A propose of adopting studies of innovation into journalism research

Abstract

The term ‘innovation’ is commonly used in the productive sector because it indicates a movement of knowledge generation linked to the production. In the same way, agencies of research promotion support projects that connect science with the development of knowledge applied to the productive environment. Although the idea of innovation brings in its core an identity with the investigation, the discovery and the know growth that is found in the academy, journalism studies barely incorporate this applied perspective of the scientific knowledge shaped in a terminology and conception that is appropriate to the advance of the studies about the journalistic activity. This article aims to investigate the reasons for this estrangement, although the journalism is a social activity that could directly benefit from the application of the scientific knowledge. We will also pursue to develop the term ‘innovation’ by going beyond its fragile conceptual formulation that has characterized its use. We will indicate that, in journalism, a more complex dimension of the idea of innovation demands the consideration of three aspects – technological, organizational and social innovation. That way we will make it possible to achieve a greater conceptual denseness in order to surpass an excessively technological bias in its approaches.