The Public Image of Journalists Wolfgang Donsbach Communication Research Center at Boston University November 12, 2009

Reasons to Deal With the Public Image of Journalists

Commercia- lization Inflation of media Allegations of bias and negativity Media scandals Vanishing identity of journalism Current stress on journalists‘ public image Decreasing trust and esteem

…and it shows in surveys: Confidence in the press on the decline Press All other institutions

Germany: Slow but steady decline of trust

 Representative survey of the German population  1,054 citizens of 18 years and older  RDD  Split-ballot  Field time: November 2007 until January 2008 Methodological Details of Our Survey

Low esteem, low trust - and far away from the true professions Source: Donsbach et al. 2009

Lowest trust among the younger Source: Donsbach et al. 2009

What are the reasons? 4 x Content / 1 x Structural

1. Too powerful

Journalists more powerful than politicians

Goals and values: Discrepancy between public's expectations and evaluations Too little Too much

Impartiality vs subjectivity Expect?Most journalists? Impartial report Subjective report

2. Too unethical

Protection of privacy vs a scoop Not acceptable Happens often

3. Too corrupt

Independence vs gratification Acceptable? Happens? No! often

Independence vs revenues

4. Too much tabloidization

Hard vs soft news? Acceptable? Happens? No! often

Summary: What Content Features Drive Public Image of Journalists?

The public‘s expectation and evaluation concerning news quality

(rather trust journalists as percentage) fulfillment of expectation non-fulfillment of expectation sign.χ2 Example case objectivity II Example case moral considerations II Example case soft versus hard news II Example case privacy issues I Example case economic independence II 4231*6.19 * p<0.05 ** p<0.01 *** p<0.001 Discrepancy expectations/perceptions of behavior in news sitiuations  Trust

(rather esteem journalists as percentage) fulfillment of expectation non-fulfillment of expectation sign.χ2 Example case objectivity I Example case moral considerations I 6859*8.50 Example case soft versus hard news I Example case privacy issues I6859*8.50 Example case economic independence I 6857**9.34 * p<0.05 ** p<0.01 *** p<0.001 Discrepancy expectations/perceptions of behavior in news situations  Esteem

5. The Structural Reason: Fading Identity

Donsbach et al Who is a journalist?

Fading coordinates: definition by age

Source: Who is a journalist?

Fading Coordinates: Website Traffic – Changes Large City Newspapers Mid-size City Dailies News Aggregators Bloggers Joan Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics, and Public Policy (2007): Creative Destruction: An Exploratory Look at News on the Internet. Cambridge: Harvard University

Finally: What then IS journalism?

The three traditions of journalism Donsbach 2009 Defines professional journalism

“Journalism is a constellation of practices that have acquired special status within the larger domain of communication through a long history that separated out news-sharing from its origins in interpersonal communication. Telling others about events in one’s social and physical surroundings is a common everyday activity in human cultures…A main difficulty for sharing intelligence is ascertaining truth, or, put the other way round, distinguishing intelligence from gossip” Barnhurst and Owens (2008: 2557) Public service function: Distinguishing between evidence and gossip News = more than personal communication Society needs institution that assesses truth and relevance

Is it all collapsing into the commercial function? Donsbach 2009

Sridhar, Thorson & Mantrala 2009 Investment in editorial quality pays off

Basis: Data of ca. 300 papers in the US, Source: Inland Press Association Revenue losses as a consequence of cutbacks Sridhar, Thorson & Mantrala 2009

Quality  Credibility  Financial Success Basis: Data from 26 Knight-Ridder papers Size of Market (Logarithm) Credibility of Newspaper (measured through surveys) Stability of Circulation ,046 +0,448 Meyer, Philip (2004): The Influence Model an Newspaper Business. NRJ 25, No.1, 66-83

 Credibility problem of journalism jeopardizes social capital  What do do?  Actively propagate the function and identity of journalism…  …in journalism education  …in schools  …in public campaigns  Re-consider professionalization of journalists  best practice in exchange for…  …protection from unprofessional influences  Journalism as the new knowledge profession (Gregorian) The crisis of journalism as chance