ABSTRACT
Since the classic ethnographic studies of news in the 1960s and 1970s, scholars have recognized the power of routine in news production. In grappling with this subject, they have vacillated between understanding routine as a strong and a weak structural constraint on journalists. The present chapter examines this literature as a manifestation of a practice view, elaborates the basic elements of a practice perspective, and discusses its implications for understanding journalistic role performance from the backstage of everyday news routines.
