ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the challenges facing local journalists in New Zealand as they navigate the requirements of multiplatform reporting. Drawing on ground-breaking video ethnographic data, the chapter uses a case study of a regional editor working at head office as he collaborates with a local journalist covering a breaking story in a remote location. We follow the coverage of the story from the first email alerting the editor to the event to his entry of the completed news article into the organisation’s content management system. Through the analysis of verbal and non-verbal actions, the research explores the different perspectives of the journalists exhibited through the display of action and interaction. It demonstrates the mental and logistical tension the journalists experience with platform integration when local journalists are focussed on a print product and the national office is working to digital-first deadlines. The research was carried out at one of two organisations that own the majority of local news outlets in New Zealand. It provides empirical evidence of the day-to-day practices of journalists working in local news today and how they are manifested in actual interactions, both written and verbal.
