Date of Award

6-2008

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Communication

First Advisor

Dr. Sandra L. Borden

Second Advisor

Dr. Julie Apker

Third Advisor

Sue Ellen Christian

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Jennifer A. Machiorlatti

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore organizational culture and change in a college newspaper's newsroom. Student journalists often use college newspapers as a means to get editorial experience and also to get published. Even so, the college newspaper newsroom is unlike a typical metropolitan or local community newspaper's newsroom in the way that it experiences change. College newspapers encounter organizational change as part of the newsroom's inner workings constantly because of frequent turnover and other factors. As a result, they are suitable for understanding how staff members make sense of newsroom culture in a dynamic, changing environment. Two methods were used to gather data for this study: observations and long interviews. A textual analysis using Baxter and Montgomery's (1998) dialectical framework was used to analyze the interview transcripts. The findings suggest that editors and staffers at the Herald experience change as inherently contradictory and ineffective.

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