Abstract

This article explores the potential contribution of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to the study of digital journalism. It argues that current usage of ANT within digital journalism studies tends to centre on the symmetry principle, or the idea that humans and nonhumans may be actors in an actor-network. In a review of the broader theory, the essay shows that the symmetry principle is one tool among others that may benefit the study of digital journalism. It then suggests that ANT’s non-spatial understanding of society may be especially helpful. ANT’s conception of social space has four principal advantages. It imagines news production as a series of news assemblages rather than a unified profession; it allows that not every actor in a news assemblage is a journalist; it does not equate proximity with meaning; and, it encourages assessment of the relative “strength” of a news assemblage in terms of recruitment and dissemination rather than cohesion and agreement. The essay concludes with a brief discussion of common criticisms of ANT.

摘要

本文探讨了演员网络理论 (ANT) 对数字新闻研究的潜在贡献。它认为，目前在数字新闻研究中对 ANT 的使用倾向于集中在对称原则上，或者说人类和非人类可能是行动者网络中的行动者的想法。在对更广泛理论的回顾中，这篇文章表明，对称原则是可能有益于数字新闻研究的工具之一。这表明 ANT 对社会的非空间理解可能特别有帮助。ANT 的社会空间概念有四个主要优点。它将新闻生产想象成一系列新闻组合，而不是一个统一的职业；它允许并非新闻组合中的每个演员都是记者；它不将接近等同于意义；和，它鼓励根据招聘和传播而不是凝聚力和一致性来评估新闻组合的相对“实力”。本文最后简要讨论了对 ANT 的常见批评。