Finding a Place in the Journalistic Field: The pursuit of recognition and legitimacy at BuzzFeed and Vice

This research explores how two digital native news organisations, BuzzFeed and Vice, compete for recognition and legitimacy in the journalistic field. Specifically, this paper focuses on the hiring practices and organisation of news coverage at both outlets, viewing these in Bourdieu's terms as significant forms of capital that BuzzFeed and Vice valorise in an attempt to claim a place in the journalistic field. Findings suggest that BuzzFeed and Vice both challenge and reify existing ways of doing journalism, and thus play a double role in conserving and transforming the established cultural capital of the field. The findings of this research are based on over 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with various editors and reporters from both organisations.