team, this thesis will investigate if their big broadcast brand, and the things associated with it will actually work in its advantage when trying to reach new audiences. In addition online advertising is mostly controlled by giant online operators such as Google and Facebook (ibid., p. 6). As Deuze (2017) points out: “Time is spent less with visiting news websites but more with finding and sharing news via social media (thereby enabling

companies like Facebook and Google to further siphon off advertising revenue)” (p. 11).

Another issue that may affect entrepreneurial journalists is what Naldi & Picard (2012) call ‘formational myopia’, which “results from the experiences and perceptions of those with a work background in a previous industrial form – in this case in an earlier form of communications or media – constraining the vision of the requirements and necessities for an enterprise in the newer industrial form” (p. 76). To illustrate this, the researchers use the television as an example: when it came into existence it was treated as live radio with images. Thus pre-existing concepts were hard to shake off and it was difficult for journalists to appreciate the terrestrial television on its own merit. The present case study will try to decipher if formational myopia obstructs the DSI unit’s innovative efforts or if the diverse composition of the team facilitates change within the ABC.

Aside from the challenges, literature suggests some factors contributing to the success of journalism start-ups. Naldi and Picard name human resources as one of a venture’s most important assets. Economic resources, knowledge about for instance the industry or tech skills are examples. Wagemans, Witschge and Deuze (2016) add symbolic resources to the list, such as charisma. The personality profile of the news workers involved can have a great impact on its successful

development. Success will greatly depend on making the best use of these resources in a competitive strategy. Wagemans, Witschge and Deuze’s (2016)

(16)

incorporate the notion of ideology as a resource. In the case of the French investigative journalism start-up Mediapart, its ideology of an organisation

responding to a democratic, economic and moral crisis in France turned out to be one of its biggest assets (p. 170-171).

The successes and failures of journalism start-ups can be useful in studying how the DSI team deals with concepts such as its resources. Do they face the same challenges when trying to put their mission into practice or are there other issues that arise specifically from being embedded in a traditional broadcast organisation such as the ABC? The next chapter will illustrate this in more detail.

2.4 Intrapreneurship in legacy media organisations

Innovation does not only happen in the start-up scene, but also within existing media organisations. News firms are continuously experimenting with how to incorporate a culture of innovation within the existing newsrooms (Boyles, 2016, p. 235). The term intrapreneurship is defined by Boyles as “the embedding of start-ups within the newsroom” (2016: p. 229). This definition will be used throughout this thesis. The DSI team is an example of an intrapreneurial unit embedded in the ABC. Investigating the innovative practices within the unit could serve for future comparison with other intrapreneurial teams around the world in order to deduct possible futures for journalism.

Boyles (2016) describes what most intrapreneurial units within news organisations look like, yet he leaves out any analysis of the impact these structures have on succeeding to innovate or being incorporated into the broader organisation. After speaking to 20 newsroom innovators and consultants he concludes that the intrapreneurial units are generally small, and non-hierarchical - in this respect resembling journalism start-ups. The team members get more face-to-face time and have more autonomy than the average traditional newsworker. “Particularly within the domains of big data, coding and programming, employees are given significant latitude to brainstorm and execute projects.” (2016, p. 237).

The organisation of these new businesses within existing media enterprises is of crucial importance. A great deal of trust and freedom is needed from an

organisation to let these units flourish. As Hass notes: “The existing editorial departments have to be convinced to transfer their resources and content into a new venture with initially high setup costs, but low revenue opportunities. Moreover, the new venture might even accelerate the decline of the traditional content or advertising business, thus cannibalizing the established business model in the short run.” (2012, p. 55). In fact a crucial element of convergence as stated by Deuze (2007) is a high degree of commitment by management of a media firm (p. 144).

Where Boyles mentions only one way of incorporating a new media venture into the enterprise, Hass (2012) elaborates on different ways in which this can be done. Firstly, it can be integrated within an existing business unit. Knowledge from the existing unit is transferred into the new venture, but it also has a downside. “Such

(17)

an organisation structure often tends to transfer the old business to new media without adapting it according to the specification of the different context.” (2012, p. 56). This is what Naldi and Picard, referred to earlier in this theoretical

framework, called ‘formational myopia’ and can prove to be counterproductive to the creation of new ideas. In addition employees might prefer the traditional way of working and organisational culture and may thus perceive the venture as a threat. Media incumbents or traditional journalists who have worked at a firm for years are often framed as people who oppose change, but Filak’s (2003) research suggests an important nuance in this discourse. When initiated by the reporters and editors themselves, the changes brought about by convergence turned out to be perceived as more positive than when it is forced upon them by management or some other agent.

Therefore Hass (2012) concludes that it could be beneficial to instead organize the new venture into a separate unit within the media organisation. This set-up gives the new entrants more freedom to experiment but doesn’t allow for the same amount of knowledge-swap and collaboration between the two businesses. There is also a third option. The organisation can set up the new venture in a completely separate company. This impedes cooperation between the old and new business but, aside from the entrepreneurial freedom, also gives rise to the opportunity of collaboration with outside partners.

Hass however does not provide much insight into which of these models of integration works best. Deuze (2007) does mention physical integration of different newsrooms as one of the main factors contributing to organisational convergence. Yet, he concludes that qualitative studies emphasize time and time again that embedding multimedia newsrooms into a larger news organisation is generally a far from smooth process. Future research should be undertaken to shed light on how to best embed intrapreneurial units. The present study will attempt to be a step towards this goal, exploring how the ABC has chosen to embed the DSI unit in the organisation, in order to examine if this strategy fosters a favourable environment for innovation to flourish.

According to Boyles (2016) there are three main management practices hindering intrapreneurship. Firstly, the divide between marketing and producing journalistic content caused by the traditional divide between the editor-in-chief favouring the civic value and the publisher harnessing the economic value of. Indeed Deuze (2007) underlines that when it comes to organisational convergence one of the key elements to facilitating it is “synergy between different departments (including marketing, sales, beats, hierarchical levels of management, technical and administrative staff)” (p. 144).

Secondly, the journalistic culture of autonomy impedes change across the organisation. The important concept of ‘organisational culture’ comes into play here. As defined by Schein (1983, p. 14) it is “the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration.” While this may be

(18)

advantageous because it allows journalists to work autonomously yet effectively, it can also often reinforce the way things are traditionally done in the workspace, which in turn can prevent innovation from happening. In fact, according to Deuze (2007) the process of collaboration it is often “best characterized by “turf wars”, all kinds of clashes and misunderstandings between journalists (from different beats, genres or departments), mutual prejudices, a perception of

multimedia journalism as being less prestigious than working exclusively for one’s own medium, and resistance of reporters and editors whose social roles are thoroughly embedded in well-established newsroom cultures” (p. 144).

Lastly, Boyles identifies a third management practice that can obstruct change: the fast-paced and 24-hour news cycle restraining executives from coming up with strategies to implement change (2016, p. 230). The case study undertaken by Malemelin and Virta (2015) does underline the importance of making time for innovation: “It is crucial that in the situations of change, management provides the necessary conditions for creativity that facilitate, even demand, interaction and allow for enough time to generate and discuss new ideas together” (p. 11).

On the work floor embedding an intrapreneurial unit into a news organisation may give rise to various levels of tension across the firm (Boyles, 2016). “As a result of these layers of tension, the intrapreneurial unit often struggles to infuse creative ideas back into the core news organisation.” (Boyles, 2016, p. 242) On the executive level there is conflict between the intrapreneurial manager and the senior executives, as the latter are generally averse to change. Often the

executives will set unrealistic goals for the intrapreneurial unit, therefore managers will constantly need to temper expectations while still underlining their relevance. Innovation managers thus need to be outstanding communicators as the existence and continuance of the unit will depend on how articulately they can “relate

intrapreneurial activity to broader return on investment for the news organisation” (Boyles, 2016, p. 239).

On the practitioner level there is tension between journalists working in the traditional newsroom and the members of the intrapreneurial team. Core newsgatherers of the organisations are not always fond of programmers, coders and developers joining them in the newsroom. It was said by interviewees that open communication, planning regular meet-ups and clearly identifying

responsibilities helps to reduce this rivaly.

Lastly, oftentimes there is some level of internal tension within the intrapreneurial unit. Because members of these teams are sometimes hired from start-ups they are not used to the bureaucracy and hierarchical decision-making of the traditional media institutions. Yet, if managed the right way, questioning the decision-making process can become the organisations’ biggest asset.

What is needed to circumvent these issues, as well as how exactly innovative units should be embedded in a media organisation, largely remains unstudied in the

(19)

literature on intrapreneurship in media. The present thesis will attempt to illustrate how the DSI team within the ABC deals with these challenges and tensions.

2.5 Digital storytelling

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has traditionally been renowned for its quality television and radio shows but the DSI’s only publishing platform is the Internet and more specifically mobile phones. Therefore their core mission is to create engaging and creative digital stories.

Defining digital storytelling, is not as easy as it may appear. Literature suggests that in the broader sense it is a ‘method’ used in different areas such as education, advertising and journalism. It follows that literally the term refers to telling stories on a digital platform. Yet in the journalism context the exact meaning of digital storytelling and what it consists of remains undefined. One of the problems being that the term innovation in a journalism research is often used interchangeably

with the term digital or new media (Anderson & De Maeyer, 2014).Following this

line of thought digital storytelling would refer to any kind of innovative

storytelling, which doesn’t exactly specify the concept. Other terms that regularly get mixed up are online journalism and multimedia journalism. They are often mistakenly viewed as one and the same thing, but as Deuze (2007) explains “The difference lies in the intensions or goals of journalism: online journalism is not driven by the purpose of multimedia – in fact, digital storytelling using multiple media can be seen as a potential but not a necessary element of added value to an online journalistic presentation” (p. 141). The way Deuze uses the term digital storytelling furthers the argument that the concept refers to a ‘mode’, that, rather than an end-product, should be viewed as a meaning to and end.

Due to a lack of space to speculate about the meaning of digital storytelling, Pavlik’s (2013, p. 183) definition of “innovation in news media as the process of taking new approaches to media practices and forms while maintaining a

commitment to quality and high ethical standards” will be used. As such, literature on some of these approaches such as storytelling innovation, mobile news,

multimedia storytelling, transmedia reporting and interactive storytelling will be discussed in the rest of this chapter.

Evans (2016) makes an interesting distinction between process and product innovation. When interviewing people working at US public radio stations about innovations in their organisation, employees kept referring to what Evans decided to name ‘storytelling innovation’. This frame bridges the divide between process and product innovation, as - for example - the creation of a tool or website refers to an innovative product, but is “part of a larger process of reaching out to

audiences in new ways and changing journalism practices” (p. 13). The innovation theory of Storsul and Krumsvik mentioned earlier again seems helpful here. As Evans illustrated in the previous example, it is important to consider that when it comes to digital storytelling several types of innovation (product, process, position and paradigmatic) can happen simultaneously.

(20)

Furthering the argument of the importance of innovative products Kueng (2017) points out that it is proving to be complex “because it requires an understanding of how to tell digital stories, how technology supports that, and how to ensure that products do what they are meant to do” (p. 24). The difficulty here is that there is no consensus in the literature (nor in the industry) about what digital formats work for different new media. The available literature supports the thesis forwarded by Kueng stating that in fact “templates have yet to emerge from digital storytelling” (p. 28).

Kueng (2017) notes that storytelling for digital differs from traditional formats in three ways. Firstly, the relationship between the writer or producer and reader resembles a dialogue and is more conversational in tone. Secondly, this dialogue is between two equals. Journalists do not only send out facts but are now expected to be more transparent. Thirdly, Kueng stresses the importance of engagement. The online journalism industry has vastly changed the relationship between the producer and the user. Digital storytelling requires journalists to put the audience ahead of their own egos. Deuze (2007) concludes that “the combination of mastering newsgathering and storytelling techniques in all media formats, the integration of digital network technologies coupled with rethinking and re-configuration of the news producer-consumer relationship certainly tends to be

seen as one of the biggest challenges facing journalism in the 21st_{century” (p.}

146).

In order to establish a relationship with the reader or viewer news workers must get to know the audience they cater to. Being conscious of the news habits of potential audiences is therefore critical to choosing the best way of using digital possibilities to tell a story. Research shows that this is not easy. As Deuze (2007, p. 146-147) outlines people tend to prefer online radio and television-watching over linear appointment TV, they read less print and more online journalism, they increasingly value visuals rather than long pieces of written text and they are multitasking. Two complicating factors suggested by several studies are that on the one side audiences enjoy a sense of agency – they voluntarily engage in content – but on the other side they oftentimes have trouble accessing and interacting with the multimedia stories, meaning they ultimately do not engage in audio, video and interactive elements. This results in journalists having to

“negotiate a user who is at once switched and switched off, engaged and

complacent, informed and ignorant, increasingly reliant on journalism and inclined to bypass journalism altogether” (p. 147).

When looking into digital storytelling, a factor that always plays an important role is the medium it is produced for. According to Potts (2014) “the digital game itself is quickly evolving around us, with mobile news and information products setting off yet another tsunami of change and challenges” (p. 11). More than half of the news is consumed through smartphones. Therefore ‘digital’, is increasingly referring to stories and services accessed online via mobile devices instead of a desktop computer. (Potts, 2014). Mobile potentially opens up new possibilities for

(21)

legacy media to grow. As Pavlik (2013) states: “The increasing convergence between mobile device use and social media engagement presents a growing revenue opportunity” (p. 186). Put differently, publishing well-crafted stories customised for mobile devices could increase the ‘shareablility’ of the article via social media, thereby reaching a larger audience. According to Pavlik (2013) social sharing “signals a key strategy for news media leadership to the digital future.” In fact, in today’s worlds of rapid circulating news, increasing the shelf life of a story becomes increasingly important, or as Jenkins e. a. (2013) conclude: “if it doesn’t spread, it’s dead.” A big part of digital storytelling thus becomes the craft of knowing how to design for spreadability. According to Jenkins e. a. “successful creators understand the strategic and technical aspects they need to master in order to create content more likely to spread, and they think about what motivates participants to share information and to build relationships with the communities shaping its circulation” (2013, p. 196).

There are several ways of transferring content from the original media source such as the newspaper or television program to fit mobile usage. An important concept in this regard is ‘multiple utilization of content’, as mentioned by Hass (2011). Legacy news organisations can use existing content not only for their traditional media-products but also for new mobile or web-products and use this as an

opportunity to grow revenue.To this effect Westlund (2012) concludes that

“mobile news publishing seems to have become increasingly synonymous with excelling in technological customisation, harnessing technological assets that enhance the perceived affordances of mobile device” (p. 20).

Yet Veglis (2012) argues that simply transferring the content from a print edition to a web edition without customising it isn’t enough for today’s internet users who have grown up with the Web 2.0 (p. 323). Instead the researcher proposes to implement what he calls ‘transmedia reporting’ referring to the breaking down of stories into little pieces and dispersing them via different channels as well as using different story elements such as text, picture, graphic and video in the same

channel. Arguing that this is especially attractive to younger audiences who do not read the newspaper as it triggers their “exploratory instinct”.

For news workers, making this type of transmedia or multimedia journalism means their job increasingly consists of producing instead of reporting. Content Management Systems (CMS) have become more sophisticated, allowing for the publishing of articles containing various forms such as audio, text and video. Yet, Deuze (2007) shows that navigating these systems sometimes frustrates

practitioners, as journalists see their creative efforts being restricted by the limited range of formats and templates the CSM has to offer – all the while damaging the perception of news workers’ identity as “creative workers”” (p. 144).

In conclusion literature seems to agree on one thing: content needs to be

customised and the traditional templates of newspapers and broadcast need to be abandoned. Legacy media companies as well as journalism start-ups are

(22)

will be paid to the way in which the DSI unit evaluates its successes and failures in terms of digital storytelling and how the ABC facilitates or impedes the team’s innovative attempts.

(23)

3. Methodology

3.1 Case study

The research strategy chosen in this thesis is a case study. This approach provides in-depth and detailed knowledge of the processes, relationships, events and experiences occurring in a specific setting thereby aiming to shed light on the general by illuminating the particular (Denscombe, 2010).

The present case study is part of a larger research project led by Prof. Dr. Mark Deuze. Thus far a total of 22 case studies have been partaken in all continents in order to illustrate the inner workings of innovation in the media sector.

The case studied in this account is the Digital Story Innovations team, a new team consisting of eight news workers. The DSI team has been funded for an initial period of a year and at the time of field research the team had been in existence for six months. The unit is part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The ABC makes for an interesting media organisation to investigate, as it has no commercial pursuits and thus is not pressured to make a profit, hypothetically giving the DSI team more leeway to experiment, because the ABC is not at risk of bankruptcy.

There are various ways in which the DSI team proves suitable for a

comprehensive case study. Firstly, because it is part of such an institutional public broadcaster its targets, goals and missions are clearly outlined and documented. This allows for a degree of benchmarking and comparison.

Secondly, the unit is made up of people with different professional backgrounds, such as developers, designers, reporters and journalists, collaborating on

productions or articles. This type of mixing of skillsets is a novelty at the ABC as these professions were previously separated into different divisions of the

organisation. The team therefore has special features distinguishing it from other teams within the ABC. On the other hand it has similar features to intrapreneurial units being set up in news organisations all over the world, allowing for future comparison.

On a more pragmatic level, after Deuze established the first contact, Kimberley Porteous, the founder of the DSI team, approved my request to study the unit, promising access to the offices, their private communication and documents which in turn gave rise to the opportunity to use a variety of methods that resulted in getting rich and detailed data on the team’s daily practice, experience, difficulties and successes.

3.2 Field research in Sydney and Melbourne

The ABC granted access to their Sydney office for a period of two weeks – from

Monday the 11th_{of December until Friday the 22}nd_{of December 2017. In this}

(24)

meetings were attended, field notes were taken and access to internal documents and communications was granted.

Upon arrival the ground rules were established with Stephen Hutcheon, the executive producer of the DSI team. Full cooperation and access was granted on the premise that the thesis would not be published without his consent. In the first meeting Stephen Hutcheon explained my presence to his team and urged them to speak freely as the interviewees could remain anonymous if they wished.

On the 4th_{of January 2018 I flew to Melbourne to interview the two developers}

of the DSI team, Ri Liu and Nathanael Scott, who are based at the ABC office in Melbourne’s Southbank. I spent two days at the office there.

Access to the Sydney office was prolonged for three weeks upon my request.

From the 8th_{of January until the 26}th_{of January 2018 I spent about two to three}

days a week at the office to work on my thesis and to conduct additional context interviews with ABC employees.

3.3 Internal document and communication analysis

After my access was granted and before the field research commenced, I had extensive e-mail contact with Kimberley Porteous. One of her e-mails contained parts of an internal memo document introducing the DSI team members, their mission and its measures of success.

On site in Sydney I requested access to any other relevant documents that could be of use to my analysis. After some initial hesitation and a promise to treat the internal documents with care, I received various documents ranging from a memo written to showcase the DSI team’s (measurable) successes to the ABC board, an evaluation report of a pilot coproduction of the DSI team with the current affairs program called ‘Four Corners’, internal audience development reports and

performance graphs. Most communication between the team members happens on Slack, a chat medium. By the end of my field research I managed to get access to some of the Slack channels.

The private nature of some of the documents gives rise to the question of credibility and validity. As Denscombe states: “Letters and memos also differ from reports in terms of the extent to which there is any formal obligation on the writer to give a full and accurate portrayal of events.” (2010, p. 218).

The documents mostly serve as benchmarks for future improvement or to justify the existence of the team to management. It should be noted that some

documents such as the one written to the ABC board focus on the successes of the team, possibly leaves out the unit’s failures or struggles. The document analysis however studies a variety of documents, most of which are critical and systematic in nature, providing clear recommendations for improvement. The variety is seen to give a representative understanding of the issues at play.

(25)

Especially when held up against the interviews and observations, having internal documents to one’s disposal helps in counterbalancing the biases of the interviews (Meyer, 2001).

3.4 Semi-structured interviews

In both Sydney and Melbourne the interviews were conducted one-on-one so as to make the interviewees feel comfortable to speak freely about their experiences and emotions. The interviews were semi-structured – there was a comprehensive list of questions to be answered, yet this mode of interviewing also allowed a degree of flexibility. When the interviewees wanted to elaborate on certain issues they had the possibility to do so and when certain questions proved irrelevant or already answered, they were skipped.

The interview questions were modelled after the ‘Beyond Journalism interview guide’ used by other researchers conducting case studies on journalism start-ups. The questions were slightly modified to fit this particular case and some questions were added. The interviews mainly focussed on how the interviewees perceived the mission and goals of the team, innovation in journalism, the daily practice and working conditions, the material context, self identity of the professionals, social identity of the professionals and digital storytelling.

The interviews lasted between 1,5 and 2,5 hours. In total ten interviews were conducted with news workers currently or previously involved in the DSI team, covering the entire team, making this a rich account of their practices. In addition three context-interviews were effectuated with ABC employees of other teams. They were selected using two criteria. Firstly, I interviewed two members of current affairs programs who had worked closely together with the DSI team, Dee Porter from the National Reporting team and Marianne Leitch from Foreign Correspondent. The main reason to interview them was because they could provide an outside perspective on their experience of working with the team. Secondly, I interviewed Matt Holbrook over the telephone, as he is part of an innovative team in Adelaide experimenting with Virtual Reality for children. This interview was conducted to get a better overview of different innovative hubs around the ABC and the ABC’s innovation history. Every interview was recorded and transcribed and the interviewees were given the option to remain anonymous. The open nature of this type of interviewing gives rich accounts of the perspective and experience of the interviewee, and put together, the ten interviews where roughly the same questions were answered by all members of the team, provide knowledge on the functioning of the team as a whole and on the organisation they belong to. Therefore conclusions can be drawn on both a personal and an

organisational level. Even though one of the weaknesses of interviews is the lack of facts that can be retrieved from them, the data on the DSI team become more reliable as multiple subjects express similar concerns or experiences (Denscombe, 2010, p. 193)

(26)

3.5 Observations and field notes

During the period of field research at the ABC I used the method of participant observation. “By participant observation we mean the method in which the observer participates in the daily life of the people under study, either openly in the role of researcher or covertly in some disguised role, observing things that happen, listening to what is said, and questioning people, over some length of time” (Becker and Geer, 1957, p. 28). During my research I was, as Denscombe (2010, p. 207) describes, participating as an observer. I was not immersed in the group, instead my identity as a researcher was openly recognized, thereby ensuring informed consent from the team members. Of course this approach could also disrupt the natural setting.

Good research demands enough time on site to gain trust and establish

relationships with the group. The two initial weeks of field research was a short period of time for this type of method, but seeing as most of the DSI team members are young and sociable this issue did not seem to be in play. A potential risk of participant observation lies in getting too familiar with the group and losing sight of the purpose of the research. In Denscombe’s words “the success of participant observation relies on the researcher’s ability, at one and the same time, to be a member of the group being studied and to retain a certain detachment which allows for the research observation aspect of the role.” (2010, p. 212). During the research I got invited to join members of the group for lunch on several occasions and I got invited for one member’s birthday party celebrated at his house. At these times it was difficult to stay in the background as an observer, my role as a participant grew, yet I always tried to hold on to a degree of

detachment bearing in mind my role as a researcher. Similarly, it was challenging to not get affected by the views and statements of many participants regarding their perspective on the future of journalism and the skills needed to be a journalist in this day and age. As noted by Denscombe (2010) the ‘self’ is the researcher's only instrument when observing – and in my case, being a graduating journalism student, a lot of the issues at hand applied directly to my situation, at times making it difficult to not get demoralised about my own future career. To increase the validity and credibility of my observations I requested to extend my field research period. On site I turned by observations into daily field notes when the chance occurred to do so in private. Notes included my own actions spread out over the day. Separately, any behaviours and pieces of information that had not surfaced during the interviews were noted and written down.

3.6 Thick description

The present case study will use thick description as a means to provide a holistic picture of the DSI team (Schutt 2014, p. 355). “The emphasis is not just on describing what ‘is’ but on explaining how the nature of this phenomenon is closely linked to other aspects of its social context” (Denscombe, 2010, p. 343).

(27)

This approach does justice to the complex nature of the DSI team and its interactions with other teams.

3.7 Grounded theory

The method used to analyse the emerging data from the document analysis, the interviews and the observations made during my field research is called the grounded theory. This approach generates, rather than tests theories and is

dedicated to link these explanations to what happens on site in the real world of a practical situation. The particular strength of this approach is that “there can be no allegations that researchers are in any sense forcing a fit between the data and the theory” (Denscombe, 2010, p. 118).

This approach requires the researcher to start with an open mind, the research itself should be treated as a journey of discovery (Denscombe, 2010). Upon my arrival at the ABC I had read relevant innovation literature and prepared my interview-questions, but I was fairly unaware of the Australian media landscape, the type of productions made by the DSI team and its work process – thus I had very little, if any, preconceived ideas, which enabled me to keep an open mind. Of course there is a steep learning curve when on site. Along the way patterns can be recognised, which naturally causes a greater focus on some and a lesser focus on other topics in the interviews that follow. In fact, as grounded theory demands, my analysis had begun the very second I walked into the ABC office. As Corbin and Strauss note: “analysis is necessary from the start because it is used to direct the next interview and observations” (1990, p. 6).

When all of the interviews were transcribed, field notes were cleaned up and the internal documents were collected, all of the data was piled together. Upon reading the first data units some recurring themes started to emerge. After going through hundreds of pages new themes emerged and already established themes were redefined. The raw data were eventually reduced to quotes that fit into one of ten initial categories. During this process, the description of what these categories entailed became more specific each time. As Folkestad suggests: “it should be noted that the analysis phase in itself is a continuous process, and that we can not easily distinguish the collection, reduction and analysis phases from each other” (2008, p. 4).

After close inspection of the document containing the initial categories it dawned on me that some quotes were wrongly labelled and some categories seemed less relevant than others. After reorganising the quotes and deleting some themes, clearer defined categories emerged. Through a process of linking and associating some themes started to merge. To give an example, the theme I had previously named “professional identity” contained all utterances of interviewees talking about wether or not they identified as a journalist and the values that most inform their work. Upon reviewing this theme it turned out that in fact this whole

(28)

out, the professional identity of the team members was not associated with wether or not they felt like they could be considered a journalist, but rather with feeling part of the ABC – a corporation with status that also reflects their deepest ethics and values.

This process of re-evaluating, deleting and creating new categories was repeated several times until seven clearly defined themes emerged. In this coding process constant comparison was made with theories and literature outlined in the theoretical framework. Eventually theories started to surface.

(29)

4. Context

4.1 The ABC: an institution in transition

Founded in 1932, the ABC has become an omnipresent and unique part of the Australian media landscape. Unlike many other journalism organisations serving a specific audience, ABC productions are meant to cater to all Australians. With no immediate commercial purpose, serving the public is the ABC’s main objective. This gives rise to other pressures, as supervising producer Hutcheon explains: “The funding is linked obviously to reaching a broad audience of Australians. If you don’t, then you may have problems getting the funding you need from the government. I mean, the trend in recent years, especially with a more conservative government, is to cut funding to the ABC because they feel it caters much to the left elite.”

Just prior to the field research in December 2017, there have been some structural changes. The charts below show the organisational structure of the ABC before and after the restructure. When the DSI team was set up by Kimberley Porteous, it had no ties to one specific team or TV program allowing the team members to collaborate with a multitude of current affairs teams. As of December 2017 the team has been placed under the Investigations team led by Jo Puccini. This change in strategy has also meant the team had to physically move halfway through the field research. Where the team members were first scattered across the ground floor, which is where the current affairs and news programs are located, they have now been moved to the first floor where they are sitting all together and next to the Investigations team. The implications of the restructure will be discussed in the section on digital strategy.

(30)

Before the restructure

After the restructure

Director of News (Gaven Morris) 7:30 Australian Story Four Corners Senior manager future audiences and content strategie (Kimberley Porteous) Podcast team Digital Story Innovations team (Stephen Hutcheon) Podcast team Foreign

Correspondent Q&A Lateline

Director of News (Gaven Morris)

Head Investigations and In-depth Journalism

(John Lyons)

7:30 Australian _Story Four Corners Investigations team (Jo Puccini)

DSI team (Stephen Hutcheon)

Foreign

Correspondent Q&A Lateline Deputy director of News (Craig McMurtrie) Senior manager future audiences and content strategy (Kimberley Porteous) podcast team Podcast team

The Digital Story Innovations team: a case study on digital journalism innovation at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation