Do professionals support constructive journalism? Karen McIntyre, Ph.D. Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

The Contextualist Function: Karen McIntyre, Ph.D. Virginia Commonwealth University Nicole Dahmen, Ph.D. University of Oregon Jesse Abdenour, Ph.D. University of Oregon The Contextualist Function: US Newspaper Journalists Value Social Responsibility Forthcoming in Journalism

Traditional professional roles Neutrals Participants Prefer detachment and objectivity Prefer involvement and advocacy

Traditional professional functions Adversarial Disseminator Neutrals Interpretive Participants Populist Mobilizer How journalists view their job Adversarial - adversary of govt and business Mobilizer - motivating individuals (Weaver et al., 2007)

Conventional news Contextual news A shift in news Conventional news Contextual news Stories that go beyond the immediacy of the news and contribute to society’s well being The who-what-when-where-model A “just the facts” approach Journalist as a mirror The wide-angle lens model th A big picture approach Journalist as a mover

“most important change in reporting in the past half century” Contextual stories represent the “most important change in reporting in the past half century” But they have with no “hallowed” or “standardized” understanding in the academy or the profession (Forde, 2007)

Do they value professional roles inherent in constructive journalism? Are US journalists familiar with specific constructive journalism genres? What are their attitudes and behavioral intentions toward constructive genres? Do they value professional roles inherent in constructive journalism?

National online survey 1,318 Final N ……………. ….……. Response rate 15%

National online survey 50% reporters/writers 28% editors 1,318 Final N ……………. ….……. Response rate 20 years experience 60% male 15% 89% white M = 44 years

Familiarity, attitudes and behavioral intentions Journalists were fairly unfamiliar with the terms (CJ, SoJo, RS) But, they reported having used these tactics (RS → SoJo → CJ) After learning more about them, journalists had favorable attitudes toward all three genres (RS → SoJo → CJ) And said they would be likely to use all of these techniques moving forward (SoJo → RS → CJ)

Definitions Solutions journalism: Rigorous and fact-driven news stories of credible solutions to social problems Constructive journalism: News stories that are produced in a way that intends to engage and empower audiences and ultimately improve society Restorative narrative: News stories that focus on recovery, restoration and resilience in the aftermath, or in the midst of, difficult times

Which roles do journalists most value?

Traditional professional functions Adversarial Contextualist Disseminator Neutrals Interpretive Participants Populist Mobilizer Adversarial - adversary of govt and business Mobilizer - motivating individuals Contexualist role function second most popular - a strong function that accounted for the most variance, so this is not a fluke Adversarial - same as Weaver - adversary of govt and business Mobilizer - similar to Weaver - motivating individuals Intellectual - developing intellectual and cultural interests Marketer - widest audience and providing entertainment Hybrid - speed and accuracy but also analysis