Investigating the Gap between Newspaper Journalists’ Role Conceptions and Role Performance in Nine European, Asian, and Latin American Countries

Bibliographic Data

ID12977413
AuthorsClaudia Mellado (0000-0001-7894-9468, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, corresponding author), Cornelia Mothes (0000-0002-7268-1664, Technische Universität Dresden), Daniel C Hallin (0000-0002-8531-832X, University of California San Diego), María Luisa Humanes (0000-0002-6860-4463, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos), Maria Lauber (University of Fribourg), Jacques Mick (0000-0001-8456-9488, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina), Henry Silke (0000-0002-5786-4884, University of Limerick), Chris Sparks (0000-0003-4575-8408, Hong Kong Baptist University), Adriana Amado (0000-0001-7275-7991, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa), Sergey Davydov (0000-0001-8455-9976, National Research University Higher School of Economics), Dasniel Olivera Pérez (0000-0003-3666-3685), Dasniel Oliveira-Pérez (0000-0002-0342-8278, University of Havana)
Year2020
Volume25
Issue4
Pages552-575
Publication date2020-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe International Journal of Press/Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1940-1612 • E-ISSN: 1040-1620
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1940161220910106
OpenAlexW3014496660
LanguageEN
Citations received52
References cited43

Based on a standardized operationalization of the watchdog, civic, interventionist, loyal-facilitator, infotainment, and service roles, this study combines survey ( N = 643) and content analysis data ( N = 19,908) to explain gaps between newspaper journalists’ role conceptions and the performance of their press organizations in nine countries from Latin America, Western Europe, and Asia. Taking an institutional approach by focusing on institutional influences on the conception–performance gap at three levels (individual, organizational, societal), our results show that these gaps are largest for the two roles most connected with the public functions of journalism, the civic, and the watchdog roles. Multilevel analyses offer significant evidence on that, across all six analyzed roles, the size of the gaps differed more clearly between journalists and between media organizations, than among countries. Although influences on an individual level (i.e., perceived autonomy) have some explanatory power, influences on the organizational level and, more specifically, ownership and codified editorial policies are the factors that best explain conception–performance gaps. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of the public skepticism about the performance of journalism and the media

Autonomy · Explanatory power · Facilitator · Journalism · Latin Americans · Newspaper · Operationalization · Political science · Public relations · Skepticism · Sociology · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Social Media and Politics

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