Journalism students: Left-wing and politically motivated?

Abstract

In both the public and scientific debates on journalism in western countries, it would appear to be taken for granted that journalists’ political opinions can influence their professional output. Since journalists tend to lean more to the left than the general population, it is often assumed that media content has a left-wing bias. This article discusses and analyses the political motivations among journalism students. A case study of Danish journalism students indicates that most of the students were not politically motivated when choosing to pursue an education in journalism. Left-wing students tend to be slightly more politically motivated; however, the differences between the respective groups of journalism students are minor. Moreover, other sources of motivation are deemed more important, irrespective of political opinions. The case study concludes that political motivation plays a limited role in the decision to study journalism.