Agency and structure in cultural production. a case study of news work at Canada's CBC Newsworld

News and current affairs work at the Canadian all-news television service CBC Newsworld is used as a case study of agency and structure in cultural production. Drawing on participant-observation work at Canada's all-news television service, and on secondary research outside the field of news sociology concerning the nature of cultural practice, a theory of journalism as "cultural agency" is developed in which the structural conditions of news work are seen to both mediate and emerge from the daily activities of news workers. News work is thus seen to truly generate culture in a recursive sense. This view of news work is argued to be significant both as a social theory: as an alternative model of cultural practice; and as a potential intervention in the production process: as a way to begin thinking about changing the way news is produced.