Download Political journalism in comparative perspective

Political journalism in comparative perspective
Arjen van Dalen,
Department of Political Science/Center for Journalism
University of Southern Denmark
Supervision by prof. Erik Albæk and prof. Claes H. de Vreese
Summary:
Political journalists play a central role in the democratic process in all free democratic
societies. The growing body of research in political communication shows that political
coverage can affect the democratic process. The characteristics of political coverage which
cause these effects are the results of the way political journalists work. This dissertation
furthers our understanding of the antecedents of political news by studying how political
journalism varies cross-nationally and which country-level characteristics can explain this
variation.
This dissertation studies cross-national differences and similarities in the role
conceptions of political journalists, constraints on their professional autonomy, and their
relation with politicians, reporting styles and attention for political actors in the news. To go
beyond describing cross-national differences and find explanations for these differences,
political journalism is compared between countries with different media systems, political
systems, journalistic cultures and political communication cultures. Denmark, Germany, the
United Kingdom and Spain provide such cases. Empirically, the dissertation is based on a
combination of surveys among political journalists (N=425) and content analysis of television
and newspaper coverage of national politics (N=1306 stories) in these four countries.
Combining surveys among journalists with content analysis is a relatively seldom used
research strategy, which enables the study of several steps in the production process.
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The results of the survey show that while the demographic backgrounds of political
journalists are largely similar across countries, the role conceptions and constraints on their
professional autonomy vary considerably cross-nationally (chapter 2). These differences are
related to the different democratic traditions, ties between the world of media and politics and
journalistic professionalization. The role relations of political journalists with politicians also
vary across countries and, as a consequence, political journalists are more or less cynical
about these politicians (chapter 3). Political pressure and source professionalization of
sources are identified as factors explaining cynicism about politicians. These results show
that, despite the fact that political journalists in democratic societies have formal press
freedom and are in daily contact with politicians, each country knows its own political
communication culture where journalists’ relation with politicians vary between symbiosis
and dependency. This, in turn, influences the attitudes of journalists towards these politicians.
Although a relation is often assumed between the role conceptions of individual
journalists and the content they produce, previous studies have shown only weak support for
this assumption. This dissertation argues that a relation between journalistic roles and news
content is more likely to be found at the country level than at the level of individual
journalists or news organizations (chapter 4). The results show that both the role conceptions
of political journalists and the reporting styles of political coverage in broadsheet newspapers
vary more across countries than within countries. The role conceptions of Spanish political
journalists stand out as more sacerdotal, partisan and agenda-sending in comparison to their
colleagues in Northern Europe. This is reflected in newspaper content. Although support for
the relation between roles and content in the other countries was mixed, the study challenges
the idea that journalists worldwide have the same conceptions of their role and shows that
role conceptions are relevant for the reporting style of political news.
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The final empirical study (chapter 5) examined how the visibility of government and
parliament in the news varies across countries. The results show that the attention for
government in the news depends not only on the political power balance between government
and parliament but also on journalistic culture and cross-national variation in the news value
of conflict. Due to the universal news value of political power, attention for government and
parliament reflected differences of political power of these institutions, both within countries
and cross-nationally. While the news value of political power was shared across countries,
the use of conflict and contest framing varied across countries. In countries where the news
value of conflict is more important (Denmark and the United Kingdom), government actors
are more often challenged than in countries where conflict is a less regular feature of political
news (Spain).
Together, the four empirical chapters support the main expectation behind this
dissertation, namely that the context in which journalists work matters for the way they see
their role and do their work. All in all, the empirical finding can be seen as evidence against
homogenization
of
political
journalism.
Similar
structural
developments,
like
commercialization and a spread of professional journalism education, have not led to similar
roles and professional autonomy of political journalists across countries. The characteristics
of the media systems, journalistic cultures, political systems and political communication
cultures matter for the political journalists working in these systems and the news they
produce. The partial support for a relation between role conceptions and news content at the
country-level adds to the growing research tradition into the beliefs and values of journalists.
The tradition of journalism surveys studying role conceptions has by now become well
established and has provided insight into journalistic ideals in a wide variety of countries and
regions. This dissertation has made a case for combining these journalism surveys with
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content analysis as the way forward to establish the consequences of differences in role
conception.
The findings of this dissertation have important practical implications for
transnational press strategies, media monitoring and media policy. Transnational
organizations like the European Union have to diversify their press strategy when dealing
with journalists from different countries. International media monitoring initiatives cannot
rely on uniform quantitative benchmarks to measure whether news in different countries is
biased. Such initiatives have to take the political context into account. Media policy makers
have to be careful with importing “best practice” examples from abroad to improve the
functioning of the media market in their country. The effects of institutional and structural
changes on journalistic practice depend on the journalistic tradition in a country and the
broader societal role of the media.
This dissertation started out by stressing that political journalists play a central
role in the democratic process in all free societies. Four empirical studies have shown that the
way journalists fulfil this role varies from country to country. Future political communication
research should pay more attention to the context in which political journalism is studied.
This will be the way forward towards a better understanding of the antecedents of political
news and its effects on the democratic process.
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