WINDOW, WATCHDOG, INSPECTOR: The Eclecticism of Journalistic Roles During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the aim of understanding solidities and disturbances in journalism as a belief system, the study investigates how television journalists in Slovenia have been re-articulating their roles against normative principles, professional ideals, and media performance during the COVID-19 lockdown. As procedures and forms of television news production were importantly re-configured, analysis of qualitative interviews with editors and journalists reveals eclecticism in journalistic roles, re-articulated in the connections between journalism, power and the public, leading to contradictory assessments with respect to journalism’s autonomy and responsibility. While the salience of the dominant monitorial role, referring to the journalistic provision of “objective” news and the surveillance of power on behalf of the public, was initially evident, deeper analysis showed not only a variety and disagreement concerning, but also paradoxes in, perceptions that resemble facilitative and collaborative roles. These findings reflect a particular manifestation of historical contradictions in Slovenian journalism’s relationship to power and the public during the public safety crisis and the many social contingencies during the lockdown.