Beyond Journalistic Norms

Role Performance and News in Comparative Perspective

Claudia Mellado

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367561291
• eBook ISBN: 9780429758195
• Topic: Lingue e linguistica
• Subtopic: Biografie in ambito giornalistico

Beyond Journalistic Norms contests and challenges pre-established assumptions about a dominant type of journalism prevailing in different political, economic, and geographical contexts to posit the fluid, and dynamic nature of journalistic roles.

The book brings together scholars from Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia, reporting findings based on data collected from democratic, transitional, and non-democratic contexts to produce thematic chapters that address how journalistic cultures vary around the globe, specifically in relation to challenges that journalists face in performing their journalistic roles. The study measures, compares, and analyzes the materialization of the interventionist, the watchdog, the loyal-facilitator, the service, the infotainment, and the civic roles in more than 30,000 print news stories from 18 countries. It also draws from hundreds of surveys with journalists to explain the link between ideals and practices, and the conditions that shape this divide.

This book will be of great relevance to scholars and researchers working in the fields of journalism, journalism practices, philosophy of journalism, sociology of media, and comparative journalism research.

Part I
Professional Roles and Journalistic Performance

1Journalistic Role Performance and the News

Claudia Mellado

One of the most frequently discussed subjects in the history of our field is the function that journalism and the media should play in society as interrelated institutions. This discussion centers on the extent to which journalism and the news media should—or should not—serve democracy, citizens, consumers, the market, political elites, the political system at large, or journalists’ own intellectual or literary pursuits.

Normative functions are assimilated through a variety of roles that journalists may conceive of and/or perceive as legitimate as part of their job. Some of these journalistic roles are more widely discussed, embraced, and theorized than others.

The roles that journalists claim and/or aim to play and see as important can be performed in the news via specific reporting practices, newsgathering routines, and narrative devices that reflect them. But under what circumstances is the materialization of professional roles actually possible? How is the performance of journalistic roles defined and shaped in the news?

Since focusing on how journalists believe they perform or aspire to perform a certain role only tells part of the story, and given that this only reveals how journalists see their profession and not how their work actually reflects in practice, this book moves beyond early comparative research on journalistic roles. Considering the changes and challenges that journalism as a profession is facing today, this volume provides empirical evidence about the complexity of journalistic cultures. It offers a comprehensive analysis of how news professionals perform different roles across social contexts and news media organizations, how much importance they give to specific professional functions, the way they feel they can perform such roles, how different factors affect the outcome of their work, and the extent to which their performance differs from their ideals of the profession.

This book focuses on the performance of six journalistic roles (the interventionist, watchdog, loyal-facilitator, civic, infotainment, and service), their analytical sub-dimensions, and indicators across different countries, contexts, and topics. It also analyzes the link between norms, perceptions, and practices. We start from the position that regardless of what the expected journalistic norms are, journalistic roles are by no means static, and are instead situational, dynamic, and fluid. We argue that journalistic role performance cannot be fully understood outside of a meaningful context, contesting and challenging pre-established assumptions about a “dominant type” of journalism that prevail in different political, economic, and geographic contexts.

Let us take the following examples as case studies. In 2010, 33 Chilean miners were trapped underground following an accident in the northern part of the country. Cut off from their employers and rescue workers, they feared for their lives for weeks. After 69 days, the world watched as they were rescued one at a time. The record-breaking media coverage of this “real-life miracle” and “happy-ending story” taught all of us about the miners’ ordeal and the day-to-day hardships that they endured. Some news outlets and journalists even ran stories about how to survive if you were trapped underground.

The many flags and banners held by cheering crowds as the miners emerged into the sunshine hinted at how important the day was to Chile as a nation. But in the tense lead-up to that dramatic climax, journalists had to follow confusing updates from Chilean officials, covering the increasing number of voices that questioned mining policies and working conditions in that industry, and reporting on the overall tension and uncertainty that prevailed at the rescue site. Some news professionals also relied on infotainment reporting devices to “sell the news” to the audience as the events unfolded. They focused on the miners as “micro celebrities,” narrating their life stories and their families’ anguish and zooming in on their emotions and private lives.

In late 2019 and early 2020, the world again turned its attention to a unique event: President Donald Trump’s impeachment by the U.S. Congress based on allegations that he had tried to illegally coerce Ukrainian officials to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden. The U.S. press already had a tense and antagonistic relation with Trump, who frequently attacked the media for allegedly spreading fake news and attempting to weaken his presidency. Many news organizations had been skeptical, if not openly critical, of his candidacy based on his perceived inability to lead the country. Clearly departing from a tradition of neutrality and objectivity—cherished tenets of the profession in the U.S.—journalists are increasingly commenting on the facticity of Trump’s statements, regularly calling out falsehoods. In contrast to similar cases that have been brought before the House, these hearings were the subject of special coverage across media outlets who used all of their resources to scrutinize this historic event for democracy in the U.S. and the world. However, some journalists—and one media outlet in particular—performed quite a different role. Fox News, one of Trump’s few allies in the media, did not broadcast live coverage of the impeachment hearings. Instead, the network ran selected sound bites and even video footage with no sound in order to allow its news anchors to interpret events without offering actual live footage.

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, journalism and the media had a valuable opportunity to cover many angles and approaches to the global public health crisis. In several countries, newspapers ran stories that were very critical of governments and national leaders for failing to meet the public’s informational needs or for implementing—or failing to implement—the measures that the public or experts deemed suitable.

Stories about containment measures also showcased the loyal-facilitator role. Some highlighted public policies designed to contain the spread of the virus, while others praised foreign governments, local actors, or institutions for putting the public interest and national security first. Meanwhile, the press published endless news stories with tips on how to detect symptoms, what to do, and how to remain safely at home, investigating possible solutions to ordinary problems that might arise as a result of prolonged social isolation. Still other stories focused on entertaining the audience or on the private lives of quarantined individuals, such as the daily occurrences of infected show business celebrities. Sensationalist coverage also contributed to the somewhat apocalyptic, alarmist views that often prevail in times of uncertainty and fear.

At the same time, journalists were quickly gathering citizen testimonies to push for action and sanitary measures, documenting healthcare professionals’ concerns about the lack of resources, equipment, hospital staff, and beds. Some news stories even discussed how economic, social, and political systems needed to change to prevent pandemics and their consequences. The media coverage of the Coronavirus pandemic also yielded many examples of the interventionist role. We heard and read multiple personal stories and opinions offered by journalists who sought to signal that there was cause for alarm.

As we can see from these examples, journalistic roles are not mutually exclusive in life or in journalism (Weaver & Willnat, 2012; Mellado, 2015; Lynch, 2007).

In all of these complex episodes, various journalistic roles and their characteristics are performed at once, as multiple missions and news values are accomplished and displayed, sometimes simultaneously, as events unfold (Briggs & Hallin, 2016). Sometimes journalists serve as a watchdog, working to hold the powerful accountable (Bennett & Serrin, 2005). At other times, they play the loyal-facilitator role, giving credence to official claims in supportive, collaborative ways (Christians, Glasser, McQuail, Nordenstreng, & White, 2009). They may also take on the civic role that gives voice to the voiceless and empowers citizens by calling attention to their demands (Curran, 2007), produce news pieces that provide concrete suggestions for everyday life (Eide & Knight, 1999), and thrill the public using infotainment devices (Thussu, 2007). While the use of journalistic voices is more prominent at certain times, as was the case with Trump’s impeachment, journalists may also remain more detached in their reporting of other events.

News professionals are not restricted to choosing and performing just one role, as events rarely display the same roles as they unfold. Both the Chilean mine accident and COVID-19 examples show how the interventionist, loyal-facilitator, watchdog, civic, service, and infotainment roles can be presented as suitable angles at different times in the media coverage of an event, and even simultaneously. Both examples also show different types of approaches to the roles. Journalists may move from educating audiences about their rights to advocating for certain causes on their behalf. Other times, it is simply a matter of involvement. The Trump case shows how traditional press scrutiny not only intensified but elicited a more prominent use of the personal voice on the part of the journalist.

But, to what extent did the journalists in charge of covering these events expect to perform all of those roles? As we will see in the various chapters of this book, journalistic practice transcends normative expectations. Journalists must adapt, adjust, and perform multiple ro...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Part I Professional Roles and Journalistic Performance
• Part II The Manifestation of Journalistic Role Performance in the News
• Part III Explaining Journalistic Role Performance
• Appendices
• Index