Document Type

Article

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

Sociology, 5.8 MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS

Publication Details

Media, Culture & Society. Vol. 33, No. 6: 819–833, 2011

Abstract

This article argues that humour can provide researchers with a unique access point into the professional cultures of media producers. By reconsidering an earlier case study, and reviewing relevant literature, it illustrates how humour can fulfil several functions in media production. Importantly, humour is a central means of performing the ‘emotional labour’ that increasingly precarious media work demands. For production research, the everyday joking and banter of media workers can provide an important and, heretofore, overlooked means of accessing culture, meaning, consensus and conflict in media organizations. The article argues that humour’s organizational role should be considered as a sensitizing concept when designing production research.

DOI

10.1177/0163443711411003

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