ARTICLE: Journalists as noble anti-heroes

Journalists still portray themselves as a benevolent, but imperfect support cast of the “real heroes”, writes Scott Eldridge II, of University of Sheffield. The author analyzed the way The New York Times, Washington Post and The Guardian described journalists covering the “megastories” of WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden. The journalistic identity is still largely based on … Continued

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Published: 1 Apr 2016

ARTICLE: Female reporters shape shifting in conflict zones

Women have been reporting on war since the modern definition of the war correspondent came into existence but sexism and gendered practices still exist in the field. Female war reporters use strategy of shape shifting to navigate the conflict zones: they switch gender performances depending on the environment and the audience, write Lindsay Palmer and Jad Melki. According to their … Continued

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Published: 23 Mar 2016

ARTICLE: Professional standards of journalists in exile

706 journalists facing violence, imprisonment and harassment have gone into exile worldwide between 2000 and 2011. Most of them have not been able to return home. Conor O’Loughlin and Pytrik Schafraad aim to show how the experience of fleeing their homelands has affected the motivations and professional standards of these journalists. The study consists of in-depth interviews with journalists in … Continued

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Published: 7 Mar 2016

ARTICLE: Moral meaning of new journalists’ code of ethics

Because of technological advances anyone with a computer and willingness to communicate news can claim themselves journalists. Professional code allows us to distinguish between a journalist and an ethical journalist, writes Karen L. Slattery. The new study compares the new version of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics with its 1996 version. Study draws on … Continued

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Published: 1 Mar 2016

ARTICLE: Journalistic identity is being reforged on Twitter

Journalists are reformulating their professional identity on Twitter, writes Ulrika Olausson of Jönköping University. The author analyzed 197 tweets and re-tweets sent by a well-known Swedish journalist and social-media active Niklas Svensson. According to Olausson, the tweets contain several different identity discourses, some of which are challenging the hegemonic journalistic watchdog-identity. For example, the practice … Continued

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Published: 22 Feb 2016

ARTICLE: Balancing between PR and journalism

The editors working in custom publishing share many characteristics with journalists, writes Thomas Koch, of University of Mainz. Koch surveyd 197 German editors who worked in custom publishing, such as customer magazines. More custom publishing editors have journalistic than PR training, Koch found. Nearly half (46 %) had previous experience from working in journalism. In … Continued

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Published: 12 Feb 2016

ARTICLE: Epistemology sets journalists and activists apart

Information activists and journalists differ from each other mainly by their understanding of the nature of knowledge, writes Nina Grønlykke Mollerup, of University of Roskilde. The author interviewed and observed a number of Egyptian journalists and activists, mainly during 2012 and 2013. According to Mollerup, the journalists and information activists (to whom others may refer … Continued

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Published: 8 Feb 2016

ARTICLE: A study in rejection of objectivity

The Dutch news website De Correspondent has pointedly and successfully rejected the journalistic norm of objectivity, writes Frank Harbers, of University of Groningen. Harbers analyzed 63 stories published on the site, and interviewed a senior editor. A new way of doing journalism was De Correspondent‘s aim from the outset, the author writes. This is manifested … Continued

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Published: 27 Jan 2016

BOOK: Russian, Polish and Swedish journalists compared

Russian, Polish and Swedish journalists can be seen as members of a shared community, write Gunnar Nygren, of Södertorn University, and Bogusława Dobek-Ostrowska, of University of Wrocław. They present the argument in the conclusion to a recently published anthology, also edited by Nygren and Dobek-Ostrowska, which details the findings of a large-scale comparative research on … Continued

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Published: 26 Jan 2016

ARTICLE: How journalists covered Syria?

In his newly published article Robin Vandevoordt, of University of Antwerp, builds bridge between practice-based studies of war reporting and general sociological studies of journalism as a profession. The key questions are why journalists covered Syria the way they did and why they deal with challenging situations in particular ways. The article draws on 13 in-depth interviews with Dutch … Continued

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Published: 17 Dec 2015