Mark Deuze

What is journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered

The history of journalism in elective democracies around the world has been described as the emergence of a professional identity of journalists with claims to an exclusive role and status in society, based on and at times fiercely defended by their occupational ideology. Although the conceptualization of journalism as a professional ideology can be traced throughout the literature on journalism studies, scholars tend to take the building blocks of such an ideology more or less for granted. In this article the ideal-typical values of journalism’s ideology are operationalized and investigated in terms of how these values are challenged or changed in the context of current cultural and technological developments. It is argued that multiculturalism and multimedia are similar and poignant examples of such developments. If the professional identity of journalists can be seen as kept together by the social cement of an occupational ideology of journalism, the analysis in this article shows how journalism in the self-perceptions of journalists has come to mean much more than its modernist bias of telling people what they need to know.

The Web and its Journalisms: Considering the Consequences of Different Types of Newsmedia Online

The internet - specifically its graphic interface, the world wide web - has had a major impact on all levels of (information) societies throughout the world. Specifically for journalism as it is practiced online, we can now identify the effect that this has had on the profession and its culture(s). This article defines four particular types of online journalism and discusses them in terms of key characteristics of online publishing - hypertextuality, interactivity, multimediality - and considers the current and potential impacts that these online journalisms can have on the ways in which one can define journalism as it functions in elective democracies worldwide. It is argued that the application of particular online characteristics not only has consequences for the type of journalism produced on the web, but that these characteristics and online journalisms indeed connect to broader and more profound changes and redefinitions of professional journalism and its (news) culture as a whole.

Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a Digital Culture

Within media theory the worldwide shift from a 19th-century print culture via a 20th-century electronic culture to a 21st-century digital culture is well documented. In this essay the emergence of a digital culture as amplified and accelerated by the popularity of networked computers, multiple-user software, and Internet is investigated in terms of its principal components. A digital culture as an underdetermined praxis is conceptualized as consisting of participation, remediation, and bricolage. Using the literature on presumably “typical” Internet phenomena such as the worldwide proliferation of independent media centers (indymedia) linked with (radical) online journalism practices and the popularity of (individual and group) weblogging, the various meanings and implications of this particular understanding of digital culture are explored. In the context of this essay, digital culture can be seen as an emerging set of values, practices, and expectations regarding the way people (should) act and interact within the contemporary network society. This digital culture has emergent properties with roots in both online and offline phenomena, with links to trends and developments predating the World Wide Web, yet having an immediate impact and particularly changing the ways in which we use and give meaning to living in an increasingly interconnected, always on(line) environment.

PREPARING FOR AN AGE OF PARTICIPATORY NEWS

In a time of declining public trust in news, loss of advertising revenue, and an increasingly participatory, self-expressive and digital media culture, journalism is in the process of rethinking and reinventing itself. In this paper, the authors explore how journalism is preparing itself for an age of participatory news: a time where (some of) the news is gathered, selected, edited and communicated by professionals and amateurs, and by producers and consumers alike. Using materials from case studies of emerging participatory news practices in the Netherlands, Germany, Australia and the United States, the authors conclude with some preliminary recommendations for further research and theorize early explanations for the success or failure of participatory journalism.

What is multimedia journalism1

Convergence, media cross‐ownership and multimedia newsrooms are becoming increasingly part of the vocabulary of contemporary journalism—in practice, education, as well as research. The literature exploring multimedia is expanding rapidly but it is clear that it means many different things to different people. Research into what multimedia in news work means for journalism and journalists is proliferating. In this paper the social and cultural context of multimedia in journalism, its meaning for contemporary newsrooms and media organizations, and its current (emerging) practices in Europe and the United States are analyzed. The goal: to answer the question in what ways “multimedia” impacts upon the practice and self‐perception of journalists, and how this process in turn shapes and influences the emergence of a professional identity of multimedia journalism. This paper offers an analysis of the professional and academic literature in Europe and the United States, using the concept of media logic as a theoretical framework

Ethnic media, community media and participatory culture:

Several recent studies document the rapid growth and success of ethnic or minority media in, for example, North America and Western Europe. Scholars in the field tend to attribute this trend as an expression of increasing worldwide migration patterns. In this article this explanation is challenged by locating the proliferation of these (news) media in a wider social trend: the worldwide emergence of all kinds of community, alternative, oppositional, participatory and collaborative media practices, in part amplified by the internet. A critical awareness of an increasingly participatory global media culture in multicultural societies is developed as a necessary tool to explain the success and impact of ethnic or minority media, as well as to embrace the changing ways in which people ‘use’ their media.

GLOBAL JOURNALISM EDUCATION: A conceptual approach

Journalism is a more or less autonomous field of study across the globe, yet the education and training of journalists is a subject much debated—but only rarely researched. This paper maps some of the salient issues when studying the structure and culture of a journalism education program to identify the key debates facing programs around the world when structuring, rethinking, and building institutions, schools, or departments of journalism where a combination of practical and contextual training is the prime focus. As a point of departure it is assumed that although media systems and journalistic cultures may differ widely, the changes and challenges facing journalism education around the world are largely similar, and thus would benefit from a “global” approach. The key literature and findings from journalism education studies in different parts of the world is thus conceptually synthesized into 10 categories, starting with philosophical notions of motivation and mission, ending with more “down-to-earth” concepts like curriculum and pedagogy. Each category is discussed in terms of the challenges, debates and tensions as educators and trainers in different parts of the world have signaled these.

JOURNALISM AND THE WEB An Analysis of Skills and Standards in an Online Environment

The Internet is changing the profession of journalism in a number of ways, which this article looks at in terms of so-called digital, or rather online journalism. This article focuses in particular on the question of if, to what extent and in what respects online journalism differs from traditional journalism. The developments on the Internet in terms of journalism and, more specifically, news on the World Wide Web are presented, leading to a discussion of the three characteristic keywords: interactivity, personalization and convergence. This in itself leads to an analysis of the standards and skills of journalism and journalists online. In conclusion, it is argued that these keywords and journalistic skills and standards closely reflect a contemporary global trend towards community journalism - also known as civic journalism or public journalism - which is an area deserving more study in any analysis of journalism and the Internet.

Popular journalism and professional ideology: tabloid reporters and editors speak out:

Scholars and professionals alike have repeatedly signaled a blurring of the public-private distinction in contemporary journalism. This possible ‘homogenization’ of popular and ‘hard’ journalisms can be seen as particularly impacting upon the occupational ideology of (all) journalists. In this article, this (suggested) impact is interrogated by looking specifically at those journalists directly involved: editors and reporters working for national news-stand tabloids (in the Netherlands). A range of expert interviews with journalists working for the leading tabloids in the Netherlands were conducted, in order to further study and understand the articulations of infotainment, tabloidization and popular journalism with the norms, values and ideals of journalists in the field. Tabloid journalists adhere to the same discourse, and use the same vocabulary of journalism’s professional ideology - objectivity, ethics, autonomy - as their mainstream ‘hard’ news colleagues when talking about their work and processing news. An analysis of moral, commercial, ironic and ideological interpretative repertoires shows how the journalists in the ‘popular’ field give meaning to what they do.

Online journalists in the Netherlands Towards a profile of a new profession

This article reports the findings of a nationwide web-based survey of so-called digital or, rather, online journalists. The survey results indicate basic, occupational and professional characteristics of online journalists working for broadcast and print media as well as online-only media. It focuses, in particular, on the question of whether it is too early to be able to determine the specifics of the new professional model of online journalism, following the proposition that the developments on the internet in terms of journalism – and more specifically, news on the world-wide web – have led to the formation of internet journalism as a separate model within the profession of journalism as a whole. One of the main conclusions from this study is that a distinct media logic for online journalists is emerging, the main characteristic of which seems to be empowering audiences as active participants in the daily news.