The Hybridization of Journalistic Cultures: A Comparative Study of Journalistic Role Performance

Abstract

Influential research on comparative media systems identifies distinctive models according to which certain countries-particularly advanced democracies-share key features in their journalistic cultures. Revisionist literature has not only emphasized the limitations of such models, but also highlighted the hybridization of journalistic cultures elsewhere. This article tests the hybridization thesis, analyzing the presence of six journalistic roles in print news from 19 countries (N = 34,514). Our findings show patterns of multilayered hybridization in the performance of professional roles across and within advanced, transitional, and nondemocratic countries, with journalistic cultures displaying different types of hybridity that do not resemble either existing ideal media system typologies or conventional assumptions about political or regional clusters. The implications of these findings for future studies are discussed.

Introduction: Hybrid journalism? Making sense of the field’s dissolving boundaries

“…This can be seen in the relation between journalism and business practices that are often more complex than theoretical principles of newswork and pure logics might suppose (Raviola, 2014). Similar phenomena can be observed when it comes to promotional news discourses (Erjavec, 2004), different values and norms (Porlezza & Splendore, 2019), or different cultures (Mellado et al, 2017).…”

“…In addition to such specific events, hybridity has also been discussed in a special issue of the scholarly journal "Journalism" (Mast, Coesemanns, & Temmermann, 2017). Moreover, several articles (e. g., Deuze & Witschge, 2018;Mellado et al, 2017;Papacharissi, 2015;Ruotsalainen, Hujanen, & Villi, 2019;Witschge et al, 2019) as well as books (e. g., Chadwick, 2013;Deuze & Witschge, 2020) have been published that discussed the topic from many different perspectives and contributed significantly to push the concept to the core of scholarly debates.…”

Political Journalist Of The Future: In Search Of Professional Identity

“…The results of global and regional studies of journalists' professional values indicate a rising significance of technological and corporate resources in their professional performance (Hanitzsch, 2017;Mellado et al, 2017). In particular, the professional identity of a journalist is linked to work context, and a change of context leads either to leaving the profession or identity changing (Nikunen, 2014;Sherwood & O'Donnell, 2018).…”

Artistic Journalism: Confluence in Forms, Values and Practices

“…In this context, the impression occurs that at least a part of the news industry made managing creativity anything but a priority in the news organisation (Deuze 2019), and in ideological terms placed little value on aesthetic reflections, which might have discouraged some practitioner's artistic aspirations. At the same time, the tidal changes of news work continue to be impacted by particular cultural contexts and styles, driven by a variety of norms and values (Weaver and Willnat 2012) and a global hybridisation of journalistic cultures (Mellado et al 2017), giving leeway to various degrees of approaches to journalismincluding (more) artistic ones.…”