The Space of Journalistic Work: A Theoretical Model

Attempts to define journalism are often normative in nature but do not add to our theoretical understanding of what journalism is. There is a need for journalism scholarship to recognize explicitly that journalism is a space in which participants are not equal—or even similar—in terms of status, influence, work tasks, and working conditions. This paper offers a theoretical model combining the field theory of Pierre Bourdieu with recent insights from the sociology of work in order to articulate how journalistic work is stratified across three dimensions: journalistic capital, resource access, and material security. These dimensions create a space in which to place different types of journalistic work in order to make sense of contemporary journalism.