Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap - Volume 38, Issue 3, 2010

Er zijn verschillende redenen om een speciaal nummer van het Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap uit te brengen over journalism studies in Nederland. Ten eerste staat de journalistiek, zeker na de moord op Pim Fortuyn, al geruime tijd in het centrum van de belangstelling, zij het lang niet altijd even positief. Ministers en Kamerleden beschuldigen journalisten van bias en onzorgvuldigheid, van onverantwoordelijke berichtgeving en van macht zonder verantwoording. De Raad voor Maatschappelijke Ontwikkeling schreef in 2003 een kritisch rapport over een verstikkende medialogica, die politici en journalisten in hun greep zou houden (RMO, 2003). Naar aanleiding daarvan is, mede op initiatief van de regering, de positie van de Raad voor de Journalistiek versterkt, werd onder auspiciën van de Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten een Mediadebat Bureau opgericht dat discussies organiseert over het functioneren en de inhoud van de journalistiek, en de Stichting het Persinstituut lanceerde in 2006 de Nederlandse Nieuwsmonitor. Doel van dit wetenschappelijke bureau is de journalistieke berichtgeving in de media continu te volgen en regelmatig onderzoek te doen naar grote nieuwsonderwerpen.

Journalism studies in the Netherlands: a research overview

This article presents the results of a survey among journalism studies researchers from universities and schools of journalism in the Netherlands. It shows the themes they focus on, what they publish about, in what journals, books and book chapters, in what language, and what methods they generally apply in their research.

An Unstable Discipline. Journalism Studies & the Revolution in the Media

During the last decade media and journalism have got into turmoil; landslides have changed the traditional media landscape, overturning familiar marking points, institutions and patterns. To understand these radical changes journalism studies should not only develop a new research agenda, but also review its approach and perspective.This article looks back on recent development in the field and argues for a more cohesive perspective, taking journalism as a professional practice as its starting point. Furthermore a plea is made for a thorough research into the structural changes of the public sphere and the role and position of journalism.

Valuable Journalism. Looking for quality from a user perspective

This article will show why audience research is of crucial significance for the quality of both scholarship on journalism and professional journalistic practice. First, a better understanding among scholars and professionals is needed of how today’s media audience has grown more self-aware and appears to ask for a widening of the democratic repertoire of journalism. Second, more audience research is needed because established routines among viewers, listeners and readers are in flux. Other news media (news sites, Twitter, journalistic blogs etc.) have given rise to other news needs. The third angle of this article pertains to the importance of journalistic narrative forms. News items should not only be important and useful. People also want to enjoy journalism. This enjoyment should not be associated with superficial entertainment or a feel-good experience; rather, the pursuit of news enjoyment calls for a re-gauging of the journalistic values at issue in quality journalism.

Towards distinctive journalism. The future of the profession in a multimedia environment

With the transition from industrial to network journalism, media institutions that traditionally guaranteed the quality and independence of the profession, have become less important. The guarantee of adequate journalism thus shifts from the media organization to the individual professional. In order to survive in an open multi-media environment journalism will have to strengthen its professional profile and identity.

Journalism studies beyond institutional journalism

Journalism studies and education is growing rapidly around the world, at a time when the audience for news seems to be disappearing. Yet most of the scholarly work on journalism keeps a rather narrowly defined institutional focus on the news as an industry. In this essay an argument is made for a journalism studies that goes beyond this kind of journalism.

Journalism without infrastructure – a real option?

Dutch media are facing decreasing revenues and size of editorial staff. Inviting ‘ordinary’ citizens to participate in the process of newsgathering is one possibility to cope with these problems. Experiences with citizen journalism and user-generated content, however, are mixed. Journalistic quality is often lacking while moderation proved to be more costly than expected. Possible explanation could be reluctance by incumbent media to accept ‘amateurs’ as co-operators or the insufficient skills of citizen journalists. But also the fact that amateurs are not paid for their efforts, don’t have legal protection or support from colleagues and were not subjected to job socialization, could explain why the results of amateurs’ contributions are disappointing so far.

The institutional logics of journalism: studying the journalistic field in the wake of Bourdieu

This article considers several key concepts from Bourdieu’s theory of the cultural field and their significance for the study of journalism, including the tension between ‘heteronomy’ and ‘autonomy’, and the struggle between ‘established’ and ‘newcomers’. It is argued that the field approach can bridge the gap between macro-level analyses that view journalism as the product of wider societal, economic and political structures and microanalyses that tend to focus on individual news organizations and journalists without paying much attention to the wider institutional setting in which journalistic actors operate. In addition, it is argued that the field approach provides a useful framework for international comparative research into the workings of journalism.

The transformation of the journalistic field: discursive strategies and journalistic forms

Journalism is transforming rapidly in the 21st century. This article argues that two complementary approaches offer Journalism Studies productive perspectives to study this process of change. Bourdieu’s field theory provides a theoretical framework in which the (re-)positioning and interdependencies of established media organizations and new media can be studied fruitfully. By doing so, journalism is explored as a relational and dynamic field of forces in which agents try to maximize their power and prestige. In addition, empirical research into journalism texts, including audiovisual items, and more specific into the forms of reporting sheds light upon the discursive strategies of news media. These texts have to been studies as strategic representations of the social world. They are used to position the author and the medium they are published in as advantageously as possible in the journalistic field.

Intercultural competences for journalists

It is very important for journalism to have an eye for cultural diversity. For years, government, schools of journalism and the media world tried to realize diversity by working on more colour in newsrooms and journalism schools. Moreover, it is important to stress the multicultural expertise of every journalist, regardless his or her background. This view implies, that every professional has to be sufficiently equipped to do a good job in a society that has been changed in a multicultural society during the last decades. What demands concerning knowledge, skills and attitude are to be made upon journalists for being ‘intercultural competent’? In this essay, a set of intercultural competences for journalists is being proposed.

Luuk Lagerwerf, Henk Boer & Herman Wasserman (eds.) (2009)

Pytrick Schafraad (2009)