"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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"Killings, as the most extreme form of violence against journalists, receive considerable attention, but journalists experience a variety of threats from surveillance to gendered cyber targeting and hate speech, or even the intentional deprivation of their financial basis. This article provides a co
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mprehensive, interdisciplinary framework of journalists’ safety, summarized in a conceptual model. The aim is to advance the study of journalists’ safety and improve safety practices, journalism education, advocacy, and policy making - vital as press freedom and fundamental human rights face multifaceted challenges, compromising journalists’ ability to serve their societies. Journalists’ occupational safety comprises personal (physical, psychological) and infrastructural (digital, financial) dimensions. Safety can be objective and subjective by operating on material and perceptional levels. It is moderated by individual (micro), organizational/institutional (meso), and systemic (macro) risk factors, rooted in power dynamics defining boundaries for journalists’ work, which, if crossed, result in threats and create work-related stress. Stress requires coping, ideally resulting in resilience and resistance, and manifested in journalists’ continued role performance with autonomy. Compromised safety has personal and social consequences as threats might affect role performance and even lead to an exit from the profession, thus also affecting journalism’s wider function as a key institution." (Abstract)
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"How do journalists around the world view their own function and role in society? Based on a landmark study that has collected data from more than 25,000 journalists in 66 countries between 2012 and 2015, Worlds of Journalism examines the different ways journalists conceive of their responsibilities
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, their relationship to society and government, and the work they do. The authors conclude that there is no one conception of journalism and instead advance a global classification of journalistic cultures: the corporate libertarian model (e.g., U.S. and Australia); the public-service remit model (e.g., parts of continental Europe); the social interventionist model (e.g., parts of the Islamic World); the developmental faciliative model (e.g., parts of Africa and Asia); and the coercive heteronomy model (e.g., China and Russia). The book is organized around a series of key questions regarding journalists' autonomy, influences on their practice, journalism's role in society, journalists' trust in social institutions, and their perceptions about the ongoing transformation of journalism. Worlds of Journalism reveals how perceptions of journalism are created and re-created by journalists and how the practice of journalism is affected by different political, social, and economic institutions. The authors challenge essentialist ideas about journalism and provide an understanding of the diversity of worldviews and orientations of journalists in terms of roles, ethics, and influences." (Publisher description)
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"Contemporary BRICS Journalism: Non-Western Media in Transition is the first comparative study of professional journalists working in BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). The book presents a range of insider perspectives, offering a valuable insight into the nature of jo
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urnalism in these influential economies. Contributors to this volume have conducted in-depth interviews with more than 700 journalists, from mainstream and online media, between 2012 and 2015. They present and analyse their findings here, revealing how BRICS journalism is envisioned, experienced, and practised in the twenty-first century. Compelling evidence in the form of journalists’ narratives reveals the impact of digital culture on modern reporting and the evolving dynamic between new media technology and traditional journalistic practice. Insightful comparisons are made between BRICS countries, highlighting the similarities and differences between them. Topics covered include professionalism, ethics and ideals, community journalism, technological developments in the newsroom and the reporting of protest movements." (Publisher description)
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"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
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(83.2%), and support national development (81.7%) (see Table 1). Interestingly, the last role in mean importance was “convey a positive image of the leadership.” “Be an adversary of the government” and “set the political agenda” tied for second last place in terms of means, followed by “support government policy.” These Indian journalists considered it only somewhat important to be directly oppositional to the government as well as to portray leaders positively. As the means decreased, in general, standard deviations increased. Thus journalists’ opinions were quite varied on the roles that were not of primary importance to them." (Journalistic roles, pages 1-2)
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"The top six roles, all with means above 4.5 and standard deviations below 1, for Botswana journalists, were a mix of those aligned with a liberal press (e.g., report things as they are) and those relevant to development journalism (e.g., support national development). “Report things as they are
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(mean=4.80) and “Educate the audience” (mean=4.70) were the top two roles for these journalists (see Table 1) with 96.2 percent and 94.1 percent of the journalists respectively saying that they considered these roles “extremely” or “very” important. The least important roles, both with means below the midpoint of three, were “Be an adversary of government” (mean=2.62) and “Convey a positive image of political leadership” (mean=2.40); these journalists did not want to take a seriously adversarial stance with government but neither did they want to convey a positive image of political leaders." (Journalistic roles, page 1)
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"Obwohl die Medienmärkte in Pakistan nach der Liberalisierung 2002 einen regelrechten Boom erlebten, haben Medienschaffende bis heute mit zahlreichen Herausforderungen zu kämpfen. Die neue Meinungsfreiheit traf viele Medienschaffende unvorbereitet - Selbstzensur ersetzte häufig die vorherige staa
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tliche Einflussnahme. Ein knappes Budget, die wachsende Bedeutung von Online-Medien und Sozialen Netzwerken, aber auch der Druck durch radikale religiöse Gruppierungen oder durch das Militär beeinflussen die Medienlandschaft wesentlich. Zudem gilt Pakistan als eines der gefährlichsten Länder für Journalisten. Auf dem Deutsche Welle Media Dialogue 2013 diskutierten internationale Wissenschaftler und Experten über die Medienlandschaft Pakistans und die Herausforderungen für pakistanische Journalisten. Hierzu ist jetzt eine begleitende Publikation erschienen. Sie beinhaltet neun Aufsätze von Wissenschaftlern und Medienexperten aus Australien, Deutschland, Norwegen, und USA, die am Media Dialogue teilgenommen und ihre wissenschaftlichen Beiträge vorgestellt haben." (https://akademie.dw.com)
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