Print journalism and the system of creativity

This chapter is based on findings from a research project that employed Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model of creativity to explore the creative process of print journalists. The research also drew on Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural production model and Donald Schön’s (1983) ideas about tacit knowledge as support theories. Using ethnographic techniques, the researcher investigated the system of print journalism in Australia by observing newsrooms, analysing documents and artefacts pertinent to print journalism, and interviewing journalists, cadet journalists, editors, subeditors and deputy editors. These participants represent members of what Csikszentmihalyi calls the field, the social group responsible for verification of creativity.