The future of journalism and the change in the professional culture according to David M. Ryfe’s ethnographic fieldwork

Abstract

Review of the book Can Journalism Survive? An Inside Look At American Newsrooms, by David M. Ryfe. After five years as a participant observer in three medium-sized regional North American newsrooms of daily circulation newspapers (Daily Bugle, The Herald and Cedar Rapids Gazette), Ryfe presents an interpretation about the challenges faced by journalists when it comes to the on-line culture, and the reasons why North American newspapers did not manage either to deal with the adjustments caused by technological development or to react to the changes brought by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The topics related to the causes that led to the crisis shapes a conscientious diagnosis on the challenges of the on-line culture, which is being presented to the Communication professionals. The result is an analysis of the social and labor modifications that permeate the area, just as observed on its previously primary aspects - the professional culture, for instance - and now, with the insertion of new technologies and the net production, establishing a possible way out to an ongoing revolution.