| This case study of English language television news producers working for Journal, Deutsche Welle's (DW-TV) satellite-distributed news broadcast, reveals how television newswork inside a global newsroom is culturally framed. By examining the newsroom routines and rituals, the study suggests individual and group domestic cultural identity thrives inside a foreign newsroom. Findings from this qualitative, naturalistic, case study were grounded in the data that emerged during the 19-day research period and subsequent data analysis.; In the process of doing newswork, producers domesticate foreign news by framing both individual stories and newscast rundowns for meaning akin to the “stock of stories” they share with a national audience. The concept of framing by the producer in this study included factors described in some of the extant literature, such as: (a) selecting the lead, (b) negotiating the rundown, and (c) dropping stories once the broadcast was on air. The research also uncovered evidence for socio-cultural filters that influence framing in ways not previously linked to the role of the producer. The socio-cultural filters include (a) the domestication filter, which focuses on the desire to tailor international news to a domestic audience; (b) the humanization filter, which reveals differences in how the Germans and Anglos consider the individual and the individual in cultural/historic context; and (c) the conflict/consensus filter, which suggests the relevance of the larger cultural world view in the construction of news. Further, these filters became evident in two routines by the Anglo and German producers to shape foreign news: story clusters and the selection of interview experts, called by the Anglo newsroom “shouters.”; As gatekeepers for their own culture, the producers in an international newsroom maintain their own journalistic identity, resist organizational norms, and learn the skills to create news by negotiation. In the process, producers achieve professional identity and attempt to attach a cultural identity to news stories broadcast across national boundaries. |
