An In-House Newsletter

Territories in Question: Routes in Territories
Ethnography of an Impossible Mission?
By Anne Both
English

Prior to satisfying its readers, the salaried employees, the aim of an in-house magazine is to meet the expectations of the top management which originated it. What are the effects of this prerequisite on the contents of these newspapers ? To answer this question, an ethnographic study was carried out inside an advertising agency in charge of the production of the in-house magazine of a state-owned company currently under reorganization. The study revealed the self-applied censorship of the reporters, of the persons interviewed and of their managers. This censorship results in distorted hard-to-credit statements and subsequent lessens the credibility of the top management which approves such proceedings. As the social climate of the company gets worse, the newspaper, which turns out to be a tool of management rather than an information medium, seems to definitely move away from the objectives set by the agency.

Keywords

  • company
  • in-house magazine
  • censorship
  • validation
  • management
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