Worlds of Journalism: Journalistic Cultures Around the Globe (Reuters Institute Global Journalism Series)

How do journalists around the world view their roles and responsibilities in society? Based on a landmark study that has collected data from more than 27,500 journalists in 67 countries, Worlds of Journalism offers a groundbreaking analysis of the different ways journalists perceive their duties, their relationship to society and government, and the nature and meaning of their work. Challenging assumptions of a universal definition or concept of journalism, the book maps a world populated by a rich diversity of journalistic cultures. Organized around a series of key questions on topics such as editorial autonomy, journalistic ethics, trust in social institutions, and changes in the profession, it details how the practice of journalism differs across the world in a range of political, social, and economic contexts. The book covers how journalism as an institution is created and re-created by journalists and how they experience their profession in very different ways, even as they retain a commitment to some basic, widely shared professional norms and practices. It concludes with a global classification of journalistic cultures that reflects the breadth of worldviews and orientations found in disparate countries and regions. Worlds of Journalism offers an ambitious, comparative global understanding of the state of journalism in a time when it is confronting a series of economic and political threats. "How do journalists around the world view their own function and role in society? Based on a landmark study that has collected data from more than 25,000 journalists in 66 countries between 2012 and 2015, Worlds of Journalism examines the different ways journalists conceive of their responsibilities, their relationship to society and government, and the work they do. The authors conclude that there is no one conception of journalism and instead advance a global classification of journalistic cultures: the corporate libertarian model (e.g., U.S. and Australia); the public-service remit model (e.g., parts of continental Europe); the social interventionist model (e.g., parts of the Islamic World); the developmental faciliative model (e.g., parts of Africa and Asia); and the coercive heteronomy model (e.g., China and Russia). The book is organized around a series of key questions regarding journalists' autonomy, influences on their practice, journalism's role in society, journalists' trust in social institutions, and their perceptions about the ongoing transformation of journalism. Worlds of Journalism reveals how perceptions of journalism are created and re-created by journalists and how the practice of journalism is affected by different political, social, and economic institutions. The authors challenge essentialist ideas about journalism and provide an understanding of the diversity of worldviews and orientations of journalists in terms of roles, ethics, and influences"-- Provided by publisher