The role of serendipity in the story ideation process of print media journalists (original) (raw)
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Print Journalism and the System of Creativity
The creative system in action: understanding cultural production and practice (Eds. Phillip McIntyre, Janet Fulton & Elizabeth Paton), 2016
This chapter answers the question: how do print journalists produce, or create, their work? Journalism is seldom thought of as a creative form of writing, primarily because it is not an ‘artistic’ profession and some see it as constrained by rules and conventions, or structures, giving little licence for a journalist to exercise agency. In other words, it is thought that the existence of these structures leaves little room for print journalists to make creative choice. However, by applying the systems model of creativity suggested by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to print journalism, as this chapter does, it can be clearly seen that journalism is a creative activity in the same way as such writing genres as poetry and fiction writing.
The idea that print journalism is creative is one that is not universally accepted: ‘making a story up’ goes against the fundamental understandings of journalism. Further to this, society’s understanding of creativity is that a producer must have no limitations to be able to create and the rules and conventions a journalist works within are seen to constrain their production of creative media texts. However, by using a Rationalist framework, it can be argued that creative activity in print journalism is not only possible but plausible. By using Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model of creativity to examine the creative practices of print journalists, this paper argues it is the structures a journalist works within that enables production and it is by their agency that journalists can produce creative media texts. Interestingly, a literature review has revealed that creative and creativity are frequently used within journalism’s literature but the terms are rarely defined. Therefore, this paper presents rational arguments for how a print journalist is a creative producer of media texts as well as providing a definition for creativity in a journalistic context.