Good Journalism Research Articles

Churnalism on the Rise?

Scholars conceptualize journalism’s transformation and explain the changes occurring at different levels under the rubric of convergence. Contrary to optimistic views of convergence, claiming for its potential to satisfy both good journalism and good business practices, the paper argues that at times of economic uncertainty, hyper-competition and diminishing accountability levels, convergence is used as a cost-effective strategy fostering low-cost and spreadable news production. Engaging in quantitative analysis, the article provides empirical evidence showing that the recycling of news content from established elite sources and across popular news sites has increased between 2013 and 2016, posing serious threats for content plurality and independent reporting. Despite online journalism’s development as a field, and the appearance of social networks and user-generated content as alternative and easyily accessible sources, a pervasive survival and monetization culture has turned churning into a mainstream journalistic practice.

Are Traditional Journalism Principles Still Alive and Well in Today’s Local TV Newsrooms?

This study surveyed 348 local TV journalists to learn whether—given the demands of the contemporary, conglomerated television news industry—they still adhere to traditional journalistic principles. The findings suggest that, by and large, reporters believe they make a determined effort to uphold good journalism practices despite management pressures to produce increasingly higher volumes of news content more quickly and with fewer resources. Findings suggest further scholarly attention to two journalism principles in particular may be needed: the principle of verifying facts before publication as it pertains to social media adoption in newsrooms and, secondly, changes in newsroom organization related to the principle of watchdog journalism.

Arab Defamation Laws: A Comparative Analysis of Libel and Slander in the Middle East

Nations in the Arab world are known for their restrictions on press freedom, with public officials often using defamation laws to hinder good journalism. To promote reform, this article analyzes defamation laws of six Arab countries – Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya and the United Arab Emirates – and compares them to international norms. In areas with strong press protections, three characteristics related to defamation law were identified. First, defamation cases should be handled by civil lawsuits rather than police complaints, so journalists are not threatened with jail for their reporting. Second, the law must afford greater scrutiny for public figures than for private individuals so that the powerful cannot stifle public debate. Third, truth must be an absolute defense against allegations of defamation, so that people cannot protect an undeserving good reputation. The analysis reveals that defamation provisions in these countries are not in alignment with international norms.

EDITORIAL: Finding the Pacific voice

Good journalism remains central to the needs of the Pacific and her people. Good journalism education is central to this issue of Pacific Journalism Review, which features a selection of papers on journalism education in the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Drawn mostly from the papers presented to the Fourth World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC16), and the preconference organised by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and the Pacific Media Centre with the Media Educators Pacific (MeP) at the Auckland University of Technology in July, they all reflect the importance of good journalism and good journalism education. Speaking at the opening of the preconference, University of Auckland Associate Professor Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa said the profession was vital for bringing the Pacific community together. Dr Salesa, director of the newly founded New Zealand Institute for Pacific Research, which sponsored five Pacific media educators to attend the conferences, said journalism helped people engage in the public sphere.

Training or Improvisation?

While citizen journalists hope to bring new impulses to mass media performance, it is often asked whether they are adequately trained for the production of “newsworthy” stories. This paper focuses on educational aspects of citizen journalism, which, to date, have largely been disregarded by empirical research. A comparative analytical design illustrates the different ways in which citizen journalists acquire and develop the skills that are necessary to undertake journalistic activities in the different journalism cultures throughout Europe. The authors carried out a multi-national analysis in six European countries (United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Poland). In each country, an extensive desk study helped to map the field of citizen journalism and highlight the most relevant examples. Semi-structured interviews with 54 practitioners in the field (representing different types of citizen journalism) made it possible to identify the alternative strategies that citizen journalists employ to prepare themselves for news production initiatives. The research demonstrates that the educational backgrounds of citizen journalists display differences as well as similarities—both within and across journalism cultures. While some of the actors in the field have a clear idea of what constitutes good journalism (and sometimes even aspire to work in a mainstream media organization), others seem to care little about journalistic standards and have only a vague idea about the identity of the profession. On the basis of these insights, the paper develops a typology of citizen journalists that takes into account both their education and their journalistic scope.

Gender mainstreaming in media and journalism education – an audit of media departments in Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia

Abstract Gender mainstreaming (GM) within media and journalism education and practice has been described by several scholars as good, representative, critical, ethical, just and balanced journalism. This article presents findings of a study exploring the extent of GM in media and journalism in university departments in Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Drawing on qualitative research approaches, the study found minimal, unclear and uncoordinated GM activities within most departmental policies, curricula, assessment and research. Whereas some respondents attributed this to the lack of teaching resources, others pointed to the lack of policy guidance and ‘know-how’ as well as a commitment to implement existing policies. There were also attitudinal standpoints dismissive of the significance of GM, posing concerns about perpetuating the hegemony of patriarchy already witnessed in journalism practice today. The findings underscore the need to revisit not just the policies and pedagogical approaches but also a focus on awareness- and knowledge-building especially among the teaching staff.

Media Coverage of Taliban: Is Peace Journalism the Solution?

This article combines quantitative and qualitative analysis to investigate the reporting of the Taliban conflict in Pakistan media and finds the coverage escalatory and elitist from the peace journalism perspective. While the security-related aspects of the conflict are highlighted, the problems of victims are ignored. The data for this study were collected through content analysis, discourse analysis and interviews with conflict reporters and analysts. The key findings of this study are quite consistent with the existing peace journalism scholarship that in conflict where national interests are involved, media become nationalistic and patriotic, leaving behind the considerations of quality and good journalism.

When Citizens and Journalists Interact on Twitter

Twitter has become the leading social media platform for journalists to break news, build a following, and interact with the public. Social media offer journalists and citizens a communication space, where they can discuss issues, provide context for the news, and foster community values. This study examines how expectations about journalistic practices on social media influence audience engagement with journalists, and in turn, perceptions of editorial bias. Drawing on a two-wave panel survey from the United States, we first find that expectations about the practice of “good journalism” on social media predict engagement with journalists on Twitter. Second, these personal interactions lead to lower levels of perceived bias in the news media. Finally, expectations of journalists’ performance on social media are explored as a moderator of perceived editorial bias. This study adds to the growing literature analyzing the causes and outcomes of audience engagement with journalists on social media.

Images of Essence: Journalists’ Discourse on the Professional “Discipline of Verification”

The verification of factual accuracy is widely held as essential to journalists’ professional identity. Our rhetorical analysis of interviews with award-winning and semi-randomly selected newspaper reporters confirms this professional norm while revealing a preference for four types of image to describe verification methods. Spatial and temporal travel images paint verification as an embedded but adaptable heuristic process. Images of conflict suggest verification as a weapon and a shield against implied enemies. Journalists speak of vision both literally as the preeminent tool of verification, and figuratively as a metaphor for interpretation. Meanwhile, a fourth and seemingly predominant image—that of storytelling—functions to integrate the images of travel, battle, and observation and the different forms of professional identity that they connote. The quest for truth through storytelling likewise suggests a rich, if ambiguous, sense of good journalism as combining the instruments of fact with the craft of fiction.

Between Ideals and Practice

This article looks at journalism students’ experiences in a course that simulates an online newsroom. On the basis of a quantitative survey and more qualitative reflections from the students, we explore the dilemmas that students experience “working” as online journalists and how these are related to broader issues of journalistic ethics. Some of these experienced problems are, combined with the technological mechanisms, much embodied in online journalism and in journalistic practice in general. The survey indicates that the problems amplify the discrepancy between the students’ expectation of good journalism and the perceived practice of online journalism. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of providing a course that simulates a real newsroom.

Shaping The Journalism Education Studies in Malaysia: The Effects from The Study on Ethnicity

Journalism education is a unique field of study under a liberty of social science because it works in context. The surrounding society gives a lot of impact on how journalism has been practiced and educated. However, there are not many studies on journalism education that focuses on the elements of its society (i.e. gender, ethnic, religion, class, etc.), what more studies from the students’ perspectives. Therefore, this study attempts to fill the gap by having students of journalism as its samples. This article presents an extract from a huge study on journalism education in Malaysia. It studies the journalism students’ perceptions and expectations of journalism education in Malaysia and identifies whether different ethnics in Malaysia make any differences in their perceptions and expectations. Using quantitative methodology, 187 sets of survey questionnaires were collected from Malaysian journalism students who are studying at public universities in Malaysia. The result shows significant differences in terms of good journalism practice, news gathering skills and news production skills between three main ethnics of Malaysian journalism students.

Doing good business and quality journalism? Entrepreneurial journalism and the debates on the future of news media

As journalism finds itself in a process of accelerated transformations, Internet seems to be a place where both the reproduction of traditional models and a wide array of journalistic and business models experimentations happen at the same time. Here, at the intersection of changes in news models, job definitions and in career trajectories, the figure of the “entrepreneurial journalist” (BRIGGS, 2011) resurfaced and gradually gained in popularity over the last years in discourses celebrating innovation, flexibility and risk-taking. In this context, how can the figures of the journalist and the entrepreneur co-exist whereas commercial and journalistic activities have been historically strongly separated? How can business development be compatible with independent and objective news gathering when it is done by the same person? How do the notions of independent news writing and respect for the public interest – all strong elements of the journalistic ethics discourses – are negotiated by these actors? In this paper, we wish to explore these issues, first by contextualizing the rise of entrepreneurial journalism before presenting findings of an exploratory study about the ways the links between entrepreneurial and journalistic imperatives have been thought and presented in the existing journalistic literature in France and United States of America.

The psychological effects of reporting extreme violence: a study of Kenyan journalists.

ObjectiveTo assess the psychological health of journalists in Kenya who have reported on, and been exposed to, extreme violence.DesignDescriptive. Psychological responses were elicited to two stressors, the ethnic violence surrounding the disputed 2007 general election and the Al-Shabab attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.ParticipantsA representative sample of 90 Kenyan journalists was enrolled.SettingNewsrooms of two national news organizations in Kenya.Main outcome measuresSymptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (Impact of Event Scale-revised), depression (Deck Depression inventory-revised) and general psychological wellbeing (General Health Questionnaire).ResultsOf the 90 journalists approached 57 (63.3%) responded. Journalists covering the election violence (n = 23) reported significantly more PTSD type intrusion (p = 0.027) and arousal (p = 0.024) symptoms than their colleagues (n = 34) who had not covered the violence. Reporting the Westgate attack was not associated with increased psychopathology. Being wounded (n = 11) emerged as the most robust independent predictor of emotional distress. Journalists covering the ethnic violence compared to colleagues who did not were not more likely to receive psychological counselling.ConclusionsThese data, the first of their kind from an African country, replicate findings over a decade old from Western media, namely that journalists asked to cover life-threatening events may develop significant symptoms of emotional difficulties and fail to receive therapy for them. Good journalism, a pillar of civil society, depends on healthy journalists. It is hoped that these data act as a catalyst encouraging news organisations sending journalists into harm’s way to look out for their psychological health in doing so.

How Freelance Journalists Can Help Shape Journalism Education

Despite shrinking newsrooms, we have more journalism choices, in part because of freelance journalists. Freelancing creates workers who are particularly adaptive and creative; skills educators want to instill in students. I interviewed and surveyed more than 50 freelance journalists in several countries, including Turkey, Egypt, Colombia, Israel, Canada, Kenya, France, Germany, and the United States. While the basic skills of good journalism do not change, it is valuable to recognize and evaluate changing models. Independent and entrepreneurial freelancers have ideas that can help prepare journalism students to embrace the global realities of unpredictable and constant challenges.

Defining criteria for good environmental journalism and testing their applicability: An environmental news review as a first step to more evidence based environmental science reporting.

While the quality of environmental science journalism has been the subject of much debate, a widely accepted benchmark to assess the quality of coverage of environmental topics is missing so far. Therefore, we have developed a set of defined criteria of environmental reporting. This instrument and its applicability are tested in a newly established monitoring project for the assessment of pieces on environmental issues, which refer to scientific sources and therefore can be regarded as a special field of science journalism. The quality is assessed in a kind of journalistic peer review. We describe the systematic development of criteria, which might also be a model procedure for other fields of science reporting. Furthermore, we present results from the monitoring of 50 environmental reports in German media. According to these preliminary data, the lack of context and the deficient elucidation of the evidence pose major problems in environmental reporting.

Journalism and Academic Writing

The similarities between good journalism and academic writing, each based on intellectual curiosity, rigorous research and thoughtful deliberation, advocate for journalism’s inclusion in university tenure schemes. This family resemblance, however, has instead led to a greater regard for their differences, and each prefers to draw boundaries that exclude the other. Yet there is overlap as both journalism based on academic research and populist books by respected academics disseminate scholarly thought to a wider audience. Journalism’s potential contribution to the three pillars of tenure-research, teaching and service signals the need for recognition to be accorded by universities to journalism as academic output.

Publish and Perish—The Academic Journalist’s Publishing Dilemma

Universities have fully developed requirements on how to assess full-time faculty, especially PhDs. However, these are not fully sensitive to evaluating ‘production’ faculty and/or ‘craft practitioners’ such as in journalism schools. In this opinion piece, the author explores the question of whether journalistic writings can or should be ‘recognised’ as academic research output? While arguing that journalistic writing can be recognized as academic research output, he points out that good journalism involves research, originality, social responsibility and ethics, and good journalists are flag bearers of these standards. These are analogous, if not similar, to expectations of good scholarship and hence journalistic writing merits the same acceptance as other academic ‘theoretical’ writing.

El Evangelio. La historia de un periódico rebelde que luchó en 1901 por la credibilidad del periodismo

Un periódico madrileño de principios de siglo XX sorprendió por su nombre, El Evangelio, cuando era claramente anticlerical, y por denunciar la corrupción y el amiguismo de los ministros de la restauración borbónica. Además apostaba por el ejercicio del buen periodismo, el que debe estar bien escrito, evitar la propaganda y vigilar el buen gobierno. En su corta vida, apenas dos años entre 1901 y 1902, sufrió denuncias y persecuciones. En este artículo se estudian los ejemplares que se conservan en la Biblioteca Nacional y la Hemeroteca Municipal de Madrid, se analiza su estilo, su estructura y sus temáticas. El examen de sus páginas, firmas y secciones nos muestra cómo era el periodismo español de aquel tiempo y en qué se parece al que se hace en la actualidad.

Reporting from the past: Why good journalism trumps good deeds

Abstract Although Canada sees itself as a multicultural nation, its mainstream news organizations have historically failed to recruit and retain the sort of staff who mirror the country’s authentic demographic diversity. At a time when legacy media are in economic crisis, this article argues that newsrooms must become more diverse, not to conform with moral suasion or international treaty, but out of enlightened self-interest, as a matter of survival.

The Use of Objective and Analytical Reporting as a Method of Professional Work

Based on a cross-longitudinal content analysis of 3,624 political news stories published by Chilean national newspapers between 1990 and 2010, this study analyzes the changes and patterns in the reporting styles of the political press by examining the value of objective and analytical reporting used by professional journalists. The study presents empirical evidence on how journalists justify truth claims in political news and how journalistic performance has evolved in a post-dictatorial regime setting. The results show that objective reporting is more common than analytical reporting for both the popular and the elite press. However, although the Chilean traditional press assume objectivity as a criterion of good journalism, they reinterpret its meaning in practice. Specifically, the findings show that the use of analytical reporting has significantly increased in political coverage. The absence of formal separation between facts and opinions in the Chilean case confirms the global tendency toward more partisan journalism, especially in journalistic contexts closer to the “polarized pluralist” model. The differences in the use of objective and analytical reporting between the popular and the elite press do not show a clear pattern.