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The Public Image of Journalists: Reasons, Challenges, and Solutions

This article explores the decline in trust and esteem of journalists and the reasons behind it, including allegations of bias and negativity, commercialization, and media scandals. It also discusses the fading identity of journalism and proposes solutions to improve the public image of journalists.

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The Public Image of Journalists: Reasons, Challenges, and Solutions

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  1. www.donsbach.net The Public Image of Journalists Wolfgang Donsbach Communication Research Center at Boston University November 12, 2009

  2. Reasons to Deal With the Public Image of Journalists

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

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

  5. Germany: Slow but steady decline of trust

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

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

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

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

  10. 1. Too powerful

  11. Journalists more powerful than politicians

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

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

  14. 2. Too unethical

  15. Protection of privacy vs a scoop Happens often Not acceptable

  16. 3. Too corrupt

  17. Independence vs gratification Acceptable? Happens? often No!

  18. Independence vs revenues

  19. 4. Too much tabloidization

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

  21. Summary: What Content Features Drive Public Image of Journalists?

  22. The public‘s expectation and evaluation concerning news quality

  23. Discrepancy expectations/perceptions of behavior in news sitiuations Trust * p<0.05 ** p<0.01 *** p<0.001

  24. Discrepancy expectations/perceptions of behavior in news situations Esteem * p<0.05 ** p<0.01 *** p<0.001

  25. 5. The Structural Reason: Fading Identity

  26. Who is a journalist? Donsbach et al. 2009

  27. Fading coordinates: definition by age

  28. Who is a journalist? Source:

  29. Fading Coordinates: Website Traffic – Changes 2006-2007 Large City Newspapers Mid-size City Dailies Bloggers News Aggregators Joan Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics, and Public Policy (2007): Creative Destruction: An Exploratory Look at News on the Internet. Cambridge: Harvard University

  30. Finally: What then IS journalism?

  31. The three traditions of journalism Defines professional journalism Donsbach 2009

  32. Public service function: Distinguishing between evidence and gossip “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” News = more than personal communication Society needs institution that assesses truth and relevance Barnhurst and Owens (2008: 2557)

  33. Is it all collapsing into the commercial function? Donsbach 2009

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

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

  36. Quality  Credibility  Financial Success Basis: Data from 26 Knight-Ridder papers Size of Market (Logarithm) Credibility of Newspaper (measured through surveys) +0,448 -0,046 Stability of Circulation 1995-2000 Meyer, Philip (2004): The Influence Model an Newspaper Business. NRJ 25, No.1, 66-83

  37. The crisis of journalism as chance • 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)

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