Organizational vs. Professional Culture in the Newsroom: Television News Directors and Newspaper Editors' Hiring Decisions

by C.Ann Hollifield, Gerald M. Kosicki, and Lee B. Becker
Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 2000

Media critics argue that corporate values now dominate newsroom decision making. This study tests that argument using national surveys to compare the hiring practices of television news directors and newspaper editors.  The study examined whether news executives seek employees with characteristics valued by the organizational culture or those valued by the professional culture of journalism. The data show that news executives in both media emphasize hiring people based on personality and work habits over any professional characteristic except language skills.  The study also found that television news directors are slightly more likely than newspaper editors to seek traditional professional characteristics in new hires.

Dealing with Change in Television Newsrooms

By George Daniels, C. Ann Hollifield, Todd Fraley and Scott Mays

In the current environment of broadcast news, one of the few constants is the process of change.  Change always has been an integral part of the newsroom environment, but in the 1990s the pace of change
in the industry has accelerated markedly. Consequently, for newsroom managers, managing personnel through change processes has become a central and ongoing challenge.

This study examines the short and long-term effects of organizational change on newsroom personnel.  The project surveyed employees of CNN Headline News in autumn 1998 when the organization was in the midst of making significant changes in the newsrooms structure, technology and work processes.  A second survey was conduct more than a year after the change process was completed.  This report examines the short and long-term responses of newsroom professionals to change, and the factors that were most important in influencing those responses.

Television in Living Color: :Ethnic Diversity in the Local Commercial Television Industry

by C. Ann Hollifield, George L. Daniels, Dwight E. Brooks
Winner of 2nd Place Award in the Management and Sales Division
Presented to the Annual Convention of the Broadcast Education Association
Las Vegas, NV April 2000

For the past 30 years, one of the issues that most consistently has been at the forefront of controversy and concern in the broadcast industry is the degree to which the broadcast workforce reflects the diversity of the U.S. population as a whole. This study used original FCC Broadcast Employment reports from the U.S. commercial television stations to examine the degree to whcih minority representation in the local television industry changed during the 26 years of federal monitoring. The study examines levels of minority representation in different job categories in the industry, compares the performance of the TV industry to other U.s. industries in hiring minorities, and examines the distribution of specific racial groups across industry job categories.