Journalistic Identity Research Articles

Finding the Data Unicorn

Understanding how data and computational journalism are affecting news norms, practices and organizations is essential for journalists and researchers. We explore the development of data journalism in Canada through interviews with 17 data journalists and freelancers at six of the country’s largest legacy news organizations. Our central question is how these journalistic identities are both shaping intra- and inter-organizational and professional boundaries and being shaped by them. We draw from systems thinking approach to understanding media hybridity across time and place as well as the traditional sociology of news to assess technological adaptation and agency in this emerging domain. Findings suggest that encounters between emergent and legacy logics have created a hierarchy of hybrid cultures. Two organizations—the public broadcaster and a legacy print organization—showed early stage evidence of blended techno cultures similar to some in the United States. In others there were tensions with professional labeling, resourcing, protective economic strategies and labor policies, limiting options to mobilize power and experiment with technological adaptation in more generative ways. These shifts were occurring within a context of increased cooperation within, across and beyond traditional organizations, pointing to a new degree of networked collaboration in Canadian journalism.

Hero or Anti-Hero?

Exploring constructions of journalistic identity in a digital age has been a lively area of scholarship as the field of digital journalism studies has grown. Yet despite many approaches to understanding digital change, key avenues for understanding changing constructions of identity remain underexplored. This paper addresses a conceptual void in research literature by employing semiotic and semantic approaches to analyse performances of journalistic identity in narratives of newswork facilitated by and focused on digital megaleaks. It seeks to aid understanding of the way narratives describe changing practices of newsgathering, and how journalists position themselves within these hybrid traditional/digital stories. Findings show news narratives reinforce the primacy of journalists within traditional boundaries of a journalistic field, and articulate a preferred imagination of journalistic identity. Methodologically, this paper shows how semantic and semiotic approaches lend themselves to studying narratives of newswork within journalistic metadiscourses to understand journalistic identity at the nexus of traditional and digital dynamics. The resultant portrait of journalistic identity channels a socio-historic, romantic notion of the journalist as “the shadowy figure always to be found on the edges of the century’s great events”, updated to accommodate modern, digital dynamics.

The Reinvented Journalist

Today, there is much academic discussion about how journalism and journalists are affected by rapid change and convergence in the work context. Considering the fundamental transformations of the media ecology brought about by digitization and the advent of social media, it has been assumed that journalists are more or less compelled to reinvent their professional role and identity. We know a good deal about how social media is adopted by journalists, mostly through survey and interview studies investigating self-perceptions of identity in terms of norms and values. There are also some case studies, predominantly in the form of (quantitative) content analyses, exploring the (innovative) uses of Twitter. However, we still have little knowledge about how the professional identity of journalists is discursively constructed—how, in specific detail, traditional norms and ideals are discursively reinforced or challenged—in the Twitter flow. With a discourse theoretical and methodological approach, this article aims to contribute to our understanding of the discursive construction of professional identity on Twitter by qualitatively analyzing tweets from the most widely followed journalist in Sweden. The analysis of the most active j-tweeter can yield important clues as to what journalism may be in the process of becoming. The article identifies discourses that (1) reinforce the watchdog identity, (2) challenge the watchdog identity, (3) reinforce the disseminator/explicator identity, and (4) reinforce transparency but challenge professional identity. It concludes that the reinvented journalistic identity includes discursive processes that both shape and are shaped by Twitter in a dialectical relationship.

SciJourn is magic: construction of a science journalism community of practice

This article is the first to describe the discoursal construction of an adolescent community of practice (CoP) in a non-school setting. CoPs can provide optimal learning environments. The adolescent community centered around science journalism and positioned itself dichotomously in relationship to school literacy practices. The analysis focuses on recordings from a panel-style research interview from an early implementation of the Science Literacy Through Science Journalism (SciJourn) project. Researchers trained high school students participating in a youth development program to write science news articles. Students engaged in the authentic practices of professional science journalists, received feedback from a professional editor, and submitted articles for publication. I used a fine-grained critical discourse analysis of genre, discourse, and style to analyze student responses about differences between writing in SciJourn and in school. Students described themselves as agentic in SciJourn and passive in school, using an academic writing discourse of deficit to describe schooling experiences. They affiliated with and defined a SciJourn CoP, constructing positive journalistic identities therein. Educators are encouraged to develop similar CoPs. The discursive features presented may be used to monitor the development of communities of practice in a variety of settings.

“Data Journalism”, an investigation Practice? A glance at the German and Greek cases

This contribution explores the links between the traditional work routines in investigative journalism and those, emergent ones, in « data journalism ». How do the European journalistic cultures react to this phenomenon, widely considered as a potential vector of profound destabilization of the established professional practices of the field and thus redefining the – fuzzy per se – contours of a profession that is already questioning its future? The issue here is to examine the extent to which the discourse on « data journalism » also reflects investigation practices and, through it, the professional ethics and journalistic ideals. With this intention, we put in parallel two European cases, namely the German the Greek one. The comparison of the two cases, by getting into the details of this proximity, clarifies the structuring of a professional discourse, the imaginaires feeding it on, and highlights - through the rhetoric of visualization – how the implicit dimension in the discourse about “data journalism” relates to a great extent to the way the information is given to read.This contribution explores the links between the traditional work routines in investigative journalism and those, emergent ones, in « data journalism ». How do the European journalistic cultures react to this phenomenon, widely considered as a potential vector of profound destabilization of the established professional practices of the field and thus redefining the – fuzzy per se – contours of a profession that is already questioning its future? The issue here is to examine the extent to which the discourse on « data journalism » also reflects investigation practices and, through it, the professional ethics and journalistic ideals. With this intention, we put in parallel two European cases, namely the German the Greek one. The comparison of the two cases, by getting into the details of this proximity, clarifies the structuring of a professional discourse, the imaginaires feeding it on, and highlights - through the rhetoric of visualization – how the implicit dimension in the discourse about “data journalism” relates to a great extent to the way the information is given to read.

Health Journalist Role Conceptions

Using interview methodology, this research examines the role conceptions of US health journalists. Asking journalists from different types of media to define their roles as they relate to public health, inequalities, responsibility and news values reveals the external demands on journalists as well as internal processes that shape professional identity. This paper considers professional and normative role conceptions. Interviews with experienced health journalists revealed that they do not identify with any one of these roles in particular but operate on a spectrum, navigating competing pressures resulting from individual, organizational, and societal influences. Through the process of analyzing and categorizing health journalists’ goals, responsibilities, and ideals, we explore how topics and tasks specific to covering health relate to the democratic functions of the press. The findings of this study advance knowledge about the sociology of newswork and shed light on the professional identities of health journalists.

Journalism and the culture of othering

In seeking to render problematic traditional conceptions of journalistic identity, this article critiques the seemingly natural, even ‘common sensical’ structures of social exclusion recurrently underpinning its formulation. More specifically, it explores, firstly, a series of insights provided by feminist and gender-sensitive critiques of journal­ism. In assessing the typically subtle imperatives of sexism in news reporting, it consid­ers the extent to which journalistic identity continues to be defined within the day-to-day ‘macho culture’ of the newsroom, where female journalists’ perceptions of sexual dis­crimination typically vary sharply from those held by their male colleagues. Secondly, at­tention turns to the issue of ethnic diversity, where the need to deconstruct the racialised projection of ‘us and them’ dichotomies precisely as they are taken-up and re-inflected in news reporting is shown to be of pressing concern. In bringing together these respec­tive set of debates, primarily from British and US contexts, this article aims to contribute to conceptual efforts to further unravel the ways in which journalists’ routine, everyday choices about what to report – how best to do it, and why –involves them in a politics of mediation, one where all too often a culture of othering proves significant.

Journalistic identity and audience perceptions: paradigm and models under construction in the African Great Lakes region

This article is based on a research conducted in three African countries (Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo), focusing on the recent evolution of the journalistic profession and the way journalists are perceived today and represented by members of the audience polled in five localities of the region. In the last twenty years, journalism has been deeply transformed, following the liberalization of the media sector, on one hand, and the murderous civil wars which marked the three countries on the other hand. New formats and new roles have appeared for the media, as well as new professional standards for journalists (codes of ethics, regulations from regulatory authorities, journalists education and training curricula, professional associations), often encouraged by foreign donors and international NGOs. This paper aims at showing that, behind these changes, a new « journalistic paradigm » has taken shape, a consequence of both internal dynamics within the profession and external assignments (imposed by the State and the evolution of the market), and also of new demands emanating from the public. In an unstable political, economic and security context, the changes of the journalistic paradigm have transfigured media content, as well as the perception by the local public of the role that journalists have to play in society, and of what the citizens may expect from them, in a region where democracy is still widely under construction.

National Geographicand Puerto Rico: A Case Study of Journalistic Authority and Collective Identity in the Digital Age

This article presents a case study of journalistic authority and collective identity in the context of the changes in mass communications prompted by web interactivity. It traces National Geographic's coverage of Puerto Rico and examines comments posted on an online forum in response to the magazine's first article on Puerto Rico that was widely available to Puerto Ricans themselves. The analysis demonstrates the challenges in representing culture when discussion about the other, or “them,” cannot be confined to insiders—“us”—because “they” may be networked and able to both access material and respond to it. Digital media interactivity allows groups to publicly dispute their representations, and in so doing to challenge journalistic authority.

Doubly Dominated

Based on comprehensive surveys in 2005 and 2013 among journalists, professional critics, and artists in Norway, this article analyses the cultural journalists’ position within the fields of journalism and culture. Although increasingly adhering to journalistic ideals and becoming more similar to other journalists through education and social recruitment, cultural journalism is still not the place to gain prestige and honour in the journalistic field. As cultural journalists tend to be recruited more from journalism schools than from higher education in the humanities, they also lack the skills and knowledge to be properly recognized within the cultural field. Cultural journalists seem to occupy a subordinated position in both fields—they are doubly dominated. The analysis also shows increasing differences between cultural journalists and professional critics. Cultural journalists are more anti-elite and populist in their view on culture than critics (and artists), and they are more likely than these groups to be supportive of the idea of culture as a private realm of leisure that should be guided more strongly by economic interests. There are signs of a division of labour where critique and high culture are left to professional critics, while employed cultural journalists with less formal competence adopt an advisory role in the realm of popular culture. With increasing coverage of popular culture and traditional criticism under pressure, these are signs of a less-critical cultural journalism that falls short of the idea of a cultural public sphere as a site for acquiring intellectual and cultural resources to (better) cope with the complexities of modern life.

Intellectual-run-newspapers versus Statesman-run-newspapers

The purpose of this paper is to explicate two competing journalistic paradigms in China in the pre-reform era. The time frame is from the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 to the launching of the reform and open policy in 1978. A common view is that during that period the Chinese government, under the leadership of Chairman Mao, adopted the Soviet press model, in which media were tightly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and journalism was overwhelmingly dominated by the principles of a party press. In this paper, however, I argue that two journalistic paradigms operated simultaneously during that period: while the CCP and the government tried to impose the principle of statesman-run-newspapers, some journalists tried to maintain a tradition of intellectual-run-newspapers. The differences between the two paradigms regarding the role of the media, journalistic identity, levels of autonomy, narrative style, historical origin and others are discussed. The paper concludes that although intellectual-run-newspapers faced severe crackdowns, the inspirational force of the paradigm never became extinct. More importantly, it has been a continued influence on critical-minded journalists in China today.

¿Periodistas o productores de contenidos? La identidad profesional en los convenios colectivos de las empresas informativas

In the absence of a frame­regulation of Journalism as a profession, the collective agreements adopted by media companies in Spain are crucial in shaping the actual status of journalists in this country. This ar­ ticle addresses the issue of professional identity of journalists, focusing on 10 indicators whose presence is discussed in more than 30 sectorial and particular collective agreements.

A Different Breed Altogether?

While a number of scholars have explored the special exigencies of local as opposed to metropolitan journalism, rarely have studies examined such differences in relation to journalism culture as constituted by journalists' professional views. To address the gap in our knowledge, this study reports results from a representative survey of local and metropolitan newspaper journalists in Australia. Findings suggest that territorial context accounts for some significant differences in journalists' demographics, as well as their role perceptions. In line with past research, local newspaper journalists exhibit much stronger support for the community forum and advocacy role. At the same time, and contrary to expectations, there is very little difference in their support of the watchdog role compared with metropolitan journalists. By combining questions about journalistic ideals and enactment in their work, and finding differences in the two, this study also has important implications for the methodological development of survey studies.

De diversiteitsparadox: Over de veranderende relatie tussen journalistiek en etnisch-culturele diversiteit

The piversity paradox. Analyzing the changing relation between journalism and cultural diversity. The piversity paradox. Analyzing the changing relation between journalism and cultural diversity. In this article we study the relationship between journalistic practice and the ideals of diversity and multiculturalism. By means of interviews with 61 Dutch journalists we demonstrate that the journalist’s practice is dominated by a ‘diversity paradox’. On the one hand, journalists seem to collectively reject the idea that ethnic minorities should receive a special treatment by the news media. Yet, on the other hand, the same journalists choose to explicitly name (issues related to) diversity when it comes to bad news. The analysis of the transcribed interviews shows that, even though journalists feel a certain responsibility towards covering diversity, in daily practice this ideal can easily conflict with other journalistic norms and values. As a result, in their everyday routines, the place of diversity is not determined by these (conflicting) journalistic ideals but rather by contextual factors such as personal preferences and time constraints.

Changes in Professional Identity of Journalists During the Park Chung-hee Regime

Changes in Professional Identity of Journalists During the Park Chung-hee Regime

“A New Age of Diplomacy”

After the launch of communication satellites in the early 1960s, Town Meeting of the World became the first television program designed specifically for this technology, featuring world leaders in live debates. The format drew on American journalistic ideals of an open exchange of viewpoints. By the late 1960s, those viewpoints from overseas became increasingly critical of the U.S., much to Americans’ consternation. Idealistic visions for new communication technologies do not always mesh easily with national, commercial, or journalistic realities.

Journalistic identity and audience perceptions: paradigm and models under construction in the African Great Lakes region

This article is based on a research conducted in three African countries (Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo), focusing on the recent evolution of the journalistic profession and the way journalists are perceived today and represented by members of the audience polled in five localities of the region. In the last twenty years, journalism has been deeply transformed, following the liberalization of the media sector, on one hand, and the murderous civil wars which marked the three countries on the other hand. New formats and new roles have appeared for the media, as well as new professional standards for journalists (codes of ethics, regulations from regulatory authorities, journalists education and training curricula, professional associations), often encouraged by foreign donors and international NGOs. This paper aims at showing that, behind these changes, a new « journalistic paradigm » has taken shape, a consequence of both internal dynamics within the profession and external assignments (imposed by the State and the evolution of the market), and also of new demands emanating from the public. In an unstable political, economic and security context, the changes of the journalistic paradigm have transfigured media content, as well as the perception by the local public of the role that journalists have to play in society, and of what the citizens may expect from them, in a region where democracy is still widely under construction.

Jornalismo e Escândalos Políticos: o confronto entre o julgamento e a objetividade

This article intends to reflect on objectivity as a value to be pursued in journalistic activity, besides being a principle of social legitimacy. The discussion will be made ??from the perspective that sees the media as an environment conducive to the proliferation of political scandals, which is connected to the idea of journalists as watchdogs, watchmen social bearers of the social role of denouncing those who commit moral deviations . This approach, adopted especially in relation to the rulers, featuring often the profession as countervailing. But the position itself against politicians, journalism is not denying the utopian quest for objectivity? Furthermore, this search does not compose the explanation for the proliferation of media scandal? Although they seem contradictory concepts, we understand that objectivity and the idea of ??social watchmen are part of journalistic identity.

The Dynamics of Professional Identity

The aim of this article is to analyse how journalists' professional identity is related to their attitude towards PR. The focus is how—and to what extent—journalistic ideology, organizational belonging and the individual's social position influence journalists' perception that other journalists working with PR lower the trustworthiness of journalism. The analyses rest on data from the Swedish Journalist Survey 2011, which is a national representative survey of Swedish journalists. The results show that journalists in general embrace a hostile attitude towards journalists who start working as PR practitioners. However, those who have worked as a journalist for fewer years or have journalistic ideals promoting the amusement function of journalism, or have worked as a freelance, or been employed in an organization producing newsletters, as well as female journalists, weaken this posture. The article concludes with a discussion on how the results could be understood in relation to recent changes in journalism's power and prerequisites, and how a professional identity might function as a form of resistance.

PRESENTING AND REPRESENTING EMOTIONS IN NEWS AGENCY REPORTS

The paper examines news agency journalists' stance on Affect, in view of the journalistic ideals of factuality and objectivity. News journalists resort to Affect values quite frequently; in hard news reports, however, journalists' own emotions have to be excluded. Recently, Peter White and other scholars have introduced the term ‘observed’ Affect as opposed to ‘authorial’ Affect, to distinguish between Affect which is attributed to some third party and Affect which is the journalist's. I find that term too broad, and suggest the following, more sophisticated taxonomy: Affect is first divided into two subtypes, attributed and non-attributed. Both attributed and non-attributed Affect have three subcategories: observed, interpreted and constructed. Attributed Affect includes a fourth subcategory: experienced Affect. To demonstrate how these new tools can be applied to the analysis of news discourse, examples from Associated Press and Reuters news agency dispatches are explored.