Article: How Do Investigative Journalists Initiate Their Stories? 

The study “How Do Investigative Journalists Initiate Their Stories?” by Lena Wuergler and Pauline Cancela from University of Neuchâtel interviewed Swiss investigative journalists to uncover the origin of investigative stories. Investigative journalism is seen contradictingly as both the way for journalism to survive amidst the changes to the journalistic ecosystem and as an endangered species. … Continued


Alternative media and media polarization/fragmentation

The study “What News Users Perceive as ‘Alternative Media’ Varies between Countries: How Media Fragmentation and Polarization Matter” by Desiree Steppat, Laia Castro and Frank Esser all from University of Zurich investigated what news sources are considered to be alternative media by news users in five countries: Denmark, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and United States.  In … Continued


Investigative journalism and newsroom policies

New study “Between Structures and Identities: Newsroom Policies, Division of Labor and Journalists’ Commitment to Investigative Reporting” by Pauline Cancela from University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland studied how the division of labor in journalism and newsroom policies impacts the journalists’ willingness to engage in investigative journalism. There is a debate within the journalistic profession on what … Continued


Untitled by Kai Kalhh, licence CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: For Swiss journalists, ideals and practice do not meet

Do journalists produce journalism that matches their ideals and their self-reported work practices? Patric Raemy and Daniel Beck, both of University of Fribourg, with Lea Hellmueller, of University of Houston, investigated the question by comparing journalists’ role conceptions and their actual output. The authors analysed 519 news articles published by five Swiss newspapers and three … Continued


Untitled by PIRO4D, licence CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: Public service news are more diverse than commercial

News published online by public service broadcasters provide more diversity than news published by other types of news organisations, Edda Humprecht and Frank Esser, both of University of Zurich, write. The authors analysed 1 660 political news articles, published by 48 news organisations in six countries: United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. … Continued


interview by Kristin Wolff, licence CC BY 2.0;

ARTICLE: French speaking journalists are different – but not by much

Francophone journalists in Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland perceive their role slightly differently from their majority-language peers, a comparative survey found. The findings are detailed in an article authored by Geneviève Bonin (University of Ottawa), Filip Dingerkus and Vinzenz Wyss (Zurich University of Applied Sciences at Winterthur), Annik Dubied and Vittoria Sacco (University of Neuchâtel), Stefan … Continued


ARTICLE: MPs do not react the same to all news

Negative news regarding a politician’s own party’s pet issue is more likely than others to inspire him or her to act, writes Luzia Helfer, of Leiden University. The author asked members of the Swiss parliament to read manipulated news stories and evaluate whether they would take action based on the story. Several factors affected the … Continued