Populist disseminators, detached watchdogs, critical change agents and opportunist facilitators

TLDR

Journalistic milieus form around shared views on journalism’s societal role, but a universal understanding must extend beyond corporate and commercial factors to capture non‑Western realities. The study aims to map the journalistic field as a contested space of distinct professional milieus. The authors used cluster analysis on survey data from 1,800 journalists across 18 countries to identify four global professional milieus. Detached watchdogs dominate in most Western countries, whereas opportunist facilitators prevail in many developing, transitional, and authoritarian contexts, and limited professional autonomy is observed where corporate and commercial influences are strong.

Abstract

This article sets out to map the journalistic field as a space of struggle between distinct professional milieus. These milieus crystallize around journalists who share similar views on journalism’s function in society. By means of cluster analysis, four global professional milieus were extracted from the survey responses of 1800 journalists in 18 countries: the populist disseminator, detached watchdog, critical change agent and the opportunist facilitator. The detached watchdog milieu clearly dominates the journalistic field in most western countries, while the milieu of the opportunist facilitator reigns supreme in several developing, transitional and authoritarian contexts. In accordance with the theoretical propositions, relatively little professional autonomy was found in contexts with rather strong corporate and commercial influences. However, a more universal approach would need to go beyond corporate and commercial factors in order to account for the realities of the journalistic field in non-western countries.