Walking the Newsroom: Towards a Sensory Experience of Journalism

Sander Hölsgens

We invite you to join us on a walk through the newsroom of a regional newspaper, Dagblad van het Noorden. We trace how the journalists perceive, articulate, engage, embrace, challenge, are receptive to, and give form to the ‘atmospheres’ of their workspace. The concept of atmospheres is central in how we have looked at the newsroom. On this walk, we explore the spatial, socio-cultural, rhythmic, tonal, and somatic characteristics of the recently redesigned newsroom, using video, sound, text, and drawing. Employing artistic methods, we want to let you experience this newsroom together with us – giving you insight into the journalists’ lived experience of their profession as fundamentally interwoven with the idiosyncrasies of their workspace. Our host on the walk is online news editor Alfred Meester. Alfred walked us, Saskia and Sander, through the newsroom, which we visited as part of the project Exploring Journalism’s Limits (funded by the Dutch Research Council, NWO, project number: 314-99-205). Also joining us on this day is Ricky Booms, a visual artist invited to reflect on the space alongside us. Along the way, we encounter visual editors, interns, freelancers, editorial staff writers, and learn about the kinds of spaces that resonate with them. The walk takes approximately 45 minutes.

History on/down from the pedestal

During the sensory walk with the publication’s online news editor, we stumble upon multiple historical artefacts and objects, from posters and sculptures to cranes and passageways that were once integral to the newspaper’s printing processes. Whilst sketching a map of the newsroom, Ricky Booms notices something similar. In fact, he drew the visually recognisable historical references and included some iconic objects in his artwork. When we meet up with him in his home studio to reflect on his impressions and working methods, he explains why he focused on the most anthropomorphic object of all – a bust:

'The founder of the newspaper can be seen throughout the newsroom, there was a very prominent bust of him (…) It showed some kind of pride, which I understand if you’ve got such a piece of history you can display. But here, on the staircase, and upstairs… there were multiple sites where you could encounter his face or name.’

Because of its recent renovation, the newsroom is regularly dressed and redressed with posters, plants, objects, and furniture. During our sensory walk, the online news editor repeatedly expresses his excitement about this development. Whilst explaining that the newsroom is work-in-progress, he claims that ‘it gets more fun every week.’ He then turns towards a crane – an archaic tool used when the newspaper was still printed on-site – and, barely containing his enthusiasm, says, ‘you can really imagine what this place used to be like.’

The significance of this is that the past is admired and preserved through atmospheric staging, risking an engagement with history, which Friedrich Nietzsche would define as ‘antiquarian’: a preserving and honouring done by ‘the person who with faith and love looks back in the direction from which he has come, where he has been. Through this reverence, he [sic], as it were, gives thanks for his existence’ (Nietzsche, 1874, p.10).

During the sensory walk, the online news editor uplifts the newsroom’s inclusion of the publication’s history by repeatedly gesturing towards architectural details that were part of the newsroom’s original design. It is important to note that there are not only significant differences in the way individuals relate to such relics, but individuals might also feel ambivalent towards these reminders of the past. A few months after our initial research visit, Saskia returned to the newsroom to discuss our findings and audiovisual material together with Tamara and researcher Tamilla Ziyatdanova. At this meeting with the publication’s chief editor and online news editor, we ask the latter how he feels about the inclusion of historical artefacts in the newsroom. Whereas he seemed to us to attach great meaning to the artefacts in the sensory walks when asked to reflect on it explicitly at this later date, he states:

‘It doesn’t mean anything to me (…) I hate it because it’s just an excuse to talk about the good old times when the publication was still big, and everyone would still be reading newspapers (…) We [the current editorial team] focus much more on the future. (…) I have no personal connection to it, to be honest. I do think it’s stylish.’

Perhaps surprisingly, the online news editor does not confirm his seemingly emphatic appreciation of how history is ‘infiltrating’ the newsroom. Stronger yet, he explicitly states he despises it, as it would lead to nostalgia among employees. In doing so, the news editor proposes a critical approach to the past. It is an engagement with history in order to interrogate it, so as to test its value for the present. Eventually, he elaborates more on the role of history for his work practice as a journalist:

‘If you have a connection with a certain time period, it can be quite nice… I mean, there’s one thing [a poster put on the wall at the newsroom] from Groninger Dagblad Stad. That was a short project. It was a morning newspaper published by Hazewinkel Pers, at the opposite side of the Nieuwsblad, which was also published by Hazewinkel Pers. Well, I worked there for two years, and it was very innovative, and I think (…) it’s rock ‘n roll and wild and rough, playing the telegraph. I really liked that. So yes, I think it’s nice to have it put up [at the newsroom].’

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