Page 283 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge
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Political News Journalists
% Very/Quite Important
100
90
80 71 74
70
60 48 54
50 45 40 43
36
40 30
30 21
20
10
0
"Championing Values and Ideas" "Influence Politics"
GERMANY ITALY SWEDEN UK USA
Figure 11.1 Job Motivation of Journalists. Note: Question: “How important is
each of the following aspects for your work as a journalist?” (very, quite,
slightly, not at all)
commentator. We asked our respondents how much time they spend
with several professional activities, some of which described the roles
of the reporter (“preparing reports based on personal observation and
investigation”), the editor (“making content decisions about news other
journalists produce”), and the commentator (“writing editorial com-
mentary”). For reasons of cross-national comparison we avoided the
labeling of these roles with terms that might have a different meaning in
the five countries. A simple cross tabulation of the three roles showed to
what extent in each of the countries the same person exercises different
professional roles. United States journalists showed the highest degree
of role segregation. Only one in four indicated exerting at the same
time reporter and editor functions, only one in ten indicated combin-
ing reporter and editor roles, and almost nobody combines editing and
commentary. In all of these cases the German journalists scored highest.
Three in four indicate that they spend a lot of time on covering events
and at least some time on writing commentaries, often on the very same
event.
In all countries journalists were motivated primarily by the task of
gathering and disseminating information about current public develop-
ments.Buttheydifferedinthedegreetowhichtheyclaimedaninterestin
influencing politics. United States journalists ranked near the top on this
indicator, which contradicted what we had otherwise found. However,
another survey item puts the finding into perspective (see Figure 11.1).
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