News Nerds

Journalism, at the core, is the presentation of news through media. While news has not changed - headlines today are dominated by politicians, celebrities, wars, crime, and sports just as they were a century ago - how journalists" both gather and disseminate information has been turned on its head. Gone are the days of editors assigning stories to writers, who then research, inquire, and present what they found in a compelling yet accurate fashion. Today's journalists are coding, programming, running analytics, and developing apps. These "news nerds" are those news industry professionals working in jobs at the intersection of traditional journalist positions and technologically intensive positions that were once largely separate. The titles and jobs might differ, but one thing is for sure, these journalists are using technology differently and the institutionalized view of a professional journalist has changed. It has augmented to account for these professionals. Understanding the reasons for that turn, its mechanics, timing, and impact are the goals of this book. News Nerds explores how technological, economic, and societal changes are impacting the institutionalized profession of journalism. Allie Kosterich draws on a mixed-method research design combining interviews with professional journalists, textual analysis of trade press, and social network analysis of journalist career histories. Taken together, these data reveal the ways in which the institution of the profession of journalism is evolving to incorporate new technological skillsets and new routines of production. In telling these stories and sharing these findings, she directly confronts what happens when new skillsets and new ways of understanding and producing news start to collide with the old routines of journalism"--