A Small Exclusive Circle. An Institutional Approach to Business News

Abstract

This article features a comparative study of the making of business news based upon interviews (2005 to 2010) with senior business journalists in Finland and Sweden as well as communication managers at two global telecom companies, Nokia and Ericsson. The article shows the complex and fluid dynamics of social construction. There are spans when corporate power over editorial practices is strong and other periods when business reporters and their supervisors effectively exert their control over these news processes and the construction of meaning. Communicative outcomes are not determined or predictable; rather, they are influenced by a socially grounded understanding of what is “appropriate”. This case study shows that formal rules can be of limited value when assessing social processes.