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Journalists in Hong Kong

Francis L. F. Lee

Worlds of Journalism Study (2016), 6 pp.

"Hong Kong journalists treated as most important the roles of monitoring and scrutinizing political leaders, reporting things as they are, monitoring and scrutinizing businesses, providing analysis of current affairs, and letting people express their views. Given the emphasis on monitoring the power ... more

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Journalists in Kenya

Levi Obonyo, Hesbon Hansen Owilla

Worlds of Journalism Study (2016), 8 pp.

"It is fairly informative how journalists view their roles in the Kenyan society. Kenyan journalists found it most important to report things the way they are, to educate the audience and to promote tolerance and diversity. The relevance of these roles was fairly undisputed among the interviewed jou ... rnalists as the relatively low standard deviations (s=.75, s=.77, and s=.88 respectively) indicate. It is particularly noteworthy the notion of reporting things as they are and promoting tolerance. About a decade ago, the Kenyan media was perceived to have contributed to the spate of political violence that engulfed the country. The media has strenuously struggled to shed off that perception. Further, journalists tend to see themselves as objective and therefore it is little surprising that straight reporting scored highly on the list. Other roles with a standard deviation score less than s=1.0 included letting people express their views (81.1%, s=.89) and telling stories about the world (78.9%, s=.98). Providing analysis of current affairs was considered an important role by 81.7 percent of the respondents. The other roles, in their order of percentage scores and possibly relative importance, are indicated in Table 1 below. It is instructive what Kenyan journalists considered less important roles: conveying a positive image of political leadership (31.8%) and being an adversary of the government (36.1%). Nearly all roles related to politics are at the bottom of the table. This is a unique finding, as Kenyan media is often accused of being overly political. The headlines and lead stories are often all about politics. It is noteworthy that journalism in Kenya can sometimes be fairly adversarial in relation to the government. Given the promulgation of a new constitution nearly seven years ago, with clauses protective of media freedom, there is often a boldness in Kenyan media which is unique compared to the experiences of neighboring countries. Roles supportive of a development agenda scored somewhere in the middle of the table. This is an important and surprising perception as well. Kenya is a developing country and it would have been natural to expect that development was a default role for the media. But development-related responses scored 78.8 percent and 69.2 percent respectively. While this is still a high score, it is not among the top considerations of the media." (Journalistic roles, pages 3-4) more

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Journalists in Estonia

Haliki Harro-Loit, Epp Lauk

Worlds of Journalism Study (2016), 7 pp.

"Four “classic” roles: to report things as they are, to be a detached observer, to educate the audience and provide news that attracts the largest audience are fairly unanimously seen as the most important among Estonian journalists, as the relatively low standard deviations suggest. Especially ... more

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Journalists in India

Jyotika Ramaprasad

Worlds of Journalism Study (2016), 6 pp.

"The top five roles, in order of importance both by mean scores and by percent who said “extremely” and “very” important, for Indian journalists, were: report things as they are (88.4%), educate the audience (85.5%), provide analysis of current affairs (84.7%), let people express their views ... more

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Journalists in Sudan

Mahmoud M. Galander, Lydia Frost, Thomas Hanitzsch

Worlds of Journalism Study (2016), 4 pp.

"With regards to professional role orientations, Sudanese journalists found it most important to support national development, to be a detached observer, to advocate for social change, and to influence public opinion. The relevance of these roles was fairly undisputed among the interviewed journalis ... more

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Journalists in Latvia

Liga Ozolina

Worlds of Journalism Study (2016), 7 pp.

"When it comes to professional role orientation, Latvian journalists are almost unanimous that journalists should report things as they are and act as detached observers. Interviewed journalists also found it important to provide analysis of current affairs, to educate the audience, to let people ex ... more

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Journalists in South Korea

Min-Kyu Lee, Lydia Frost, Thomas Hanitzsch

Worlds of Journalism Study (2016), 6 pp.

"With regards to professional role orientations, South Korean journalists found it most important to report things as they are, to provide analysis of current affairs, and to monitor and scrutinize business and political leaders. The relevance of these roles was fairly undisputed among the interview ... more

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Journalists in Albania

Jonila Godole

Worlds of Journalism Study (2016), 6 pp.

"Albanian journalists believe their most important professional role is reporting things as they are, being detached observers and providing the kind of news that attracts the largest audience. These functions contrast with the dominant perceived role of journalists in the early 1990s as missionarie ... more

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Journalists in China

Baohua Zhou, Yangfan Zhou

Worlds of Journalism Study (2016), 5 pp.

"With regards to professional role orientations, Chinese journalists found it most important to report things as they are, to provide analysis of current affairs, to support national development, to provide advice, orientation and direction for daily life, and to be a detached observer. The relevanc ... more

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Journalists in Bhutan

Beate Josephi

Worlds of Journalism Study (2016), 6 pp.

"Bhutanese journalists view their professional roles in very similar ways to Western journalists. The reason for this can partly be found in Bhutan’s effort to orientate its media on the media of Western democracies and therefore emphasize the “detached watchdog” role. “Report things as they ... more

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WorldCat (141)

Explaining Journalists' Trust in Public Institutions Across 20 Countries: Media Freedom, Corruption, and Ownership Matter Most

Thomas Hanitzsch, Rosa Berganza

Journal of Communication, volume 62, issue 5 (2012), pp. 794-814

"Building on the assumption that journalists' attitudes toward public institutions can contribute to a decline in public trust, this article sets out to identify the driving forces behind journalists' confidence in public institutions. Based on interviews with 2000 journalists from 20 countries, var ... more