Making news from a local bar: A linguistic ethnography of the authoring, recontextualization and reframing of a news story

Most studies of news writing focus on what happens inside the newsroom. This study focuses on an interrelated sequence of processes involving one clearly ‘located’ authoring practice outside of the newsroom, followed by its recontextualization and some reframing. A correspondent working for a news agency decided to write one story and not to write another while working from a local bar. His decisions were made on the basis of a ‘news value’ equation with regard to ‘unusualness’ and ‘negativity’. They were also made from an economic perspective. The fact that he was working from a bar did not hinder the correspondent’s work habits too much. Because of his smartphone he was able to be given an assignment, inform himself of what had happened, write an article and send it in to the news desk without having to leave his seat. Subsequently, the correspondent’s text was (quickly) taken over by online news media and recontextualized from different deictic centres, resulting in a number of small changes. Only in one instance was it uncertain, though highly likely, that the correspondent’s article was used as a source. This is the only instance in which new information was added and in which the elite frame of the story was abandoned. Thus the article traces the genesis and meaning trajectory of a news story in a digital environment.