When the information flows: Media professionalism as a signal of institutional trust at the state capitol |
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| Institution: | 1. MIS Area, Indian Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli, India;2. Information Systems Department, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman;3. Emerging Markets Research Centre (EMaRC), School of Management, Swansea University, Fabian Way, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK;4. Information Systems Department, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman;1. Information Systems & Decision Sciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, United States;2. Department of Business Information Systems, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, United States |
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| Abstract: | Recent communication scholarship emphasizes national and technological analyses of the relationship between politicians and media actors. However, this qualitative analysis uses interviews and observations to find that U.S. state legislative offices still draw on an institutional understanding of the press as the primary information provider to the electorate. In a more diverse information environment with broader definitions of media, this study finds that legislators relied on professionalism to signal a media organization's understanding of their institutional role—and it is this institutional role that allows for information to flow between media actors and legislators. Professionalism also became the language used to draw boundaries in the relationships. When behavioral norms were violated, the press became viewed as antagonistic because it stepped out of its institutional role as information provider and interrupted functions of the political institution. Recurring discomfort with “information correction” suggests legislators and their staffs find themselves increasingly in the position of fact arbiters in the changing media landscape. |
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