"This article introduces and examines a hierarchical model of influences that identifies the variables affecting the watchdog role of journalists at three levels: the societal (press freedom and democracy), the organizational (media ownership), and the individual (editorial autonomy and perceived in
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fluences) on a global scale. Using data from 27,567 journalists in 6403 media organizations across 67 countries, the model's validity is confirmed. The findings reveal that variations in journalists’ perception of their role are more pronounced at the societal level compared to the organizational and individual levels. Furthermore, journalists tend to assume a watchdog role more prominently within public media as opposed to private or state-run outlets. Surprisingly, press freedom and democracy have a weak and insignificant impact on watchdog journalism, challenging established norms in the literature, a result that we critically discussed." (Abstract)
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"This report presents findings from the third wave of the Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS3), conducted between 2021 and 2025. In this iteration, we focused on journalists’ perceptions of risk and uncertainty in their profession and sought to identify key factors that shape how journalists navigate
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journalism’s changing environment. These risks and uncertainties arise from four partially overlapping domains: politics, economy, technology, and news consumption. Accordingly, the WJS3 questionnaire addressed journalists’ safety, editorial freedom, professional roles, news influences, and labor conditions. Our survey confirms that journalism is under pressure. Journalists worldwide are often undercompensated, and more than one-third engage in secondary employment. Economic pressures on news organizations have intensified in most countries. Nearly half of journalists have been targeted with hate speech, while psychological, physical, and digital threats are more prevalent in the Global South than in the Global North. More than 300 researchers from 75 countries participated in WJS3. This report provides a concise overview of key global findings. Subsequent publications will analyze specific topics in greater depth; please visit worldsofjournalism.org for more information." (Foreword, page 4)
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"Malawian journalists are ambivalent in their roles. They perceive themselves as faithful reporters and objective analysts of current affairs, who not only help their audiences make informed decisions, but also give voice to the people (see Table 1). They also perceive themselves as monitors and scr
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utinizers of political leadership and business. This approach would classify Malawians journalists as operating within the Occidental/Western journalism framework. However, the same journalists also see themselves as advocates for social change, supporters of national development, motivators of popular political participation, and educators of their audiences. More than half of the respondents stuck to their traditional roles of providing advice, orientation and direction for daily life as well as providing entertainment and relaxation. While the Malawian journalists portray themselves as professionals with the mission to contribute positively to national governance and promote social change, they avoid being adversaries of their government or promoters of political leadership." (Journalistic roles, page 2)
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"Based on an online survey with 330 Chilean journalists and 4,615 media users, this study examines the discrepancies between the expectations of Chilean audiences and news professionals regarding journalistic roles and their evaluation of media performance. The findings reveal that audiences place g
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reater importance on the disseminator and public service–oriented roles, while journalists prioritize roles aimed at influencing the public. Regarding media performance, audiences believe that journalism favors industry-oriented roles over those they prioritize. In contrast, journalists believe that the media mostly perform roles aligned with the audience’s expectations. Our results also show that although the watchdog and disseminator roles are strong predictors of quality journalism for both groups, the civic role only impacts quality journalism in the case of news professionals. Instead, audiences associate good journalism with practices that address their everyday problems, such as the ones represented by the service role." (Abstract)
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"In this article, we suggest that the ideological cultural forces explain the differences in journalism practices in Western and Muslim majority countries (MMC). It is argued that the norms, values, and the deep political culture of the West and MMC have been materialized leading to different types
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of journalism practices. The statistical analysis of 11,246 interviews from twenty four Western and MMC conducted as part of the second wave of Worlds of Journalism Study demonstrates that journalists’ perception of influences, editorial autonomy, and journalistic roles reflect clear varied patterns, which resemble the overall cultural lines that shape their journalistic ideology. This article, we argue, has extended the hierarchical model of influences to embrace the wider regional cultural lines that avoid the trap of national media systems—centrism. Furthermore, it refutes the dominance of a global Western monoculture and, in turn, a singular global journalism practice." (Abstract)
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"This chapter argues that we should take seriously the possibility that particularly morally entangled forms of journalism, such as conflict and investigative reporting, might be deeply emotionally fulfilling." (Abstract)
"This chapter finds that journalists find joy in numerous aspects of their work: the opportunity to provide perspective, show compassion to their community and display gratitude for their own experiences in life." (Abstract)
"The objective of this chapter is to establish a link between the concepts of job control and subjective well-being to explore the question of journalists’ happiness." (Abstract)
"Based on fieldwork conducted in Iran, this book discusses how it is possible for journalism to exist and function in a restrictive context. The book brings together a range of structural (macro), organizational (meso), and individual (micro) processes to analyse journalistic practice in a political
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ly restrictive setting, a context thus far dominated by structural explanations. Using Pierre Bourdieu's work as a starting point, Banafsheh Ranji develops an explanatory framework for how Iranian journalists navigate the daily "minefield" of their professional environment. The analysis sheds light on the everyday reality of journalism in Iran, addressing factors that hinder journalists' work while also showing how journalists use a set of double game strategies to simultaneously circumvent constraints and avoid retaliation. Moving beyond notions of censorship and repression that accompany discussions of journalism in such settings, the book instead focuses on how we may think of critical journalism, professionalism, and journalistic power, agency, and autonomy, in restrictive contexts." (Publisher description)
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"Journalists in Egypt and the UAE have been differently challenged by the COVID-19 situation at multiple levels, (1) individual (2) work/routines and (3) media/organizational while covering COVID-19. Using the hierarchy of influences model, we analyze the differentiated journalists’ role conceptio
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ns, perceived performance, and challenges they faced in covering COVID-19, and how that affect their performance, as Global South-based journalists. Applying a mixed method approach, we conducted in-depth interviews with 20 journalists who reported COVID-19, representing different media platforms, as a part of the Global Risk Journalism Hub project. We also surveyed journalists (n= 102) from both countries, as a part of the Journalistic Role Performance project. Findings revealed that media-organizational level challenges influenced journalists more than other levels. Journalists also shifted from the Civic Role Conception to performing the Loyal-Facilitator Role followed by the Interventionist Role during the pandemic." (Abstract)
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"Dieses Arbeitspapier präsentiert erste Ergebnisse einer repräsentativen Befragung von insgesamt 1.221 Journalist:innen in Deutschland, die zwischen September 2022 und Februar 2023 durchgeführt wurde. Die Studie, die von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft gefördert wird, ist Teil des Forschung
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sverbunds Worlds of Journalism, der in zahlreichen Ländern weltweit den Zustand des Journalismus und die wachsenden Komplexitäten untersucht, denen sich Journalist:innen in einer sich schnell verändernden Medienwelt gegenübersehen. Die Befragung befasst sich mit unterschiedlichen Aspekten des Journalismus, darunter Arbeitsbedingungen, Rollenverständnissen, ethischen Haltungen sowie wahrgenommenen Gefahren und Herausforderungen. Die Befunde zeigen: Journalist:innen in Deutschland sind überwiegend männlich und haben mehrheitlich einen akademischen Hintergrund; traditionelle Printmedienhäuser sind immer noch die wichtigsten Arbeitgeber; Journalist:innen in Deutschland sehen sich einem hohen Maß an Stress ausgesetzt, die Mehrheit hat in letzter Zeit Beleidigungen im Internet und Herabwürdigungen ihrer Arbeit erlebt; mehr als 40 Prozent haben Sorge, dass Angriffe gegen Journalist:innen nicht bestraft werden; beim Rollenselbstverständnis zeigt sich, dass es Journalist:innen in Deutschland besonders wichtig ist, zuverlässige Informationen zu liefern, Desinformation zu bekämpfen und Menschen zur Meinungsbildung zu befähigen. Einen hohen Stellenwert messen sie auch den Aufgaben bei, gesellschaftliche Missstände zu beleuchten und unparteiisch zu beobachten." (Zusammenfassung, Seite 5)
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"Para que el periodismo pueda realizar su función democrática, es preciso que el contexto político, social y económico le permita su desarrollo en toda forma. Aunque en el pasado estuvo caracterizado por la cooptación y la censura, el periodismo mexicano reciente ha mostrado prácticas innovado
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ras y cambios decisivos en la identidad y roles profesionales de quienes lo practican. Para dar cuenta de estos cambios y contribuir a un conocimiento más preciso de la realidad periodística de México, este reporte presenta los resultados de una encuesta representativa nacional aplicada a 486 periodistas que forma parte del estudio internacional Worlds of Journalism. En este reporte se incluyen hallazgos sobre las características sociodemográficas de las personas periodistas, sus perfiles profesionales, sus orientaciones éticas y epistemológicas, los valores que guían su labor, sus percepciones de autonomía y su relación con el Estado; así como las precariedades, los riesgos y las violencias que les afectan, incluyendo las consecuencias físicas, psicológicas y laborales provocadas por la pandemia, así como las medidas de seguridad que toman para protegerse. Los resultados sugieren un periodismo sofisticado en sus valores, roles y perspectivas éticas a pesar de las limitaciones que las inadecuadas condiciones laborales y la falta de autonomía le imponen." (Resumen)
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"Scholarship has pointed to an artificial hierarchy between political and lifestyle journalism that is rooted in norms and values stemming from Western-liberal thought. Within this distinction, lifestyle journalism has been subordinated as occupying a marginal or peripheral position in the field. Ye
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t, how journalists perceive this distinction has rarely been studied empirically. This study draws on concepts of ‘boundary work’ and ‘othering’ to examine how political and lifestyle journalists discursively reinforce and contest boundaries and hierarchies. Through semi-structured interviews with 22 lifestyle and 26 political journalists and editors in South Africa, we show that political and lifestyle journalists engaged in both intra-field (self-)expansion, and (self-)expulsion and (self-)othering, by evoking several boundary markers. Boundaries were reinforced through gendered discourses, autonomy ideals, claims to specialization and accessibility in news beats and presentation, beliefs about political journalism’s preservation of humanity, and greater risks to safety of political journalists. Boundaries were challenged by politicizing lifestyle journalism and popularizing political journalism, providing a counter-narrative to political journalism’s negativity, and treating lifestyle journalism as economically beneficial." (Abstract)
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"This paper examines two different understandings of professional autonomy among journalists currently and formerly working at Mafra, a Czech media house acquired in 2013 by Andrej Babiš, who in 2017 became the Czech Prime Minister. We build on existing research of local trends in media ownership a
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nd journalistic autonomy to ask the following questions: What differentiated the experience of journalists who exited the organization after the ownership change from that of those who stayed put? How did the two groups understand professional journalistic autonomy? Based on the thematic analysis of twenty semistructured interviews with ten journalists who stayed in the media house after Babiš’s acquisition and ten journalists who left, we argue that in the journalists’ narratives, the two decisions reflect two different notions of autonomy: autonomy-as-a-practice and autonomy-as-a-value. While our findings add to the scarce empirical research on journalists’ lived experiences of the region’s mediascape marked by growing comingling and concentration of political, economic and media power, we also suggest that the autonomy-as-a-practice and journalists’ agency should be further studied as a possible way how to perform and promote journalistic autonomy even in illiberalizing contexts—in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond." (Abstract)
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"This book provides novel insights into the perspectives of journalists in Sierra Leone and on their work by examining their perceived journalistic values and the influences that shape them. It treats journalism as an occupational identity and as a community that works on the foundation of the sub-S
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aharan African philosophies that exalts communal values in every sphere of life. When journalists speak about their social function in society and values, they are sharing both their individual knowledge and experiences on their work. Therefore, journalistic values are never isolated ideologies, but exist within the contexts in which they practice. In this book, Sarah Bomkapre Koroma examines the perceptions of journalists on the societal influences that impact their work, ranging from individual, procedural, organizational, political, economic, and many more." (Publisher description)
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"This study explores how regional journalists in Pakistan conceptualize journalistic professionalism, how they perceive their journalistic identities, and how local socio-political and economic realities shape their professional identification. Analysis of interviews with 33 journalists working in P
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akistan’s Pakhtunkhwa province indicated a tension between striving for professionalism as defined by Western journalistic standards and meeting the demands of their local conditions. Participants described professionalism as providing clear, accurate, objective, and ethical coverage of issues. However, constraints including unavailability of funding, the need to hold multiple jobs, threats to personal safety, and absence of education and training prevented them from meeting their professional goals. The journalists discursively negotiated and constituted their professional identities in response to the conditions in their respective areas." (Abstract)
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"This chapter identifies what motivates and professionally satisfies an engaged journalist. Instead of happiness, it suggests the notion of contentment." (Abstract)
"Following seminal study on journalistic attitudes towards wars and peace journalism, in this study we investigated the perceptions of conflict reporters in the three most deadly countries in the world including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. A total of 317 journalists participated in this study. T
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hough generally we found support for the earlier study, the analysis shows journalists engage in wider practices than predicted that overlap war and peace journalism approaches. A closer examination showed that journalists favored active war journalism practices and passive peace journalism practices. Finally, we did not find that journalistic experience and contextual factors influenced preferences towards war and peace journalism substantially." (Abstract)
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"This study profiles Tanzanian journalists at a time when the role of the media occupies the centre stage. Specifically, it seeks to answer this critical question who are Tanzanian journalists? In terms of socio-demographics, work environment, specialisation, editorial autonomy, professional attitud
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es and beliefs, institutional trust, and major threat in exercising their journalistic freedom." (Introduction)
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