INNOVATION THROUGH PRACTICE Journalism as a structure of public communication

Practices of news selection, presentation and distribution have been transposed to the domain of audiences communicating through network media. Media practices of journalists and "mediaoriented practices" of audiences (Couldry) make use of the network as a common resource, merging into a new form of "news-based communication." This new situation of public communication questions institutional approaches to journalism and the crisis it currently experiences. The paper proposes to regard journalism as a structure of public communication which is mutually enacted by journalists and audiences alike. Practice is outlined as a conceptual tool to study how social structures such as journalism can innovate. In practice, cultural schemas value resources of communication and endow actors with agency. As media of public communication are de-differentiated in digital contexts, practice offers a way to understand innovation as the gradual transposition of such schemas to new resources.