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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
active, analysis, etc.) and reporting methods (paying for information, harassing news
sources, etc.). One of our main findings is that journalists across the world share very
few common perceptions of what they believe in. After reviewing some of the main
findings we will turn to some recommendations for future studies based on our
perceptions of gaps in our knowledge about journalists and their work, as well as the
changing roles of journalists in the new media environment of this turbulent first
decade of the 21st Century.
What Shapes the News around the World? How journalists in 18 countries
perceive influences on their work
Hanitzsch, Thomas*; Mellado, Claudia**
*Institute of Communication Studies and Media Research, University of Munich,
Munich, Germany
** University of Santiago, Santiago, Chile
Professional autonomy is assumed to be one of the most fundamental requirements
for journalistic practice. It is for this reason that research on the forces that limit the
journalists’ professional latitude is a long-standing theme in journalism and mass
communication research. This paper compares journalists’ perceptions of influences
on news work across 18 societies. Evidence is based on survey responses of 1800
journalists’ to a six-dimensional scale developed in an earlier study. The six
measured dimensions covered political, economic, organizational, professional and
procedural influences, as well as influences from reference groups.
Across the sample, procedural and professional factors turned out to have the
strongest impact on news work in the view of the interviewed journalists, followed by
organizational influences with some considerable cross-national variation. Political
factors, on the other hand, seem to have the weakest influence in the view of the
journalists, after economic influences and reference groups that have only a modest
impact. These findings tend to be relatively consistent across societies. The results
also confirm the expectation that political and economic factors are clearly the most
important denominators of cross-national differences in the journalists’ perceptions of
influences. Furthermore, perceived political influences are clearly related to objective
indicators of political freedom and ownership structures across the investigated
countries. Economic influences seem to have a stronger impact in private and stateowned
media than in public newsrooms, but they are not related to a country’s
economic freedom. With respect to organizational, professional and procedural
influences, as well as the impact of reference groups, the differences between the
countries turned out to be smaller. Overall, the findings point to important differences
between journalistic cultures across the globe. If there is such thing as a global
homogenization of news work, we believe that it has still a long way to go.
Paper panel 4 – Standards of journalism practice
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