Journalists and Their Perceptions of Location: Making Meaning in the Community

Abstract

This article examines the role location plays in the journalism practice. Through in-depth interviews with 21 journalists/media professionals, this study explores how journalists define location and how they use location in their daily work. This study explores the nuances of space and place through locative technologies and how they are internalized and acted upon among the journalists interviewed. Findings show three key themes among the subjects interviewed: location is a meaning maker, an organizational device and a communicative challenge in their news work. The implications of this study highlight a deeper exploration of location within the newsroom and in the community as well as further examination in the academy of how location can be operationalized in future scholarship.