Il giornalismo nella transizione digitale: Tra crisi di riproduzione e logica della viralità = Journalism in the digital transition: between reproduction crisis and the logic of virality

Abstract

This article explores how Pierre Bourdieu's field theory and Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory (ANT) can be applied to analyze the digital transformation of journalism. Within the context of the "hybrid turn" in Journalism Studies, the paper offers a theoretical dialogue between these two approaches, examining how digital technologies destabilize traditional structures, professional norms, and values. The analysis of Jill Abramson's book "Merchants of Truth" provides a case study to illustrate these dynamics, using both traditional hermeneutics and documentary ethnography to conceptualize the emergence of new configurations of journalistic authority, values and legitimacy. Central to this analysis is the concept of the virality frame, which captures how audience engagement metrics and the logic of viral sharing redefine newsworthiness and power within the field. By integrating Bourdieu's focus on power and dispositions with Latour's emphasis on the agency of non-human actors, the article critically assesses how digital platforms, viral trends, and audience interactions reshape power relations in the journalistic field. This generates a dynamic and contested space where new forms of legitimacy and practices are performed, finally leading to a new configuration characterized by the growing significance of the virality frame.