Antagonistic, Agonistic or Disinterested? How Peripheral Actors Across Beats Breach or Accept Social and Symbolic Boundaries of Journalism

In the digital age, peripheral journalistic actors increasingly contribute to information and views and increasingly impact the journalistic field depending on their transformative aims. To better understand their transformative intentions across all of journalism, we need to expand our focus to diverse journalistic beats. This study examines 192 Austrian peripheral websites and social media pages, spanning a broad spectrum of topics in politics, economics, lifestyle, and sports. Findings indicate that transformational intentions are not limited to antagonism or agonism but that the field’s periphery also includes actors who do not take an explicit stance in changing journalism.