Making sense of journalism: Potential disparities in perception of journalist professional roles between journalists and audiences in Latvia

Description

The presentation was given at the conference panel New interdependencies in journalism during the 10th ECREA European Communication Conference 2024 in Ljubljana.

Abstract:
Vitality and the future of journalism have been a core discussion in professional forums as well as in academia for the past few decades. Mostly, because journalists and news organizations (in Latvia and elsewhere) are confronted with ongoing unprecedented and multi-faceted crises. In this constantly changing and evolving media landscape, exploring how journalists and their audiences understand professional journalism and see its role(s) in society is paramount. As Palmer et al. have stated, "journalism’s viability depends not just on how journalists’ approach and execute their work, but also on how members of the public think and feel about journalism" (Palmer et al., 2020, p.4). Therefore, this study mainly will focus on the perception of professional roles of journalism among journalists themselves and their audiences in Latvia.

In Western society and the professional environment, a normative view of journalism has prevailed, however, in recent decades a new view of journalism as a discursive institution has developed (Hanitzsch and Vos, 2017, 2018; Hanitzsch et al., 2019). To use the words of both authors, "journalism and journalistic roles have no "true" essence; they exist because and as we talk about them" (2017, p.129). Data gathered for the Worlds of Journalism Study over two distinct research periods (2013-2014, N=340 and 2021, N=486) provides a longitudinal insight into how journalists in Latvia see themselves. This data shows that journalists see themselves mostly in the domain of political life not in the domain of everyday life and are truthful to the normative professional roles (to inform, to monitor, to educate, etc.). Recently (November-December 2023) qualitative focus group discussions were conducted with Latvian media audiences (N=42) to study how the audience makes sense of journalism and journalist professional roles. This will add to the existing knowledge on journalist-audience relations and allow us to better understand whether there are notable variations between journalist professional role self-perception and the audience’s view on these roles and their expectations towards journalists.

Period	25 Sept 2024
Event title	10th ECREA European Communication Conference 2024
Event type	Conference
Location	Ljubljana, SloveniaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International