Public journalism: Evaluating the movement's trajectory through institutional stages of development in the journalistic field

This dissertation traces the evolution of the public journalism movement in the journalistic field from its emergence in the late 1980s in response to perceived problems in democracy and the press. The theoretical framework, grounded in new institutionalism, diffusion theory and Bourdieu's reflexive theory of practice, established the journalistic field as the level of analysis and the site in which public journalists invented, introduced and adopted new civic practices. A model is developed of the institutional stages of development as the movement spread through U.S. newsrooms during its first decade of activity.;With data collected from 651 cases of public journalism experiments contained in the archive of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism and published between 1994 and 2002, the study found that the movement has achieved widespread effects, with over one-fifth of the U.S. newsrooms experimenting with new civic practices. The findings offer a comprehensive, descriptive analysis of the news organizations practicing public journalism, trends in community issues covered, shifts in sourcing and framing practices, and the degree to which news organizations reached into communities to re-engage citizens in civic and public life through a range of deliberative events and problem-solving activities.;Although the movement has experienced widespread effects, the findings suggest that the movement has not yet become fully institutionalized within the journalistic field. Based on the model of institutional development for public journalism, the study demonstrates that the movement has not yet achieved full institutionalization. The new public journalism routines and practices have achieved a degree of pragmatic and moral legitimacy within the journalistic field, but have not yet become cognitively legitimized as taken-for granted and understood as a natural and appropriate means to solve problems of democracy and the press. The study explores a variety of obstacles to achieving full institutionalization and suggests a range of questions public journalists must address should full institutionalization remain a central goal.