@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Arts, Faculty of"@en, "Sociology, Department of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "Jackson, Nancy S."@en ; dcterms:issued "2010-02-18T12:45:07Z"@en, "1977"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Master of Arts - MA"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description "This paper is concerned with factual accounts as a form of knowledge which is mediated by organizations and institutions which inform and administer our society. This mediation is itself a practical activity of particular persons, in particular settings, in which the world of experience is transformed into the forms in which it can be known and managed. These practical activities constitute particular relations of knowing, which are taken for granted in factual accounts and thus are built into much of what we recognize as objective features of our society, e.g. crime, mental illness, ethnicity, news. This work focuses on those organized practical activities as precisely the activities in which social phenomena are constituted and through which they are available to observation. This approach shares many aspects of the ethnomethodological concern with \"Practical Reasoning in Organizational Settings\" which Turner (1974) describes as the shift of attention toward \"the doings\" which constitute social order. (Turner 1974: 83) Attention is focused on the production of two kinds of factual accounts: description and news. The primary focus is on description, and particularly on sociological description. The secondary focus is on news, and serves both to illustrate a method of working sociologically, and to begin the work of developing an account of news as a socially organized phenomenon. The work begins by developing the basis for a critique of descriptive method, and the implications for sociology. The basis for the critique is found in the materialist method and Marx's view of social relations. From the work of Marx, Smith has derived a procedure for sociology, which she has called \"substructing\" which involves \"returning to the actual social relations which generate those phenomena as they are named, the actual practices of real living individuals, which are the only basis for the existence of social phenomena.\" (Smith 1977b) This procedure provides an approach to sociological descriptions which focuses on description in a way that is similar to Wittgenstein's notion of a language-game, as a use of language which involves \"a definite use of words, a definite way of meaning.\" (Smith 1977b) The following aspects of descriptive method are examined: a) How the descriptive method gives a determinate character to its subject; b) How the descriptive method obscures the organized relations of knowing as part of the constitution of the phenomenon; c) How the descriptive use of terms is dependent upon the original working setting, and how that dependence may be utilized to develop an alternative procedure for doing accounts. Two accounts of \"Sources of News\" are presented. The first illustrates a conventional form of description; the second is an attempt to begin to develop an account which has the character of an explication, and which would provide an alternative to conventional description. Some observations are made about problems in learning to put together an account which avoids objectification by taking as its problematic what is already given in description - that the phenomenon is there to be described. An explicative account is described as one which must be entered from within the organization of social relations in which the phenomenon arises. The discussion of \"Sources of News\" is considered as an indication of how it would be possible to work on larger aspects of news production, or on other forms of organization. The method is described as one which allows us to see how accounts are produced as part of a larger organization which gives determination to what emerges as the product."@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/20457?expand=metadata"@en ; skos:note "DESCRIBING NEWS: TOWARD AN ALTERNATIVE ACCOUNT by Nancy S. Jackson B.A., U n i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1974 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE \"\"OF MASTER OF ARTS THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Anthropology and S o c i o l o g y U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h Columbia We accept t h i s t h e s i s as conforming to the r e q u i r e d standard THE UNIVERSITY OF, BRITISH COLUMBIA J u l y , 1977 i n Nancy S. Jackson, 19 7 7 In p r e s e n t i n g t h i s t h e s i s in p a r t i a l f u l f i l m e n t o f the r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r an advanced degree at the U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h Co lumb ia , I a g ree that the L i b r a r y s h a l l make i t f r e e l y a v a i l a b l e f o r r e f e r e n c e and s tudy . I f u r t h e r agree t h a t p e r m i s s i o n f o r e x t e n s i v e c o p y i n g o f t h i s t h e s i s f o r s c h o l a r l y purposes may be g r a n t e d by the Head o f my Department o r by h i s r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s . It i s u n d e r s t o o d that c o p y i n g o r p u b l i c a t i o n o f t h i s t h e s i s f o r f i n a n c i a l g a i n s h a l l not be a l l o w e d w i thout my w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n . Department o f Anthropology and Sociology The U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h Co lumbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Date 1 October 1977 ABSTRACT T h i s paper i s concerned w i t h f a c t u a l accounts as a form of knowledge which i s mediated by o r g a n i z a t i o n s and i n s t i t u t i o n s which i n f o r m and adm i n i s t e r our s o c i e t y . T h i s mediation i s i t -s e l f a p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y of p a r t i c u l a r persons, i n p a r t i c u l a r s e t t i n g s , i n which the world of experience i s transformed i n t o the forms i n which i t can be known and managed. These p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s c o n s t i t u t e p a r t i c u l a r r e l a t i o n s of knowing, which are taken f o r granted i n f a c t u a l accounts and thus are b u i l t i n t o much of what we reco g n i z e as o b j e c t i v e f e a t u r e s of our s o c i e t y , e.g. crime, mental i l l n e s s , e t h n i c i t y , news. Th i s work focusses on those o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s as p r e c i s e l y the a c t i v i t i e s i n which s o c i a l phenomena are c o n s t i t u t e d and through which they are a v a i l a b l e to o b s e r v a t i o n . This approach shares many aspects of the ethnomethodological concern with \" P r a c t i c a l Reasoning i n O r g a n i z a t i o n a l S e t t i n g s \" which Turner (1974) d e s c r i b e s as the s h i f t of a t t e n t i o n toward \"the doings\" which c o n s t i t u t e s o c i a l order. (Turner 1974: 83) A t t e n t i o n i s focused on the p r o d u c t i o n of two kinds of f a c t u a l accounts: d e s c r i p t i o n and news. The primary focus i s on d e s c r i p t i o n , and p a r t i c u l a r l y on s o c i o l o g i c a l d e s c r i p t i o n . The secondary focus i s on news, and serves both to i l l u s t r a t e a method of working s o c i o l o g i c a l l y , and to begin the work of deve l o p i n g an account of news as a s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d phenomenon. The work begins by developing the basis for a c r i t i q u e of descriptive method, and the implications for sociology. The basis for the c r i t i q u e i s found i n the m a t e r i a l i s t method and Marx's view of s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s . From the work of Marx, Smith has derived a procedure for sociology, which she has c a l l e d \"substructing\" which involves \"returning to the actual s o c i a l relations which generate those phenomena as they are named, the actual practices of r e a l l i v i n g i n d i v i d u a l s , which are the only basis for the existence of s o c i a l phenomena.\" (Smith 1977b) This procedure provides an approach to s o c i o l o g i c a l descriptions which focusses on description i n a way that i s s i m i l a r to Wittgenstein's notion of a language-game, as a use of language which involves \"a d e f i n i t e use of words, a d e f i n i t e way of meaning.\" (Smith 1977b) The following aspects of descriptive method are examined: a) How the descriptive method gives a determinate character to i t s subject; b) How the descriptive method obscures the organized relations of knowing as part of the constitution of the phenomenon; c) How the descriptive use of terms i s dependent upon the o r i g i n a l working setting, and how that dependence may be u t i l i z e d to develop an alternative procedure for doing accounts. Two accounts of 'Sources of News\" are presented. The f i r s t i l l u s t r a t e s a conventional form of description; the second i s an attempt to begin to develop an account which has the character of an explication, and which would provide an alternative to conventional description. Some observations are made about problems i n learning to put together an account which avoids o b j e c t i f i c a t i o n by taking as i t s problematic what\":, i s already given i n description•- that the phenomenon i s there to be described. An expl i c a t i v e account i s described as one which must be entered from within the organization of s o c i a l relations in which the phenomenon arises. The discussion of \"Sources of News\" i s considered as an in d i c a t i o n of how i t would be possible to work on larger aspects of news production, or on other forms of organization. The method i s described as one which allows us to see how accounts are produced as part of a larger organization which gives determination to what emerges as the product. i v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT i TABLE OF CONTENTS ' i v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 On D e s c r i p t i o n 10 On News 13 Some Background 15 CHAPTER TWO: ON DESCRIPTIVE METHOD 23 I. How the d e s c r i p t i v e method g i v e s a determinate c h a r a c t e r 35 I I . How the d e s c r i p t i v e method obscures the o r g a n i z e d r e l a t i o n s of knowing . . . 42 I I I . How the d e s c r i p t i v e use of terms i s dependent upon the o r i g i n a l s e t t i n g . . 50 CHAPTER THREE: TOWARD EXPLICATIVE ACCOUNTS 58 D e s c r i b i n g Sources of News: An I l l u s t r a t i o n 60 Sources of News: Doing An E x p l i c a t i v e Account . 62 Toward Other E x p l i c a t i v e Accounts 72 CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION - - 76 BIBLIOGRAPHY 8 4 V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am profoundly indebted to Dorothy Smith f o r the conception and d i r e c t i o n of the work t h a t i s presented here. I t i s her v i s i o n f o r s o c i o l o g y t h a t I am engaged i n l e a r n i n g , p r a c t i c i n g , and e x p r e s s i n g i n these pages. I am g r a t e f u l to her f o r encouragement and c r i t i c i s m , r e s e a r c h funds and o f f i c e space, as w e l l as dozens of lunches and c h a l l e n g i n g d i s c u s s i o n s . For four years she has p e r s i s t e n t l y chipped away a t my understanding of.-; the s o c i a l world, w i t h the remarkable s e n s i t i v i t y to the l e a r n i n g process which i s valued by a l l those who have worked with her. I a l s o want to express h e a r t f e l t thanks to the others whose labour o f v a r i o u s kinds i s represented here: E l v i Whittaker gave generously of her time, knowledge, and enthusiam to launch me i n t o the waters of n o n - p o s i t i v i s m , and has c o n t i n u a l l y c h a l l e n g e d me along the way to demonstrate t h a t I have not indeed, run aground once again. Her advice arid d i r e c t i o n have been h i g h l y valued. Helga Jacobsen made p o s s i b l e a program combining employment, graduate s t u d i e s , and 'maternity' ( i n c l u d i n g the o c c a s i o n a l d i r t y diaper) which s t a r t e d me on t h i s endeavor. Her support and c o n t r i b u t i o n o f c r i t i c i s m have been g r e a t l y a p p r e c i a t e d . v i Newsroom personnel, who go unnamed, shared t h e i r time generously, and kindly endured my endless questions and i n q u i s i t i v e gaze. Alison Boulter; Marie Campbell and Marguerite Cassin contributed to a climate of mutual support and enquiry which we shared during the past year. Dorothy R e s t a l l -provided the typing s k i l l s to produce the f i n a l d r aft. Parts of the research were supported by Canada Council Grant #S73-1457. F i n a l l y , I wish to acknowledge the cooperation and encouragement of my family, B i l l and Mandy Jackson. - 1 -CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION In the present work a concern with news and a concern with description are fundamentally interwoven. Both are understood as part of a s p e c i f i c i n t e r e s t i n factual and documentary accounts as c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of how our society i s known and administered. Both journalism and sociology provide occasions for the production of these accounts. Our knowledge of the world i s i n various ways mediated by organizations which do the work of transforming the world of experience into factual or documentary forms i n which i t can be known and administered, e.g. news reports, medical records, police reports, insurance records, b i r t h c e r t i f i c a t e s , licenses, etc. Since much of our knowledge comes to us through such channels, the mediated character of our knowledge i s fundamental to how we are related to the world i n which we l i v e . A mediated knowledge i s not only the mode of knowing for government, b u s i n e s s t h e professions, or s o c i a l science.- It i s also the mode of knowing which i s available to a l l persons as ordinary members of our society. We depend upon the production - 2 -of knowledge by others to inform us about what goes on beyond the l i m i t s of our d a i l y experience. News i s one of these forms of knowledge \"by report\". News i s r e l i e d upon i n many ways not only to inform us as private persons, but as part of the public dialogue which casts us i n given ways as participants i n the economic and p o l i t i c a l process. S i m i l a r l y , s o c i o l o g i c a l description i s r e l i e d upon as a method of organizing the world so that we may know i t from a position occupied by the i n t e l l i g e n s i a . I t i s the practices which constitute these various organized relations of knowing which are the central issue i n t h i s paper. Factual accounts are produced i n determinate organizational contexts which mediate between the world of experience, i . e . what people actually do, and the knowledge which i s made available as a means to know the world. This mediation i s i t s e l f a p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y , i n actual settings of work, such as governing, administ-ra t i v e , and educational organizations. In these settings, the work i s done which transforms the world of experience into the forms i n which i t can be known and managed. What i s special to our kind of society i s that much which we recognize as that which we know...is already worked up and produced i n a process which mediates i t s r e l a t i o n to what men1 have actually done i n the place where the process begins. That mediating process i t s e l f i s a p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y . It includes at least l l n her e a r l i e r work, Smith follows the general convention of using maculine pronouns to represent both sexes. - 3 -these: procedures for finding, selecting and ordering from, o r i g i n a l events. The events have themselves a structure p r i o r to and standing i n an indeterminate r e l a t i o n to the structure of the account; the making of an account; and then the determinate sequential procedure by which that account i s brought forward to the point at which i t i s read or heard or seen. (Smith, 1974a:54) Thi s paper i s concerned with these p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s . I t examines the p r o d u c t i o n of f a c t u a l accounts as a p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y of p a r t i c u l a r persons, i n p a r t i c u l a r s e t t i n g s , and with p a r t i c u l a r purposes i n mind. They are produced as p a r t of a p a r t i c u l a r e n t e r p r i s e , and the methods t h a t are used to do them i n order to meet the requirements of the e n t e r p r i s e g i v e d e t e r -mination to what emerges as the product. A very g e n e r a l account of the process under examination might go l i k e t h i s : f i r s t there i s something \"out t h e r e \" t h a t a c t u a l l y happened. This out there-ness can be c h a r a c t e r i z e d as t h a t which happens as embedded i n the temporal flow of experience, a c t i o n , becoming, which i s the world as i t i s l i v e d ; then there i s a work (which a l s o , of course takes p l a c e i n t h i s same mode) which produces a w r i t t e n account of t h a t which a c t u a l l y happened. In doing so i t draws a boundary around i t ( i n the o r i g i n a l i t may not have been bounded). I t transforms i t i n t o an \" i t \" . I t c o n s t i t u t e s i t as a d i s t i n c t \"what a c t u a l l y happened\", as an event or s t a t e . T h i s process of making an account i n documentary form i s s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d . We can c a l l i t the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of the p r o d u c t i o n of a f a c t u a l account. (Smith, 1976b:l) I would l i k e to focus b r i e f l y on the term \" s o c i a l organization\" as used by Smith above and throughout this paper. This term i s often a source of confusion and misunderstanding of work of the - 4 -f k i n d t h a t i s to be presented here, i n t h a t the term i s being used i n a way which departs i n important, i f not a l t o g e t h e r obvious, ways from i t s c o n v e n t i o n a l use i n - s o c i o l o g y and anthropology. The problem has to do w i t h how the o b j e c t s of study are c o n s t i t u t e d . In the prese n t work the term \" s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n \" o r \" s o c i a l l y o r g anized\" i s used to i d e n t i f y a realm of o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s i n which s o c i a l phenomena come i n t o b e i n g with t h e appearance of o b j e c t i v e f e a t u r e s of the s o c i a l world; i t i d e n t i f i e s an \" o n t o l o g i c a l \" s t a t u s of s o c i a l phenomena. That i s , these terms i d e n t i f y a domain i n which ' o b j e c t s ' come i n t o e x i s t e n c e by being assembled, or g a n i z e d as phenomena, s o c i a l l y . They ' e x i s t ' as s o c i a l pheonomena only i n the a c t i v i t i e s of people i n which these forms are produced as appearances. They are fundamentally a s o c i a l c o n s t r u c t i o n , and have no other e x i s t e n c e than i n t h e i r ongoing, s o c i a l accomplisment. T h i s way of working procedes from the understanding t h a t there are only people and peoples' a c t i v i t i e s , and whatever ' e x i s t s ' comes i n t o being and i s maintained i n and by those a c t i v i t i e s . T h i s i s a m a t e r i a l i s t p o s t i o n , but not, I would argue, a p o s i t i v i s t one. Rather, work of t h i s k i n d focusses on o b j e c t s as e s s e n t i a l l y i n t e r s u b j e c t i v e - as a r i s i n g and being c o n s t i t u t e d i n t e r s u b j e c t i v e l y . T h i s work presumes t h a t such o b j e c t s are a v a i l a b l e to o b s e r v a t i o n o n l y i n so f a r as the o r g a n i z a t i o n of s o c i a l a cts which b r i n g s them i n t o being as s o c i a l o b j e c t s i s a v a i l a b l e to o b s e r v a t i o n . T h i s understanding - 5 -i s the b a s i s f o r an approach to most of what we r e c o g n i z e as ' o b j e c t i v e 1 f e a t u r e s of our s o c i e t y : o r d e r , s t a t u s , e t h n i c i t y , deviance, news, c u l t u r e , g i f t s , e t c . Take the example of a g i f t ( c f . Smith 1976c). A g i f t i s a phenomenon which i s brought i n t o b e i n g as a p a r t i c u l a r s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n . A g i f t does not e x i s t as such other than as i t a r i s e s i n the r e l a t i o n s between people which i t mediates. That i s , a box of candy i s a box of candy, but i t may be o r g a n i z e d as a g i f t i n a p a r t i c u l a r r e l a t i o n of exchange between people. S i m i l a r l y , an o c c a s i o n such as a meeting only e x i s t s as a s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n . That i s , a group of people s i t t i n g i n a room do not c o n s t i t u t e a meeting; they may be w a i t i n g f o r a movie to s t a r t , w a i t i n g to c a t c h a t r a i n , e t c . I t i s a p a r t i c u l a r r e l a t i o n among those people which b r i n g s the meeting-ness of an o c c a s i o n i n t o being, assembles or o r g a n i z e s the o c c a s i o n as a meeting. The meeting-ness i s s o c i a l l y o r g a n ized, brought i n t o being as a s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n . I t i s not t h a t a meeting i s produced by a given s e t of a c t i v i t i e s or r e l a t i o n s , but t h a t i t i s c o n s t i t u t e d p r e c i s e l y in-those a c t i v i t i e s . Without those a c t i v i t i e s the 'meeting' has no e x i s t e n c e whatsoever. Thus the term s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n p o i n t s to a domain i n which the o b j e c t s of study are c o n s t i t u t e d . I t begins to i d e n t i f y an - 6 -e p i s t e m o l o g i c a l realm w i t h i n which t h i s work i s l o c a t e d . I t i s a realm which i s e s t a b l i s h e d i n the work of ethnomethodology. What ethnomethodology has begun to do i s work back from the f a m i l i a r forms i n which the s o c i a l process i s o r d i n a r i l y known and d e s c r i b e d , to an account of the \" p r a c t i c a l r easoning\", i n c l u d i n g o rganized p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s , i n which these forms are c o n s t i t u t e d . One key area i n t o which work of t h i s k i n d has taken ethno-methodologists i s i n t o o r g a n i z a t i o n a l s e t t i n g s . Heap (1975) r e f e r s to work of t h i s k i n d as \" n o n - r e i f i e d \" accounts of o r g a n i z a t i o n (see G a r f i n k e l , 1967; C i c o u r e l , 1968; Zimmerman, 1970). For example, i n Turner's c o l l e c t i o n of readings e n t i t l e d Ethnomethodology, there i s a s e c t i o n of e i g h t a r t i c l e s which d e a l i n v a r i o u s ways with \" P r a c t i c a l Reasoning i n O r g a n i z a t i o n a l S e t t i n g s \" . The s e t t i n g s i n c l u d e the work of j u v e n i l e o f f i c e r s , a h o s p i t a l ward, a w e l f a r e agency, a c r i s i s c e n t e r , and a h a l f way house f o r c o n v i c t s . Turner d i r e c t s us i n these a r t i c l e s t o \"the s h i f t o f a t t e n t i o n . . . t o w a r d s i n v e s t i g a t i n g the p r o d u c t i o n p r a c t i c e s , the 'doings' which c o n s t i t u t e s o c i a l order, and away from the products (e.g. records) conceived of as independent of these p r a c t i c e s \" . (Turner, 1974:83) Zimmerman (1969) p r o v i d e s an e x c e l l e n t i l l u s t r a t i o n of t h i s k i n d of work i n h i s a r t i c l e \"Record Keeping and the Intake Process i n a P u b l i c Welfare Agency\", where he examines the taken f o r granted - 7 -use of documents i n a w e l f a r e i n t a k e p r o c e s s . ^ He i s concerned to show how records achieve t h e i r s t a t u s as o f f i c i a l , a u t h o r i t a t i v e accounts i n the s e t t i n g of t h e i r p r o d u c t i o n and use. He demonstrates t h a t the \" f a c t u a l i t y , o b j e c t i v i t y , and i m p e r s o n a l i t y of the i n f o r m a t i o n contained i n those records i s an everyday, p r a c t i c a l concern, and an everyday, p r a c t i c a l accomplishment.\" (Zimmerman, 1969:321) Turner summarizes t h i s ethnomethodological focus on p r a c t i c a l r easoning and p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s as t h a t which \"makes pr o b l e m a t i c (which i s t o say, a t o p i c f o r i n v e s t i g a t i o n and a n a l y s i s ) the c h a r a c t e r of members' a c t i v i t i e s i n producing the a c t i o n scenes and the t a l k embedded i n and i n t e g r a l to those scenes...\" (Turner, 1974:10) He c h a r a c t e r i z e s the work as t h a t which takes the s o c i a l world to be \"a constant doing and a c h i e v i n g \" , and sees t h i s \"doing\" as \" t o p i c a l l y a v a i l a b l e t o the s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t \" . (Turner, 1974:10) One p o i n t which needs to be made c l e a r i s the r e l a t i o n of work of t h i s k i n d to the \" n a t u r a l a t t i t u d e \" (Schutz). Ethno-methodological work does not make the c l a i m to produce a members' p o i n t of view, though the work begins with the landmarks of the members' experience: language, and s o c i a l o b j e c t s , e.g. c l i e n t s , cases, s u i c i d e s , s t o r i e s , phone t i p s , e t c . The ethno-^This a r t i c l e appears i n abridged form i n Turner (19 74), under the t i t l e , \"Fact as P r a c t i c a l Accomplishment\". methodological work i s that of providing for how i t i s that the language and s o c i a l phenomena of the members'world are there to be experienced. Zimmerman, for example, points out that for personnel i n the welfare agency he studied, \"...documents often had an obvious character. They were seen by personnel as obviously factual reports about a variety of circumstances relevant to the deter-mination of e l i g i b i l i t y . . . \" (1969:354). Zimmerman's work was concerned with how th'is f a c t i c i t y was an accomplisment of the a c t i v i t i e s of the workers themselves. However this was never a problem from the worker's point of view. \"When simply taken for granted, the features of these ordered domains are matters of mere recognition for which no accounts are c a l l e d for or given. Indeed, such routine recognition, and the action and inference proceeding from i t , i s the mark of the competent worker\". (Zimmerman, 1969:354) Sim i l a r l y , Garfinkel points out the discrepancy, between the work he and his colleagues were engaged i n at the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, and the perspective of the personnel they were studying. ...personnel at the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center found i t altogether incongruous to consider seriously that they be so engaged i n the work of c e r t i f y i n g mode of death [of] a person seeking to commit suicide, and they could concert t h e i r e f f o r t s to assure the unequivocal recognition of \"what r e a l l y happened\". (Garfinkel 1967:7-8) - 9 -The i n t e r e s t i n f a c t u a l accounts i n the pr e s e n t paper i s s i m i l a r to these ethnomethodological concerns. I t focuses on s e l e c t e d aspects of organized p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s both i n the p r o d u c t i o n of s o c i o l o g i c a l descr.ip.t'ions and i n the p r o d u c t i o n of news accounts. The aim i s to expl o r e how the c h a r a c t e r of d e s c r i p t i v e accounts and the c h a r a c t e r of news accounts a r i s e as p r a c t i c a l accomplishments i n the o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s of t h e i r p r o d u c t i o n and use. In n e i t h e r case, however, i s the work an e x p l i c a t i o n of a members' p o i n t of view. The work on d e s c r i p t i o n s w i l l focus on aspects of d e s c r i p t i v e method which are taken f o r granted i n the work of the s o c i o l o g i s t . The work on news p r o d u c t i o n w i l l focus on f e a t u r e s of the work which 1 are seen as having an unproblematic c h a r a c t e r by news-people themselves. The primary focus i s on the s o c i o l o g i c a l e n t e r p r i s e : on the p r o d u c t i o n of d e s c r i p t i o n s i n s o c i o l o g y , and on developing an adequate procedure f o r s o c i o l o g i c a l enquiry. The secondary focus on the p r o d u c t i o n of news then serves both to i l l u s t r a t e a method of working s o c i o l o g i c a l l y , and to begin the work of deve l o p i n g an account of the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of the p r o d u c t i o n of news. N e i t h e r of these tasks can be completed i n t h i s paper, of course, but some aspects of each of them can be developed. - 10 -ON DESCRIPTION Co n s i d e r a b l e a t t e n t i o n w i l l be given to e s t a b l i s h i n g the b a s i s f o r a c r i t i q u e of d e s c r i p t i v e method which i s a t the ce n t r e of t h i s work. The c r i t i q u e f o l l o w s from some aspects of the work of Marx and W i t t g e n s t e i n , l a r g e l y as they are developed i n the work of Smith. Chapter 2 w i l l begin by examining t h i s work. The d i s c u s s i o n w i l l then t u r n t o s e v e r a l aspects o f the d e s c r i p t i v e method which are brought to our a t t e n t i o n by Smith's c r i t i q u e . The work of d e s c r i p t i o n w i l l be d i s c u s s e d as a p a r t i c u l a r e n t e r p r i s e t h a t i s done i n d e f i n i t e s e t t i n g s and has d e f i n i t e methods of g e t t i n g i t done, and which lends a determinate c h a r a c t e r to i t s s u b j e c t . The concern i s to begin to make v i s i b l e these aspects of d e s c r i p t i v e work as p a r t of what the s o c i o l o g i s t s makes use of at a l e v e l which she takes f o r granted i n her work. C i c o u r e l poses a problem of t h i s k i n d i n h i s work The S o c i a l O r g a n i z a t i o n of J u v e n i l e J u s t i c e (1968). He i s concerned w i t h the problem of t a c i t knowledge as a resource i n the doing of d e s c r i p t i o n . He d e s c r i b e s the problem of adequately \" b o t t l i n g \" the phenomenon under study as a complicated one. ' The c o m p l i c a t i o n s a r i s e because we must att e n d to the problem of how the observer... u t i l i z e s t a c i t knowledge (background i n f o r m a t i o n or what anyone \"knows\") i n i d e n t i f y i n g and s e l e c t i n g m a t e r i a l s . . . - 11 -and recommending i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s (as s t r a i g h t d e s c r i p t i o n s or coded shorthand accounts) or \"what happened\". ...What s o r t s of agreements must both the r e s e a r c h e r and reader achieve as c o n d i t i o n s f o r d e c i d i n g the v a r i o u s meanings being rendered? Assuming both the r e s e a r c h e r and the reader are members of the same s o c i e t y , i t might be easy to agree on the meaning of p h y s i c a l items l i k e c h a i r s and t a b l e s . . . b u t I am i n t e r e s t e d i n how we a s s i g n unequivocal meaning to a j u v e n i l e ' s tone of v o i c e when a p o l i c e o f f i c e r or a p r o b a t i o n o f f i c e r or judge l a b e l s such behaviour \" i n d e f i a n c e of a u t h o r i t y \" or an i n d i c a t i o n of a \"bad a t t i t u d e \" . Other problems i n c l u d e agreement on the meaning of g e s t u r e s , jokes, a n x i e t y , and the l i k e . The c o m p l i c a t i o n s are enormous. ( C i c o u r e l , 1968:2-3) The argument w i l l be developed t h a t d e s c r i p t i o n can be seen as a p a r t i c u l a r k i n d of language game (Wittgenstein) which b u i l d s i n t o d e s c r i p t i v e accounts a number of t a k e n - f o r - g r a n t e d a s p e c t s . This paper w i l l examine how the cTe-scriptive method depends upon a knowledge of the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s i n which phenomena a r i s e , and which are taken f o r granted by r e p r e s e n t i n g the o b j e c t s as e x i s t i n g independently of these p r a c t i c e s . I t w i l l a l s o examine how the method takes f o r granted the o r g a n i z e d s o c i a l r e l a t i o n i n which a phenomenon i s c o n s t i t u t e d as what i t i s f o r the observer, by e l i m i n a t i n g the presence of a knower from the account of the o b j e c t of knowledge. These aspects of the d e s c r i p t i v e method w i l l be d i s c u s s e d as p a r t of what needs to be e x p l i c a t e d i n order to provide an adequate grounding of d e s c r i p t i v e accounts. - 12 -There are two r e l a t e d q uestions which u n d e r l i e the concern with d e s c r i p t i o n s which i s expressed here. One of these i s what k i n d of work i t i s expected t h a t d e s c r i p t i o n s should do f o r us. I t seems t h a t c o n v e n t i o n a l l y d e s c r i p t i o n has been expected to provide an adequately o b j e c t i v e \"summary or e x p r e s s i o n \" (Smith) of the o b j e c t , the s e t t i n g , the phenomenon t h a t . i t claims to r e p r e s e n t . The p r e s e n t work begins from the c o n v i c t i o n t h a t t h i s i s not enough; t h a t i t i s necessary to do accounts of phenomena which d i s p l a y the o b j e c t s of d e s c r i p t i o n i n such a way t h a t we know something about how they are c o n s t i t u t e d i n p r a c t i c e as the r e s u l t of the d e s c r i p t i o n s we have done of them. Accounts of t h i s k i n d begin to do the work of e x p l i c a t i n g , r a t h e r than \"summarizing\", how the s o c i a l world i s put t o g e t h er. I f the task of d e s c r i p t i o n i s to be t h i s e x p l i c a t i v e work, then as Smith p o i n t s out, s o c i o l o g y has not made much pr o g r e s s . ...the t o t a l i t y o f the s o c i a l p r o c e s s . . . awaits d e s c r i p t i o n , and awaits d e s c r i p t i o n i n the f i r s t • p l a c e , p r i o r to the t h e o r e t i c a l i n t e r e s t s t h a t we may have as s o c i o l o g i s t s . I t h i n k i n the f i r s t p l a c e we don't r e a l l y know how to d e s c r i b e i t p r o p e r l y . And I t h i n k t h i s i s the s o c i a l phenomenon; t h i s i s the s u b j e c t matter of s o c i o l o g y . . . p r e c i s e l y t h i s s o c i a l process which b r i n g s i n t o being a world i n the context of s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s as a c t u a l p r a c t i c e s . . . (Smith 1976c:10) The other q u e s t i o n , which i s suggested by Smith above, has to do w i t h how one understands the s o c i a l world to e x i s t . That i s , i f one assumes t h a t f e a t u r e s of the s o c i a l world e x i s t - 13 -o b j e c t i v e l y and are c o n c r e t e l y a v a i l a b l e to o b s e r v a t i o n and d e s c r i p t i o n , then the k i n d of account which one would do i s one t h a t r e p r e s e n t s the f e a t u r e s of the s o c i a l world i n the most ' o b j e c t i v e ' p o s s i b l e l i g h t . On the other hand, i f one begins from the understanding t h a t the f e a t u r e s of the s o c i a l world are fundamentally a s o c i a l c o n s t r u c t i o n , then one would want to do accounts which e x p l i c a t e how the f e a t u r e s of the s o c i a l world are put together i n t h i s way. The p r e s e n t work c l e a r l y s u b s c r i b e s to t h i s l a t t e r v e r s i o n of s o c i a l r e a l i t y and the e x p l i c a t i v e form of accounts which i t r e q u i r e s . Thus the p r e s e n t paper i s i n v o l v e d i n recommending an a l t e r n a t i v e t o c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n . We have c a l l e d these e x p l i c a t i o n s , or e x p l i c a t i v e accounts, to c a l l a t t e n t i o n to t h e i r c h a r a c t e r as accounts which address the problem of how i t i s t h a t the phenomena are t h e r e to be d e s c r i b e d . That i s we are concerned w i t h developing and recommending a form of account: which e x p l i c a t e s the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d c h a r a c t e r of phenomena. ON\" \"NEWS The i n t e r e s t i n d e s c r i p t i o n which i s expressed here has a r i s e n as a c e n t r a l concern out of ongoing r e s e a r c h i n t o the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of the p r o d u c t i o n of news. T h i s r e s e a r c h i s focussed on the p r a c t i c e s which b r i n g news i n t o being as an - 14 -o r d i n a r y f e a t u r e of the s o c i a l world t h a t can be bought and s o l d i n a paper, and i s understood to r e p r e s e n t what happens i n the world each day. In the course of t h i s r e s e a r c h i t has become i n c r e a s i n g l y ^ c l e a r t h a t the methods' and the problems of the p r o d u c t i o n of news accounts are i n t i m a t e l y connected to our own e n t e r p r i s e i n the r e s e a r c h , which i s the p r o d u c t i o n of s o c i o l o g i c a l accounts. Both are occasions of the p r o d u c t i o n of f a c t u a l accounts. Both i n v o l v e a s e t of determinate p r a c t i c e s which mediate between what people a c t u a l l y do and the account of t h a t a c t i v i t y which i s produced. The concern i n the ongoing r e s e a r c h on news has been to examine the o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s of news p r o d u c t i o n which mediate between what goes on i n the world and t h a t which we know of i t as news, and to f i n d the ways i n which those mediating p r a c t i c e s g i v e d e t e r m i n a t i o n to what emerges as the product. In the present paper, some p r e l i m i n a r y accounts of aspects of news p r o d u c t i o n w i l l be i n t r o d u c e d which are intended to begin to e x p l i c a t e these o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s . The d i s c u s s i o n w i l l focus on the a c t i v i t i e s which c o n s t i t u t e o r d i n a r y f e a t u r e s of the work of news p r o d u c t i o n , such as sources of news and phone t i p s , and w i l l i n d i c a t e how more g e n e r a l aspects of news p r o d u c t i o n which a r i s e as a s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e may a l s o be e x p l o r e d . I t w i l l be suggested t h a t the language of - 15 -jo u r n a l i s t s themselves may be used to organize an inquiry into these practices. SOME BACKGROUND The research on news has a rather long his t o r y . I t began in 1973 with a graduate seminar on the sociology of knowledge. The focus of.that seminar was on the s o c i a l construction of documentary forms of knowledge. News was studied by the group as an example of a documentary form of knowledge which i s produced as an ongoing, d a i l y occurance, and i s p a r t i c u l a r l y available to study. Students did f i e l d work on various aspects of news: t e l e v i s i o n news, labour news reporting for a news-paper, c i t y h a l l beat reporting for newspaper, alternative newspapers. One outgrowth from that seminar was a summer project funded by the p r o v i n c i a l Department of Labour under the Professions for Tomorrow program. The project was c a l l e d the B. C. Community News Project. The summer's work focussed on the issues of ownership and control of newspapers i n the lower mainland of B.C. This research c a l l e d into question the widely accepted formulations of concentration of ownership as a source of bias i n the news, such as the work of Porter (1965), Clement (1975), and the Report of the Special Senate Committee on Mass Media (1970). - 16 -F o l l o w i n g from the seminar and summer p r o j e c t , s e v e r a l o f the students i n v o l v e d have done Masters theses on the t o p i c of news, u s i n g i n v a r i o u s ways the b a s i c framework which was developed i n the e a r l i e r a c t i v i t i e s . M a r i l e e Paulson (1975) d i d work on labour news r e p o r t i n g i n a major d a i l y paper, f o c u s s i n g on the d e f i n i t i o n of labour news as i t i s c o n s t r u c t e d by the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s of newswork. S y l v i a Webster (1977) s t u d i e d r e p o r t i n g p r a c t i c e s on the c i t y h a l l beat of a d a i l y paper, and focussed on the r e l a t i o n between r e p o r t i n g p r a c t i c e s and ethnographic methods. Kevin Busswood[(forthcoming) has done work on the p r a c t i c a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of the p r o d u c t i o n of t e l e v i s i o n news. In a d d i t i o n to these papers which are i n v a r i o u s ways r e l a t e d to one another i n t h e i r approach to news, there i s some l i t e r a t u r e i n communication s t u d i e s and s o c i o l o g y which we have found p a r t i c u l a r l y i n t e r e s t i n g and h e l p f u l , even though f o r the most p a r t i t does not share p r e c i s e l y , the p e r s p e c t i v e which we have been attempting to develop. For example, we were i n t e r e s t e d i n the work of J . T u n s t a l l , (1971); E . J . E p s t e i n , (1973); E l l i o t t , H a l l o r a n & Murdock, (1970);. H. Molotch and M. L e s t e r , (1973, 1974); R. Darnton, (1975); M. Fishman (1976) and i n p a r t i c u l a r the r e c e n t work of G. Tuchman, (1976). While these works w i l l be seen to d i f f e r q u i t e w i d e l y among themselves, and while none r e p r e s e n t s e x a c t l y the approach t h a t w i l l be developed here, what they do share with one another and with the pre s e n t work i s a concern w i t h the p r a c t i c a l aspects of newswork - 17 -as s i g n i f i c a n t i n the d e t e r m i n a t i o n of the c h a r a c t e r of news. The work represented i n the present paper began i n the f a l l of 19 75 under the sponsorship of a Canada C o u n c i l Grant. The funds were granted to Dorothy Smith to study \"The S o c i a l O r g a n i z a t i o n of News\". The s t a t e d aims of the r e s e a r c h p r o j e c t were to \" i n v e s t i g a t e the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s which tra n s f o r m an o r i g i n a l a c t u a l event i n t o the form of an item of news i n a newspaper\", and to develop \"concepts and methods capable of a n a l y z i n g and examining the r e l a t i o n s between the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of the p r o d u c t i o n of news and the news s t o r y as a r e p r e s e n t a t i o n of an a c t u a l event\". (Canada C o u n c i l Grant Proposal.) Both of these aims are r e p r e s e n t e d i n the work which i s presented i n t h i s paper, although i t i s f a r from exhaustive of the work t h a t has been done i n e i t h e r of these areas i n the course of the r e s e a r c h . The f i e l d work f o r t h i s p r o j e c t was done between January and J u l y , 19 76. Arrangements were made to have access to the newsroom of a major d a i l y newspaper to do o b s e r v a t i o n s and i n t e r -views. During the months of January, February and March, I spent approximately a dozen p e r i o d s of o b s e r v a t i o n i n the newsroom, a total.'of: roughly 50 hours. In the months A p r i l to J u l y a number of a d d i t i o n a l i n t e r v i e w s were conducted j o i n t l y w i t h Dorothy Smith, and much time was given to the s e r i o u s methodological c o n s i d e r a t i o n s which had been h i g h l i g h t e d by the f i e l d e x p erience. - 18 -The g o a l of our o b s e r v a t i o n a l work was to produce what we c a l l e d a \"focussed ethnography\", i . e . one aimed a t a d e s c r i p t i o n of d e f i n i t e aspects o f the o r g a n i z a t i o n a l p r o c e s s . Our focus was r e s t r i c t e d to the p r o d u c t i o n o f l o c a l news. We were i n t e r e s t e d i n o b s e r v i n g and d e s c r i b i n g the p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s and working r e l a t i o n s of g e n e r a l r e p o r t e r s and c i t y e d i t o r s and a s s i s t a n t s a t the c i t y desk. We were not, t h e r e f o r e , concerned with news which i s produced by wire s e r v i c e s or on beats which operate p r i m a r i l y o u t s i d e the newsroom. This f o c u s ; r e s u l t e d i n a t t e n t i o n to the assignment p r o c e s s , the work of the r e w r i t e desk, sources of l o c a l news, and the dev e l o p i n g of news s t o r i e s by phone. The aims of our work a l s o r e q u i r e d t h a t we give our a t t e n t i o n to the o r d e r i n g of the r e l a t i o n of o u r s e l v e s as observers to the s e t t i n g and to people i n the newsroom as informants. Our o b s e r v a t i o n s focussed on the p r a c t i c e s of i n d i v i d u a l s as they were r e l a t e d to one another i n the t o t a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of work by which news i s s o c i a l l y produced. We d i d not look f o r the c o n s t r u c t i o n of news as a p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y w i t h i n an i n d i v i d u a l ' s p r a c t i c e , but r a t h e r as a process which i s fund-amentally s o c i a l ; as something which a r i s e s between people i n the way t h a t t h e i r a c t i v i t i e s depend upon one another and compliment one another i n an o r g a n i z a t i o n of work. T h i s organ-i z a t i o n became a v a i l a b l e to us by a t t e n d i n g to the language which i s i n t e g r a l to t h a t work. - 19 -- The O b s e r v a t i o n a l S e t t i n g Observations were made i n the newsroom d u r i n g v a r i o u s p e r i o d s of the day. The g r e a t e s t p o r t i o n were made d u r i n g the evening s h i f t , as i t was found t h a t a t t h i s time of day i t was p o s s i b l e to l e a r n a great d e a l about the o r g a n i z a t i o n of the newsroom without my presence there being g r e a t l y d i s r u p t i v e . The afternoons were v i s i t e d a f t e r I had a p r e l i m i n a r y understanding of the s e t t i n g , and f i n a l l y the morning s h i f t was v i s i t e d a few times o n l y , as i t was the b u s i e s t p e r i o d of the day i n the newsroom and the time when my presence there was l e a s t convenient. The c i t y desk, which s u p e r v i s e s the w r i t i n g o f l o c a l news, s i t s i n the c e n t e r of the l a r g e , busy newsroom, adjacent to the c l u s t e r of r e p o r t e r s desks (about 20) and the r e w r i t e desk. The a c t i v i t i e s which we observed were a l l w i t h i n a few paces of one another, e a s i l y w i t h i n view or speaking d i s t a n c e from \\ one desk to any ot h e r . T h i s grouping of desks forms a r e c o g n i z a b l e \"node\" or c i r c u l a t i o n area i n a room which o t h e r -wise, a t f i r s t glance, looks l i k e a c h a o t i c a r r a y o f desks. Because of the 2 4 hour nature o f news work, these desks are occupied by d i f f e r e n t people at d i f f e r e n t hours of the day. The c i t y desk i s occupied d u r i n g most of the day by the c i t y e d i t o r and two: a s s i s t a n t s ; d u r i n g the' evening there i s a:.night, c i t y e d i t o r and u s u a l l y one a s s i s t a n t . ' During days, the r e w r i t e - 20 -desk i s s t a f f e d by one man and u s u a l l y f o u r women; a t n i g h t there i s u s u a l l y one man and one woman. During the mornings there are anywhere from 9 to 14 g e n e r a l r e p o r t e r s a t t h e i r desks; the evenings are h i g h l y v a r i a b l e , r anging from 2 to 10. During the time t h a t I was o b s e r v i n g , I can r e c a l l 5 women on the ge n e r a l r e p o r t i n g s t a f f of 27 and no women i n p o s i t i o n s at the c i t y desk. O r g a n i z a t i o n o f The Research I w o u l d ! l i k e to comment on the o r g a n i z a t i o n of working r e l a t i o n s i n the course of t h i s r e s e a r c h . The f o u n d a t i o n and sense of d i r e c t i o n f o r the e n t e r p r i s e were p r o v i d e d by Dorothy Smith, i n p a r t by the work which i s d i s c u s s e d e a r l i e r i n t h i s chapter. The o b s e r v a t i o n a l work which i s r epresented here was done by me. There were some j o i n t i n t e r v i e w s i n the l a t e r : months o f f i e l d work. During the p e r i o d of f i e l d o b s e r v a t i o n we met onl y twice to d i s c u s s the progress of the work. However, immediately upon ending the p e r i o d of o b s e r v a t i o n i n the newsroom, we began to work r e g u l a r l y t o g e t h e r . We began to have weekly, i n t e n s i v e working s e s s i o n s to b r i n g together the t h e o r e t i c a l and method o l o g i c a l premises from which we began, the f i e l d work experience, and the quesitons t h a t arose i n the course of the work. We worked with the problems t h a t arose both as they had - 21 -i m p l i c a t i o n s f o r our understanding of the processes of news p r o d u c t i o n , and a l s o i n c r e a s i n g l y as they c o n t r i b u t e d t o our understanding of o b s e r v a t i o n and d e s c r i p t i o n as methods of working i n s o c i o l o g y . We gave a g r e a t d e a l of time to con-s i d e r a t i o n s of language and the problem of u s i n g t a l k as data. I t i s these i n t e n s i v e working s e s s i o n s which have to a great extent produced the t h i n k i n g which i s present i n t h i s paper. These s e s s i o n s have been p a r t of the development of some of the r e c e n t , unpublished work of Dorothy Smith which i s r e f e r r e d to i n t h i s paper, p a r t of my understanding of t h a t work, and p a r t of the development of my own t h i n k i n g which i s presented here. I t has been i n v a r i o u s ways a j o i n t work, i n as much as t h a t i s p o s s i b l e between teacher and student, and has progressed as a d i a l o g u e . I t i s i n regard f o r t h i s d i a l o g u e t h a t I have found i t necessary to r e f e r i n p o r t i o n s - o f t h i s paper to \"we\" i n s t e a d of \" I \" . I t w i l l be c l e a r t h a t i n e s s e n t i a l ways t h i s work has o n l y been p o s s i b l e by t a k i n g the work of Dorothy Smith as the p l a c e to begin my own work. I have as w e l l made e x t e n s i v e use of the work of other s c h o l a r s who p r o v i d e the community of s c h o l a r s h i p w i t h i n which Smith's work belongs. However, the procedure f o r doing s o c i o l o g y which I have been i n t e r e s t e d i n l e a r n i n g does depend upon Smith's r a t h e r i n n o v a t i v e use of these o t h e r works. Thus Smith's work i s the primary p o i n t of r e f e r e n c e f o r my work. - 22 -The work of doing s o c i o l o g y and the work of d i s c o v e r i n g how t o do i t ' h a v e been i n s e p a r a b l e i n t h i s r e s e a r c h e n t e r p r i s e . The p r e s e n t paper w i l l demonstrate t h i s ; i t i s a t the same time an e f f o r t to l e a r n and p a r t i c i p a t e i n d e v e l o p i n g a procedure f o r doing s o c i o l o g y , and an e f f o r t t o begin to use t h a t method to understand the s o c i a l world. In what f o l l o w s , Chapter 2 w i l l d i s c u s s the procedure f o r enquiry which i s used i n t h i s work and i t s o r g i n s , and w i l l e x p l o r e some aspects of d e s c r i p t i v e method. Chapter 3 w i l l i n t r o d u c e examples of the type of accounts which are recommended as an a l t e r n a t i v e to d e s c r i p t i o n . - 23 -CHAPTER TWO ON DESCRIPTIVE METHOD I would l i k e t o i n t r o d u c e very b r i e f l y the way i n which t h i s work w i l l proceed and then d i s c u s s the v a r i o u s works which e s t a b l i s h the b a s i s f o r t h i s procedure. ^ The work i s most s t r o n g l y c h a r a c t e r i z e d by beginning w i t h the forms i n which the world o r d i n a r i l y appears to us, i n terms of which i t i s known by us, and which appear to e x i s t as the forms by which the world i s o r g a n i z e d independently of our i n d i v i d u a l a c t i v i t i e s . I t proceeds toward d e v e l o p i n g an account of those forms which shows, to the c o n t r a r y , how they come about p r e c i s e l y i n the p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s of people. I t i s the work of r e t u r n i n g the standard s o c i o l o g i c a l c a t e g o r i e s - power, a u t h o r i t y , communications, crime, mental i l l n e s s , e t c . - to the p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s i n which they are c o n s t i t u t e d ; to make observable a c t u a l people doing the a c t i v i t i e s which b r i n g i n t o b e i n g what i s named by these terms. T h i s way of working i n s o c i o l o g y i s developedc i n the work of Dorothy Smith. I t i s i n i t i a l l y p resented i n a paper e n t i t l e d , \"The I d e o l o g i c a l P r a c t i c e of S o c i o l o g y \" (1974a) which i s both - 24 -a c r i t i q u e of sociology and the beginnings of a : d i f f e r e n t method of working. Smith begins to set out a procedure for doing sociology which w i l l begin to make v i s i b l e how i t comes about that i n our kind of society there i s the appearance of \"acts and events without d o e r s f a c t s and information without knowers\". (Smith, 1974a:28) She defines the:essential work of sociology as that of describing the s o c i a l process i n terms of the a c t i v i t i e s which bring i t into being. She di r e c t s us to: ...the p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s of actual l i v i n g individuals as the s o c i a l r e a l i t y with which the s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t i s concerned... I t i s the p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y of actual l i v i n g individuals which both i s and produces the phenomena with which the s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t i s concerned;...whatever becomes observable to the s o c i a l scientist', under whatever form of thought has no existence other than as i t i s constituted by what men do. (Smith, 1974a:7) Smith points out, however, that she i s \"not recommending a simple return to the experienced world v i a a return to observational procedures as a way of doing sociology\". (Smith, 1974a:25) On the contrary, she begins with the understanding that much of what determines our everyday experience i s not available to us within the bounds of ordinary experience. Rather, i t i s to be found i n the processes of organization and administration which transform the experiences of individuals into forms i n which they can be known and managed from within the bureaucratic mode of organization which i s c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of our society, and i n which the 'doers' and the 'knowers' disappear. These mediating processes are the focus of the kind of sociology Smith.is - 25 -recommending. These processes o f t r a n s f o r m i n g are themselves a p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y of r e a l people i n a c t u a l s e t t i n g s o f work, though i n the o r d i n a r y r e l a t i o n of o b s e r v i n g the everyday world, they are rendered i n v i s i b l e as a c o n d i t i o n t o what we see. Thus, what Smith i s recommending, i s t h a t we i n s i s t on pa s s i n g through the forms i n which the world i s o r d i n a r i l y o b s e r vable, to d i s c o v e r how t h a t appearance i s i t s e l f a product of peoples' a c t i v i t i e s . T h i s way of working a r i s e s p r i m a r i l y out of the use Smith has made of Marx. In the pages t h a t f o l l o w we w i l l examine b r i e f l y some of the aspects o f Marx which she has drawn on, and begin to i d e n t i f y how Smith has used them to do s o c i o l o g y . Smith's use of Marx i s p r i m a r i l y focussed on method. She begins w i t h what Marx and Engels c a l l \"the f i r s t premises o f the m a t e r i a l i s t method\": The premises from which we begin are not a r b i t r a r y ones, not dogmas... they are r e a l i n d i v i d u a l s , t h e i r a c t i v i t y , and the m a t e r i a l c o n d i t i o n s under which they l i v e , both those which they a l r e a d y f i n d e x i s t i n g , and those produced by t h e i r a c t i v i t y . ^ (Marx and Engels, 1970:42) In t a k i n g up the m a t e r i a l i s t method, Smith i s f o c u s s i n g on an aspect of Marx which has been n e g l e c t e d among M a r x i s t s . I t i s the method which arose f o r Marx i n the course of h i s work; i t - 26 -f i r s t began to take shape 'in the German: Idedlogy, and then became a f u l l y developed method of working i n C a p i t a l . Smith i s c a r e f u l to d e f i n e the r e l a t i o n which i s to be understood between her work and t h i s method: The method which we began to work wi t h i s a method which i s d e r i v e d from Marx's m e t h o d . [ I t ] can't be t r e a t e d as an e x p l i c a t i o n o f Marx; i t i s d e r i v e d from h i s work, and:'is d e r i v e d from h i s work as a b a s i s on which to procede f o l l o w i n g a method which he innovated, but not n e c e s s a r i l y simply r e p l i c a t i n g t h a t method; t h a t i s , i t i s aimed to do the work of s o c i o l o g y , r a t h e r than p o l i t i c a l economy; i t i s aimed to do the work of s o c i o l o g y i n t h i s time and not i n the 19th century; and t h e r e f o r e no e f f o r t has been made to be f a i t h f u l to Marx i n a p i o u s or r e l i g i o u s sense. (Smith, 1977b) In the prese n t paper, s i n c e our concern w i l l be not p r i m a r i l y w i t h Marx, but with Smith's use of Marx,. I w i l l r e l y h e a v i l y on Smith's work, and i n p a r t i c u l a r her r e c e n t , unpublished work. Smith begins with Marx's view of s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s . She p o i n t s out t h a t Marx's use of t h i s term i s not the same as the o r d i n a r y s o c i o l o g i c a l use. That i s , s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s to Marx are not c o n t e x t s , not s t a t i c c o n f i g u r a t i o n s , not a background i n t o which peoples a c t i v i t i e s are i n s e r t e d . Rather Marx uses the term s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s to mean the a c t u a l p r a c t i c e s which o r g a n i z e persons i n r e l a t i o n to one another. They are the l i v e d connections between persons t h a t are c o n s t i t u t e d i n p r a c t i c a l - 27 -a c t i v i t i e s . R e l a t i o n s are p r a c t i c e d ; t h e i r p r a c t i c e i s an observable a c t i v i t y , a p a r t of how t h i n g s get done. The way i n which Marx proceeds w i t h the under-s t a n d i n g of s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s i s r e a l l y q u i t e d i f f e r e n t . S o c i a l r e l a t i o n s f o l l o w i n g Marx are the a c t u a l p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s of i n d i v i d u a l s . That i s , s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s are not apart from, not a means t o understanding s o c i a l a c t i o n , not a context f o r s o c i a l a c t i o n , but are indeed the a c t u a l a c t i v i t i e s ; the a c t u a l a c t i v i t i e s not understood as the a c t i v i t i e s o f i n d i v i d u a l s but understood i n terms of r e l a t i o n s which they both o r g a n i z e and are organ i z e d by. (Smith, 1977b) Accor d i n g to Smith, Marx sees t h a t s o c i a l phenomena such as labour, c a p i t a l , wages, commodities, p r o f i t , e t c . , are s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s , though they do not appear as such. (Marx, n.d.) That i s , they a r i s e i n the performance of a r e l a t i o n , a p a r t i c u l a r r e l a t i o n . The terms do not name a g e n e r a l i z e d f e a t u r e of economic process; they are not forms of o r g a n i z a t i o n i n t o which people are i n s e r t e d ; they are not o b j e c t i v e f e a t u r e s of the s o c i a l world. The terms name s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s which are produced, e x i s t o n l y i n the a c t u a l a c t i v i t i e s o f r e a l people. And indeed they o n l y a r i s e i n those a c t i v i t i e s over time. There i s a temporal process i n which t h i n g s become r e a l i z e d as what they are. Smith uses the examples from Marx of commodities: In Marx's view, a commodity, ...as an a c t u a l p a r t i c u l a r event i s not r e a l i z e d as such, i s not y e t completed as a commodity by v i r t u e of being produced f o r \"a market, by v i r t u e of being s t o r e d i n a warehouse; i t becomes a - 28 -commodity i n the process of e n t e r i n g i n t o market exchange, the exchange of monies f o r commodities. I t i s not r e a l i z e d . . . o t h e r than i n t h i s process which i s d e s c r i b e d as s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s . This.\" i s how I have attempted to understand t h a t term. (Smith, 1977a) Th i s view of s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s does a l o t of work f o r Marx. I t allows him to see t h a t economic r e l a t i o n s which appear as r e l a t i o n s between t h i n g s - money and commodities - are i n f a c t r e l a t i o n s between people. (Marx, n.d.) The terms - wages, labour, p r o f i t , c a p i t a l , commodity - o r i g i n a t e i n the p r a c t i c e a c t i v i t i e s which are the performance of the r e l a t i o n s named by these terms. In order f o r e.g. commodities- to come i n t o b e i n g , there have to be these p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s . Commodities are c o n s t i t u t e d as f e a t u r e s of the economic process p r e c i s e l y i n and by the a c t u a l p r a c t i c e s among people which are ordered i n that way and named by t h a t term. The appearance of economic r e l a t i o n s as r e l a t i o n s among t h i n g s i s i t s e l f produced by the o r g a n i z a t i o n of peoples' a c t i v i t i e s i n p r o d u c t i o n . T h i s understanding becomes the b a s i s of Marx's c r i t i q u e of p o l i t i c a l economy. I w i l l quote a t l e n g t h from Smith, who summarizes the c r i t i q u e : The m e t h o d o l o g i c a l c r i t i q u e which Marx makes of p o l i t i c a l economy... begins from terms t h a t are taken as e s s e n t i a l p a r t s o f the economic p r o c e s s , e s s e n t i a l p a r t s of the process which c o n s t i t u t e s s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s . That i s terms l i k e wages, commodities, c a p i t a l , p r o f i t , e t c . , e t c . are terms which are used i n the bu s i n e s s o f g e t t i n g the i - 29 -economy done. And they do not a r i s e out the t e c h n i c a l work of p o l i t i c a l economists. They are the terms t h a t are p a r t of the o r i g i n a l s o c i a l p r o c e s s . Hence t h e i r very e x i s t e n c e as c a t e g o r i e s which are p o t e n t i a l l y p a r t of a s c i e n t i f i c d i s c o u r s e ' i s an h i s t o r i c a l phenomenon. P o l i t i c a l economy begins w i t h these c a t e g o r i e s and concepts... but i n l o s i n g s i g h t of the a c t u a l s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s i n which the phenomenon they name a r i s e s , p o l i t i c a l economists come to t r e a t the p a r t i c u l a r l o c a l c a t e g o r i e s of c a p i t a l i s m as the f o r e v e r f e a t u r e s of economic r e l a t i o n s . ...Thus they understand the economic process as a r i s i n g from the way i n which i t i s c o n c e p t u a l i z e d r a t h e r than beginning to ground t h e i r c a t e g o r i e s and concepts i n the a c t u a l i t i e s of s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s of which those c a t e g o r i e s are o r i g i n a l l y a p a r t and which b r i n g them i n t o e x i s t e n c e as phenomenon...used by the p o l i t i c a l economists i n the development o f t h a t as a s c i e n t i f i c d i s c o u r s e . (Smith, 1977a) So we see t h a t the p o l i t i c a l economists have proceeded as t h e o r i s t s i n a manner t h a t i s fundamentally a t odds w i t h how Marx understands the phenomena to be put t o g e t h e r . They use terms by l i f t i n g them out of the s p e c i f i c s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s on which they depend, and t r e a t i n g them as g e n e r a l i z e d c a t e g o r i e s t h a t apply throughout h i s t o r y . (Marx, 1963) In t h i s way, the c a t e g o r i e s of economic a n a l y s i s come to obscure the a c t u a l p r a c t i c e of economic r e l a t i o n s . So i t i s to the terms themselves t h a t Marx i s d i r e c t e d as the p l a c e t o b e g i n i n v h i s own method of working. He proceeds by beginning from the terms which he f i n d s i n the d i s c o u r s e of p o l i t i c a l economists - wages, commodities, e t c . , - and working to r e d i s c o v e r the a c t u a l p r a c t i c e s which they name. He takes - 30 -the terms and t r a c k s back through them to the or g a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y of g e t t i n g t h i n g s done i n which the terms arose and i n which t h e i r meaning r e s i d e s . The p r a c t i c e s , not the terms, then become the b a s i s of h i s understanding o f economic r e l a t i o n s ; \" . . . r e a l i n d i v i d u a l s , t h e i r a c t i v i t y , and the m a t e r i a l c o n d i t i o n s under which they l i v e . . . \" (Marx and Engels, 1970). y Smith has c a l l e d t h i s method of proceeding one of \" s u b s t r u c t i n g \" . That i s . . . y o u begin from the terms... the concepts of (e.g.) p o l i t i c a l economy, and then the s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t proceeds by a work of r e t u r n i n g to the a c t u a l s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s which generate those phenomena as they are named, the a c t u a l p r a c t i c e s of r e a l l i v i n g i n d i v i d u a l s , which are the onl y b a s i s f o r the e x i s t e n c e of s o c i a l phenomena. ' (Smith, 1977b) Smith has made use of t h i s whole c r i t i c a l procedure and method of work from Marx as the b a s i s f o r her c r i t i q u e of s o c i o l o g y and recommendations .for how to proceed d i f f e r e n t l y w i t h s o c i o l o g i c a l enquiry. (See \" I d e o l o g i c a l P r a c t i c e o f So c i o l o g y \" Smith, 1974a.) She argues t h a t s o c i o l o g i s t s have proceeded by p r e c i s e l y the method which Marx i d e n t i f i e s . They have taken terms which a r i s e i n the s o c i a l process to name v a r i o u s aspects of experience, and l i f t e d them out i n t o a s c i e n t i f i c d i s c o u r s e which i s engaged i n t r y i n g to r e p r e s e n t the s o c i a l world i n conceptual form. ,In t h i s use of terms they - 31 -become separated from t h e i r grounding i n the p r a c t i c e s of r e a l people, and come to r e p r e s e n t i n s t e a d a conceptualization-.and g e n e r a l i z a t i o n of those p r a c t i c e s . Thus the i n d i v i d u a l s u b j e c t s , the a c t o r s , disappear. T h i s i s a l s o the method t h a t informs the p r e s e n t work on d e s c r i p t i o n s . The procedure p r o v i d e s the b a s i s f o r a . c r i t i q u e of s o c i o l o g i c a l d e s c r i p t i o n , and the b a s i s f o r an a l t e r n a t i v e method of doing accounts. The i m p l i c a t i o n s o f t h i s c r i t i q u e however, are not c o n f i n e d to the s o c i o l o g i c a l e n t e r p r i s e . The c r i t i q u e a p p l i e s e q u a l l y to d e s c r i p t i o n as i t i s a f e a t u r e of many aspects of academic, p r o f e s s i o n a l , and a d m i n i s t r a t i v e work, as w e l l as a f e a t u r e of o r d i n a r y c o n v e r s a t i o n . I t i s the d e s c r i p t i v e method as a p a r t i c u l a r use of language which i s common to a l l these, on which we s h a l l f o c u s . One of the t h i n g s t h a t Marx's work does f o r us i s to focus our a t t e n t i o n on the use of language. His work c l e a r l y p o i n t s out t h a t terms can be seen to work q u i t e d i f f e r e n t l y i n d i f f e r e n t s e t t i n g s of use. He l o c a t e s f o r us two d i s t i n c t s e t t i n g s : the o r i g i n a l , working use of language and a secondary, d e r i v a t i v e use of language to r e p r e s e n t or c o n c e p t u a l i z e , such as i n doing d e s c r i b i n g . Smith makes t h i s o b s e r v a t i o n about h i s work: Marx's method can be seen i n the f i r s t p l a c e as l o c a t i n g the terms i n two modes: f i r s t , so t h a t you can see terms such as wages, p r o f i t , commodites, e t c . , as p a r t of the o r i g i n a l working p r a c t i c e s , - 32 -the working s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s i n which the phenomenon has i t s e x i s t e n c e and i n which i t s naming i s an a c t u a l p a r t of t h a t a c t i v i t y , a p a r t of^ the work; and second, a t the l e v e l where the i d e o l o g i s t or the s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s - w o r k s , where t h a t l a n g -uage becomes i n c o r p o r a t e d i n t o the p r a c t i c e of a d i s c o u r s e . (Smith, 1977b) These realms of language usage are a c t u a l l y d i f f e r e n t as a p r a c t i c a l matter: they are d i f f e r e n t e n t e r p r i s e s , and they operate q u i t e d i f f e r e n t l y . In the f i r s t case, i n the working s e t t i n g , terms o r i g i n a l l y have meaning by naming the o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s of which they are a p a r t ; t h e i r meaning i s embedded i n the a c t i o n which they express. In the second case, the s e t t i n g of s o c i a l s c i e n c e terms are l i f t e d out of t h a t r e l a t i o n i n which t h e i r meaning a r i s e s , and are used to r e f l e c t c o n c e p t u a l l y t h a t o r g a n i z a t i o n of p r a c t i c e s . In t h i s usage, the term has meaning by r e p r e s e n t i n g a c t i v i t i e s ^ , t h a t i s by s t a n d i n g i n f o r them, r e p l a c i n g them. Th i s aspect of Marx's work p o i n t s to an understanding of language which i s not u n l i k e the n o t i o n found i n W i t t g e n s t e i n (1953) of language games, t h a t i s , v a r i o u s forms of \"language and the a c t i o n s i n t o which i t i s woven\" (19 53:5e) which have t h e i r own c h a r a c t e r i s t i c ways of proceeding. W i t t g e n s t e i n t e l l s us t h a t words do indeed work d i f f e r e n t l y i n d i f f e r e n t contexts and t h e r e f o r e \"how\" words mean i s an e s s e n t i a l p a r t of \"what\" they mean. That i s , the s e t t i n g or - 33 -the o c c a s i o n f o r the use of a word i s p a r t of what g i v e s i t meaning. He then uses t h i s understanding as the b a s i s f o r a method of d i s c o v e r i n g \"the essence\" of a word. He recommends f o r p h i l o s o p h e r s a method of work which i s very s i m i l a r to the c r i t i c a l procedure used by Marx wi t h the terms of p o l i t i c a l economy. W i t t g e n s t e i n c a l l s i t \" b r i n g i n g words back from t h e i r m e t a p h y s i c a l t o t h e i r everyday use\". In the P h i l o s o p h i c a l I n v e s t i g a t i o n he w r i t e s : When p h i l o s o p h e r s use a word, 'knowledge 1, 'being', 'o b j e c t ' , ' I ' , ' p r o p o s i t i o n ' , 'name', and t r y to grasp the essence of the t h i n g , one must always ask o n e s e l f : i s the word ever a c t u a l l y used i n t h i s way i n the language-game which i s i t s o r i g i n a l home? (Wi t t g e n s t e i n , 1953:48e) Smith a p p l i e s t h i s approach to a c r i t i q u e of s o c i o l o g i c a l d e s c r i p t i o n . What t h i s does, again l i k e the work of Marx, i s to c a l l a t t e n t i o n to the manner i n which words are -used, as a t o p i c i n i t s own r i g h t which needs examining. Smith says: I want to take up W i t t g e n s t e i n ' s recommendation f o r the s o c i o l o g i s t . . . I want to look a t d e s c r i p t i o n s as a language game...as t h i n g s t h a t go on i n d e f i n i t e s e t t i n g s , t h a t have d e f i n i t e kinds of methods of g e t t i n g them done; t h a t i s , a d e f i n i t e use of words, a d e f i n i t e way of meaning.... In d e s c r i p t i o n s , what we do i s procede i n a way which c r e a t e s the kinds of problems t h a t s o c i o l o g i s t s experience i n the use of c a t e g o r i e s and, i n the use of concepts. What we need to do to remedy t h i s i s to begin t o ask, how the word i s a c t u a l l y used i n the language game which i s i t s o r i g i n a l home, and how do we b r i n g words back from t h e i r \"metaphysical to t h e i r everyday use\". (Smith, 1977b) - 34 -Thus the view t h a t language has more than one k i n d of use and t h a t the uses themselves are p a r t of how words take t h e i r meaning, begins to p r o v i d e the b a s i s f o r a c r i t i q u e of d e s c r i p t i o n . , By f o c u s s i n g on the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c f e a t u r e s of the separate modes of language use, and e x p l o r i n g the r e l a t i o n between the two modes, we begin to have a b a s i s f o r understanding how the d e s c r i p t i v e method mediates the r e l a t i o n between the account and the a c t u a l i t y i t claims to d e s c r i b e . In t h i s paper we w i l l e x p l o r e : I. How the d e s c r i p t i v e method g i v e s a determinate c h a r a c t e r t o the a c t u a l i t y b e i ng d e s c r i b e d ; I I . How the d e s c r i p t i v e method obscures the o r g a n i z e d r e l a t i o n s of knowing as p a r t of the c o n s t i t u t i o n of the phenomenon; I I I . How the d e s c r i p t i v e use of terms i s dependent upon the o r i g i n a l working s e t t i n g , and how t h a t dependence may be u t i l i z e d to develop an a l t e r -n a t i v e procedure f o r doing accounts. - 35 -I. How the d e s c r i p t i v e method g i v e s determinate c h a r a c t e r to i t s s u b j e c t . A g e n e r a l understanding of the f e a t u r e s of the d e s c r i p t i v e method i s p a r t of what i s beginning to emerge out of the ongoing r e s e a r c h which i s the source of t h i s paper. While i t i s not y e t p o s s i b l e to d e f i n e s y s t e m a t i c a l l y the p r o p e r t i e s of the d e s c r i p t i v e method, some aspects of i t are becoming v i s i b l e . Smith p o i n t s out one f e a t u r e of d e s c r i p t i v e method which i s c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of the method of t r e a t i n g f a c t u a l d e s c r i p t i o n s i n p a r t i c u l a r . That i s , t h a t we tend to use terms as though they r e f e r e n c e the world; as though we c o u l d pass through the d e s c r i p t i o n to a r e a l world which l i e s beyond. T h i s f i r s t becomes v i s i b l e as a method of r e a d i n g . One of the c o n s t r a i n t s of a d e s c r i p t i v e r e a d i n g , i s t h a t we take the d e s c r i p t i o n to be a d e s c r i p t i o n of something, t h a t i s t h a t there i s an a c t u a l i t y , and...the method of readi n g t h a t we use i s t h a t we 'pass through' the d e s c r i p t i o n t o an a c t u a l i t y on the other s i d e . So t h a t what we tend to do when re a d i n g a f a c t u a l d e s c r i p t i o n a t l e a s t , i s to almost f o r g e t about the a c t u a l terminology, the k i n d of grammatical c o n s t r u c t i o n s and the r e l a t i o n s t h a t have been s e t up f o r us, to t r e a t an a c t u a l i t y on the oth e r s i d e o f i t as i f i t were i n some sense a v a i l a b l e to us by v i r t u e of the d e s c r i p t i o n . . . T h i s i s a method of re a d i n g , a very d e f i n i t e p r a c t i c e of r e a d i n g which we make use of i n re a d i n g f a c t u a l accounts. (Smith, 1977b)' Th i s p a r t i c u l a r method, of p a s s i n g through a d e s c r i p t i o n to an a c t u a l i t y on the other s i d e , i s not a u n i v e r s a l f e a t u r e of how we make meaning with words, but a d e f i n i t e p r a c t i c e of - 36 -meaning which i s p a r t of what c o n s t i t u t e s some accounts as f a c t u a l . Smith p o i n t s out f o r example, t h a t we do not use t h i s procedure i n readi n g f i c t i o n s ; we do not t r e a t f i c t i o n a l accounts as r e f e r e n c i n g an a c t u a l i t y i n the same way. A f a c t u a l account, on the other hand, i s dependent f o r i t s c h a r a c t e r on t h i s s u p p o s i t i o n ; t h a t what i s named i n the d e s c r i p t i o n has a r e f e r e n t i n a c t u a l i t y . What happens i n t h i s process o f r e a d i n g through i s t h a t aspects of the method being used become t r a n s f e r r e d to the a c t u a l i t y as i t s f e a t u r e s . I t becomes im p o s s i b l e to d i s t i n g u i s h f e a t u r e s of the a c t u a l i t y from f e a t u r e s of the method used t o re p r e s e n t i t . Smith has c a l l e d t h i s process one of t r a n s -ference . We w i l l focus on one ou t s t a n d i n g c h a r a c t e r i s t i c t h a t i s t r a n s f e r r e d by the d e s c r i p t i v e method, which i s the sense t h a t what l i e s beyond the d e s c r i p t i o n i s a \"thing\".' That i s , the method tends t o o b j e c t i f y - t o make o b j e c t s o f - v a r i o u s f e a t u r e s o f the s o c i a l ^ p r o c e s s which are not o r i g i n a l l y o b j e c t s a t a l l , but r a t h e r have t h e i r e x i s t e n c e o n l y i n t h e : p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s of i n d i v i d u a l s . The foremost example of t h i s o b j e c t i f i c a t i o n which we have been e x p l o r i n g i s the n o t i o n of news i t s e l f . News i s g e n e r a l l y assumed t o be some-thing which happens i n the s o c i a l world, - 37 -and i s then r e p o r t e d i n a newspaper. New-ness i s assumed to be an i n h e r e n t q u a l i t y of c e r t a i n events which can be found by those who know how to r e c o g n i z e i t . News i s thought to be a v a i l a b l e to o b s e r v a t i o n ; i t can be found by l o o k i n g f o r i t . \"Newsgathering\" i s a commonly used term which i l l u s t r a t e s t h a t t h i s c h a r a c t e r of news i s assumed; t h a t news can be gathered l i k e mushrooms. I t i s i n t e r e s t i n g to observe t h a t j o u r n a l i s t s and s o c i o l -o g i s t s a l i k e seem to f i n d i t e x t r a o r d i n a r i l y d i f f i c u l t to e x p l a i n e x a c t l y what t h i s something c a l l e d news a c t u a l l y i s , except t h a t they know i t when they f i n d i t . Even how they f i n d i t seems to be d i f f i c u l t to e x p l a i n . When r e p o r t e r s t a l k or w r i t e about t h e i r work,- they use phrases l i k e \"nose for / i n e w s \" o r \"news sense\" or \"the j u i c e s s t a r t f l o w i n g \" to i d e n t i f y the method which they use. F i n d i n g news i s s a i d to be an a b i l i t y t h a t evades d e s c r i p t i o n ; i t can't be communicated or taught. Some people are s a i d to be more g i f t e d with i t than o t h e r s . One r e p o r t e r s t a t e d i t simply: \"I'm not sure what news i s ; I'm q u i t e s e r i o u s about t h i s . I t h i n k I can r e c o g n i z e i t . \" ( F i e l d n o t e s , n.d.) What i s important to n o t i c e i s t h a t newsmen don't have t r o u b l e w i t h what hews i s i n the working context. They r o u t i n e l y f i n d i t and r e p o r t i t . The newspaper as a b u s i n e s s e n t e r p r i s e depends upon r e p o r t e r s producing a c o n s i s t e n t supply of news - 38 -s t o r i e s , a t dependable times each day. As a working p r a c t i c e , news i s c l e a r l y not e v a s i v e . The d i f f i c u l t y i n d e f i n i n g what news i s a r i s e s i n t h e use o f \"news\" as a te r m i n a d e s c r i p t i v e c o n t e x t , where i t i s t r e a t e d as i f i t were p o s s i b l e t o pass t h r o u g h i t t o an o b j e c t i n t h e w o r l d w h i c h conforms t o t h a t d e s c r i p t i o n . . The problem i s t h a t the r e f e r e n c i n g p r o c e d u r e doesn't work; you c a n ' t f i n d news i n t h e w o r l d as an o b j e c t w h i c h conforms t o t h e d e s c r i p t i o n s t h a t j o u r n a l i s t s and s o c i o l o g i s t s make o f i t . The r e a s o n t h a t you c a n ' t f i n d i t i s because t h e way i n whi c h news i s d e s c r i b e d i s f u n d a m e n t a l l y a t odds w i t h how the a c t u a l i t y i s put t o g e t h e r . T h i s i s c l e a r i f we l o o k b a c k , t o t h e w o r k i n g p r a c t i c e s o f the newsroom t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e term as i t a r i s e s t h e r e . That news i n a working context can be d e f i n e d only as an a c t u a l ongoing r e l a t i o n between the work of the r e p o r t e r and the e d i t o r , and e t c . I t i s a term t h a t i s p a r t o f the work, t h a t does the work, t h a t i s used i n t a l k i n g about the work; and i n those c o n t e x t s . . . i t i s not used at a l l as i t i s used to d e s c r i b e , when you are doing the work of d e s c r i p t i o n . Immediately i n the d e s c r i p t i v e context, q u i t e d i f f e r e n t t h i n g s are done wi t h t h a t term. I t i s t r e a t e d as i f i t names something t h a t we can f i n d very much as we might walk through the f i e l d s l o o k i n g f o r a p a r t i c u l a r s p e c i e s of b u t t e r f l y . We take the c h a r a c t e r of the d e s c r i p t i v e work and we supply t h a t to the o r i g i n a l we c o n s t i t u t e the o r i g i n a l ; i n the shape given i t by the method of d e s c r i p t i o n . . . Though you can f i n d the term, you can't f i n d the phenomenon t h a t corresponds to i t . (Smith, 1977b) - 39 -Here i s a very common and v i s i b l e example of the d e s c r i p t i v e method a t work. What happens i s t h a t the term \"news\" i s l i f t e d out of the org a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s o f the p r o d u c t i o n of news s t o r i e s and i s t r e a t e d as i f i t named an o b j e c t which was a f e a t u r e of the s o c i a l world. The o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s of news p r o d u c t i o n are taken f o r granted, and what i s s u b s t i t u t e d i n t h e i r p l a c e i s the product of those a c t i v i t i e s , \"news\", g i v i n g i t the appearance t h a t i t i s not s o c i a l l y produced but i s r a t h e r an o b j e c t which r e s i d e s i n the s o c i a l world. Thus what the d e s c r i p t i v e method does i s to o b j e c t i f y a term which i s not o r i g i n a l l y an o b j e c t a t a l l , but a working term i n the p r a c t i c e of s o c i a l r e l a t i o n . T h i s i s what Marx o r i g i n a l l y showed us. Our experience i n the newsroom p r o v i d e d us with a number of examples of t h i s d e s c r i p t i v e mechanism a t work. I t was a s i g n i f i c a n t problem f o r us s p e c i f i c a l l y because the method which org a n i z e d our r e l a t i o n to the s e t t i n g as observers whose i n t e n t was to d e s c r i b e , and our r e l a t i o n to informants who t o l d us about t h e i r work was,, i n f a c t , the d e s c r i p t i v e method. I t was e x a c t l y t h i s method which c r e a t e d the problems we experienced, over and over, of being unable t o f i n d the phenomena which we knew by t h e i r d e s c r i p t i o n . And i t was because the way we were f u n c t i o n i n g was e s s e n t i a l l y a t odds w i t h how the o b j e c t s of our enquiry were c o n s t i t u t e d . - 40 -Here i s an excerpt from my working notes: There i s t h i s moment when what we are l o o k i n g a t , or l o o k i n g f o r , seems t o t a l l y e v a s i v e or i n v i s i b l e . A f t e r a few days at the c i t y desk, I s a t down and wrote a note to myself t h a t I had looked a l l over f o r assignments and c o u l d n ' t f i n d them anywhere! S i m i l a r l y , D o r o t h y d i d . i t ; speaking of a s t o r y she was t r y i n g to f i n d the o r i g i n s o f , she s a i d , \" I t ' s r e a l l y i n c r e d i b l e ; I ask myself what happened, and nothing happened, r e a l l y . I t ' s j u s t t h i s p u l l i n g t o g e t h e r . . . \" These are the moments of se e i n g t h a t terms l i k e \" s t o r y \" or \"assignment\" which c l a i m to d e s c r i b e something more or l e s s t a n g i b l e , are r a t h e r the d e s c r i p t i o n s of something l i k e a s o c i a l form...a s o c i a l r e l a t i o n , or o r g a n i z a t i o n of p r a c t i c e s which g i v e s form to something.... We want to connect up those p r a c t i c e s l i k e an o r c h e s t r a t i o n ; s e e i n g the o r c h e s t r a t i o n is_ s e e i n g those terms g e t t i n g done. I t i s j u s t a matter of being a b l e to show how t h a t works. We began to work on the r e l a t i o n between our sense t h a t we c o u l d n ' t f i n d t h i n g s , l i k e news or assignments or s t o r i e s , and the n o t i o n t h a t the d e s c r i p t i v e use of language makes an o b j e c t of the o r g a n i z a t i o n of p r a c t i c e s i n which words a r i s e . What we found was t h a t the understanding of how d e s c r i p t i o n works d i d begin to account f o r our sense t h a t we c o u l d n ' t f i n d t h i n g s . In the case of assignments or s t o r i e s , i f . we took the terms to r e p r e s e n t an o b j e c t i v e phenomenon, as would be c o n v e n t i o n a l , then we were sent o f f on a search: where do assignments come from; what i s a s t o r y , e t c . We d i d s t a r t with those q u e s t i o n s . Only we n o t i c e d t h a t there was t h i s k i n d of gap, t h i s moment i n which we saw t h a t \"nothing happened, r e a l l y , \" or t h a t \"they are nowhere to be found\". From t h i s we began to see t h a t these s o - c a l l e d o b j e c t s were r a t h e r o r g a n i z e d r e l a t i o n s . - 41 -What a l s o began to be c l e a r f o r us i s how i t i s p o s s i b l e t o use words which have t h i s \"mushy\" base, which do not r e p r e s e n t an o b j e c t i v e phenomenon, but r a t h e r a s o c i a l one (e.g. commodity, news). I t i s p o s s i b l e t o use them because they are p r o v i d e d f o r by an o r g a n i z a t i o n of p r a c t i c e s ; you depend upon t h a t o r g a n i z a t i o n i n u s i n g the term. (See S e c t i o n I I I below.) So we began to see t h a t we had to look d i f f e r e n t l y f o r the aspects o f news p r o d u c t i o n which were rep r e s e n t e d by the terms we had l e a r n e d to use. We began to see t h a t the terms represented s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d phenomenon, not o b j e c t i v e f e a t u r e s of the s o c i a l world. So i t was to the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s i n which they were c o n s t i t u t e d t h a t we needed to t u r n , and t h a t among those s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s was the work of d e s c r i p t i o n which produced the appearance of o b j e c t s . So t h a t we had to l o c a t e two a s p e c t s : a) the o r g a n i z e d r e l a t i o n o f knowing i n which o b j e c t s were c o n s t i t u t e d as e x t e r n a l t o the p r a c t i c e s by which they were made known, e,g. the d e s c r i p t i v e method. T h i s i s the problem d i s c u s s e d i n S e c t i o n I I below. b) the org a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s of news p r o d u c t i o n which c o n s i t u t e e.g. s t o r i e s , assignments or sources of news as something which c o u l d be s a i d or named i n t h a t way. T h i s problem w i l l be addressed i n Chapter Three. - 42 -I I . How the d e s c r i p t i v e method obscures the o r g a n i z e d r e l a t i o n of knowing as p a r t of how the o b j e c t i s c o n s t i t u t e d . What Smith shows us i s t h a t c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n works i d e o l o g i c a l l y ; t h a t i s , i t r e p r e s e n t s the phenomenon i n a way t h a t excludes the p r a c t i c e s on which i t depends, i n c l u d i n g the p r a c t i c e s o f d e s c r i p t i o n which are p a r t of how the-phenomenon i s c o n s t i t u t e d . Conventional d e s c r i p t i o n s e t s up an o r g a n i z a t i o n i n which the o b j e c t of d e s c r i p t i o n appears as w holly e x t e r n a l to the work of making i t known. The observer i s excluded from i t s c o n s t i t u t i o n ; the r e l a t i o n of knowing i s r u p t u r e d . In t h i s way d e s c r i p t i o n i s an i n t e r p r e t i v e p r a c t i c e imposed on the o b j e c t i t s e l f as i t s f e a t u r e s . I t c o n s t i t u t e s i n d e s c r i p t i o n an o b j e c t which i s given the appearance of e x i s t i n g i n the n a t u r a l world. The r e p r e s e n t a t i o n of the o b j e c t of our d e s c r i p t i v e work as out there and independent o f our r e l a t i o n i s a product of the work of d e s c r i p t i o n i t s e l f . . . . In s o c i o l o g i c a l d e s c r i p t i o n , you are e n j o i n e d to w r i t e a d e s c r i p t i o n which a t t r i b u t e s to t h a t o c c a s i o n or t h a t sequence of events the s t a t u s of 'what a c t u a l l y happened' as q u i t e o u t s i d e the l e a r n i n g of the sense t h a t was made. The a c t i v e p a r t you p l a y e d i n c o n s t i t u t i n g those events as what they were d i s a p p e a r s . . . To grasp what a c t u a l l y happened i n order to d e s c r i b e , you must p a r t i c i p a t e i n a c c o mplishing what a c t u a l l y happened, and a t the same time you must aim at a d e s c r i p t i o n which suspends your presence and the accomplishment which has been e s s e n t i a l to the e x i s t e n c e f o r you of what i s to be d e s c r i b e d . (Smith, 1976b:5-6,8) We see then, a problem which i s not t h a t d e s c r i p t i o n i s done p o o r l y or t h a t i t i s b i a s e d , d i s t o r t e d , i n t e r e s t e d , or e t c . We see t h a t there i s a problem w i t h d e s c r i p t i v e conventions which are normally p r a c t i c e d i n s o c i o l o g y and elsewhere t h a t f a c t u a l - 43 -accounts are produced. The methods t h a t are used are themselves the source of some of the problems we experience. What we need, a c c o r d i n g to Smith, i s a method of proceeding i n d e s c r i p t i o n which i d e n t i f i e s the work and s e t t i n g o f d e s c r i p t i o n as p a r t of the method. ...A way of proceeding which i n c o r p o r a t e s the p o s i t i o n o f the observer i n t o the work of o b s e r v a t i o n i n a syst e m a t i c way, not as a p a r t i c u l a r s u b j e c t i v i t y , but i n terms of seein g the method of d e s c r i p t i o n as c r e a t i n g a d e f i n i t e k i n d of r e l a t i o n s h i p between the s o c i o l o g i s t and the s e t t i n g she i s ob s e r v i n g , such t h a t a p a r t i c u l a r k i n d of language game becomes i n v o l v e d which i s then t r e a t e d as a f e a t u r e of what i s observed... (Smith, 1977:in c o n v e r s a t i o n ) What such a procedure would do i s begin to r e e s t a b l i s h d e s c r i p t i o n as an orga n i z e d s o c i a l r e l a t i o n . I t would i n s e r t the doing of the d e s c r i p t i o n back i n t o the account i t s e l f as the p r a c t i c e of t h a t r e l a t i o n . There i s an experience i n my f i e l d work which was very use-f u l i n beginning to see t h a t r e l a t i o n i n p r a c t i c e . A c t u a l l y i t was o n l y a p u z z l i n g experience t o me i n the f i e l d ; i t was not u n t i l I examined my f i e l d notes t h a t I was able t o make sense of i t . I t has to do wit h doing of d e s c r i p t i o n by informants. When I began to work wi t h the data from my f i e l d notes, I immediately saw t h a t a l o t of i t c o n s i s t e d of other people's t a l k , - 44 -i n one form or another: What people had s a i d to me i n the newsroom, i n i n t e r v i e w s , overheard t a l k , e t c . . . My f i r s t 'concern was how to t r e a t t h a t t a l k as data about the s e t t i n g . When I focussed c a r e f u l l y on the t a l k , I began to see t h a t there was more than one k i n d of t a l k ; t h a t people's t a l k was not always put tog e t h e r i n the same way. I began to r e f e r to the d i f f e r e n t modes as d i f f e r e n t \"orders o f t a l k \" . Two i n p a r t i c u l a r became my focus. The f i r s t o r d e r or mode of t a l k i s the manner i n which people i n the newsroom t a l k t o each other i n the course of t h e i r work. T h i s i s t a l k t h a t was o n l y a v a i l a b l e to me by over h e a r i n g and r e c o r d i n g i t , u s u a l l y along w i t h a few v i s u a l o b s e r v a t i o n s to pro v i d e a s e t t i n g f o r the t a l k . For example: The c i t y e d i t o r looks up from a copy of an e a r l y e d i t i o n which he i s re a d i n g and says to an a s s i s t a n t \"I don't see a f o l l o w i n t h i s speech; i t ' s too vague. What do you t h i n k ? I guess we might c a l l the o l d peoples' a s s o c i a t i o n and see what they t h i n k . \" ( F i e l d n o t e s of 17 March, pg. 5) A r e p o r t e r comes to the c i t y desk a s k i n g i f the e d i t o r has n o t i c e d the \"threatened demonstration\" coming up i n C h i l l i w a c k tomorrow. He says, \"Do you t h i n k we co u l d have a photographer out there and get anything back i n time to p r i n t ? \" The e d i t o r c o n s i d e r s , say yes, and makes a phone c a l l to l i n e up a photographer. ( F i e l d n o t e s of 7 March, pg. 6) The second mode of t a l k i s the one t h a t i s used by people i n the newsroom to t e l l an observer, such as myself, about the work t h a t they are doing. I t i s the k i n d of t a l k t h a t happens i n response to q u e s t i o n s , i n an i n t e r v i e w s i t u a t i o n , or might - 45 -be v o l u n t e e r e d as e x p l a n t i o n of some aspect of the work. I t i s t a l k t h a t i s s p e c i f i c a l l y designed to make sense of the work f o r o t h e r s . For example, the f o l l o w i n g statements were made to me: I t h i n k what 'spot news' i s , i s human i n t e r e s t -and t h a t i s a very t a t t e r e d / o l d phrase, but - a good s o r t o f human i n t e r e s t s t o r y , or a people s t o r y , t h a t other people l i k e t o read about and can r e l a t e w i t h . ( F i e l d n o t e s of 12 J u l y , pg. 9) News i s a l l t h i n g s to a l l people. What i n t e r e s t s you doesn't n e c e s s a r i l y i n t e r e s t someone e l s e . Quite a p a r t from the s p e c i a l t i e s i n the paper... there are people who l i k e the Sports pages, and people who l i k e the Finance pages and l i k e the f a m i l y pages, but i t s hard to zero i n on the news-paper and t e l l you what's news. I t ' s hard f o r me to answer t h a t . . . I t h i n k t h a t i n a n u t s h e l l , what we are t a l k i n g about when we t a l k about \"what's news\" [ i s ] 'what's news' to the g r e a t e s t number of people...You see, we're i n the f i e l d of t r y i n g to serve two hundred and f i f t y thousand s u b s c r i b e r s . . . ( F i e l d n o t e s of 12 J u l y , pg. 10-11) ...a r e a l l y good w e l l - t r a i n e d r e p o r t e r , one who i s keeping h i s eyes and ears open i s the one t h a t p i c k s out the best s t o r y . ( F i e l d n o t e s 12 J u l y , pg. 9) What i s i n t e r e s t i n g \" a b o u t these two kinds of t a l k i s t h a t comparing them suggests t h a t how the t a l k was put t o g e t h e r was i n p a r t determined by the o c c a s i o n of t h a t t a l k , the k i n d of work i t was meant to do i n v a r i o u s s i t u a t i o n s . One might say, how the t a l k was put together was determined b y the r e l a t i o n the t a l k was performing. That i s , i n the working r e l a t i o n between people i n the newsroom, t a l k was o r g a n i z e d to exchange meaning between people whose terms of r e f e r e n c e were the same; - 46 -t h e i r t a l k depended f o r i t s sense on the working r e l a t i o n s of which they were a p a r t . In t h e i r r e l a t i o n to me as informants, however, people i n the newsroom o r g a n i z e d t a l k to perform a d e s c r i p t i v e r e l a t i o n ; to t e l l me about t h e i r work. T h i s k i n d of t a l k t r i e d t o \"make sense\" of the working r e l a t i o n s f o r someone l i k e myself who d i d n ' t a l r e a d y know t h e i r sense. I t was immediately c l e a r to mewhenl examined these kinds of t a l k on paper t h a t they were q u i t e d i f f e r e n t methods of making meaning wi t h words. I t was a l s o c l e a r a f t e r some r e f l e c t i o n t h a t the second k i n d of t a l k , the d e s c r i p t i v e t a l k was the k i n d t h a t we as s o c i o l o g i s t s were accustomed t o working w i t h , and was the k i n d t h a t we o r d i n a r i l y produced. What then became p r o b l e m a t i c f o r me was how to account f o r t h i s s t r i k i n g d i f f e r e n c e between the k i n d of t a l k t h a t took p l a c e the work s e t t i n g we observed, and the k i n d of t a l k t h a t we knew how to use to r e p r e s e n t t h a t s e t t i n g . How d i d we get from one to the other? When we c o n s i d e r t h i s problem i n the l i g h t of Smith's work, we see an i l l u s t r a t i o n of what W i t t g e n s t e i n was t a l k i n g about. We see t h a t we are o b s e r v i n g two d i s t i n c t language games. The use of language i n d i f f e r e n t s e t t i n g s and. f o r d i f f e r e n t purposes accounts f o r the d i f f e r e n c e s i n t a l k t h a t I experienced i n the newsroom. The experience begins to i l l u s t r a t e how the - 47 -o c c a s i o n of the account and the p a r t i e s to t h a t o c c a s i o n become i n c o r p o r a t e d i n t o a d e s c r i p t i v e account i n a s y s t e m a t i c way through the use of language. Thus we began to r e c o v e r one aspect of the s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s which are concealed i n the d e s c r i p t i o n . What we a l s o see i s t h a t i t i s fundamental to the p o s s i b i l i t y of a d e s c r i p t i v e account t h a t i t a r i s e s i n a s o c i a l r e l a t i o n . That i s , knowing i s n e c e s s a r i l y a r e l a t i o n between the knower and the o b j e c t of knowledge. Yet we depend upon and our conventions r e q u i r e a form of accounting which denies t h i s e s s e n t i a l l y s o c i a l b a s i s of knowing. We depend upon a method which r e p r e s e n t s o b j e c t s as e x i s t i n g independently of the p r a c t i c e s which b r i n g them i n t o being f o r us. I t i s the problem of the anomaly between how i t i s t h a t you must go about doing the work of o b s e r v a t i o n i n order to prepare an o b j e c t i v e s o c i o l o g i c a l or a n t h r o p o l o g i c a l account and how i t i s t h a t you can i n f a c t know what i s going on;,: f o r to know what i s going on s o c i o l o g i c a l l y i s a l s o to have become a p a r t i c i p a n t i n making i t s sense. For you must a l r e a d y be p a r t of i t i n some sense to know what i t i s and what i s happening. You must see i t from the i n s i d e . You must have an insider's understanding and an insider's understanding d i v o r c e s us f o r e v e r , from the form of knowledge which r e p r e s e n t s i t s o b j e c t as e x i s t i n g independently of the knower. (Smith, 1976:5) We f i n d o u r s e l v e s faced with the problem t h a t d e s c r i p t i v e accounts are by t h e i r very nature inadequate because they c o n c e a l p r e c i s e l y what needs to be made e x p l i c i t . That i s , they g l o s s over r a t h e r than making v i s i b l e the \" p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y of a c t u a l - 48 -l i v i n g i n d i v i d u a l s which both i s and produces the phenomenon with which the s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t i s concerned. (Smith, 1974a:7) Thus c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n s cannot perform f o r us the s o c i o l o g i c a l work which we r e q u i r e . We need an a l t e r n a t i v e method of accounting which e x p l i c a t e s r a t h e r than g l o s s e s the p r a c t i c e s i n which phenomena are c o n s t i t u t e d . We need a method of e x p l i c a t i o n . What would an e x p l i c a t i v e account look l i k e ? C l e a r l y i t would not look l i k e c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n . T h i s i s because the assumption t h a t the o b j e c t of d e s c r i p t i o n a r i s e s and i s known i n a s o c i a l r e l a t i o n , of which the work of o b s e r v a t i o n and d e s c r i p t i o n are a p a r t , n e c e s s a r i l y p r e c l u d e s the c o n v e n t i o n a l approach to d e s c r i p t i o n i n which the o b j e c t of d e s c r i p t i o n i s o b j e c t i f i e d and e x t e r n a l i z e d . The method of e x p l i c a t i o n on the other hand, begins w i t h the assumption t h a t the o b j e c t a r i s e s and i s known i n a s o c i a l r e l a t i o n to which the observer i s a p a r t y . I t se t s out to rec o v e r t h a t s t r u c t u r e , to f i n d t h e phenomenon as i t a r i s e s i n the p r a c t i c e of those r e l a t i o n s . And i t s g o a l i s to produce an account of the o b j e c t which i s o r g a n i z e d by t h a t s t r u c t u r e . Thus the method i s one which i n c o r p o r a t e s s y s t e m a t i c a l l y the p o s i t i o n of the observer i n the account of the phenomenon. - 49 -Therefore the work should be q u i t e d i f f e r e n t from c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n . Objects i n t h i s k i n d of account should r e f l e c t t h e i r s o c i a l l y accomplished c h a r a c t e r , and the reader should be l o c a t e d i n r e l a t i o n to the phenomenon i n such a way t h a t the method of assembling the phenomenon as what i t i s , i s p r e s e n t to her i n the r e a d i n g of the account. Thus an e x p l i c a t i v e account i s one which r e p l i c a t e s the o r i g i n a l phenomenon. I t i s an account which works i n the same way as -the phenomenon i n the o r i g i n a l s e t t i n g i n jwhich i t a r i s e s . T h i s does not mean an account which merely makes the argument that a given phenomenon a r i s e s as a s o c i a l r e l a t i o n , but an account which a l s o a c t u a l l y shows how t h a t i s done as a p r a c t i c e . - 50 -I I I . How the d e s c r i p t i v e use of terms i s dependent upon the o r i g i n a l working s e t t i n g , and how t h a t dependence may be u t i l i z e d to develop an a l t e r n a t i v e procedure f o r doing accounts. The p o s s i b i l i t y of an e x p l i c a t i v e account i s d e r i v e d from the r e l a t i o n which Marx showed us between terms and the working p r a c t i c e s i n which they a r i s e . That i s , t h a t they are fund-amentally h i s t o r i c a l . Terms do not take t h e i r meaning from the d i s c o u r s e i n which they are used; they take t h e i r meaning from the s o c i a l process which they name and perform. There i s a s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n on which words depend. Smith puts i t t h i s way: ...we take f o r granted t h a t the phenomenon does not a r i s e independently of the words t h a t are p a r t of i t s performance, but t h a t i t s naming i s i n t e g r a l to the s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s i t c o n s t r u c t s , the s o c i a l p r a c t i c e s , o r d i n a r y r o u t i n e s . I t i s not t h a t there i s a term which names a phenomenon independently of i t , ...but t h a t the terms, the words used, are e s s e n t i a l l y p e r f o r m a t i v e ; t h a t i s , they are e s s e n t i a l l y p a r t of the a c t i v i t y which i s the s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s , they are p a r t of t h a t o r g a n i z a t i o n and not separate from i t . (Smith, 1977b) So we begin w i t h the understanding t h a t there i s a s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n which can be e x p l i c a t e d , and t h a t i t i s t h i s o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y which i s the s o c i a l process w i t h which the s o c i o l o g i s t i s concerned. I t i s an account which e x p l i c a t e s these o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s t h a t Smith recommends as an a l t e r n a t i v e t o c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n . - 51 -The e x p l i c a t i v e method, then, begins with the n o t i o n t h a t there e x i s t s an i n t i m a t e l i n k between a d e s c r i p t i o n and the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of the s e t t i n g i t d e s c r i b e s . Though the d e s c r i p t i o n may not d i s p l a y t h a t s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n , i t does indeed depend upon i t . I t i s a knowledge of t h i s o r g a n i z a t i o n which makes p o s s i b l e the work of d e s c r i b i n g . I t i s t h i s r e l a t i o n s h i p which can be used to t r a c k back through d e s c r i p t i v e accounts to the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n on which they depend. T h i s process of t r a c k i n g back becomes the i n v e s t i g a t i v e procedure. Smith says: How the d e s c r i b e r . . . d o e s her work i s c o n t r o l l e d by her knowledge of the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d processes which the terms... serve to d e s c r i b e . T h i s knowledge enters i n t o the o r d e r i n g of the d e s c r i p t i o n , the way the d e s c r i p t i o n i s done; i t i s e s s e n t i a l to the sense t h a t i s made by the d e s c r i p t i o n . There i s no way i n which you can w r i t e a d e s c r i p t i o n of a par- 1 ticuiar- s e t t i n g without t h a t being i n c r u c i a l ways determined by the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of t h a t s e t t i n g , even though i t may not adequately d e s c r i b e i t . There i s a d e t e r m i n a t i o n of the d e s c r i p t i o n and the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of the s e t t i n g which i s an e s s e n t i a l r e l a t i o n . I t i s t h a t k i n d of r e l a t i o n t h a t we are h o p e f u l of e x p l o i t i n g ; t h a t there i s t h a t a c t u a l r e l a t i o n s h i p t h a t e x i s t s . (Smith, 1977b) I can i l l u s t r a t e t h i s e s s e n t i a l r e l a t i o n from my experience i n the newsroom. One of the aspects of news p r o d u c t i o n t h a t we were most i n t e r e s t e d i n l e a r n i n g about was the assignment p r o c e s s . In an attempt to focus on the p r a c t i c e s which c o n s t i t u t e a s s i g n -ments, I began to c o l l e c t i n my f i e l d n o t e s v a r i o u s uses of the word \" a s s i g n \" i n d i f f e r e n t c o n t e x t s : an assignment, to be - 52 -assigned, g e t t i n g an assignment, t o be on assignment, doing assignments, t y p i n g up assignments, l o o k i n g over assignments, e t c . I found myself l o o k i n g f o r a way to express what these v a r i o u s a c t i v i t i e s had i n common t h a t r e s u l t e d i n them a l l b e i n g named w i t h the same word. Much to my s u r p r i s e , I found t h a t assignments were not the same \" t h i n g \" on a l l o c c a s i o n s . So I t r i e d to f i g u r e out what they \"were\". I found i n my notes t h a t what t i e d a l l the v a r i o u s uses of the word \" a s s i g n \" together was some r e l a t i o n to the c i t y desk. I found o b s e r v a t i o n s i n my notes l i k e \"The only way i n which they were changed to become assignments was t h a t they passed over the c i t y desk a g a i n . . . .\"; \"The s t u f f j u s t seemed to pass q u i e t l y over the desk and the meaning was understood as to what was to be done with i t . . . \" ; or \"Reporters run t h e i r i n f o r m a t i o n across the c i t y desk f o r p e r m i s s i o n to spend s h i f t time working on i t . The desk i s a c l e a r i n g house...\". Out of these o b s e r v a t i o n s , I a r r i v e d a t the c o n c l u s i o n t h a t assignments c o u l d b e s t be understood as. \" a u t h o r i z a t i o n s \" . What Smith p o i n t s out about t h i s \" c o n c l u s i o n \" i s t h a t i t cr e a t e s an i d e o l o g i c a l d e s c r i p t i o n , by e l i m i n a t i n g p r e c i s e l y the a c t u a l s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s t h a t need to be d e s c r i b e d . However, the process i t s e l f of a r r i v i n g a t \" a u t h o r i z a t i o n s \" as a d e s c r i p t i v e d e v i c e i s very i l l u m i n a t i n g , s i n c e i t was on l y p o s s i b l e by v i r t u e - 53 of my knowledge of the a c t u a l work p r a c t i c e s i n the newsroom. Thus i t demonstrates how i t i s that a d e s c r i p t i o n depends f o r i t s sense on the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of the s e t t i n g i t d e s c r i b e s . I t i s the e s s e n t i a l r e l a t i o n t o which Smith r e f e r r e d . Smith says of t h a t p r o c e s s : What we had done was to go from t h i s c o l l e c t i o n of v a r i o u s uses t h a t we c o u l d f i n d i n a c t u a l working cont e x t s , to s e t up a d e s c r i p t i v e procedure which would al l o w us to t a l k as s o c i o l o g i s t s about a s s i g n -ments as an o r g a n i z a t i o n a l feature...which would have allowed us to d e s c r i b e how assignments were done, what assignments were, e t c . u s i n g t h a t k i n d of method...But you see t h a t i n t h a t process there i s a l r e a d y e x h i b i t e d a very important way i n which we depended on the o r i g i n a l i n b eing able to do t h a t . . . I f you go back through t h a t p r o c e s s , what you f i n d i s t h a t l i n k i s r e a l l y t h e r e . Though the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n i s not d e s c r i b e d by the d e s c r i p t i o n [eg. assignments are a u t h o r i z a t i o n s ] , n e v e r t h e l e s s , the d e s c r i p t i o n depends n e c e s s a r i l y on i t . (Smith, 1977b) Smith sees t h a t t h i s e s s e n t i a l l i n k betweeen a d e s c r i p t i o n and the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of the s e t t i n g i t d e s c r i b e s i s a g e n e r a l f e a t u r e of how accounts are generated. I t i s the same method which the member or the observer uses to c o n s t i t u t e what i s happening t h a t she a l s o uses i n making the account; both are c o n s t r a i n e d by her knowledge of the same s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s . \" E s s e n t i a l l y t o s t a t e i t very simply, the n o t i o n i s t h a t i n order to be able to use c a t e g o r i e s i n what i s - 54 -r e c o g n i z e d as an i n t e l l i g i b l e f a s h i o n i n any given working context, you must a l r e a d y understand the s o c i a l processes which produce those r e l a t i o n s h i p s as o r d i n a r y p r a c t i c e s . The ways i n which people t a l k , and the kinds of terms they use, and the ways i n which they t a l k about t h i n g s make sense o n l y i n r e l a t i o n s h i p t o s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s which produce the phenomena which can be named and are completed i n t h a t way. Therefore i m p l i c i t i n your dev e l o p i n g knowledge of how to t a l k p r o p e r l y about t h i n g s i s a s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n which i s not e x p l i c a t e d by the terms you use.\" (Smith, 1976a:l) What Smith i s h o p e f u l o f doing i s de v e l o p i n g i n s o c i o l o g y a s u b s t r u c t i n g procedure much l i k e the one used by Marx. I t would al l o w us to t r a c k back through the d e s c r i p t i v e terms and accounts which are o r d i n a r i l y a v a i l a b l e to us as a means to know our world, to the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s on which t h a t language depends. How we begin t h i s k i n d of work i s by t a k i n g the language s e r o u s l y . We take what i s o r d i n a r i l y a v a i l a b l e i n the t a l k as the p l a c e t o b e g i n . We then go i n search o f how i t i s t h a t t h i n g s are c o n s t r u c t e d so t h a t they can be spoken of i n t h a t way. That i s , we look f o r the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s w i t h i n which t h a t language i s i n t e l l i g i b l e . What we are l o o k i n g f o r i s not to be found i n the t a l k . . i t s e l f , but i s presupposed by the t a l k . The t a l k l o c a t e s f o r us the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s which need to be e x p l i c a t e d . What you do i s t r e a t h i s way of t a l k i n g about i t as one t h a t i s assuming a l l these kinds o f p r a c t i c a l t h i n g s , so t h a t what you do i s not t r e a t what he says as i n f o r m a t i o n , but as data. So t h a t you say then i n - 55 -so f a r as h i s t a l k i s b o g g l i n g , there are t h i n g s about how i t ' s put together t h a t make sense of the d e s c r i p t i o n t h a t he's making, and I don't know what they are. (Smith, 1976a:5) So we see t h a t t h i s approach p r e s c r i b e s the method of data c o l l e c t i o n one would use i n the f i e l d . That i s , i t becomes necessary t o take pains to r e c o r d e x a c t l y what people say, and to t r e a t i t as what needs to be pr o v i d e d f o r by a c t u a l p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s . I found t h a t i n my f i e l d work I d i d not ca t c h on very e a r l y . I had a n o t i o n t h a t I wanted to know more than the s u p e r f i c i a l e x p l a n a t i o n s , so I d i d t h i s u n f o r t u n a t e t h i n g of suspending a l l e x p l a n a t i o n s given me, suspending them th a t i s at one l e v e l , always l o o k i n g f o r more i n f o r m a t i o n to v e r i f y i t or at l e a s t understand how i t was t r u e . One of the r e s u l t s of t h i s suspension i s t h a t I d i d not take pains to r e c o r d e x a c t l y what people t o l d me, or how they t o l d me. I d i d not a t t e n d to the language i t s e l f s p e c i f i c a l l y enough, although I was a t t e n d i n g to what people s a i d as one of the ways I would f i n d out what I wanted to know. E v e n t u a l l y I began to see t h a t I should do e x a c t l y the o p p o s i t e , t o r e c o r e d every exact word th a t people used and how and when they used i t . I f i n a l l y began to understand how to use what they s a i d as data, r a t h e r than as e x p l a n a t i o n or i n f o r m a t i o n ; not to t r e a t what they s a i d as t e l l i n g me what I wanted to know, but to use what they t o l d me to f i n d out what I wanted to know. - 56 -When I s t a r t e d to att e n d to language i n the f i e l d i n t h i s way, I found t h a t i t a c t u a l l y transformed the s e t t i n g f o r me. I l e a r n e d to hear i n peoples' t a l k the o r g a n i z a t i o n t h a t they were 'performing' by the terms they used, how they were assembling the phenomenon as i t was f o r them, i n the way they t a l k e d about i t . I had a very c l e a r sense t h a t i t was the \" r i g h t \" method of proceeding, s i n c e I was suddenly able to move from s i t u a t i o n to s i t u a t i o n i n the newsroom, encountering a l l the uses of the term \" a s s i g n \" , and others t h a t had been t r o u b l e -some to me, and the v a r i o u s uses o f terms were no longer a problem. I was able to hear i n what people s a i d the o r g a n i z a t i o n which they depended upon f o r the sense of what they were s a y i n g . T h i s a b i l i t y to understand happened f o r me very q u i c k l y once I began to t h i n k about t h i n g s p r o p e r l y , because I had a l r e a d y been around the newsroom f o r some weeks doing f i e l d , work and was a l r e a d y p a r t l y f a m i l i a r w i t h many aspects of the o r g a n i z a t i o n of t h i n g s to which people were r e f e r r i n g . But I had not been able to make sense of t h i n g s people t o l d me or to f i n d the aspects of the o r g a n i z a t i o n as I understood them to be. Once I l e a r n e d to l i s t e n , i t was c l e a r t o me t h a t the reason I c o u l d n ' t make sense of the s e t t i n g b efore was because the way I was t h i n k i n g about i t was out of step w i t h how i t a c t u a l l y worked f o r those who d i d i t . O r i e n t i n g to peoples' t a l k i n a new way r e s o l v e d t h i s problem f o r me and completely r e o r g a n i z e d my method of work. - 57 -I began to see how to focus on the o r g a n i z a t i o n of a c t i v i t i e s which p r o v i d e d f o r the t a l k I heard i n the newsroom and the kin d s of o r d i n a r y statements t h a t were made about the work of v producing news. For example: \"The c i t y desk r e g u l a t e s which l o c a l events r e p o r t e r s w i l l cover\"; or \"Much of the copy doesn't r e q u i r e any work\"; or \"Assignments are generated out of the booking f i l e \" ; o r \"She handles assignments t h a t go out to r e p o r t e r s s t a t i o n e d o u t s i d e the newsroom\"; e t c . My task became the w r i t i n g of accounts which would show how those statements represented o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s of people i n the newsroom. The f o l l o w i n g chapter begins t o demonstrate t h i s k i n d of work. - 58 -CHAPTER THREE TOWARD EXPLICATIVE ACCOUNTS In t h i s chapter I would l i k e to i l l u s t r a t e some aspects of working i n the way t h a t i s p r e s c r i b e d by the f o r e g o i n g d i s c u s s i o n . I w i l l i n t r o d u c e some examples of accounts which begin to have the c h a r a c t e r of an e x p l i c a t i o n o f s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s , and I w i l l make some o b s e r v a t i o n s from my experience of t r y i n g to l e a r n to w r i t e i n t h i s way. When I began to t r y to w r i t e accounts of v a r i o u s aspects of news p r o d u c t i o n , I found t h a t I was i n a gre a t d e a l of d i f f i c u l t y . I found i t very t r i c k y to put on paper the o r g a n i z a t i o n t h a t I was l e a r n i n g to 'perform' i n the newsroom. When I t r i e d to w r i t e , I found myself t r e a t i n g my own knowledge of how to perform the s e t t i n g as a resource f o r my account r a t h e r than as the method of assembling the account. And so I found t h a t t h i n g s came out i n the same o b j e c t i f i e d mode t h a t I re c o g n i z e d as c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n . My sentences seemed i n s p i t e of my best e f f o r t s , to gi v e t o the s u b j e c t matter the c h a r a c t e r of having an e x i s t e n c e independent of my knowledge of i t , and independent of anything t h a t was done to b r i n g i t i n t o being. So I ended up w i t h accounts of a s s i g n -ments f o r example, which s t i l l r e p r e s e n t e d them as o b j e c t s , even though I knew t h a t t h a t i s not how assignments 'were' i n the newsroom. - 59 -T h i s experience demonstrated f o r me how thoroughly entrenched we are i n an o b j e c t i f i e d mode of knowing the world. In order to do an account which does not have t h i s c h a r a c t e r of an o b j e c t i v e l y accomplished world, we need a way of p u t t i n g words together which r e s t o r e s to s o c i a l phenomena t h e i r sense as a p r a c t i c a l accomplish^-ment of r e a l people. I began to see t h a t i t i s necessary to organize an account which a c t u a l l y b l o c k s us from e n t e r i n g i n t o t h a t f a m i l i a r , o b j e c t i f i e d r e l a t i o n to the s u b j e c t of the account. We need to use language i n a way t h a t o n l y makes sense when we enter i t from w i t h i n the o r g a n i z a t i o n of s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s i n which the phenomenon does a r i s e f o r us. We have c a l l e d such an account an e x p l i c a t i o n , to d i s t i n g u i s h i t from c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n . Such an account must a t each step address the problem of how i t i s t h a t s o c i a l phenomena are there to be observed. That i s , i t must take as i t s p r o b l e m a t i c , what i s a l r e a d y given i n d e s c r i p t i o n , t h a t the phenomenon i s t h e r e to be d e s c r i b e d . The account must make v i s i b l e , and r e q u i r e the reader to p a r t i c i p a t e i n , the work of assembling the phenomenon, p u t t i n g i t together as what i t i s , r a t h e r than p r e s e n t i n g an o b j e c t which i s a l r e a d y assembled somehow p r i o r to the account. I t h i n k i t w i l l be u s e f u l to look a t examples of the two d i f f e r e n t kinds of accounts. The two examples which f o l l o w are - 60 -both on the t o p i c of sources of news. The f i r s t account i s a r e l a t i v e l y c o n v e n t i o n a l type o f d e s c r i p t i o n , which as the f l a t c h a r a c t e r of a world which i s o b j e c t i v e l y t h e r e . The second account i s an attempt t o l e a r n to do i t the other way; to c o n s t r u c t an account which e x p l i c a t e s the o r g a n i z a t i o n of s o c i a l r e l a t i o n s i n which the phenomena a r i s e f o r us. This d i s c u s s i o n o f sources of news i s only a sample of the k i n d of work t h a t needs to be done. I t i s very d e t a i l e d , and i n some ways, t e c h n i c a l . F o l l o w i n g t h i s t e c h n i c a l example, I w i l l go on to d i s c u s s how i t i s p a r t of an enquiry on a l a r g e r s c a l e i n t o the s o c i a l c o n s t r u c t i o n of news. The f i r s t example below i s very b r i e f , and so i s the d i s c u s s i o n which f o l l o w s i t . I t i s intended o n l y to i l l u s t r a t e a d e s c r i p t i v e s t y l e of work, and to pro v i d e the p o i n t of departure f o r the account which f o l l o w s i t . DESCRIBING SOURCES OF NEWS: AN ILLUSTRATION There are a number of r o u t i n e sources of l o c a l news f o r the newspaper. Probably the most abundant source i s the newspaper i t s e l f . That i s , news s t o r i e s from pr e v i o u s papers p r o v i d e a constant source of i n f o r m a t i o n about newsworthy developments. Another i s r a d i o news; i n Vancouver, a l l CKNW news broadcasts are monitored by the newspaper to ca t c h the l a t e s t developments and any items the newspaper might have missed. Another source i s p o l i c e r a d i o which i s l i s t e n e d to i n the newsroom to give the paper e a r l y access to newsworthy occurances. Press r e l e a s e s are another source of i n f o r m a t i o n from a wide v a r i e t y of bu s i n e s s e s , community o r g a n i z a t i o n s , and l e v e l s o f government. Then th e r e are a gr e a t number of phone c a l l s which are r e f e r r e d to as phone t i p s . - 61 -A phone t i p i s a c a l l which giv e s the newspaper some p i e c e of i n f o r m a t i o n t h a t may be used i n the making of a news s t o r y . The i n f o r m a t i o n must be of p u b l i c concern. For example, a c a l l from an alderman about a p u b l i c meeting being announced would be a t i p . So would a b u s i n e s s -man c a l l i n g to say t h a t the bank next door t o h i s shop was being robbed. However, a c a l l from a pensioner s a y i n g t h a t h i s check was two days l a t e would not be c o n s i d e r e d a s u i t a b l e matter, or someone c a l l i n g t o say t h a t her neighbour was b e a t i n g h i s w i f e . The most i n t e r e s t i n g f e a t u r e o f t h i s type of account, i s t h a t i t i s b a s i c a l l y c o r r e c t . What i t does give by way o f i n f o r m a t i o n about sources of news i s a c c u r a t e . Because i t i s i n f o r m a t i o n a l , and because i t does t e l l us what we expect t o hear, i t f e e l s q u i t e a c c e p t a b l e as an account of sources o f news. The problem l i e s i n what i t doesn't t e l l us and never w i l l . I t i s put together i n a way t h a t excludes c o n s i d e r a t i o n of how t h i n g s a r i s e , how they get done, how they work, how they are known; and i t does not even d i r e c t us to the q u e s t i o n s . I t t e l l s us about sources of news i n a way t h a t adds l i t t l e to our understanding of them. For example, how do pre v i o u s papers come to have some e f f e c t on f u t u r e news s t o r i e s ? How i s t h a t done as a p r a c t i c a l matter? What does i t mean to monitor a r a d i o broadcast? How does r a d i o news have items t h a t the newspaper doesn't known about? How does the newspaper use p o l i c e r a d i o ? Does a r e p o r t e r w r i t e news r e p o r t s from what she hears on the r a d i o ? Are press r e l e a s e s used as news s t o r i e s ? Do r e p o r t e r s w r i t e s t o r i e s from phone t i p s ? e t c . - 62 -The problem w i t h the account of sources i s not t h a t i t i s l a c k i n g i n these d e t a i l s . Rather i t i d e n t i f i e s sources of news i n a way which d i s r e g a r d s the problem of how they are brought about i n p r a c t i c e . A phone t i p , f o r example, i s d e s c r i b e d as a c a l l t h a t has c e r t a i n f e a t u r e s . I t s c h a r a c t e r as a \" t i p \" i s a t t r i b u t e d to the c a l l i t s e l f , r a t h e r than to the r e l a t i o n between the c a l l e r and newspaper i n which i t s c h a r a c t e r as a t i p i s c o n s t i t u t e d . The second account of sources of news which f o l l o w s i s l e n g t h i e r and more d e t a i l e d , but t h a t i s not my concern. I am concerned with the procedure t h a t i t uses to make something known. I t i s an attempt t o produce an e x p l i c a t i o n r a t h e r than a d e s c r i p t i o n . I t w i l l be c l e a r t h a t i t i s a p i e c e of work i n progress; i t i n c l u d e s remarks on the procedure i t s e l f and o b s e r v a t i o n s on d e t a i l s of data t h a t need to be added to the account. I f e e l t h a t i t i s not a bad t h i n g f o r accounts to have t h i s c h a r a c t e r o f being under c o n s t r u c t i o n given t h a t the doing of the account needs t o be made v i s i b l e as p a r t of the s o c i a l c o n s t r u c t i o n of the o b j e c t . SOURCES OF NEWS: DOING AN EXPLICATIVE ACCOUNT The n o t i o n of \"sources of news\" i s commonly used i n t a l k about the p r o d u c t i o n of news to d e s c r i b e the means by which news events become known t o the newspaper. Accepted i n a common sense manner, the term c a r r i e s a c o n n o t a t i o n of news s p r i n g i n g up from the s o c i a l world l i k e water from a w e l l , at the door of the newspaper o f f i c e . - 63 -Used i n t h i s common sense way, \"source\" i s p a r t of a way of t a l k i n g about news which g l o s s e s over the phenomena i t i s used to d e s c r i b e . I t obscures, r a t h e r than making v i s i b l e , those processes by which the newspaper a c q u i r e s i n f o r m a t i o n . That i s , i t obscures how the n o t i o n of \"source\" i s a d e s c r i p t i o n of p a r t of the process of news p r o d u c t i o n . When we i n v e s t i g a t e the processes which \"source\" i s used to d e s c r i b e , we f i n d a number of observable a c t i v i t i e s which are the a c t i v e work of c o n s t i t u t i n g c e r t a i n persons and p l a c e s i n the s o c i a l world as resources f o r m a t e r i a l used i n the p r o d u c t i o n of news. A source of news i s found to emerge as the product of a b u r e a u c r a t i c s t y l e of work which o r g a n i z e s those l o c a t i o n s as r o u t i n e p r o v i d e r s o f the m a t e r i a l which i s u t i l i z e d i n the pr o d u c t i o n o f news. Thus a source i s not'something which v o l u n t e e r s from the s o c i a l world, but i s produced i n the work of news p r o d u c t i o n . So t h a t we a r r i v e a t an understanding t h a t a \"news source\" i s not any k i n d of n a t u r a l o b j e c t t h a t can be found by l o o k i n g f o r something t h a t conforms to t h a t d e s c r i p t i o n . I t a r i s e s o n l y as a product of the or g a n i z e d s o c i a l p r a c t i c e s by which the newspaper a c q u i r e s wh'at i s t r e a t e d as i n f o r m a t i o n f o r the purposes of making news. A source has no oth e r e x i s t e n c e than i n the org a n i z e d s o c i a l p r a c t i c e s which b r i n g i t i n t o being. I t i s what would be c a l l e d a s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d phenomenon. - 64 -So we need a method of d e s c r i b i n g \"news sources\" which r e t a i n s the c h a r a c t e r of the phenomena themselves. We need to be able to do an account of sources which r e p r e s e n t s them not as o b j e c t i f i e d , n a t u r a l phenomena, but as s o c i a l o b j e c t s which a r i s e out of the work p r a c t i c e s they d e s c r i b e . In o t h e r words, we need to d e s c r i b e what a source i s i n terms of the work p r a c t i c e s by which i n f o r m a t i o n i s gathered f o r the purposes of producing news. When we i n v e s t i g a t e these work p r a c t i c e s , we f i n d a number of r o u t i n e procedures which scan, l i s t e n f o r , attend t o , r e c o v e r , i n v a r i o u s ways, f e a t u r e s of the s o c i a l world which are t r e a t a b l e by those methods which produce news s t o r i e s . These work p r a c t i c e s o r g a n i z e a r e l a t i o n between the newspaper and the community which i s sometimes d e s c r i b e d as \"monitoring\", or a k i n d of a c t i v e l i s t e n i n g . These m o n i t o r i n g p r a c t i c e s are p a r t of the method by which the c o r p o r a t i o n o r g a n i z e s i t s e n t e r p r i s e . The m a t e r i a l which i s produced i n t h i s way i s a dependable f e a t u r e of the news p r o d u c t i o n p r o c e s s . In t h i s sense the monitoring p r a c t i c e s can be t r e a t e d much l i k e the w e l l which dependably p r o v i d e s water. The m o n i t o r i n g p r a c t i c e s p r o v i d e a dependable source of news m a t e r i a l . There are q u i t e a number of p r a c t i c e s t h a t need to be i n v e s t i g a t e d i n d e t a i l i n o r d e r t o d e s c r i b e the v a r i o u s \"sources\" i n terms of the work out of which they a r i s e . For example, one - 65 -would have to i n v e s t i g a t e the a c t i v i t i e s of c l i p p i n g previous papers to d i s p l a y how i t i s t h a t the newspaper i t s e l f becomes a source of subsequent news s t o r i e s . One would have to c a r e f u l l y d e t a i l the work of m o n i t o r i n g r a d i o news i n order to show how the r a d i o becomes a source of news f o r the newspaper, and s i m i l a r l y the work of m o n i t o r i n g p o l i c e r a d i o to show how t h a t i s u t i l i z e d . One would have to look a t the a c t i v i t y surrounding press r e l e a s e s to show how they are a dependable source of news. One would need to look a t the w r i t i n g of memos as the procedure by which the knowledge t h a t r e p o r t e r s a c q u i r e becomes a source of news m a t e r i a l . T h i s l i s t i s c e r t a i n l y not exhaustive. Here I w i l l d i s c u s s i n d e t a i l o n l y one of these p r a c t i c e s , the source of news which i s known as phone t i p s . T h i s d i s c u s s i o n w i l l serve p r i m a r i l y to demonstrate what an i n v e s t i g a t i o n and account of the k i n d we< are recommending would, look l i k e . I t w i l l be c l e a r from the d i s c u s s i o n o f phone t i p s t h a t t h i s work r e q u i r e s a h i g h l y d e t a i l e d l e v e l of data. I t i s a l e v e l of data t h a t i s demanding to r e c o r d i n the f i e l d , and i s not o f t e n c o l l e c t e d f o r ethnographies. Phone Ti p s One important aspect of the monitoring, procedure which accomplishes what i s c a l l e d \"sources of news\" i s the telephone. The newspaper, makes i t s e l f a v a i l a b l e day and n i g h t to r e c e i v e telephone c a l l s which may serve the purpose of p r o v i d i n g what -'-See E r r i n g t o n (1973) f o r an i l l u s t r a t i o n of the k i n d of data t h a t i s r e q u i r e d . - 66 -can be t r e a t e d as i n f o r m a t i o n to be used i n the p r o d u c t i o n of news. We can look i n some d e t a i l at how t h i s i s done. The l o c a t i o n i n the newspaper o r g a n i z a t i o n where people are prepared to r e c e i v e such c a l l s i s the r e w r i t e desk i n the newsroom. However, not a l l c a l l s t h a t come i n t o t h i s desk w i l l be c o n s i d e r e d \"phone . t i p s \" . I t i s i n the procedures used to handle i n d i v i d u a l c a l l s t h a t they become d i f f e r e n t i a t e d and c o n s t i t u t e d as v a r i o u s d i f f e r e n t kinds of c a l l s . I t i s the procedure which c o n s t i t u t e s , c e r t a i n of those c a l l s as \"phone t i p s \" t h a t we s h a l l examine i n d e t a i l . C o n s t i t u t i n g a phone t i p i s a procedure which t r e a t s some c a l l s as p r o v i d i n g i n f o r m a t i o n which can be u t i l i z e d i n the p r o d u c t i o n of news s t o r i e s ; t r e a t i n g a phone c a l l as a source of i n f o r m a t i o n f o r the purposes of making news. T h i s i s done by h a n d l i n g the c a l l w i t h a p r e l i m i n a r y procedure which serves to i n t e g r a t e i t i n t o the stream of the news-making process. T h i s p r e l i m i n a r y p r o c e s s i n g i s a c t u a l l y a v a i l a b l e to o b s e r v a t i o n i n the work r o u t i n e s of the persons who r e c e i v e c a l l s / The' procedure goes something l i k e t h i s : The phone r i n g s . A person a t the r e w r i t e desk answers i t . She r e c o g n i z e s , by a process i n v o l v i n g the i d e n t i t y and i n t e n t i o n of the c a l l e r and the s u b j e c t matter of the c a l l t h a t the c a l l appears to her have the c h a r a c t e r of \"being\" a phone t i p . At f i r s t we c a l l e d t h i s a process of t y p i f i c a t i o n (Schutz). L a t e r - 67 -we began to see t h a t the work of r e c o g n i z i n g a c a l l as \"being\" a phone t i p c o u l d be f u l l y e x p l o r e d as a p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y by use of data on p r e c i s e l y what the r e w r i t e person says, asks, w r i t e s down, attends to i n the course of the phone c a l l . Roughly t h i s i s the work which determines whether the c a l l e r seems to have some i n f o r m a t i o n which she wants ot h e r s to know; whether t h a t i n f o r m a t i o n i s of p u b l i c i n t e r e s t , whether the c a l l e r can be c o n s i d e r e d a u t h o r i t a t i v e , or perhaps \" j u s t a crank\"; whether there i s f u r t h e r i n f o r m a t i o n a v a i l a b l e , e t c . The d e t a i l s of t h i s d e t e r m i n a t i o n , as a procedure which can be l e a r n e d , need to be f i l l e d out. My data on t h i s procedure i s a t the moment incomplete. Having used a procedure which g i v e s d e t e r m i n a t i o n to the c a l l as a phone t i p , the r e w r i t e person then f o l l o w s a s e t of procedures t h a t c o n s t i t u t e s the c a l l as a t i p . She p i c k s up a b o o k l e t c o n s i s t i n g of f o u r p i e c e s of rough paper with carbon from the desk beside the phone, puts i t i n t o the t y p e w r i t e r , and types as she l i s t e n s , asks q u e s t i o n s , e t c . She records i n t h i s manner the names, dates, p l a c e s , times, e t c . known as the \" d e t a i l s \" u n t i l she has what i s known as \" a l l the i n f o r m a t i o n \" . The work of i d e n t i f y i n g \" d e t a i l s \" and \" a l l the i n f o r m a t i o n \" a l s o has the appearance of a process of t y p i f i c a t i o n , i n as much as the r e w r i t e person experiences v a r i o u s aspects of the c a l l as having t h a t c h a r a c t e r . But t h i s work a l s o can be examined as a s e t of p r a c t i c e s which can be found i n what the r e w r i t e - 68 -person attends to i n the course of the c o n v e r s a t i o n , e x a c t l y what she t y p i c a l l y w r i t e s down, e t c . Since t h i s work of c o n s t i t u t i n g a t i p i s or g a n i z e d by i t s intended use i n e n a b l i n g a r e p o r t e r to do i n v e s t i g a t i v e work at a l a t e r time, doing \" d e t a i l s \" and \" i n f o r m a t i o n \" are procedures such as g e t t i n g the c o r r e c t nature of the i n f o r m a t i o n which the c a l l e r has to o f f e r , g e t t i n g the c o r r e c t date and time t h a t t h i n g s are happening, g e t t i n g c o r r e c t names and phone numbers of persons who can be contacted r e g a r d i n g the i n f o r m a t i o n , g e t t i n g the c o r r e c t name of the c a l l e r and time of the c a l l , e t c . Doing \" d e t a i l s \" and \" i n f o r m a t i o n \" are a l s o procedures f o r o r g a n i z i n g f e a t u r e s of i n f o r m a t i o n i n a way t h a t makes i t r e c o g n i z a b l e and usable i n the context of news. Again, the d e t a i l s of these p r a c t i c e s need to be made known. The document t h a t emerges i n q u a d r u p l i c a t e from t h i s process i s r e f e r r e d to i n the newsroom as a phone t i p . The r e w r i t e person puts one copy of i t on the s p i n d l e on her desk and three copies i n t o t h e r e c e i v i n g basket on the c i t y desk. In order to c a l l a t t e n t i o n to procedures used i n the news-room which are an e s s e n t i a l p a r t of how a phone t i p a r i s e s , I want to r e f e r to two common occ a s i o n s on which a c a l l e r has i n f o r m a t i o n to o f f e r but which are not t r e a t e d w i t h the procedure which c o n s t i t u t e s those c a l l s as phone t i p s . - 69 -One i s when a c a l l i s t r e a t e d as a \" g r i p e \" . That i s , o f t e n a person w i l l c a l l w i t h i n f o r m a t i o n on an annoying s i t u a t i o n , a g r i e v a n c e which he wants to have a i r e d . On some of these o c c a s i o n s the r e w r i t e person g i v e s the c a l l e r the phone number of the a p p r o p r i a t e agency and person who should be c o n t a c t e d f o r r e l i e f of the problem. T h i s i s s a i d t o be a s a t i s f a c t o r y response to many c a l l s . They are c a l l s which s t a r t out w i t h roughly the same c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s as those which become phone t i p s , but w i t h i n the p r a c t i c e s of answering phones at the r e w r i t e desk they are given d e t e r m i n a t i o n as \" g r i p e s \" . The c a l l w i l l be r e f e r r e d t o i n the newsroom as \"being\" a g r i p e . The other o c c a s i o n I want to r e f e r to i s when a r e p o r t e r \"phones i n a s t o r y \" . That i s , when a r e p o r t e r c a l l s to d i c t a t e over the phone a f i n i s h e d news s t o r y . T h i s example i s h e l p f u l because i t shows by c o n t r a s t t h a t the work of doing a phone t i p i s s t r u c t u r e d by the f a c t t h a t i n f o r m a t i o n on t h a t o c c a s i o n has not a l r e a d y been o r g a n i z e d i n t o the form i n which i t can be used as news. Phoning i n a s t o r y i s a common procedure f o r a r e p o r t e r who i s o u t s i d e the newsroom when d e a d l i n e time comes around. In t h i s s i t u a t i o n , she c a l l s i n t o the newsroom and d i c t a t e s the news s t o r y to someone at the r e w r i t e desk. The way i n which t h i s i s done i s f o r a r e w r i t e person to s e t a t the t y p e w r i t e r w i t h the - 7 0 -phone over one shoulder and type the s t o r y verbatim as the r e p o r t e r d i c t a t e s i t . On these occasions the r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of the r e w r i t e person i n completing the work of phoning i n a s t o r y i s extremely r e s t r i c t e d . Roughly, her r e s p o n s i b i l i t y i s l i m i t e d to matters of s p e l l i n g , p u n c t u a t i o n , c a p i t a l i z a t i o n , e t c . What gets recorded i n terms of content i s wholly the r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of the r e p o r t e r . The r e w r i t e person takes no r e s p o n s i b i l i t y f o r the a p p r o p r i a t e n e s s , accuracy, comleteness, e t c . , of the i n f o r m a t i o n she i s r e c o r d i n g . These are the r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of the r e p o r t e r who composed the s t o r y , and whose name goes on the bottom of the document which i s typed i n t h i s way. The r e w r i t e person i s r e s p o n s i b l e f o r u s i n g the proper paper, the proper number of c o p i e s , f o r p u t t i n g the proper number of c o p i e s i n the r i g h t p l a c e s , and f o r i d e n t i f y i n g h i m s e l f or h e r s e l f as the person who took the d i c t a t i o n . On the o c c a s i o n of a phone t i p , on the other hand, the c a l l e r i s not a r e p o r t e r , and the i n f o r m a t i o n has not a l r e a d y been worked up i n any way to make i t warrantable f o r use i n the news making pro c e s s . Then the work of the r e w r i t e person i s o r g a n i z e d by a completely d i f f e r e n t r e l a t i o n s h i p to the c a l l e r and the i n f o r m a t i o n which the c a l l e r can p r o v i d e . A d i f f e r e n t s e t of procedures e n t i r e l y i s r e q u i r e d to give to the c a l l the o r g a n i z a t i o n which i d e n t i f i e s i t as a phone t i p . What i s v i s i b l e i n these accounts i s t h a t the c h a r a c t e r o f a phone c a l l as a \" t i p \" , a \" g r i p e \" or a \" s t o r y \" does not merely s p r i n g up from the nature of the c a l l s themselves. The a c t i v i t i e s - 71 -of the o c c a s i o n s are p a r t of the procedure f o r b r i n g i n g - t h e c a l l s i n t o being as what they are. For example, i n the case of a phone t i p , i t becomes c l e a r t h a t a phone t i p does not merely s p r i n g up as a source of news from some d i s p o s i t i o n i n the s o c i a l world to p r o v i d e the newspaper wi t h news. I t s c h a r a c t e r i s c l e a r l y an accomplishment of a number of o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s which b r i n g a phone \" c a l l i n t o t h a t r e l a t i o n to the work of producing news. A phone t i p a c q u i r e s the appearance of an o b j e c t i v e event, then, i n the t a l k which d e s c r i b e s these or g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s . In f d e s c r i b i n g the c a l l i t s e l f as a phone t i p , we are u s i n g the r e f e r e n t i a l method to which Smith has c a l l e d our a t t e n t i o n . We r e p r e s e n t a phone t i p as e x i s t i n g on the other s i d e of i t s name l i k e an o b j e c t , r a t h e r than as a s o c i a l p r a c t i c e . In doing so we a t t r i b u t e a f e a t u r e of the method of d e s c r i b i n g the a c t i v i t i e s , to the c a l l i t s e l f as i t s c h a r a c t e r . In the accounts of t h e i r work t h a t people i n the newsroom d i d as our informants, and i n ' t h e accounts of news work t h a t have been w r i t t e n by j o u r n a l i s t s and s o c i o l o g i s t s , the o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c a l aspects of the work have become o b j e c t i f i e d . We have come to understand aspects of the o r g a n i z a t i o n of the work of news p r o d u c t i o n as f e a t u r e s of the s o c i a l world. Thus what i s or i s not a phone t i p i s t r e a t e d as a matter of the f e a t u r e s of the c a l l i t s e l f . A c a l l from an alderman to announce a p u b l i c meeting comes to be seen i t s e l f as \"a t i p \" . What t h i s does i s render i n v i s i b l e a l l the \" a c t u a l a c t i v i t i e s of r e a l people\" i n which t h a t c h a r a c t e r a r i s e s . TOWARD OTHER EXPLICATIVE ACCOUNTS This d i s c u s s i o n of phone t i p s should be t r e a t e d as an i n d i c a t i o n of how i t i s p o s s i b l e to work. I t i s an attempt to develop a way o f o r g a n i z i n g an account which e x p l i c a t e s the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d c h a r a c t e r of phenomena. S i m i l a r work can be done wi t h other aspects of the p r o d u c t i o n of news. When we look a t the v a r i o u s terms which are a p a r t of news work — news, assignments, s t o r i e s , events, developments, l o c a l — we f i n d t h a t the terms a r i s e i n the work of producing news and name aspects of the p r a c t i c a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of t h a t work. They name or g a n i z e d r e l a t i o n s between people, and they have no other e x i s t e n c e than i n the p r a c t i c e of those r e l a t i o n s . Though we come to see them as d i s c r e t e events, as o b j e c t s or o c c a s i o n s which can be found l i k e mushrooms, we d i s c o v e r upon c l o s e r examination t h a t they cannot be found l i k e mushrooms, but r a t h e r l i k e phone t i p s . That i s , they can be found o n l y by l e a r n i n g the procedures f o r c o n s t i t u t i n g them; only by l e a r n i n g to assemble them as what they are i n the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e i n which they a r i s e . T h i s method of work can be used to e x p l i c a t e not only t e c h n i c a l work r o u t i n e s , but a l s o more g e n e r a l f e a t u r e s of news which o r i g i n a t e as a s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e . - 73 -For example, c o n s i d e r the problem of understanding what news i t s e l f i s . A l o t o f i n t e r e s t i n news has been o r g a n i z e d around the problem of t r y i n g to d e f i n e i t . What i s or i s not news i s commonly t r e a t e d as determined by f e a t u r e s of the happening. \"News i s the unexpected\"; or \"News i s a l l t h i n g s to a l l people, human i n t e r e s t \" ; l i s t s of c r i t e r i a are lengthy. These and other common statements depend upon the assumption t h a t news has some k i n d of o b j e c t i v e c h a r a c t e r ; t h a t news has an independent e x i s t e n c e as a phenomenon or as an observ-able q u a l i t y of c e r t a i n phenomena. We t h i n k of news as something t h a t i s found by l o o k i n g f o r i t : j o u r n a l i s t s \"gather\" i t , \"cover\" i t , \"catch\" i t and \"rec o g n i z e \" i t . That news e x i s t s f o r us as an o r d i n a r y p a r t of the world we i n h a b i t i s i n d i s p u t a b l e ; we can go out and buy a paper which w i l l t e l l us the news. There i s a problem, however, i n t h i n k i n g about news i n t h i s o b j e c t i f i e d way, as i f i t \"happened without an author\". (Smith, 1974a:28) What i s l e f t out of t h i s understanding i s , again, the \" a c t u a l a c t i v i t i e s of r e a l people\" which b r i n g to a happening i t s c h a r a c t e r as an item of news. The c h a r a c t e r of events as news i s determined i n a process which i s fundamentally s o c i a l . I t s news-ness i s carved out of the ongoing s o c i a l process by the r o u t i n e a c t i v i t i e s of r e p o r t e r s i n the course of doing t h e i r work. The dete r m i n a t i o n of happenings as news i s to be found i n t h i s work, not i n the f e a t u r e s of the happening i t s e l f . The phenomenon which we know - 74 -as \"news\" i s thus a s o c i a l c o n s t r u c t i o n . How t h a t c o n s t r u c t i o n i s done as a p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y becomes the t o p i c of the k i n d of enquiry which i s suggested here. I t i s not my i n t e n t i o n to t r y to develop an e x p l i c a t i v e account of news i n t h i s paper. That i s r a t h e r the task of many papers, and the goal of our ongoing i n t e r e s t i n news. Here I w i l l do no more than begin to i n d i c a t e how such an enquiry would procede. The p l a c e to begin the e x p l o r a t i o n of how news comes i n t o b e ing, f o l l o w i n g the procedure o u t l i n e d i n t h i s paper, i s w i t h the t a l k of news people themselves. J o u r n a l i s t s o f t e n use the phrase \"news sense\", or others l i k e i t , t o i d e n t i f y how they f i n d news and reco g n i z e i t . F o c u s s i n g on t h i s i l l u s i v e \"sense\" i s very worthwhile. I t i s not u s e f u l because i t t e l l s us how news i s produced; q u i t e the c o n t r a r y . As an e x p l a n a t i o n o f of how j o u r n a l i s t s work, the concept of news sense wholly obscures the work i t pur p o r t s to e x p l a i n . I t renders what r e p o r t e r s a c t u a l l y do, completely i n a c c e s s i b l e . Rather, the n o t i o n of news sense becomes u s e f u l o n l y when we take i t as a p r o b l e m a t i c , as a t o p i c f o r i n v e s t i g a t i o n . We need to ask how t h i s \"sense\" operates as a p r a c t i c e . The task i s to e x p l i c a t e some of the ways t h a t what i s c a l l e d \"news sense\" i s a c t u a l l y o r g a n i z e d i n t o Lthe work of news p r o d u c t i o n through p r a c t i c e s t h a t are a v a i l a b l e to o b s e r v a t i o n and d e s c r i p t i o n . That i s , to b r i n g them out of peoples' heads and i n t o the work s e t t i n g where the s u c c e s s f u l p r a c t i c e of t h i s s o - c a l l e d \"sense\" i s a dependable f e a t u r e of the co r p o r a t e - 75 -e n t e r p r i s e . The newspaper as a business e n t e r p r i s e s u r v i v e s because t h i s s u c c e s s f u l p r a c t i c e i s o r g a n i z e d i n t o the work of news p r o d u c t i o n . The c o r p o r a t i o n does not r e l y on a l l e l l u s i v e t a l e n t of a g i f t e d few; i t r e l i e s on a b u r e a u r c r a t i c o r g a n i z a t i o n of work which dependably produces the commodity \"news\" i n dependable q u a n t i t i e s , a t dependable times. Working i n t h i s way i t would become p o s s i b l e to see how the c h a r a c t e r of events as news a r i s e s i n the a c t u a l work p r a c t i c e s of the people who do the•work of producing i t . News can be found as the product of l o c a t a b l e , observable, d e s c r i b a b l e p r a c t i c e s . I t i s not an e l l u s i v e phenomenon which a r i s e s independently; i t i s not a c o n t i n u a l d i s c o v e r y of a g i f t of the senses. News i s r a t h e r a product of the o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s which b r i n g i t i n t o being. In t h i s way i t would be p o s s i b l e to show the o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s of news p r o d u c t i o n which g i v e d e t e r m i n a t i o n to news. We can take what Smith has s a i d about d e s c r i p t i o n s and apply i t d i r e c t l y to news as a very a p p r o p r i a t e example of what she i s t a l k i n g about: The d e s c r i p t i o n must be seen as a s p e c i a l k i n d of e n t e r p r i s e which i s p a r t of a l a r g e r o r g a n i z a t i o n . ...We make them f o r p r a c t i c a l purposes and use methods which p r o v i d e f o r how they meet the requirements of those purposes... Thus we can look a t the ways i n which the c h a r a c t e r of a f a c t u a l account i s shaped by the e n t e r p r i s e of which i t i s a p a r t . (Smith, 1976b:2) - 76 -CHAPTER FOUR CONCLUSION Two accounts of \"Sources of News\" were presented i n the p r e v i o u s chapter. The f i r s t i l l u s t r a t e s a c o n v e n t i o n a l form of d e s c r i p t i o n ; the second i s an attempt to b e g i n to develop an account which has the c h a r a c t e r of an e x p l i c a t i o n and p r o v i d e s an a l t e r n a t i v e to c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n . Here we w i l l review the methods by which the two accounts proceed, and c o n s i d e r the i m p l i c a t i o n s of the e x p l i c a t i v e method. I t would be h e l p f u l to begin by reviewing b r i e f l y the f e a t u r e s of the d e s c r i p t i v e method t h a t have been d i s c u s s e d i n t h i s paper. They are: 1) t h a t the d e s c r i p t i v e method r e f e r e n c e s the world, t h a t i s i t presumes t h a t there i s an a c t u a l i t y on the other s i d e of the account; 2) t h a t i n r e f e r e n c i n g the world there i s what has been c a l l e d a process o f t r a n s f e r e n c e , i n which an o b j e c t i v e c h a r a c t e r i s attached to the phenomenon as i t s own c h a r a c t e r , and which obscures the p r a c t i c e s which b r i n g the phenomenon i n t o being; and 3) t h a t the phenomenon i s represented as e x i s t i n g e x t e r n a l l y to the s o c i a l r e l a t i o n i n which i t i s c o n s t i t u t e d as known. - 77 -Both accounts, I would suggest, proceed by r e f e r e n c i n g the world. They both presume t h a t there i s an a c t u a l i t y beyond the account: woman, phone, t y p e w r i t e r , e t c . T h i s i s p a r t of what c o n s t i t u t e s them as f a c t u a l accounts, as was d i s c u s s e d . However, I would argue t h a t w h i l e the f i r s t account does e x h i b i t the remaining two c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i v e method, the second account does not. The f i r s t account of sources of news re p r e s e n t s a phone t i p as something which comes i n t o the newsroom over the telephone. In doing so, i t transforms what was o r i g i n a l l y a s e t of work r o u t i n e s i n t o an accomplished f a c t ; i t makes use of a knowledge of p r a c t i c a l r o u t i n e s as a b a s i s on which to summarize, or e x t r a p o l a t e to the product of those r o u t i n e s . Thus \"...a phone t i p i s a c a l l which g i v e s the newspaper...\", and \"There are a number of r o u t i n e sources of l o c a l news....\" In t h i s way the f i r s t account a l s o excludes the reader from the work of c o n s t i t u t i n g a phone t i p as the o b j e c t of her knowledge. I t \"makes sense\" of the s e t t i n g f o r the reader i n a way t h a t excludes her from i t . In the second account, on the other hand, the c h a r a c t e r of a phone t i p as a work process i s p r e s e r v e d i n the account. The account does not t r a n s f e r an o b j e c t i v e c h a r a c t e r to a phone t i p . I t i s a s e t of a c t i v i t i e s : p i c k up the phone, l i s t e n , t a l k , type, e t c . I t r e t a i n s i t s c h a r a c t e r as a s o c i a l accomplishment. Thus - 78 -the second account g i v e s the reader the knowledge of p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s on which the f i r s t account depends; t h a t i s , how i t comes about t h a t t h e r e \"are\" sources o f t h a t there \" i s \" a t i p . I t shows how these come about as the product of the a c t i v i t y of i n d i v i d u a l s . The second account a l s o does not c o n s t i t u t e what goes on i n the newsroom as e x t e r n a l to the r e l a t i o n of knowing. That i s , the reader must do the work of l e a r n i n g to perform the o r g a n i z a t i o n which makes a phone t i p v i s i b l e i n order to c o n s t i t u t e f o r h e r s e l f t h a t phenomenon as what i t i s . The second account o n l y becomes an account of phone t i p s by v i r t u e of the reader (or observer) l e a r n i n g t h a t these a c t i v i t i e s are the doing of phone t i p s . She must l e a r n to c o n s t i t u t e t h i s phenomenon as what i t i s i n her method of r e a d i n g the account, or i n her method of o b s e r v i n g the phenomenon. T h i s l o c a t e s the reader i n the s o c i a l r e l a t i o n t h a t i s being o r g a n i z e d by the account. When she f a i l s to l o c a t e h e r s e l f as p a r t of i t , the account d i s i n t e g r a t e s . A very u s e f u l i l l u s t r a t i o n o f t h i s p o i n t o c c u r r e d i n a colloquium\"'\"at which I presented t h i s account of phone t i p s as a source of news. The account drew c r i t i c i s m because i t appeared to leave out, or r e f u s e to acknowledge, f e a t u r e s of 'phone t i p s ' -'-Colloquium on D e s c r i p t i o n , Department of Anthropology and S o c i o l o g y , U n i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, May 1977. - 79 -and 'news' which seemed obvious to those p r e s e n t on t h i s o c c a s i o n . For i n s t a n c e , the account denied t h a t ' t i p s ' and 'non-tips' d i s t i n g u i s h e d themselves by the nature of the s u b j e c t matter, or t h a t some t o p i c s were i n h e r e n t l y 'newsworthy' while others were not. Those who o b j e c t e d to these aspects of the account d i d not see ' t i p - n e s s ' or 'news-ness' as something t h a t needed to be, or c o u l d be, assembled as a p r a c t i c a l matter. T h i s experience demonstrated f o r me a c r u c i a l a spect of the account. I t i s an account which i d e n t i f i e s a s e r i e s of a c t i v i t i e s i n t h e i r o r g a n i z a t i o n a l s e t t i n g s . In order to understand t h a t as an account of phone t i p s , the reader (or l i s t e n e r , or observer) i s r e q u i r e d to p a r t i c i p a t e i n the work of assembling these a c t i v i t i e s as the doing of phone t i p s . The problem i n the c o l l o q u i u m was t h a t people d i d not b r i n g t h a t method to the account. They brought to the account the method which a p p l i e s to c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n , i . e . e n t e r i n g the account o b j e c t i v e l y , (which i s , not to e n t e r i t a t a l l ) . They t r e a t e d i t as an account which would perform f o r them the work of assembling a phone t i p and then hand i t to them. My account d i d not do t h a t . At t h i s p o i n t , the d i s o r g a n i z a t i o n which r e s u l t e d from the method which they were u s i n g to understand the account was then a t t r i b u t e d to the account as i t s d i s o r g a n i z a t i o n , or i t s inadequacy i n r e p r e s e n t i n g phone t i p s . T h i s experience demonstrated t h a t the account does d i f f e r i n fundamental ways from a c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n . - 80 -I t i s hoped t h a t what has been l e a r n e d i n t h i s paper may be used as a b a s i s from which to continue the work of developing a method of accounting which e x p l i c a t e s , r a t h e r than g l o s s e s , the c h a r a c t e r of the s o c i a l p r o c e s s . The method which i s proposed here i s a beginn i n g . I t promises to produce an account of the o b j e c t of study which i s or g a n i z e d by and makes v i s i b l e the s o c i a l l y o r g a n i z e d p r a c t i c e s i n which the phenomenon comes i n t o being. I t l o c a t e s the observer and the reader i n such a way t h a t the method of assembling the phenomenon as what i t i s f o r them i s pr e s e n t i n the account as i t s method. Such an account i s t r u l y e x p l i c a t i v e ; t h a t i s , the account makes v i s i b l e the o r g a n i z a t i o n on which i t depends. I t r e p l i c a t e s t h a t o r g a n i z a t i o n , so t h a t the phenomenon i s c o n s t i t u t e d i n the account i n the same manner t h a t i t i s c o n s t i t u t e d i n the o r i g i n a l s e t t i n g i n which i t a r i s e s . T h i s suggests the p o s s i b i l i t y of s o c i o l o g i c a l accounts t h a t are grounded i n the a c t u a l i t y they d e s c r i b e i n a way t h a t i s q u i t e d i f f e r e n t from c o n v e n t i o n a l d e s c r i p t i o n s . (See Smith 1976b) Th i s p r o p o s a l f o r an e x p l i c a t i v e method g i v e s a c l e a r i n d i c a t i o n of r e s e a r c h procedures f o r t h i s k i n d of work. I t p r e s c r i b e s a method of o b s e r v a t i o n which s i n g l e s out language as the p l a c e to begin ones enquiry. I t p r o v i d e s i n s t r u c t i o n s on how to work wi t h the data p r o v i d e d i n language, u s i n g a - 81 -\" s u b s t r u c t i n g \" procedure which r e t u r n s terms to the working p r a c t i c e i n which they a r i s e . I t i d e n t i f i e s an extremely d e t a i l e d l e v e l of data which i s r e q u i r e d and begins to d e f i n e the type of w r i t t e n accounts t h a t must be produced i n order t o adequately d i s p l a y the phenomenon. Experience working i n t h i s way suggests t h a t the e x p l i c a t i v e procedure i s one t h a t can be used at any l e v e l of o r g a n i z a t i o n of phenomena. For example, the same procedure which allows us to c o n s i d e r how phone t i p s come i n t o being a l s o p r o v i d e s the method of understanding how e.g. news i t s e l f , o r the newspaper as a c o r p o r a t e e n t e r p r i s e , i s c o n s t i t u t e d . The f e a t u r e s of these phenomena may not be the same, but the method of e x p l i c a t i n g the s o c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n on which these terms depend i s very s i m i l a r i n each case. Thus i t i s not necessary to use a d i f f e r e n t procedure to i s o l a t e the p a r t i c u l a r o b j e c t of study from i t s o r g a n i z a t i o n a l context than the method used to examine the 'object' i t s e l f . I t i s p o s s i b l e to begin with any f e a t u r e of the o r g a n i z a t i o n and f i n d the ways i n which i t i s c o n s t i t u t e d i n r e l a t i o n to the r e s t of the e n t e r p r i s e i n the p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t i e s t h a t are the performance of t h a t o r g a n i z a t i o n . For i n s t a n c e , another important aspect of news work which can be addressed by working i n t h i s way i s the problem o f b i a s and d i s t o r t i o n i n the news. The approach works q u i t e d i f f e r e n t l y - 82 -from c o n v e n t i o n a l concerns with \" o b j e c t i v i t y \" . I t permits us to see how the c o n s c i e n t i o u s p r a c t i c e of the o r d i n a r y , r o u t i n e procedures of news work l e g i s l a t e s a p a r t i c u l a r view of the world r a t h e r than an i m p a r t i a l , \" o b j e c t i v e \" view. A p a r t i c u l a r view i s i n t r o d u c e d through p r e c i s e l y the p r a c t i c e s of c o n s t i t u t i n g r o u t i n e f e a t u r e s of the o r g a n i z a t i o n of news work, such as 'phone t i p s ' , ' s t o r i e s ' , 'events', 'developments', e t c . , and through the p r a c t i c e s which c o n s t i t u t e such r o u t i n e c a t e g o r i e s as 'labour news' or 'women's pages'. A l l these are made v i s i b l e as p r a c t i c a l matters which mediate between what happens i n the world and what we read i n the newspaper. They are the p r a c t i c a l determinants of the view of the world we know as 'the news'. Paulson (1975) has done an i n t e r e s t i n g treatment of labour news from t h i s p e r s p e c t i v e . Her work demonstrates how 'labour news' takes on the c h a r a c t e r of 'management news' through the r o u t i n e procedures which are used to produce i t . Both i n i t s p r e s e n t a t i o n and the way i t i s d e f i n e d , labour i s t r e a t e d as i t becomes s i g n i f i c a n t to those groups managing and a d m i n i s t e r i n g i t i n t h i s context, i . e . b usiness owners and management groups, the c o u r t s , government agencies, o f f i c i a l s , e t c . . . T h i s s t r u c t u r i n g of the news r e s u l t s i n the e x c l u s i o n of c e r t a i n c a t e -g o r i e s of events and coverage of a l a r g e segment of the work f o r c e not i n c l u d e d i n the d e f i n i t i o n of labour as u n i o n i z e d labour, i . e . non-union n a t i v e and immigrant workers, p e n i t e n t i a r y workers, e t c . (Paulson, 1975:26-7) Paulson's work p r o v i d e s an i n d i c a t i o n of the k i n d of problem t h a t i t becomes p o s s i b l e to e x p l o r e w i t h the approach which i s - 8 3 -proposed i n t h i s paper. Thus the e x p l i c a t i v e method allows us to r e t u r n t o the problem with which we began. I t makes p o s s i b l e an examination of the p r a c t i c e s by which our knowledge of the world i s o r g a n i z e d . I t allows us to examine the p r o d u c t i o n of f a c t u a l knowledge as a p r a c t i c a l a c t i v i t y of r e a l i n d i v i d u a l s , and to examine the methods which are used t h a t g i v e d e t e r m i n a t i o n to what emerges as the product. I t i s not a problem only i n s o c i o l o g y , or i n the p r o d u c t i o n of news. I t i s a problem which stands i n between us and a l l the forms of f a c t u a l and documentary knowledge on which we depend to inform us and manage our l i v e s . A l l o f these forms of knowledge come about through p a r t i c u l a r p r a c t i c e s which o r g a n i z e the world so t h a t i t can be known i n a p a r t i c u l a r way. Thus they b u i l d i n , or i n s t i t u t i o n a l i z e , as Smith says, methods of examining, i n q u i r i n g i n t o , understanding, and - i n s h o r t - knowing the world which cannot do other than the work f o r which they were designed-namely t o put i t t o g e t h e r as an o b j e c t to be known from [ p a r t i c u l a r ] p o s i t i o n s . . . . (Smith, forthcoming:3) In t h i s paper we have begun to see how t h i s i s the case i n the work of s o c i o l o g y , and how t h i s process can be examined i n the p r o d u c t i o n of news. - 8 4 -BIBLIOGRAPHY C i c o u r e l , Aaron V. 19 68 The S o c i a l O r g a n i z a t i o n of J u v e n i l e J u s t i c e , New York: Wiley & Sons, Inc. 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Porter, John 1965 The V e r t i c a l Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power i n Canada, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Report of the Special Senate Committee on Mass Media 1970 Ottawa: Queen's Printer. Schutz, A l f r e d 1970 On Phenomenology and Social Relations, Helmut R. Wagner (ed.), Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Smith, Dorothy E. 1974a \"The Ideological Practice of Sociology\", Catalyst, No. 8, (Winter). 1974b \"The Social Construction of Documentary Reality\", S o c i o l o g i c a l Inquiry, Vol. 44, No. 4. 1976a Transcripts of Working Sessions, February and May. 1976b \"Notes on Description\", Unpublished Ms., Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of B r i t i s h Columbia. 1976c \"On Mead and Marx\", Lecture presented in Department of Sociology, University of Toronto. 1977a \"On Descriptions\" presented at a colloquium i n Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of B r i t i s h Columbia. 1977b \"On Description I I \" presented by i n v i t a t i o n , Department of Sociology, University of C a l i f o r n i a , Santa Barbara. n.d. \"Notes on Mead\", Unpublished Ms, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of B r i t i s h Columbian. (In Press) \"Some Implications of a Sociology for Women\", accepted for publication by Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology. - 8 6 -Tuchman, Gaye 1972 \" O b j e c t i v i t y as a S t r a t e g i c R i t u a l : An Examination of Newsmen's Notions of O b j e c t i v i t y \" , American J o u r n a l of S o c i o l o g y , V o l . 77, (January). 1973 \"Making News by Doing Work: R o u t i n i z i n g the Unexpected\", American J o u r n a l of S o c i o l o g y , V o l . 78, ( J u l y ) . 1976 \" T e l l i n g S t o r i e s \" , J o u r n a l of Communication, V o l . 26:4 (Autumn). Turner, Roy (ed.) 1974 Ethnomethodology, Markham, O n t a r i o : Penguin Books Canada L t d . Webster, S y l v i a K. F. 1977 \"Observing Occasions of C i t y H a l l Newsgathering\", Unpublished Master's T h e s i s , Department of Anthropology and S o c i o l o g y , U n i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia. Wheeler, Stanton (ed.) 1969 On Records, F i l e s and D o s s i e r s i n American L i f e , New York: Russel Sage Foundation W i t t g e n s t e i n , Ludwig 1953 P h i l o s o p h i c a l I n v e s t i g a t i o n , New York: The MacMillan Company. Zimmerman, Don H. 1969 \"Record-Keeping and the Intake Process i n a P u b l i c Welfare Agency\", i n S. Wheeler (ed.) On Records, F i l e s , and D o s s i e r s i n American L i f e , New York: Russel Sage Foundation. "@en ; edm:hasType "Thesis/Dissertation"@en ; edm:isShownAt "10.14288/1.0094086"@en ; dcterms:language "eng"@en ; ns0:degreeDiscipline "Sociology"@en ; edm:provider "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en ; dcterms:publisher "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:rights "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en ; ns0:scholarLevel "Graduate"@en ; dcterms:title "Describing news : toward an alternative account"@en ; dcterms:type "Text"@en ; ns0:identifierURI "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20457"@en .