The news about new institutionalism: Journalism's ethic of objectivity and its political origins

The author discusses the utility of sociology's new institutionalism (NI) in organizational theory for the study of journalism and contends that NI remedies the political and cultural deficits in most existing social theories of the news. By highlighting how news organizations and journalists are embedded in broader fields of news producers and also politics, NI reveals both the limits and possibilities that journalism confronts as it works to fulfill its ideal role in democratic society. This article explicates one version of NI's applicability to media studies by focusing on how journalism is entangled in the conflicts and values of the "political field," beyond the more limited domain of journalism proper. It then considers the relevance of this theory for explaining turn-of-the-20th-century transformations in journalism. Between 1865 and 1920, the American press redefined its highest ideals as well as its most mundane organizational practices. It changed from an avidly partisan press to a sober "objective" media. NI helps highlight how these transformations in journalism's mission reflected and refracted more overarching shifts in the American political system.