Journalism's ontology of oscillation: a metamodern perspective

This conceptual paper makes the case for a metamodern perspective in the study of digital journalism. Identifying oscillation, the movement in-between opposing poles, as the overarching defining principle of digital journalism’s ontology, the paper argues that we should abandon old tropes related to postmodernism and instead situate journalism's struggles for autonomy and authority within present-day culture's structure of feeling. Metamodernism is defined by "an oscillation between a typically modern commitment and a markedly postmodern detachment", which could be seen in the works of modern artists who "increasingly abandon the aesthetic precepts of deconstruction, parataxis, and pastiche in favour of aesth-ethical notions of reconstruction, myth and metaxis" (Vermeulen van den Akker, 2010). Moving beyond postmodernist conceptualisations of journalism's struggles over its identity helps shed light on its efforts to reinvent and rebuild itself in the post-truth age, and metamodernism offers a fruitful conceptual lens through which to examine the negotiations between multiple forces and imperatives that vie for power over what journalism is and should be.