Journalism Innovation and the Ecology of News Production

This monograph develops and tests a news ecology model to help explain development and stasis of news forms and practices. The model predicts that emerging media form populations as they pursue similar resources and that later, forms and practices tend to become more similar and more legitimate to would-be entrants and to other institutions. The model is tested through an analysis of the health blog population and case studies of two city news environments. Results offered evidence that emerging media develop population forms that shift from an instrumental to an institutional orientation as they gain public legitimacy and become increasingly specialized.