Journalism as Bipolar Interactional Expertise.

This paper offers a theoretical framework for understanding journalistic expertise, based on a revision of Collins and Evans' model. According to their innovative and influential taxonomy, that constitutes a "third wave of science studies," a small elite of experienced and diligent journalists in particular news beats can become "interactional experts," specializing in the expertise of their news sources and mastering their discourse and judgment. The current paper, however, suggests that experienced journalists develop different degrees of bipolar "interactional expertise," sandwiched between concrete interactions with their news sources and largely imagined interactions with their audiences. The audience pole not only limits their expertise and fits it to the constraints of the news environment but also drives and legitimizes their focus on information that is simple and quick to obtain and convey and is ostensibly interesting and important for their audiences. The paper shows that bipolar interactions are part of day-to-day journalistic realities, embedded in different roles, procedures and practices. Recent years have been marked by a tectonic shift in journalistic expertise, merging commercial pressures for greater emphasis on audience interactions with new technologies for audience metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]