@article{2014:heise:bridgin,
title = {“Bridging Technologies” – Conceptualizing technological objects as interfaces between journalism and audience},
year = {2014},
note = {Technologies have always been an important element of the production,
distribution and consumption of media content. In the past years, the
‘materiality’ of media communication regained the attention of
media scholars. This “re-discovery of media” (Zillien 2008) is
accompanied by empirical research, for instance, on the implementation
of technologies in newsrooms, but also on the adoption of new media
technologies by recipients. Because existing theoretical models of the
journalism-audience-relationship rarely include the ‘mediating’
channels (technological objects), we still face a conceptual gap
regarding the role of technologies between media producers
(journalists) and users (audience). Since we cannot fully understand
the journalism-audience-relationship without reflecting the role of
technological objects and infrastructures, a more inclusive framework
is needed. To establish such a holistic view, the concept of
technologies as ‘intermediaries’ or ‘interfaces’ is
introduced. I argue that these ‘bridging technologies’ and their
intermediating functions provide a helpful starting point to analyze
how the journalism-audience-relationship is not only structured and
shaped by cognitive, normative or cultural aspects and practices, but
also by the affordances of media technologies. The proposed conceptual
framework seeks to guide and inspire innovative empirical research, as
well as to encourage a critical reflection of technological
intermediaries.},
journal = {SCM Studies in Communication and Media},
pages = {153--179},
author = {Heise, Nele},
volume = {3},
number = {2}
}