Since this thesis takes the stance that there is a reciprocal relationship between
technology and society (Bissell, 2006), there is another theoretical strand which provides a useful analytical tool. Organisational technology (Küng, 2008: 129) takes a balanced view that technology when combined with other outside factors drives change. Theorists propose that technological evolution follows a cyclical pattern with long periods of relatively minor change being punctuated by occasional technological discontinuity which disrupts entire sectors (Abernathy and Utterback, 1978; Tushman and Anderson, 1986; Tushman and Smith, 2002; Küng, 2008). Various types of technological change are identified: ‘incremental innovations’ where an industry is in equilibrium and change involves on-going adaptation; ‘architectural innovations’ which allow existing products to be modified and directed at new markets; ‘discontinuous innovation’ which represents a break with existing systems and ‘disruptive innovations’ which are disruptive to
established market structures but not technologically disruptive (Küng, 2008: 134-137).
The last two of these changes are relevant to this research because they have arguably disrupted the mainstream destroying the advantage of ‘incumbent’ mainstream local
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newspaper organisations, feeding the growth of an independent subculture in local news production.
Competency destroying transformation or ‘discontinuous innovation’ is the most dangerous for mainstream operations (Tushman and Anderson, 1986; Küng, 2008: 35) because they can make the skills obsolete by which an industry has gained competitive advantage. In fact, Küng states that: ‘Incumbents who do manage to extend their
leadership positions across technology transitions are the exception rather than the rule’
(2008: 137), a reflection which has significant implications for the parent culture of mainstream local media operations.
Gutenberg’s invention of movable type is a relevant example of discontinuous innovation, rendering the carved wooden blocks of the print media sector of the time obsolete. A relevant ‘discontinuous innovation’ in contemporary print media, which actually initially benefited the mainstream by delivering massive cost-saving benefits to the publishing industry, were computerised newspaper publishing systems or desktop publishing (DTP) software which began to emerge in the 1980s. It allowed pages to be assembled onscreen and transmitted direct to printing plates (Küng, 2008).
The arrival of the software initially worked to the advantage of mainstream newspapers, allowing owners to dispense with print workers and incorporate their duties into the job role of journalists. With journalists responsible for page make-up there was a massive cost saving for mainstream media organisations. But deskilling of the process opened-up print publishing to those outside the mainstream. As previously stated reprographic technologies were increasingly taken up by alternative media producers. Atton suggests:
‘What offset litho was to the publishers of Oz and IT, the photocopier was to the punk movement of the late 1970s’ (2002: 38). Subcultures were thus able to cheaply access print technology which had previously been the preserve of the mainstream.
The second transformation ‘disruptive innovation’ is less dynamic but has provided a greater stimulus to independent operators because of its unsettling effect on mainstream media. The ‘disruption’ in question is to existing markets, and such innovations are not disruptive in the technological sense like discontinuous innovations (Küng, 2008: 136).
Disruptive innovations transform an existing market or sector by simplifying, and opening up to a less skilled consumer, what were once complicated processes. Christensen (2018) who coined the phrase, describes ‘disruptive innovations’ as ‘innovations that make products and services more accessible and affordable, thereby making them available to a larger population.’ He explains:
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Disruptive innovation describes a process by which a product or service initially takes root in simple applications at the bottom of the market – typically by being less expensive and more accessible – and then relentlessly moves upmarket, eventually displacing the competitors. (Christensen, 2018)
Because they take root at the bottom of the market, large organisations are prone to overlook the potential threat from disruptive innovations, because they are busy
targeting more lucrative income streams. Christensen suggest that the innovation: ‘then relentlessly moves upmarket, eventually displacing established competitors’ (ibid).
Although previously mentioned as a discontinuous innovation, Lucy Küng highlights that DTP systems also comes under the ‘disruptive’ heading because they lowered the cost of entry to the publishing business (2008: 136). She explains that: ‘the early versions could not match the output of traditional publishing systems with their high quality printing presses and skilled layout and design’ (ibid.). However, she continues: ‘As the market grew and economies of scale emerged, desktop publishing systems became more sophisticated and came to overtake traditional publishing systems’ (2008: 136).
She also singles out free newspapers as another example of a disruptive innovation.
When free newspapers first appeared in the 1970s they were used by mainstream local newspaper organisations to increase revenue, providing a guaranteed circulation which could be sold to an advertiser (Franklin, 2006; 150-161). With their less sophisticated layout and generic content, heavily reliant on public relations handouts, they were not considered to be a threat to traditional paid-for titles. In the new millennium the
equilibrium has shifted, many paid-for local newspapers have been accused of relying on agency supplied press releases rather than producing original content (Williams and Franklin, 2007; Davies, 2008; Lewis, et al, 2008; Howells, 2015). Küng said: ‘At present, paid for newspapers and free ones co-exist. But there is a clear threat that eventually the free tabloids will move upmarket into the paid newspaper’s domain’ (2008: 136). As previously stated Williams et al indicate that free distribution print is increasingly popular among independent hyperlocal operators (2014: 29).
Without doubt the most disruptive innovation to mainstream media has been the
‘invention’ of the World Wide Web in 1989 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. But although it has been disruptive to market structures, it has also been ‘discontinuous’ because it is
‘competence destroying’; allowing non-professionals access to professional publishing tools, far more sophisticated than the photocopies used for punk zines. Like DTP, the web initially benefitted the mainstream allowing cost savings, it was not until around 2005 that innovative business ideas, utilising freely available digital tools, began to
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disrupt the business models of mainstream local newspapers. Huge damage was wrought by start-up businesses such as Craigslist (Brock, 2013: 93-94) introducing an online advertising model which undermined local newspaper classified advertising sales.
Williams et al speak of the ‘creative destruction on traditional news outlets wrought by Web 2.0 services, such as blogging and social media’ (2014: 10). The flipside is that freely available online tools and relatively cheap technology such as computers and camera phones encouraged low-cost publishing (ibid.) by those outside the mainstream.
Disruptive innovations have therefore advantaged non-mainstream media producers by providing the means of access to: ‘simple applications at the bottom of the market’
(Christensen, 2018). Independent publishers also utilise free distribution print (Williams et al, 2014: 29) which indicates the subcultural aspect of appropriating aspects of the mainstream (Cohen, 1972; Hebdige,1979). Küng states that in general terms:
Technological innovations tend to supplement rather than replace, previous technologies. The previous medium is not destroyed, but progressively undermined, more often than not slipping down the food chain with lower revenues and market share’ (2008: 128).
This appears to support Atton’s claim that print is ‘far from moribund’, particularly in the non-mainstream media world.
Another aspect of organisational technology theory which appears to work in the favour of independent producers is the life-cycle of technologies. In the early stages,
technologies are in a fluid state during which the entry level is low, gradually this moves to a rigid state where entry becomes more difficult and expensive (Küng, 2008, p. 130).
Independent hyperlocal operators are currently able to take advantage of low-entry costs to gain access to digital publishing during the ‘fluid state’ of the current online technology transition. Küng explains how technology transitions benefit agile new starts at the expense of mainstream ‘incumbents’, because the latter are required to dismantle some aspects of the ‘rigid’ structures which they have established, to support a large business, even if those particular aspects are functioning well: ‘This is counter-intuitive and hard to do – so the organisation is effectively trapped by its success’ (2008, p. 138). Williams and Franklin highlighted the problems involved in adapting to a changing technology in their paper Turning around the tanker; implementing Trinity Mirror’s online strategy (2008). Taking a technology and innovation point of view has provided another angle on the relationship of independent hyperlocal operators with the parent culture of
mainstream local media. This provides an additional angle to understanding the relationship between independent hyperlocal operators and the mainstream parent
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culture. The next section will provide a media economics angle to underpin the claim of hyperlocal as a subculture.
As demonstrated by the work of the CCCS, subcultures result from changes in the parent culture (Cohen, 1972, Hebdige 1979; Hall and Jefferson, 2006; Blackman, 2014), it is therefore important to consider the disruption in the mainstream which has prompted the emergence of the UK hyperlocal subculture. The evolution of the UK local media landscape around the turn of the 21st century will be examined in Chapter 3 (Biography and “churnalism”: looking at a parent culture in crisis and the emergence of a news subculture). However, before embarking on that discussion it is important to consider the work of media economist Robert Picard who has identified a significant underlying shift in the culture of mainstream news production. In Twilight or new dawn of journalism?
Evidence from the changing news ecosystem (2014) he suggests that as the industrialised model of journalism diminishes, traditional news production is being divided into two streams. Evidence suggests that while mainstream organisations tend towards one form, the abandoned mode is being ‘retrieved’ by independent operators.
Picard calls these two distinct cultures ‘service mode’ and ‘craft mode’ (2014: 491).
Traditional news companies are favouring the ‘service mode’ which is: ‘more focused on distribution rather than gathering and producing news’ (ibid). Such findings appear to reinforce Forde’s view that commercial mainstream organisations no-longer see the economic benefit of investigative journalism and are becoming: ‘disseminators rather than ‘generators’ of news (2011: 63). Picard indicates that independent operations are becoming the generators of news. He observes:
A craft mode of news production has emerged. Although this is a long
established form of production, it is novel to contemporary news production. In this mode, news is produced by individual entrepreneurial journalists and small-scale journalistic cooperatives that emphasize the uniqueness and quality of their news. Journalists working in this craft mode are focusing on special topics such as climate or defence, employing specialized techniques such as investigative or data journalism, or serving smaller localities as general news providers. Most are providing news directly to consumers, but some provide their materials to
companies that practise the service mode of news provision. These journalists act as suppliers and partners in a business relationship that is very different from that of freelance journalists in the twentieth century. (Picard, 2014: 491)
What Picard identified as a craft mode is therefore relevant to how independent hyperlocal providers operate. He observes that this long-established form of news generation was formerly an integral part of the mainstream, which suggests that independent operators are retrieving and repurposing what has been discarded by the
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parent culture (Cohen, 1972: 23; Hebdige, 1979). Picard’s observations about ‘service’
and ‘craft’ modes of production were therefore used applied during data analysis.
1:7 Conclusion
The overall focus for this study is subcultural, so historical themes of marginality,
resistance, retrieving and subsequent repurposing of aspects of the parent culture were discussed in this chapter (Cohen, 1972, Hebdige 1979; Hall and Jefferson, 2006;
Williams, 2011; Blackman, 2014). The ‘make-do-and-mend’ ‘bricolage’ (Lévi-Strauss, 1966) lifestyle associated with subculture (Hebdige 1979; 2014) is also at the heart of digital culture (Deuze, 2006: 70) and was also identified for use during data analysis.
The two primary theoretical approaches discussed, to be applied in the empirical chapters 3-6, were reciprocal journalism (Lewis et al, 2014; Harte et al, 2017), which reveals different forms of social exchange and Durkheim’s theory The division of labour in society (Durkheim, 1893/1984; Aron ,1967: 21-33; Giddens, 1978: 25; Hughes et al 2003; Jenks, 2005: 28) to identify solidarity between operators. Durkheim’s work allows analysis to continue where reciprocal journalism ends, in creating a better understanding of the collective relationships between operators by applying the aspects of ‘mechanical solidarity’ and ‘organic solidarity’ to the data.
The zine culture (Worley, 2015; Kempson, 2015) and the organisational structures of alternative media (Atton, 2003: 42-43) assist analysis by underlining the subcultural credentials of independent hyperlocal operations. Meanwhile organisational technology theory (Küng, 2008: 129) offers insight into the role of technology in the evolution of both parent culture and hyperlocal subculture; suggesting that technological change has benefitted independent operators. Finally, Picard’s identification of the changing culture of news production into ‘service’ and ‘craft’ modes, identifies two distinct styles. He suggests that the mainstream has moved away from being generators of news to become disseminators in a ‘service mode’ culture, leaving independent operators to retrieve the ‘craft mode’ which has been lost in the parent culture.
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Chapter 2: Methodology: the influence of autobiographical inscription
2:1 Introduction
This chapter will provide the methodological grounding for an interdisciplinary, selective study of independent local media operations; which emerged in the internet-era and are collectively known as hyperlocals (Ofcom, 2014: 51). This is a qualitative study of 27 independent operators producing such output, who are situated in different parts of England and Wales and responsible for often contrasting styles of provisions. One-to-one interviews with the hyperlocal operators generated the bulk of the primary research data. Additional data was also generated from three interviews with representatives of non-profit organisations, which have supported the sector.
Engaging with Park’s theory of human ecology (Lindner, 1996: 48-64) to theorise the local media ecology, the thesis considers how the research field has changed since the research started. This feeds into Hebdige’s suggestion that subcultures can start out
‘nano-scale, marginal in opposition to the projected mainstream’ and subsequently
‘travel’ (2014: 9).
The research methods have been influenced by my approach of using a subcultural lens, which emerged from the Chicago School of Sociology (Palmer, 1928; Blackman, 2014: 497). The first section of this chapter outlines how these subcultural themes helped generate the research questions. The methodology also embraces biographical research methods (Merrill and West, 2009; West, 2016) such as autoethnography (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995; 2007; Ellis and Bochner, 2000; Savin-Baden and Major, 2013).
The second section will discuss the influence of biographical methodology, an
approach which emerged from the Chicago School of Sociology during the early 1920s (Park, 1928; Blackman, 2014: 298). In particular issues of autobiographical inscription (LeMenager & Hebdige, 2013) in the doctorate will be discussed. Descriptions of the research setting and an explanation of how the sample was chosen is contained in the third section, followed in section four by how the data was interpreted. The final section will explain how themes were coded.
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