Sociological Approach to Journalism And Media: News Production

This paper points out the importance of a sociological approach to the study of journalism and media. The focus is on the sociological view of the news production process. How do organizational and professional requirements shape and limit journalistic work in news production? Some of the main concepts and interests of the sociological approach are presented, such as gatekeeping, personal characteristics of journalists, social control in newsrooms, relations between journalists and their sources, the issue of journalistic paraideology, and then these issues are discussed in the context of current journalism and media in BiH. The findings of this paper suggest that the meaning of the concept of gatekeeping in light of the dominance of Internet platforms needs to be explored; that we still don’t have a good enough picture of the people who produce the news in BiH; that the issue of social control in newsrooms should be reconsidered in the light of newsroom cutbacks. In addition, research is needed on the nature of the links between journalists and their sources, and the issue of journalistic paraideology in BiH should be examined in the context of reducing the gap between professional journalism and other forms of content production, but also through examination of inherited forms of patriotic journalism.