Journalistic Autonomy Research Articles

The Role of Organisational Factors and Working Conditions for the Autonomy of Journalists in an Unstable Economy

ABSTRACT The article examines which organisational factors and working conditions are more or less significant for developing journalistic professional autonomy under unfavourable economic conditions. The empirical study employs the case of Lithuania, as the autonomy of journalists working in this country is relatively well guaranteed at the system level of the media. However, the economic context in Lithuania has been unfavourable for media organisations in recent years. The analysis is based on data from a representative survey of Lithuanian journalists, in which 302 journalists from all media sectors were interviewed. The study found that a higher position in the editorial, a higher income, longer working hours per week and membership in professional organisations are associated with greater professional freedom. Owners, managers, editors, editorial policy, and, in some cases, advertising decisions and profit expectations are the organisational factors that significantly limit the autonomy of Lithuanian journalists. If we divide the media by sector, into public and private-commercial or national, regional and local, we see apparent differences where the mentioned factors have no influence or are very pronounced. We found no differences in the perception of autonomy between freelance and contract journalists in Lithuania.

“journalists are just employees”: Examining Journalistic Autonomy from an Audience Perspective

ABSTRACT Autonomy is a fundamental requirement for the professional practice of journalism. However, while its role in ensuring well-informed audiences is widely acknowledged, the way in which audiences make sense of journalists’ autonomy remains unexplored. Similarly, the understanding of how audience perceptions of journalists’ autonomy, their attributed professionalism and authority, and the resulting impact on journalism practice remains incomplete. To address these gaps, this study conducts a qualitative analysis involving semi-structured interviews with 64 news users in Chile. Results show that journalists’ autonomy, from audiences’ view, is limited by labor forces and organizational influences. Journalists’ working conditions are perceived to be connected to high levels of editorial control, yielding a deficiency of autonomy that relegates journalists to a subservient role, compromising their professionalism, undermining their authority, and eroding the quality of the information they provide. Also, findings show that autonomy assumes a prominent role as a distinct form of authority when journalists diverge from conventional news norms, establishing a closer connection with their audience. Furthermore, independent journalists frequently garner recognition for their autonomy and credibility, attributed to their detachment from specific media outlets. The article delves into the implications of these findings for journalism studies and practice.

Chinese Journalists’ Witnessing Practice in Health Disasters

ABSTRACT While “ears-and-eyes” and “mouthpieces” are two normative roles of Chinese journalists, the latter has long been more emphasized in the mobilization model of disaster reporting. Based on in-depth interviews with Chinese journalists who witnessed city lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines how they performed the two roles to determine the extent to which their witnessing experiences could be transformed into media discourses. It argues that journalists’ bearing witness on disaster sites presupposed not only eyewitnessing but also earwitnessing in the form of survivor interviewing, fact checking, and truth investigation. While the “mouthpiece” orientation of news media may have obscured the potential of journalistic witnessing for timely exposing public suffering, there existed journalist-media negotiations on performing the two roles. Highlighting the role asymmetry between “ears-and-eyes” and “mouthpieces”, this study examines the veracity gap in Chinese journalists’ witnessing practice that derives from the tension between journalistic autonomy and structural restraints, which may contribute to the further theorization of journalistic witnessing.

Autonomy Behind the Paywall: Subscription-Chasing and Journalistic Freedom at the Level of Practice

ABSTRACT Addressing the growing phenomenon of datafied paywalling, an ethnographic case study examined journalistic autonomy at the level of day-to-day activities in Finnish tabloid Iltalehti, which launched a chargeable service Iltalehti Plus in March 2021. Created “from scratch,” the service formed a unique laboratory to scrutinise paywalling and the connected use of audience metrics in a tabloid context. Against the backdrop of Henrik Örnebring and Michael Karlsson’s interpretation of journalistic autonomy, the article examines the boundaries of financial and audience considerations, the Iltalehti Plus journalists’ agency, and the ways in which they legitimated autonomy. The findings suggest that in certain conditions paywalling may lead to thoroughly metrics-driven journalistic practices and a remarkably strong market orientation in journalism. In Iltalehti Plus, journalists accepted and internalised the market orientation even on individual level, considering it as developing their professional skills. The legitimation of market-oriented journalism was based on the idea of securing the future of journalism.

Examining national culture and journalistic autonomy

This study used data from 52 countries to examine newspaper journalists’ perceptions of their professional autonomy and whether autonomy is improving. Results suggest that nearly three-quarters of newspaper journalists enjoy some degree of professional autonomy. Journalists in individualistic cultures and high uncertainty avoidance cultures reported higher levels of autonomy. A healthy democracy also predicted journalistic autonomy. Overall, results suggest journalistic freedom is declining. Interestingly, stronger human development was associated with perceived declines in autonomy.

Every Journalist has an Achilles’ Heel: The Interference–Vulnerability Model

ABSTRACT To what extent do journalists differ in their vulnerability to pressure from actors outside media organizations? This study complements research on such external interference by introducing the interference-vulnerability model. It typologizes three types of interference—professional, economic, and violent—that damage three basic motivations of journalists: professional status, economic status, and physical security. Further, it explains journalists’ experience of the three types of interference by their differing vulnerabilities, which stem from their value to external actors and the costs of noncompliance with interference. This argument builds on the theorized dynamic interaction between media professionals and external actors and applies the theory of routine activities and of rational choice. Multivariate regression of 567 journalists’ responses to a survey in Switzerland confirms the proposed model. Professional interference is aimed at informationally vulnerable journalists who publish on sensitive and investigative topics and have a wide reach. Economic interference is aimed at financially vulnerable journalists who cover consumer-oriented topics, have financial decision-making power, and work in economically competitive structures. Violent interference is directed against journalists who are vulnerable because of their identities: women and marginalized minorities. The model helps to explain external interference more comprehensively and to counter threats to journalistic autonomy.

Navigating Public Service and Profit-Making Mandates: The Case of the Daily Graphic Newspaper

ABSTRACT This study examines how Ghana’s Daily Graphic, a public newspaper operating as a limited liability company, balances its public service mandate with its economic rationality. The case study combined data from interviews with the newspaper’s reporters, editors, managers, and advertising agency executives with a study of official documents and analysis of newshole versus advertisement space allocation. The findings reveal the complicated nature of media management and journalistic autonomy in this hybrid public-private setting shaped by its sociopolitical and economic history and current context. Despite its stated public service mandate, the Daily Graphic’s organizational and individual-level economic logic (coupled with its advertiser–client relations) informs its operations and news practices. Also, contrary to the Daily Graphic’s stated 60:40 newshole to advertisement ratio, the newspaper consistently allocates more space to advertisements than news. We discuss the theoretical implications and recommend how news media can balance their economic motives and public service roles.

Metajournalistic Discourse on the Commercialization of News: Resistance toward Journalistic Autonomy

The digital evolution in the journalistic arena forces journalists to adapt their practices to the rules that come from the economic arena associated with commercialization. Reduced advertising revenue has resulted in the media tending to prioritize financial survival over journalistic principles or ethics. This research aims to describe how journalists struggle to define journalistic practices amidst the pressure of commercialization, using Bourdieu's theoretical perspective. The method used is metajournalistic discourse, using metajournalistic documents in the form of scripts written by digital journalists who broadcast on Remotivi. Metajournalistic discourse is a textual analysis method that focuses on how journalists tell stories about their journalistic practices, and these stories are assumed to shape the journalistic arena they inhabit. The findings show that journalists experience a paradox in defining and carrying out journalistic practices that are considered ideal. On the one hand, journalists appear to carry out journalistic practices in a situation with a high degree of heteronomy. On the other hand, journalists also seek to develop resistance by maintaining or developing definitions of journalistic practices or norms that are close to the autonomy pole, for example, by defining their journalistic practice with the term "journalistic jihad.” These idealized journalistic definitions or norms (which prioritize verification, accuracy, and adherence to journalistic firewalls) are shared and circulated through discourse texts to become resistance narratives.

Boiled watchdogs? The declining professional autonomy of precarious millennial generation journalists

Abstract Professional autonomy, the latitude practitioners have in carrying out their occupational duties, is essential to journalism. This study, which examines how precariously employed journalists of the millennial generation in Slovenia perceive their professional roles, how professional autonomy plays out in practice, and how they advocate for better working conditions over time, draws on in-depth interviews conducted in 2017 and 2021. The findings reveal that journalists initially viewed their role as context-specific watchdogs helping the weak. However, journalists faced challenges to their autonomy that limited their ability to translate this role into practice. Most journalists did not consider it worthwhile to unite collectively to improve working conditions, leading to a gradual deterioration of professional autonomy. We propose the term ‘boiled watchdogs’ likening their situation to a frog slowly boiling over time. This article contributes to the international literature on precarity and professionalism in journalism in a post-socialist context.

Southern European press challenges in a time of crisis: A cross-national study of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Malta

The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for newsrooms across the world range from severe economic hardship to increased threats to press freedom. The “perfect storm” that engulfed the media and journalists globally has threatened and continues to challenge their existence, and the core of their mission to serve the public interest. This study maps the impact of external political, economic, legal and societal factors on journalistic freedom and the way(s) news organizations and journalists operate in times of global crisis in four Southern European countries. It provides a fuller cross-national perspective on the complex relationship between media, journalism and politics in countries with existing democratic deficits. Findings are based on 32 semi-structured interviews with journalists working in four Southern European countries, namely Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Malta, conducted in 2022. We find increased economic challenges to their fragile media markets, high level of state intervention, political parallelism in coverage of the pandemic and beyond, and numerous threats to the autonomy of journalists that hamper journalism and question its development in the future. The study’s implications are relevant to different contexts, particularly in countries where journalism and media face similar challenges.

Building Better Local Media Systems: A Comparative Policy Discourse Analysis of Initiatives to Renew Journalism Around the World

ABSTRACT Amid the retreat of local journalism and the resulting emergence of “news deserts,” where communities lack authentic and civically accountable sources of news, it is important to not only seek new revenue streams for news organizations but also to consider how financial resources and institutional structures secure journalistic autonomy and an abiding dedication to public service. Surveying initiatives to bolster local reporting in multiple countries, this study finds that such efforts frequently rest on an unstated optimism that market failures can be corrected and that new, sustainable business models ultimately will solve the journalism crisis. In contrast to these stopgap interventions, initiatives based on public service media principles found in the world's healthiest democracies—such as providing information across all social groups and fostering civic engagement—are better positioned to rebuild local systems in which news media are structured as enduring social institutions with crucial roles to play in democratic processes.

“If We Don’t Take the Risk, Who Else Would?” Self-perceptions of Foundations that Financially Support Journalism

ABSTRACT This study adds to the existing literature on atypical newswork and foundation funding in journalism by exploring considerations and organizational choices foundations make when interacting with journalists in a Western-European context. The study relies on 18 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with representatives of Dutch-based foundations that support journalistic production processes on local, and/or national and international level. Using a combination of the strengths of Howard Becker’s notion of art “worlds” and Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory as theoretical scope, the interview data suggests that in their everyday practices, foundations perceive and navigate three key tensions: (1) between the allocation of grants to journalists and the precarity of (atypical) working conditions many journalists face, (2) between ideological notions of what good journalism “should be about” and the everyday realities of journalism production, and (3) between the powerful position of foundations within the world of journalism and the autonomy of journalists. The organizational choices made by foundations when confronted with these tensions highlight how and to what extent journalistic production processes are both enabled and constrained.

The Changing Face of Journalistic Autonomy: A Case Study of De Standaard (1976–2020)

ABSTRACT Autonomy is considered a prerequisite for the press to function in service of the public. Over the past few decades, both journalism and society at large have been subjected to significant change and instability, potentially affecting journalists’ independent modes of production. We, therefore, argue that a re-evaluation of journalism’s institutional strength to perform the societal functions bestowed upon it by the public is imperative. This paper attempts to contribute to this re-evaluation by examining to what extent legacy media journalists act according to their own professional logic rather than being historically conditioned to act according to external logics imposed on the field of journalism. We adopt a qualitative historical approach grounded in the theoretical framework of field theory for our examination of the development of journalistic autonomy at Flemish newspaper De Standaard. Based on a rich body of source material that emphasizes the rarely considered perspective of chief editors, we reconstruct journalistic autonomy as a dynamic concept shaped by an intricate web of interconnected macro-, meso- and micro-level developments and interactions.

Swedish journalists' perceptions of legal protection against unlawful online harassment.

This study examined journalists' perceptions regarding the legal system's ability to protect them against online harassment. By utilizing open-ended survey responses from respondents with varying levels of trust in the legal system, the findings suggested a need for increased technical proficiency, resources, and priority within the legal system to adequately address the issue. Additionally, a reciprocal relationship between the normalization of online harassment within the journalistic profession and the legal system's commitment to providing protection was identified. However, the study also found that when the legal system's mediated approach to online harassment is positive, it affects attitudes and norms relating to legal protection. Consequently, it reveals a unique insight into how journalists respond to the message conveyed by fair treatment and respect from the legal system. Notably, this result implies that when such messages are internalized, journalists feel more empowered to take measures against online harassment. As a result of this analysis, I propose that current laws should be implemented more effectively and that policy strategies should be developed to positively influence social norms and social control to bolster journalistic autonomy and freedom of speech in the digital age.

Resisting the Individualization of Risk: Strategies of Engagement and Caution in Journalists’ Responses to Online Mobs in the United States and Germany

Increasing levels of toxicity, harassment, trolling, and doxxing targeting journalists are a global problem that adversely affects journalism and democratic life. This study offers a comparative analysis of journalistic responses to online violence in the United States and Germany, based on 87 interviews and multiple newsroom observations. U.S. journalists typically discussed the problem in individualized terms, with the onus largely perceived to be placed on journalists to protect themselves while maintaining visibility and accessibility. In Germany, journalists typically discussed the problem as a systemic one, with the onus largely perceived to be placed on media organizations to protect staffers. Journalists in Germany thus considered legitimate a variety of obfuscation and avoidance strategies online and offline, while U.S. journalists felt a greater personal responsibility to advocate for the profession. These findings show the contribution of comparative perspectives in studying the global challenge of anti-press violence. They also demonstrate the complexity of defining and measuring journalistic autonomy, posing theoretical questions that illuminate some of the intrinsic tensions and tradeoffs of autonomy.

Chinese Digital Platform: “We Write What the Algorithm Wants”

This study examines Nigerian journalists’ perception of the affordances of recommendation algorithms in news production and distribution on Opera News Hub. The study uses a triangulation of methods involving content analysis, a semi-structured interview, and a focus group discussion (FGD) with content creators, who have been trained in traditional media practices in Lagos, Nigeria. The findings indicate news stories published on the Hub contravene the platform’s publishing guidelines. The Hub’s recommender system is underpinned by “metricisation” of gatekeeping, which affords soft news over hard news. Hence, content creators of hard news compromise their journalistic autonomy and take on a new professional identity in which they engage in a constant struggle to produce sensational content that will attract audience engagement on Opera News Hub. However, there are indications that Opera News Hub may enhance media sustainability and the welfare of journalists in Nigeria.

Book Review: Journalistic Autonomy: The Genealogy of a Concept (Journalism in Perspective), by Henrik Örnebring and Michael Karlsson

Book Review: <i>Journalistic Autonomy: The Genealogy of a Concept (Journalism in Perspective)</i>, by Henrik Örnebring and Michael Karlsson

AI ≥ Journalism: How the Chinese Copyright Law Protects Tech Giants’ AI Innovations and Disrupts the Journalistic Institution

Journalism and other institutions clash over automated news generation, algorithmic distribution and content ownership worldwide. AI policies are the main mechanisms that establish and organise the hierarchies among these institutions. Few studies, however, have explored the normative dimension of AI in policymaking in journalism, especially beyond the West. This case study inspects the copyright law’s impact on AI innovation in newsrooms in the unexamined Chinese context. Using neo-institutional theory and policy network theory, the study investigates the Third Amendment to the Chinese Copyright Law, exemplary court cases regarding automated journalism copyright disputes (such as Tencent v. Yingxun and Film v. Baidu), and other supporting documents. The findings show how China’s copyright legal framework separates authorship and ownership; defines “originality” and “creativity” in human-machine collaboration; and prioritises tech companies while undermining journalistic autonomy. We argue that the law’s eager embrace of AI may give tech companies an advantage over news organisations that do not necessarily have a strategy to adopt AI. Moreover, it favours state-owned, resource-rich official media over the private sector. An implication of this shifting power dynamic is the possibility of privately owned news media being marginalised, resulting in even stronger state control over media production and information flow.

The Press coverage of the 2008 presidential election campaign in Cyprus

This article examines the tension created by the existence of differentiated interpretations of the freedom of the press as an institutional right and considers the regulatory potential or the constraint of self-regulation to address the implications of this tension. Qualitative content analysis of press reporting of the 2008 presidential election campaign in Cyprus and document analysis of the Cyprus Journalists’ Code of Practice and of a Guidance Note issued by the self-regulatory agency are used to analyse the data. This article demonstrates that the most fundamental challenge the press self-regulation should address is the complexity in evaluating among different but equally important liberal rights, whose conjunction creates conflict. The findings demonstrate that defining the boundaries of press freedom in order to safeguard balanced and non-discriminatory reporting is a complex process. Emphasising the public’s right to information may jeopardize the journalistic autonomy and the editorial independence as there is no straightforward way to make judgments about incommensurable values such as free speech. This article exemplifies that political reporting is a challenging context as far as the regulability of press freedom is concerned.

Ideological and economic influences on journalistic autonomy and cynicism: A moderating role of digital adaptation of news organizations

This study examines how ideological and economic aspects of news media are related to journalists’ autonomy and cynicism, and whether organizational adaptation to digital environments moderates the effects of those ideological and financial influences. Using secondary data from journalists ( N = 1956) provided by the Korea Press Foundation, this study investigates the relationships among ideological differences between journalists and news organizations, advertising/public relations (ad/PR) work, journalists’ autonomy, and job cynicism. Findings suggest that both ideological incongruence and ad/PR work decreased journalistic autonomy, with the latter a stronger predictor than the former. Decreased autonomy, in turn, increased cynicism. Ad/PR work significantly predicted cynicism, but ideological incongruence did not influence cynicism. In addition, the more the news organization has adapted to the digital realm, the weaker the relations between ideological incongruence and autonomy and between autonomy and cynicism. However, as the adaptation level increased, the negative impact of ad/PR work on autonomy became stronger. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.