conflict
& communication online, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2009
www.cco.regener-online.de
ISSN 1618-0747
Kenneth Andresen
Producing 'protocol news' in Kosovo's public broadcaster: Journalism
in a transitional risk society
An ethnographic news
production study conducted in Kosovo's public service broadcaster 'Radio
Television Kosovo' (RTK) shows how journalists produce 'protocol news'
under multiple pressures, rapid change and risks. Risk theory is helpful
in analysing how journalists and news organizations find pragmatic solutions
in news production. News journalism in a fast-changing, highly politicized
society, offers multiple challenges. Journalists and editors face constant
demands of 'professionalism', national loyalty, and political pressure.
There is a mutual scepticism and dependency between the journalists and
their sources. At the same time, the close-knit, post-war society, there
exist personal ties between workers in the 'social establishment' and
the news media due to common war experience in the past.
On the author:
Kenneth Andresen is Assistant Professor Journalism at Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication, Norway. He holds an M.A. in Communication from USA and is currently finishing his Ph.D. on the reconstruction of journalism and media in Kosovo at the University of Oslo. He has been Assistant Professor in Journalism for 14 years; and has taught journalism courses in Ethiopia and Kosovo since 2000. He has been a freelance journalist and staff radio journalist at Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation from 1993 - 2000, and was a Press Officer with KFOR in 1999 in Kosovo . He is a co-author of a radio journalism textbook.
eMail: Kenneth.andresen@mediehogskolen.no