ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasizes the importance of understanding organizational values and the role they play in blocking or facilitating change. Because many journalists entered the field with hopes of making a difference in their communities and were socialized in similar ways in school or during their early years in the profession, the roots of journalistic values run deep, and multiple studies over the years have shown that journalists typically resist any change they perceive will affect the quality of their work or threaten their core principles. Thus, a critical aspect of successful change in newsrooms is recognizing that embracing digital forms or focusing on readers’ needs does not mean abandoning these values, and may, in fact, aid their ability to fulfill them.
