What Shapes the News around the World? How Journalists in Eighteen Countries Perceive Influences on Their Work

TLDR

The study compares how journalists in 18 countries perceive the importance of various influences on their news work. Survey data from journalists using a six‑dimensional scale measuring political, economic, organizational, professional, procedural, and reference‑group influences provided the evidence. Political and economic factors emerged as the main drivers of cross‑national differences, with political influence linked to political freedom and ownership structures, economic influence stronger in private and state‑owned media but unrelated to economic freedom, and organizational, professional, procedural, and reference‑group effects showing only modest country differences.

Abstract

This article compares the perceived importance of influences on news work across 18 societies. Evidence is based on journalists’ survey responses to a six-dimensional scale, covering political, economic, organizational, professional, and procedural influences as well as influences from reference groups. The results confirm the expectation that political and economic factors are clearly the most important denominators of cross-national differences in the journalists’ perceptions of influences. Furthermore, perceived political influences are clearly related to objective indicators of political freedom and ownership structures across the investigated countries. Economic influences seem to have a stronger impact in private and state-owned media than in public newsrooms, but they are not related to a country’s economic freedom. With respect to organizational, professional, and procedural influences as well as the impact of reference groups, the differences between the countries turned out to be much smaller.