ABSTRACT
In this chapter we explore the ways media workers do their jobs, what they think about them, and what rules the organization imposes on them. We call these the routine practices of communication work, rules-mostly unwritten-that give the media worker guidance. What can or should be done? What will lead to criticism? We open the chapter with a discussion of routines as a conceptual model. We ask where do routines come from? How do they come about? These are not insignifi - cant questions, because they address the very process through which information about events becomes stories about events. Much content is shaped by the routinized production of news and entertainment. And of course there are the social media: Do they have different routine practices? How do the routines of the older media interact with the routines of online media?
