Journalists' Role Perception

Abstract

An important concept to apply in describing how journalists in different cultures and media systems understand their work and its social function is role perceptions . These can have a strong influence on journalists' professional behavior and thus can explain differences between news cultures. The term “role” originates from theater, and sociology adopted the term to designate the whole set of expectations that other people have of the holder of a certain social position. Those expectations then create the perceptions that the holders of the roles have in their social environment and accept as legitimate, and consequently their perceptions guide their attitudes and behaviors. Thus, journalists' role perceptions can be defined as generalized expectations which journalists believe exist in society and among different stakeholders, which they see as normatively acceptable, and which influence their behavior on the job.

Between Rhetoric and Practice

“…The different roles to which journalists can adhere are manifold (see Hanitzsch 2007;Donsbach 2008;Weaver and Willnat 2012). This study focuses on six professional roles which are well suited to analyzing the link between role conceptions and performance (Rosen 1996;Eide and Knight 1999;Sparrow 1999;Waisbord 2000;Donsbach and Patterson 2004).…”

“…Researchers around the globe have conducted surveys among journalists to understand how they see their political and societal role (e.g. Donsbach 2008;Weaver and Willnat 2012). Dating back to the work of Cohen (1963) and Johnstone, Slawski, and Bowman (1976), the concept has received a central position in journalism research, as can be seen from conceptual discussions (Vos 2005;Mellado 2013), standardized questionnaires Weaver and Willnat 2012) and scholarly debates (Mancini 2000;Graber 2003;Josephi 2005).…”

Service Providers, Sentinels, and Traders

“…Service providers (in past journalism research sometimes called neutral mediators; Donsbach, 2008;Weaver and Wilhoit, 1986) believe they know their audience's wishes and want to fulfil them. Their role perception covers a positive image of the audience, distance to reporting subject, freedom from every mission, and modesty.…”

“…Donsbach (2008Donsbach ( , p. 2605) described role perceptions as an ''important concept'' in order to understand ''how journalists in different cultures and media systems understand their work and its social function''. This assumption is based on the belief, that journalists' role perceptions ''guide their attitudes and behaviors'' (Donsbach, 2008(Donsbach, , p. 2605. Thereby researchers focus on political, economic and news journalists who are ascribed a special influence on public opinion as well as on international comparisons in order to learn more about various journalism cultures.…”

“…There are normative typologies (neutral versus participant, active versus passive or mediator versus communicator) as well as empirical typologies (e.g., Johnstone et al, 1976). Kö cher (1986), for example, distinguished German missionaries and British bloodhounds, and Weaver and Wilhoit (1986) described the roles of information dissemination, interpretative-investigative, ''adversary'' (Donsbach, 2008) and ''populist mobilizing'' (Beam et al, 2009). The focus on international comparison is the main reason why differences between journalism cultures (Hanitzsch, 2007(Hanitzsch, , 2009 are explained either by the media system (for example, media history, media law, professional standards) or by the societal system (economic power, political system).…”