Abstract

This paper seeks to apply insights from the ethnomethodological studies of work programme to study of the ordinary, mundane, day-by-day work of a football journalist. In so doing contrasts are drawn between the analytic orientation drawn from this programme and the characteristic concerns and theoretical assumptions of sociological studies of the media, and studies of the "occupational culture" of journalism in particular. The "focus" of the article is the examination of the ordinary and practical work done by the journalist both within the newspaper and within the football club concerned: the Authors suggest both that "common sense" views of the journalist as intrusive and "story seeking" are far from accurate, and further that some typical sociological approaches to journalism are a gloss on an elaborate set of practices. This paper takes as its topic the ordinary, day to day working of a journalist who reports on the affairs of one of England's football clubs. The football club concerned is one of the best known of clubs in the English Premier League. The data reported on is taken from an "occasional" ethnography, that is, a study of journalism which, while lasting a number of years has only occasionally taken football as a specific topic of enquiry.