The Jeremiad Over Journalism

Pundik had, for example, visited The Washington Post for inspiration shortly before he became
editor-in-chief at Politiken. 587
In the years after 1971, Pundik‘s more professional approach to political news coverage did,
however, make its presence felt, at least according to his autobiography, and although a causal
connection cannot be made directly to the journalistic content on Politiken‘s front-pages in 1981
and 1990, it is, in the light of Cook and Bourdieu‘s writings concerning journalism as an institution
and field, striking that the newspapers political articles become much more descriptive and much
less interpretative from after the 1971 election while the balanced approach to political reporting is
adopted after 1981. An observation also supported by Hjarvard when he writes,
―The newspapers‘ political ideology will seldom be explicitly articulated in the daily editorial
process, but rather be part of the employees‘ tacit knowledge about existing norms in the
company.‖ 588
For Berlingske Tidende and Ekstra Bladet the most obvious ―American‖ development in terms of
their political news coverage seems to be adopting the ideal of balanced reporting in their news
articles after 1981. Ekstra Bladet does, however, have a slight upward tendency to more descriptive
news coverage between 1971 and 2001, but the starting point is also much lower than Politiken and
Berlingske Tidende‘s meaning that Ekstra Bladet with its tabloid-profile is much less focused on
descriptive reporting than the two omnibus newspapers.
587 Pundik, Du Kan Hvis Du Tør [You Can If You Dare]. Page 42-44. ‖The model was the British weekly Sunday
Times‘ Insight Team (…) I gave the editorial operation more structure. This I learned at Washington Post. (Before my
accession the board had sent me on a stay abroad at the American daily, where I was able to follow the newspapers‘
editorial work process)‖ My translation. Original text reads, ―Modellen var den engelske ugeavis Sunday Times' Insight
Team" (…) ‖Jeg har lagt den redaktionelle drift ind i fastere rammer. Det lærte jeg på Washington Post." (Inden min
tiltrædelse havde bestyrelsen sendt mig på et studieophold på det amerikanske dagblad, hvor jeg fik lov at følge avisens
redaktionelle arbejdsgang, HP).‖
588 Hjarvard, "Den Politiske Presse - En Analyse Af Danske Avisers Politiske Orientering [The Political Press: An
Analysis of Political Parallelism in Danish Newspapers]." Page 49. My translation. Original text reads, ―Avisens
politiske grundholdning vil sjældent være eksplicit artikuleret i den daglige redaktionelle proces, men snarere være en
del af de ansattes tavse viden om gældende normer i virksomheden.‖
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