Abstract
This paper examines two different understandings of professional autonomy among journalists currently and formerly working at Mafra, a Czech media house acquired in 2013 by Andrej Babiš, who in 2017 became the Czech Prime Minister. We build on existing research of local trends in media ownership and journalistic autonomy to ask the following questions: What differentiated the experience of journalists who exited the organization after the ownership change from that of those who stayed put? How did the two groups understand professional journalistic autonomy? Based on the thematic analysis of twenty semistructured interviews with ten journalists who stayed in the media house after Babiš's acquisition and ten journalists who left, we argue that in the journalists’ narratives, the two decisions reflect two different notions of autonomy: autonomy-as-a-practice and autonomy-as-a-value. While our findings add to the scarce empirical research on journalists’ lived experiences of the region's mediascape marked by growing comingling and concentration of political, economic and media power, we also suggest that the autonomy-as-a-practice and journalists’ agency should be further studied as a possible way how to perform and promote journalistic autonomy even in illiberalizing contexts—in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.
Highlights
Rebecca writes for Marfa, a media company that has belonged for the past few years to a trust maintained for the sitting Czech Prime Minister
We look into the experiences and understandings of autonomy among journalists who left compared to those who stayed in Mafra after its acquisition by Babiš
We address the following questions: What differentiated the experience of journalists who exited the organization after the ownership change from that of those who stayed put? How did the two groups understand professional journalistic autonomy? While media theorists have been worried about the ever-growing media concentration and lack of pluralism in Central and Eastern Europe (Castro-Herrero et al 2016; Örnebring 2012; Sparks 2000; Stetka 2010, 2012; Waschková Císarová and Metyková 2015), empirical research on these trends and their consequences have been surprisingly scarce
Summary
Rebecca writes for Marfa, a media company that has belonged for the past few years to a trust maintained for the sitting Czech Prime Minister. Previous research (Hanitzsch and Vos 2017; Josephi 2012; Skovsgaard 2014) suggests that there is a similar gap between other values/normative aspirations/self-perceptions and actual practices, including autonomies: “The situation of journalists worldwide shows that autonomy, in western countries, remains an unattainable goal” (Josephi 2012: 482). National owners have become prominent in Czechia, and in Bulgaria, Romania, and Latvia (Kostadinova 2015) This context makes the curious case of Mr Babiš, who purchased one of the biggest media houses in the country, a relatively direct and overt, yet fairly typical, an example of the power concentration and control over journalism in the region. We want to take a step further and ask what differentiates the experiences of journalists who exited the organization after the ownership change from those who stayed put, and how the two groups understood journalistic autonomy
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
