Beate Josephi

Journalism in the global age - Between normative and empirical

This review article looks at books on journalism and the media coming from within the dominant discourse and concerning themselves with journalism globally or the media in several countries. It finds that in an era of growing global awareness research is only reluctantly acknowledging models other than the Anglo-American one. This has implications for the professional model of journalism and serves to perpetuate the gap between the principles of journalism and professional practice. It has further implications for journalism research in that the normative expectations skew results and veil actual practice.

How much democracy does journalism need

In posing the question ‘How much democracy does journalism need?’, much depends on the definition of journalism. This article suggests that journalism should be viewed not in terms of media systems but instead using journalism practice as the main frame of reference, as this allows for an appreciation of journalism beyond the confines of western democratic countries. The analysis of historical and current examples shows that journalism offering accurate and verified information resting on independent news judgement also happens in places that are deemed semi- or non-democratic. This article argues that it is not the political form of democracy that is essential to journalism but the freedom of expression and relative journalistic autonomy afforded to media workers. Democracies, as compellingly shown in recent years, may offer the legal framework for freedom of speech but they do not offer protection for journalistic services which have to be largely financed privately. The dependency on media owners is no less in many democratic nations than it is in non-democratic countries. Most importantly, journalism needs supporters who see value in independent information provision and credible news judgement.

Decoupling journalism and democracy: Or how much democracy does journalism need?

The title of this collection of articles is meant to provoke, and will hopefully intensify, a long overdue debate. The five articles presented here made up a session at the 2011 International Association for Media and Communication Research conference in Istanbul. The panel then carried the somewhat more circumspect title of ‘Does journalism have to be defined in terms of democracy?’ which, in the course of our discussions, turned into the more emphatic question, ‘How much democracy does journalism need?’ This change in the title is telling. It turns journalism into the active rather than the dependent party, and signals that journalism does have a life outside democracies. All panellists agreed that the dominance of the journalism and democracy paradigm found to date in scholarly literature has led to a distortion in the way journalism is perceived. In this, the query ‘Does journalism have to be defined in terms of democracy?’ as far as the panellists were concerned, came close to being a rhetorical question to be answered in the negative. While all acknowledge that there has been a time and place when the close linkage of journalism and democracy was valid, they do not see this being the case any more. It was no coincidence that the session was placed in the history section. Two articles look closely at the historical development of the journalism and democracy paradigm, and a third uses historical samples to argue for a different view of the role of journalists. The other two articles turn their attention to different regions – Southeast Asia and Latin America. The journalism and democracy paradigm owes much of its pervasiveness to its simplicity, and also its normativity. It seems to imply that there is only one kind of journalism and one kind of democracy, or at least notionally one desirable type of each. This has

Internationalizing the journalistic professional model: imperatives and impediments

When assessing the imperatives and impediments of internationalizing the journalistic professional model one has to declare one’s hand when naming the imperatives. In this I argue for freedom of expression and journalistic independence as imperatives. The impediments are that no models exist to date which could be implemented around the world. However, data by Splichal and Sparks (1994) shows that journalism students in very differing countries have a desire for independence and autonomy of journalism. This permits hope in a normatively infused journalistic professional model as an agent of change.

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM ON CAMPUS

Despite many obstacles, investigative journalism continues to flourish in Australia. A significant part of the explanation for this appears to lie with universities which have journalism programs. Investigative journalism has a strong presence in these programs across Australia, a presence which is increasingly being felt at postgraduate level. As a result, an increasing number of journalism graduates have the skills and understanding necessary to embark on serious investigative work, and several institutions have embarked on projects with innovative approaches to collaborative investigative work. However, the wider context in which Australias tertiary institutions operate is far from benign, and journalism programs—and thus the teaching of investigative journalism—are subject to many pressures. The paper finds that, although university journalism programs are increasingly taking responsibility for educating their students about investigative journalism, thereby picking up a key responsibility which would once have been borne entirely by the industry, there are also forces at work which limit their capacity to do this.

Journalists for a Young Democracy

Bhutan, a democracy since 2008 and one of the worlds youngest, has transitioned from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy in an orderly fashion rarely seen. A free media, carried by skilled and responsible journalists, is part of that design but difficult to plan. This first comprehensive survey of Bhutans journalists identifies some of the problems encountered in making journalism a profession that has taken root. Yet the survey results reveal none the less a broad understanding of the role the media are expected to play in a democracy, and a great deal of trust in the new political institutions.

Book Review: Australian TV News: New Forms, Functions and Futures

Althaus, Scott L., Jill A. Edy, Robert M. Entman, and Patricia Phalen. 1996. “Revising the Indexing Hypothesis: Officials, Media, and the Libya Crisis.” Political Communication 13 (4): 407–21. Baum, Matthew, and Tim J. Groeling. 2010. War Stories: The Causes and Consequences of Public Views of War. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Bennett, W. Lance. 1990. “Toward a Theory of Press-State Relations in the United States.” Journal of Communication 40 (2): 103–27. Bennett, W. Lance, Regina G. Lawrence, and Steven Livingston. 2007. When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Berinsky, Adam J. 2009. In Time of War: Understanding American Public Opinion from World War II to Iraq. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Fisher, Hannah. 2014. A Guide to U.S. Military Casualty Statistics: Operation New Dawn, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22452.pdf (accessed April 15, 2014). Hallin, Daniel C. 1986. The “Uncensored War”: The Media and Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press. Mermin, Jonathan. 1999. Debating War and Peace: Media Coverage of U.S. Intervention in the Post-Vietnam Era. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Nacos, Brigitte Lebens, Yaeli Bloch-Elkon, and Robert Y. Shapiro. 2011. Selling Fear: Counterterrorism, the Media, and Public Opinion. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 2003. Public Confidence in War Effort Falters. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. http://www.people-press.org/2003/03/25/ public-confidence-in-war-effort-falters/ (accessed April 15, 2014). Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 2014. More Now See Failure than Success in Iraq, Afghanistan. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. http://www.people-press. org/2014/01/30/more-now-see-failure-than-success-in-iraq-afghanistan/ (accessed April 15, 2014).