Journalism: Reconsidered What Is Journalism?: Professional Identity and Ideology of Journalists

Journalism
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What is journalism?: Professional identity and ideology of journalists

reconsidered
Mark Deuze
Journalism 2005; 6; 442
DOI: 10.1177/1464884905056815
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Journalism
Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications

(London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
Vol. 6(4): 442–464 DOI: 10.1177/1464884905056815
ARTICLE
What is journalism?
Professional identity and ideology of journalists
reconsidered
j Mark Deuze
Indiana University
ABSTRACT
The history of journalism in elective democracies around the world has been described
as the emergence of a professional identity of journalists with claims to an exclusive
role and status in society, based on and at times fiercely defended by their
occupational ideology. Although the conceptualization of journalism as a professional
ideology can be traced throughout the literature on journalism studies, scholars tend
to take the building blocks of such an ideology more or less for granted. In this article
the ideal-typical values of journalism’s ideology are operationalized and investigated in
terms of how these values are challenged or changed in the context of current cultural
and technological developments. It is argued that multiculturalism and multimedia are
similar and poignant examples of such developments. If the professional identity of
journalists can be seen as kept together by the social cement of an occupational
ideology of journalism, the analysis in this article shows how journalism in the self-
perceptions of journalists has come to mean much more than its modernist bias of
telling people what they need to know.
KEY WORDS j journalism education j journalism studies j journalism
theory j multiculturalism j multimedia
Journalism is and has been theorized, researched, studied and criticized world-
wide by people coming from a wide variety of disciplines. Indeed, research
about journalism and among journalists has been established as a widely
acknowledged field, particularly in the second half of the 20th century.
Worldwide one can find universities, schools and colleges with dedicated
departments, research and teaching programs in journalism. The field even
has its own international and national journals. 1 This suggests journalism as a
discipline and an object of study is based on a consensual body of knowledge,
a widely shared understanding of key theories and methods, and an inter-
national practice of teaching, learning and researching journalism. Alas, this is

Deuze What is journalism? 4 43
not the case. Several authors in various parts of the world have signaled a lack
of coherence in the field of journalism (education and studies), and have
sought to offer overviews into different conceptual approaches to theory and
methodology – see for example Breen (1998) in Australia, Löffelholz (2000) in
Germany and Austria, McNair (2003) in the United Kingdom, Schudson (2003)
and Zelizer (2004b) in the United States, Deuze (2004b) in the Netherlands,
and De Beer and Merrill (2004) internationally.
A lack of (international) consensus and disciplinary dialogue in journal-
ism studies can be attributed to several factors. Journalism as an academic
discipline is still very much under critical debate (Fedler et al., 1998). Through-
out the history of journalism (education and studies), the field has had to
balance between industry and university, each with its own institutionalized
expectations and assumptions, leading observers to conclude: ‘[J]ournalism
education [. . .] has ended up as neither fish nor fowl; it feels itself unloved by
the industry and tolerated, barely, by the academy’ (Raudsepp, 1989: 9). If one
furthermore considers the variety of disciplines and paradigms deployed to
understand journalism, another contentious factor emerges: the perceived
clash of perspectives coming from scholars trained in the (critical) humanities,
with those in the social sciences (Zelizer, 2000). Between and within these
backgrounds there exists such a variety of approaches to journalism, that
authors like Rühl (2000) in Germany or Schudson (2003) in the USA lament
the ‘folkloric’ inconsistency of the field as well as the impossibility to generate
a more or less consensual body of knowledge out of the existing literature. It is
therefore safe to say that many scholars, educators and students all over the
world are involved in journalism studies and education, but only rarely do
their approaches, understandings or philosophies meet. 2
In this article I explore the concept of journalism as an occupational
ideology as a possible meeting point for journalism studies and education,
operationalizing it to analyze how emerging sociocultural and socioeconomic
issues stand to transform ways of thinking about and doing journalism.
Although the ideology of journalism is an approach widely used in the
literature, only rarely has it been adequately defined and operationalized to fit
immediate concerns in a pragmatic way. As pressing contemporary case studies
in point I investigate how new media and multiculturalism (which I under-
stand to be two key social issues recognized in media industries across the
globe at the start of the 21st century) interface with contemporary journal-
isms. I argue that this approach is inspiring because it helps us to look beyond
infrastructures (as in computer hardware and software) or representationalism
(as in the number of minority journalists in a newsroom) when assessing what
journalism as a profession is (or can be) in a context of fast-changing techno-
logy and society.

444 Journalism 6(4)
In choosing new media and multiculturalism as conceptual case studies I

temporarily turn a blind eye towards other areas of change and challenge for
journalism that warrant critical inquiry; one could think of economic issues
(corporate colonization of the newsroom, media concentration), and political
issues (localization and globalization, press freedom, media law). This article
does not aim to establish a hierarchy of pressing issues, after all. While
acknowledging the selectivity of my approach, I argue that multimedia and
multiculturalism can be considered valid developments of how the ideology of
journalism takes shape and is shaped by internationally acknowledged rele-
vant issues of the day. 3
Journalism as ideology
The 20th-century history of (the professionalization of) journalism can be

typified by the consolidation of a consensual occupational ideology among
journalists in different parts of the world. Conceptualizing journalism as an
ideology (rather than, for example, other options offered in the literature such
as a profession, an industry, a literary genre, a culture or a complex social
system) primarily means understanding journalism in terms of how journalists
give meaning to their newswork. Although most scholarly work on journalism
is reduced to studies of institutional news journalism, research on other more
feminine or so-called ‘alternative’ journalisms suggests journalists across
genres and media types invoke more or less the same ideal-typical value system
when discussing and reflecting on their work (Van Zoonen, 1998). 4
In decades of journalism studies, scholars refer to the journalists’ pro-
fessionalization process as a distinctly ideological development, as the emerg-
ing ideology served to continuously refine and reproduce a consensus about
who was a ‘real’ journalist, and what (parts of) news media at any time would
be considered examples of ‘real’ journalism. These evaluations shift subtly
over time; yet always serve to maintain the dominant sense of what is (and
should be) journalism. Schlesinger (1978) for example writes about ‘news-
men’s occupational ideology’, Golding and Elliott (1979) speak broadly of
‘journalism’s occupational ideology’, while a decade later Soloski (1990) talks
about an ‘ideology of professionalism’, and Zelizer (2004a) mentions ‘journal-
ists’ professional ideology’; yet most of these authors do not make explicit
what this ideology consists of, other than claiming it contains ‘self-
contradictory oppositional values’ (Reese, 1990). Schudson describes the occu-
pational ideology of journalism as ‘cultural knowledge that constitutes ‘news
judgment’, rooted deeply in the communicators’ consciousness (2001: 153).
Elliott (1988) and McMane (1993: 215) locate journalism’s ideology in a ‘class

spirit’, whereas Zelizer (2004a: 101) refers to the ‘collective knowledge’ jour-
nalists employ. This understanding also trickles down to the way journalism is
taught, as Brennen (2000: 106) concludes in her study of US journalism
textbooks published in the 1980s and 1990s: ‘[a]ll of them address the practice
of journalism from an identical ideological perspective that neglects to con-
sider all the changes in journalism that have occurred over time’.
In the particular context of journalism as a profession, ideology can be
seen as a system of beliefs characteristic of a particular group, including – but
not limited to – the general process of the production of meanings and ideas
(within that group). This kind of thinking about journalists and journalism
builds on an international tradition of journalism research, surveys among
and interviews with journalists (Weaver, 1998). Comparing 21 countries,
Weaver found support for claims that the characteristics of journalists are
largely similar worldwide (1998: 456). A cross-national comparison of findings
from surveys among journalists in different and more or less similar countries
yields results that to some extent suggest similar processes of profession-
alization as expressed through the measured characteristics of media practi-
tioner populations (Weischenberg and Scholl, 1998). Weaver however
concludes there is too much disagreement on professional norms and values to
claim an emergence of ‘universal occupational standards’ in journalism (1998:
468). Other scholars have addressed this variety of views on how important
certain universal standards are in terms of what their meanings can be in
(country-)specific circumstances and different cultural contexts (Donsbach
and Klett, 1993; Deuze, 2002a). What these overall findings and conclusions
suggest is that journalists in elective democracies share similar characteristics
and speak of similar values in the context of their daily work, but apply these
in a variety of ways to give meaning to what they do. Journalists in all media
types, genres and formats carry the ideology of journalism. It is therefore
possible to speak of a dominant occupational ideology of journalism on which
most newsworkers base their professional perceptions and praxis, but which is
interpreted, used and applied differently among journalists across media
(Shoemaker and Reese, 1996: 11).
Ideology is seen here as an (intellectual) process over time, through which
the sum of ideas and views – notably on social and political issues – of a
particular group is shaped, but also as a process by which other ideas and views
are excluded or marginalized (Stevenson, 1995: 37–41; Van Ginneken, 1997:
73). Although the notion of a ‘dominant’ ideology (or ‘dominant discourses’
through which the ideology is perpetuated as suggested by Dahlgren, 1992: 9)
denotes a worldview of the powerful, the term is chosen here not in terms of
a struggle, but as a collection of values, strategies and formal codes character-
izing professional journalism and shared most widely by its members. This

446 Journalism 6(4)
ideology is generally referred to as a dominant way in which news people

validate and give meaning to their work. 5 Journalism’s ideology has, for
example, been analyzed as a ‘strategic ritual’ to position oneself in the
profession vis-a-vis media critics and publics (Tuchman, 1971). Ideology has
also been identified as an instrument in the hands of journalists and editors to
naturalize the structure of the news organization or media corporation one
works for (Soloski, 1990). Especially when faced with public criticism, journal-
ists apply ideological values to legitimate or self-police the recurring self-
similar selection and description of events and views in their media (Molotch
and Lester, 1974; Golding and Elliott, 1979; Hall, 1982; Hallin, 1986; Reese,
1990; Zelizer, 1993; Bennett, 2001). This criticism also comes from within the
profession, as, for example, supporters of the public journalism movement
blame this ideological way of thinking for the news media’s inability to engage
citizens (Merritt, 1995; Rosen, 1999).
In short, there seems to be a consensus among scholars in the field of
journalism studies that what typifies more or less universal similarities in
journalism can be defined as a shared occupational ideology among news-
workers which functions to self-legitimize their position in society. Even
though scholars are comfortable to refer to journalism as an occupational
ideology, the distinct building blocks of such an ideology are sometimes left
to the imagination of the reader. Indeed, some scholars tend not to venture
much further than an acknowledgement that there exists a professional
ideology and that it is not a ‘set of things’ but an active practice and that it
is continually negotiated (Reese, 1990). In the context of this article the core
characteristics of this ideology have been identified, as these can be located
in the concept and historical development of journalism professionalism
(Soloski, 1990: 208).
Hallin (1992) sees the ongoing professionalization process and the corre-
sponding development of a shared occupational ideology as a period of ‘high
modernism’ in journalism. Hallin in particular mentions the sense of whole-
ness and seamlessness in the practitioner’s vision of professional journalism in
this period (roughly between the 1960s and 1990s). Indeed, research by Russo
(1998) suggests that journalists identify themselves more easily with the
profession of journalism than for example with the medium or media com-
pany that employs them. Key characteristics of this professional self-definition
can be summarized as a number of discursively constructed ideal-typical
values. Journalists feel that these values give legitimacy and credibility to what
they do. The concepts, values and elements said to be part of journalisms’
ideology in the available literature can be categorized into five ideal-typical
traits or values. 6 Colleagues like Golding and Elliott (1979), Merritt (1995),
and more recently Kovach and Rosenstiel (2001) describe these as:

• Public service: journalists provide a public service (as watchdogs or ‘news-

hounds’, active collectors and disseminators of information);
• Objectivity: journalists are impartial, neutral, objective, fair and (thus) credible;
• Autonomy: journalists must be autonomous, free and independent in their
work;
• Immediacy: journalists have a sense of immediacy, actuality and speed (inherent
in the concept of ‘news’);
• Ethics: journalists have a sense of ethics, validity and legitimacy.
Reese (2001) suggests the ideological perspective can be seen as a global

factor of influence on journalistic decision-making processes, enabling us to
analyze how media symbolic content is connected with larger social interests,
and how meaning is constructed in the service of power. Power in the context
of an occupational ideology must be understood as the power to define what
(‘real’) journalism is, enacted for example through access to mainstream
debates about journalistic quality.
One has to note that these values can be attributed to other professions or
social systems in society as well, and that these values – as I will show hereafter
– are sometimes inevitably inconsistent or contradictory. To journalists this
generally does not seem to be a problem, as they integrate such values into
their debates and evaluations of the character and quality of journalism. In
doing so, journalism continuously reinvents itself – regularly revisiting similar
debates (for example on commercialization, bureaucratization, ‘new’ media
technologies, seeking audiences, concentration of ownership) where ideologi-
cal values can be deployed to sustain operational closure, keeping outside
forces at bay. I move on by briefly operationalizing the five ideal-typical values
of journalism’s ideology.
Journalists provide a public service
The public-service ideal can be seen as a powerful component of journalism’s

ideology. It is an ideal that journalists aspire to, and use to legitimize ag-
gressive (Clayman, 2002) or increasingly interpretive (Patterson, 1997) styles
of reporting. Journalists share a sense of ‘doing it for the public’, of working as
some kind of representative watchdog of the status quo in the name of people,
who ‘vote with their wallets’ for their services (by buying a newspaper,
watching or listening to a newscast, visiting and returning to a news site). One
may find evidence of such a value by specifically examining journalists’
images of their audience, and by looking at their views on what they do and
how their work may affect (intended) publics – as citizens or consumers. The
expanding body of literature on the public journalism movement has actu-
alized this value, serving to rethink journalism’s role in society by invoking old
or new notions of the public service ideal through ‘people’s journalism’

448 Journalism 6(4)
(Merrill et al., 2001). Woodstock (2000) and Schudson (1999) indicate that
practices of public journalists tend to reinforce the dominant position of news
media in communities while at the same time endorsing a more responsive
attitude towards publics, indeed showing how an age-old ideological value can
serve to maintain the status quo in journalism while its practitioners adapt to
a changing media culture.
Journalists are neutral, objective, fair and (thus) credible
American authors in particular have identified objectivity as a key element of

the professional self-perception of journalists (see Schudson, 1978 and 2001;
Reese, 1990; Ognianova and Endersby, 1996; Mindich, 1998). Although ob-
jectivity has a problematic status in current thinking about the impossibility of
value-neutrality, academics and journalists alike revisit this value through
synonymous concepts like ‘fairness’, ‘professional distance’, ‘detachment’ or
‘impartiality’ to define and (re-)legitimize what media practitioners do. Ob-
jectivity may not be possible but that does not mean one should not strive for
it, or redefine it in such a way that it in fact becomes possible, as Ryan (2001)
argues. Other voices lament this kind of detachment as an overriding reflex of
journalism that makes its professionals immune to any kind of comment or
critique, and therefore failing in journalism’s task of promoting democratic
deliberation (paraphrasing Merritt, 1995: 127–30). Feminist media scholars
argue, however, that subjectivity does not contradict objectivity as both values
can be considered as constitutive elements of a professional identity of
journalists (Van Zoonen, 1998). The point is that the embrace, rejection as well
as critical reappraisal of objectivity all help to keep it alive as an ideological
cornerstone of journalism.
Journalists must enjoy editorial autonomy, freedom and independence
Reporters across the globe feel that their work can only thrive and flourish in
a society that protects its media from censorship; in a company that saves its
journalists from the marketers; in a newsroom where journalists are not
merely the lackeys of their editors; and at a desk where a journalist is
adequately supported through, for example, further training and education
(Weaver, 1998). Any kind of development from perceived extra-journalistic
forces – be it public criticism, marketing or corporate ownership – tends to get
filtered through this overriding concern to be autonomous to tell the stories
you want to. Research by McDevitt et al. (2002) suggests that this notion of
autonomy as a building block of journalists’ professional identity serves as a
way to preclude attempts by individual news people to be more interactive and

supportive of community engagement in their work. Most if not all innova-

tions in journalism tend to be met by doubts regarding their perceived impact
on editorial autonomy (see for example Singer, 2004 and Boczkowski, 2004 on
journalists and newsroom convergence). This elevates editorial independence
to the status of an ideological value in that it functions to legitimize resistance
to (as well as enabling piecemeal adaptation of) change. 7
Journalists have a sense of immediacy
According to journalists, their work is reporting the news. This lends the work
of journalists an aura of instantaneity and immediatism, as ‘news’ stresses the
novelty of information as its defining principle. The work of journalists
therefore involves notions of speed, fast decision-making, hastiness, and
working in accelerated real-time. Stephens (1988), Nerone and Barnhurst
(2003) and Lule (2001) note that from its earliest days journalism has relied on
certain forms, archetypes, themes and routines enabling its practitioners to
manage an ever-increasing volume of information within the confounds of
continuous deadlines. Working under time pressure is acknowledged in sur-
veys among journalists in the USA and elsewhere, as respondents are specifi-
cally asked how important it is to them to deliver the news ‘as quickly as
possible’ (Weaver and Wilhoit, 1996: 263). The scholarly literature has re-
kindled this notion of speed regarding emerging journalistic practices and
genres on the internet, signaling the implications this medium has as it
propels journalists to work in a so-called ‘non-stop’ 24/7-digital environment
(Pavlik, 1999; Hall, 2001). When experienced through the eyes of journalists,
speed can be seen as both an essentialized value and a problematized side
effect of newswork.
Journalists have a sense of ethics and legitimacy
Parallel to the history of 20th century professionalization of journalism runs

the history of professional codes of ethics – especially since the adoption of the
Code of Bordeaux by the International Federation of Journalists in 1956
(Nordenstreng and Topuz, 1989). Although journalists worldwide disagree on
whether a code of ethical conduct should be in place or not, they do share a
sense of being ethical – which in turn legitimizes journalists’ claims to the
position as (free and fair) watchdogs of society. A comparison of ethics codes in
a number of European and Middle Eastern countries shows that even though
political and social systems in these countries may vary considerably, ethical
guidelines reflect a broad intercultural consensus on certain key elements such
as a commitment to truth and objectivity (Hafez, 2002). Ryan (2001) even goes

450 Journalism 6(4)
as far as to claim ethics as the all-encompassing value in journalism. In doing

so, these academics confuse the function of ethical behavior as a legitimizing
value with its concrete meaning or interpretation in a given situation or
setting.
Hallin referred to the period of the 1930s to the late 1960s when describ-
ing high modernism in the professionalization process of journalism. Ever
since, he argued, ‘all of this was beginning to change [. . .] substantially’ (1992:
18). Hallin (1996) suggests the collapse of political consensus and the in-
creased commercialization of news were prime movers of these changes. In
recent years, these trends can be seen as accelerated by the widespread
proliferation of new media technologies and the twin forces of globalization
and localization, uprooting or outsourcing peoples, ideas and industries across
the globe (Bauman, 2000). The high modernism of journalistic profession-
alization has moved to a liquid modern state of affairs of feverish journalistic
differentiation across media genres (including popular, tabloid, and infotain-
ment journalisms), platforms, and industries. The hotly debated emergence of
multimedia newsrooms (Stone and Bierhoff, 2002; Deuze, 2004a) or pro-active
diversity awareness policies (Campbell, 1998; Bealor Hines, 2001; Rich, 2005:
336ff) in media organizations can be seen as good examples of changes and
challenges in journalistic praxis at the beginning of the 21st century. My
argument is based on the assumption that the global picture of journalism is
constantly and perhaps exponentially changing to such an extent that one has
to analyze and discuss the main attributes of such (potential) changes in order
to successfully study, describe and explain contemporary journalism. These
changes are here selectively operationalized as coming to terms with the
convergence of media technologies (multimedia) and sociocultural complexity
(multiculturalism).
Journalism and technology: multimedia
Parallel to the professionalization process of journalism in the 20th century

runs a history of ongoing computerization and digitalization in all sectors of
society (Lievrouw and Livingstone, 2002). Distributed technologies, such as
the internet and the proliferation of computer networks, inspired training
programs all over the world to develop courses, curricula or even entire
institutes devoted particularly to teach and study journalism in a ‘new media’
environment. The literature on the impact of converging technologies on the
practice and education of journalists is expanding rapidly. Digital media and,
more recently, multimedia newsrooms are transforming training and educa-
tion of journalism worldwide (Castaneda, 2003). The disparity of approaches

and models of teaching and researching multimedia reveal one thing at least:
multimedia means different things to different people (Boczkowski, 2004).
Wise (2000) claims digital media, new media, information and communica-
tions technologies, internet, interactivity, virtuality and cyberspace are all
used interchangeably with multimedia. The convergence process that charac-
terizes multimedia poses challenges to departmentalized news organizations,
and is generally considered to threaten a news culture that prefers individual
expert systems and ‘group think’ over teamwork and knowledge-sharing
(Singer, 2004). Professional experience and the literature suggest that new
media technologies challenge one of the most fundamental ‘truths’ in journal-
ism, namely: the professional journalist is the one who determines what
publics see, hear and read about the world (Fulton, 1996; Singer, 1998). The
combination of mastering newsgathering and storytelling techniques in all
media formats (so-called ‘multi-skilling’), as well as the integration of digital
network technologies coupled with a rethinking of the news producer-
consumer relationship tends to be seen as one of the biggest challenges facing
journalism studies and education in the 21st century (Bardoel and Deuze,
2001; Pavlik et al., 2001; Teoh Kheng Yau and Al-Hawamdeh, 2001).
Discussing the emergence of ‘cyberjournalism’ in the early 1990s,
Dahlgren (1996) suggests we look at its online media logic as the particular
institutionally structured features of a medium, the ensemble of technical and
organizational attributes which impact on what gets represented in the me-
dium and how it gets done, including the cultural competences of the
producers and consumers of that medium. Seen in this light, one would have
to consider the elements defining multimedia logic (Deuze, 2004a). The
institutionally structured features of multimedia would assume some kind of
cross-media ownership, participation or access to multiple platforms for story-
telling. This convergence of communication modalities leads to an integration
and possible specialization of information services, where the existing unity of
production, content and distribution within each separate medium will cease
to exist (Bardoel, 1996). The multimedia journalist has to make decisions
about what kind of platforms to utilize when practicing his or her craft, and in
the case of multimedia productions has to be able to oversee story ‘packages’
rather than repurposing single stories in multiple formats. This relates to
organizational features of convergent media and the competences of journal-
ists working in such new media contexts. Applied research suggests the
necessity for multimedia operations to organize people in teams, and to
arrange these working units in cross-departmentalized ways (Huang et al.,
2003). This advice is underscored by the experiences of multimedia news-
rooms such as Tampa Bay Online (TBO.com) in the US where the convergence
process met with the resistance of reporters, who did not want to give up their

452 Journalism 6(4)
established way of doing things, and in particular refused to work in synergy

with colleagues in other parts of the media organization (Stevens, 2002).
Similar accounts can be found in case studies elsewhere as well, as a recent
report on the state of European multimedia news shows in detail (Stone and
Bierhoff, 2002). Research among reporters in various converging newsrooms in
the US by Singer (2004) and Boczkowski (2004) shows similar experiences,
citing turf wars and a general reluctance of journalists to innovate, share
knowledge, embrace the new technology – even though those that do re-
portedly think they are better for it. A survey by multimedia consulting firm
Innovation – commissioned by the World Association of Newspapers and
conducted in 2001 among media executives worldwide – cited as the biggest
obstacle to media convergence ‘the individualistic nature of journalists’ (men-
tioned by 31% of all respondents). On the basis of these studies and considera-
tions one may argue that the shift from individualistic, ‘top-down’
mono-media journalism to team-based, ‘participatory’ multimedia journalism
creates particular tensions in the industry and among journalists, and poten-
tially challenges the ideal-typical values in journalism’s ideology (Bowman
and Willis, 2003).
Journalism and society: multiculturalism
Recognition of cultural diversity is generally seen as a function of multi-

culturalism, even though the normative implications for thinking about
societies consisting of a plurality of cultures vary in different parts of the world
(Parekh, 1997). Whether it functions as a celebration of migrant communities
and thus challenges journalism in a particular country to become more
international in its outlook, or whether it operates as an acknowledgement of
the rural in an otherwise rather urban program of journalism, multicultural-
ism impacts upon all levels of editorial decision-making processes – and
particularly challenges a notion of journalism as if it could or would operate
outside society (Cottle, 2000). Multiculturalism can therefore be seen as one of
the foremost issues in journalism where media professionals are confronted by
their real or perceived responsibilities in contemporary society. This considera-
tion is independent of whether such a society is seen as a melting pot of
supposedly inherently different cultures, or as a society where culture is
understood as actively and continuously negotiated over time (Baumann,
1999: 81ff). The multicultural society indeed shifts the focus and news values
of today’s media professionals:
[o]rientation points for journalists are now the multicultural society, in which
the position of minorities will have to be redefined. Race, language, ethnic

background, religion, all these factors are present and potential battlegrounds
and generate a constant stream of events. (Bierhoff, 1999)
In many Western democracies, such as Australia, the USA, Great Britain

and the Netherlands, several organizations, universities, scholars and media
groups have put discussions on the role of the media in a multicultural society
on top of the professional agenda in the last decade or so (see for example:
Jakubowicz et al. 1994; Cottle, 2000). Discussions are framed according to
specific contexts and histories of the countries involved. In the Netherlands
and Great Britain, for example, multiculturalism is related to discussions of the
different histories of slave trade and colonialism as well as to preoccupations
with Eurocentrism and nationalism or regionalism in the context of the
European Union. Multiculturalism therefore assumes a variety of forms and
meanings. Issues regarding the relevance of media and multiculturalism to
journalism can be framed in terms of three central issues: knowledge of
journalists about different cultures and ethnicities, issues of representation
(pluriformity or diversity), and perceived social responsibilities of journalists
in a democratic and multicultural society.
Knowledge can be seen as a resource of information, sources, experiences
and contacts journalist may (or may not) have regarding different and over-
lapping cultures. A core aspect of professional knowledge is sourcing: who are
included or excluded as news actors in the media. Knowledge also relates to a
journalist’s awareness of different modes of intercultural communication
when working in a culturally diverse society. Knowledge in the context of the
impact it may have on journalism can therefore be seen as an inventory and
discussion of one’s frames of reference, one’s resources of information and life
experiences when it comes to multicultural issues.
It can be argued in the context of the media that resources of information
and experience (cf. knowledge), interpretation and explanation (cf. responsi-
bilities of journalists), and social delegation are in fact all questions of
representation. In an educational course or curriculum in journalism, issues of
representation can be isolated to the ways in which journalists reflect ethnic
and cultural diversity in terms of the labor force, the construction of their
networks, and in the portrayal of minorities in still and moving images,
spoken and written word. This may oversimplify the complex nature of
representation, as it has different meanings in various disciplines such as art
(cf. ways to depict and portray), or politics (cf. representing constituencies).
However, in journalism studies, this has been an effective way to address the
issue as in, for example, the multicultural hiring practices of news media
organizations (see Becker et al., 1999; Ouaj, 1999), and content analyses of the
way news media write about or depict minorities (see for example Van Dijk,
1991; Entman and Rojecki, 2000).

454 Journalism 6(4)
The social responsibilities of news media have been well documented and
established as the public service doctrine in contemporary journalism. Costera
Meijer (2001: 13) summarizes this responsibility as: ‘informing citizens in a
way that enables them to act as citizens’. As modern democracies have
developed in the context of increased globalization and corresponding migra-
tion and the emergence of diasporic communities, the notion of cultural or
multicultural citizenship has become a central consideration in today’s social-
political formation of society (Kymlicka, 1995). One may therefore expect
today’s journalism to develop equivalent cultural or multicultural sensibilities.
This in turn problematizes journalists’ role perceptions in contemporary
society: an active awareness of multicultural sensibility contradicts a cherished
independence of special interests. A valued detachment of society, however,
may result in disconnections with certain publics and oversimplified repre-
sentations of social complexity. Multiculturalism is a felt responsibility among
media professionals everywhere – whether they like it or are opposed to it –
and thus forces them to face their ideology and rethink their value system.
Discussion
If news organizations opt for convergence or are striving to be more inclusive

they also invite changes beyond hiring a couple of ‘backpack’ journalists or
‘non-white’ reporters. As shown in the admittedly brief discussions of the
impact multimedia and multiculturalism have on the attributes, organization,
culture and practices of journalists, there is more to these developments than
issues of technology and representation alone. Such changes have also to do
with editorial organization patterns, and challenges to established journalistic
ways, norms and values of storytelling. Living up to the characteristics and
potential added value of multimedia and multiculturalism challenges percep-
tions of the roles and functions of journalism as a whole.
Although an expanding body of scholarly work addresses technological
and cultural issues regarding journalism, few authors combine such insights
and research into a broader framework of thinking about journalism and
media production processes as a whole. The literature on media and multi-
culturalism generally assumes more civic engagement or involvement by
journalists and media organizations, seeking a reconnection of (predom-
inantly white, both in terms of news coverage and news people) media with
society (see Cottle, 2000; Wilson and Gutierrez, 2003). Similarly, work on new
media and journalism signals increased interactivity and a further blurring of
the hierarchical relationships between producers and users of news as the main

characteristics of the changes digitalization and convergence bring to con-

ceptualizing journalism (Löffelholz, 2000; Hall, 2001; Pavlik, 2001).
What sets the sketched developments in society and technology apart in
their impact upon contemporary journalism are related issues of control and
transparency. Control as in initiatives to remove primacy of authority over the
news agenda or even the storytelling experience from the hands of (pro-
fessional) journalists in favor of more responsive, interactive and inclusive
journalistic practices. Transparency, as in the increasing ways in which people
both inside and external to journalism are given a chance to monitor, check,
criticize and even intervene in the journalistic process. One element enables
and follows the other, of course: more shared control over newsgathering and
storytelling increases opportunities for surveillance and processual criticism.
The point here is that a rethinking of journalism and the professional identity
of journalists is necessary not so much because there is something wrong with
the profession, but rather because it is essential in order to maintain a
conceptually coherent understanding of what journalism is in an increasingly
complex and liquid modern society (Bauman, 2001). It is my contention that
ideology in this process of change and adaptation serves as the social cement
of the professional group of journalists – following Carey (1989) and Zelizer
(2004a: 101) where she writes how journalists use it ‘to become members of
the group and maintain membership over time’. In the concluding section of
this article I therefore explore how multiculturalism and multimedia poten-
tially challenge historically embedded views in journalism.
Public service
Providing a service to publics in a multimedia and multicultural environment
is not the same safe value to hide behind like it used to be in the days of print
and broadcast mass media. After all this is the age of individualization,
audience fragmentation and attention spans ranging from minutes while
watching to seconds while surfing. Some early consequences for newswork
have been documented. For instance, the practice of multimedia journalism
presupposes teamwork and sharing expertise to produce story packages that
can be delivered across media, including (but not limited to) interactive
components (Deuze, 2004a). Multicultural journalism suggests actively seek-
ing out new angles and voices from undercovered communities, engaging
actively in public life among diverse peoples – whether some authors like it
(Wilson, Gutierrez and Chao, 2003) or not (McGowan, 2001). A slow and
subtle shift occurs in the consensual notion of serving the public, as it moves
from a primary top-down meaning to an increasingly bottom-up application.
It is a move from ‘telling people what they need to know’ to Carey’s
(1989[1975]) ideal of amplifying conversations society has with itself. In this

456 Journalism 6(4)
context the public journalism movement can be understood as a way to bridge

the gap between these oppositional expectations of reporters and editors: it
maintains its primacy on storytelling while cautiously embracing the wants
and needs of an audience.
Objectivity
The strategic ritual of ‘objective’ detachment has been described in much of
the (critical) literature as one of the causes for the divide between journalism
and its publics (Schudson, 2001). Interestingly, studies in new media news-
rooms as well as on multicultural reporting offer an alternate interpretation
of objectivity. The discourse of professional distance clearly stands in stark
contrast to the rhetoric of inclusivity (regarding diverse media and minor-
ities). A multicultural sensitivity challenges objectivity as it is commonly
understood, and supposedly offers a way out of the binary paradigm of
‘getting both sides of the story’ in favor of a more complex or multi-
perspectival reading of events. Multimedia’s careful embrace of interactivity
as well as a merging of different cultures (print, broadcast, online; ‘hard’ and
‘soft’ news, marketing and editorial) within the news organization – a
perceived necessary byproduct of convergence – confronts the individual
professional with multiple interpretations of objectivity. It is therefore not
surprising that journalists’ main response to such changes and challenges is
nostalgia (and stress). Yet at the same time reporters involved in the
frontlines claim to have gained a new appreciation of different ways to do
things, reaching out to different communities (and colleagues), enacting their
agency in the process of change. In other words: an active awareness of (the
potential added value of) new media technologies and cultural plurality
makes the core value of objectivity more complex.
Autonomy
Journalists all over the world voice concerns regarding their freedom to work
as they please. Editorial autonomy is invoked in the face of any extra-
journalistic or management-driven force. In an increasing transparent and
sometimes even participatory news ecology, ‘autonomy’ as an individual-level
concept is quite problematic. Working in multimedia news teams, journalists
have to at least learn to share autonomy. Engaging people with ethnicities,
religious beliefs or nationalities assumed to be different than one’s own
challenges the age-old ways of doing things in many newsrooms where only
peers tend to be seen as legitimate sparring partners for creating credible
newswork. The literature addressing multiculturalism calls for more
community-based reporting, signals the need for journalists to become much

more aware of entrenched inequalities in society, and expects media pro-

fessionals to become active agents in reversing these (Cottle, 2000). Journal-
istic autonomy in this context is collaborative (with colleagues and publics) in
its implications, and thus begets a distinctly different understanding.
Immediacy
The ‘right here, right now’ credo of journalism is challenged by normative
claims made by advocates of both multicultural and multimedia journalism:
these styles of reporting apparently bring more depth to journalistic storytell-
ing by packaging news and information across media and throughout diverse
communities. As mentioned before, this potential of multi-perspective news
narratives adds more complexity to journalistic storytelling. According to
some critics, investing time to get to know different communities (networking
without necessarily pursuing a news story), or cross-platform storytelling
(without the depth provided by specialization in a single medium) is a luxury
not available when practicing, studying or researching journalism (Campbell,
1998; Castaneda, 2003). The question becomes, what kind of immediacy are we
talking about. The digital media environment allows reporters to constantly
edit and update their story packages, and even to include end-users in this
process (for example by offering options for feedback, postings to discussion
platforms, uploading files). On the other hand, studies of organizational
journalistic cultures suggest that it is exactly the predisposition to fast work
according to set ways of doing things (like the day-to-day deadline schedule of
programming and printing) that effectively prevents journalism from becom-
ing more open to diversity – both in terms of newsroom diversity (including
and accommodating different voices like younger, female, disabled, and ethnic
minority colleagues), and sourcing (allowing different languages, grassroots
spokesperson, seeking alternate interpretations) (Cottle, 2000). In short, im-
mediacy in a multimedia and multicultural environment entails the sense of
speed inherent in the 24/7 deadline structure of online publishing to a
potential worldwide audience. Yet it also means exactly the opposite in that it
offers depth, inclusiveness and more than two polarized perspectives.
Ethics
Of all these values, a sense of ethics is probably the most researched – even
though scholars like Starck (2001) criticize the expanding volume of journal-
ism ethics research, in particular for its lack of cross-cultural perspectives, and
lament the apparent gap between theory and practice in the field. Ethics,
however situational, based on casuistry, or principled, can and have been used
by journalists and scholars alike to claim higher moral ground when judging
the quality of reporting (Iggers, 1999; Ryan, 2001: 18). Indeed, scholars and

458 Journalism 6(4)
media professionals in both fields tend to advocate a turn to ideal journalistic

values that supposedly supersede medium-specific particularities or cultural
complexities. It is important to note how ethics can be both a flag behind
which to rally the journalistic troops in defense of commercial, audience-
driven or managerial encroachments, as well as an emblem of newsworkers’
legitimacy when reporting on complex events involving the wants and needs
of different media, different people and different ways to be inclusive.
Conclusion
The argument as outlined in this article builds on similar arguments in the

contemporary literature in favor of a ‘catholic’ (Sparks, 1992), or ‘compre-
hensive’ (Morgan, 1998) and ‘holistic’ (Skinner et al., 2001) understanding of
journalism. I deliberately ignored real or perceived differences between
mainstream and alternative news media, between serious and popular jour-
nalism or between hard and soft news. For one, the cultural inquiry of
journalism suggests such distinctions to be part of journalists’ ‘modernist bias
of its official self-presentation’ (Zelizer, 2004a: 112). On the other hand, if
one chooses to accept for a moment that this representation is very real to a
lot of journalists across the globe, I would perceive these and other binary
oppositions increasingly untenable in our liquid modern news times. The
analyses of the ideal-typical values of journalism, and how these vary and get
meanings in different circumstances, have shown that any definition of
journalism as a profession working truthfully, operating as a watchdog for the
good of society as a whole and enabling citizens to be self-governing is not
only naı̈ve, but also one-dimensional and sometimes nostalgic for perhaps
the wrong reasons. It is by studying how journalists from all walks of their
professional life negotiate the core values that one can see the occupational
ideology of journalism at work.
In this article I hope to have shown how revisiting an ‘old’ concept can
provide added value to a more comprehensive theorizing of what journalism
is, or could be. The key to this attempt has been to make explicit what the
literature too often takes for granted – as in the operationalization of the
values that journalism’s ideology consists of – and to update this in terms of
the immediate. The significance of this contribution also lies in its rejection of
utopian or anti-utopian discourses when analyzing the impact of emerging
sociocultural and socioeconomic issues on journalism. Instead I have pushed
for a more holistic argument based on the assumption that multimedia
developments and multiculturalism are indeed similar forces of change when
seen through the lens of journalists’ perceptions of themselves. Ultimately this

combination of insights may prove helpful both to the education and practice
as well as the academic discipline of journalism.
Notes
1 Key international journals: Journalism Quarterly, Journalism: Theory, Practice and

Criticism, Journalism Studies. Some examples of national journals devoted to
journalism: Australian Journalism Review, British Journalism Review, Ecquid Novi
(South Africa), Brazilian Journalism Research.
2 A similar conclusion formed the basis of the Journalism Studies Interest Group
(JSIG), started in Summer 2004 as part of the International Communication
Association. The JSIG manifesto for example states: ‘The Interest Group is
intended to facilitate empirical research and to bring more coherence to research
paradigms, and in so doing, to further support the professionalization of journal-
ism studies and journalism education. Furthermore, while journalism is presently
studied across the field, often the individuals behind these different research
endeavors do not have a place to speak with each other.’
3 See Hall (2001) and Pavlik (2001) for an international appreciation of new media
and journalism; Cottle (2000) is a similar global overview regarding news media
and multiculturalism.
4 I refer to two case studies I did that show how ‘alternative’ reporters for
Indymedia websites (Platon and Deuze, 2003) as well as journalists working for
Dutch tabloids (Deuze, 2002b: 156ff) indeed use the same values in their work as
mainstream ‘hard’ news journalists. For a similar argument see Eliasoph (1988).
5 For a classic reference in this respect see the work of Herbert Gans (1979: 183).
Carey (1989 [1975]: 47–8) suggests – following the work of Clifford Geertz – that
ideology should be seen as providing answers to the invariably contradictory and
inconsistent situations one finds oneself in as an individual between the ‘chronic
malintegration’ of the personality and society. This interpretation of ideology –
called strain theory – seems to be most fruitful for the argument at hand.
6 I argue that these values can indeed be seen as ideal-typical in the Weberian
sense, in that they involve an accentuation of (arche-)typical courses of conduct
for the professional group of journalists – one might say serving as a yardstick or
measuring rod to ascertain similarities as well as deviations in concrete cases –
and thus contributing to the exclusory potential of ideology – without neces-
sarily being ‘real’.
7 Indeed this function goes for all ideal-typical values in the ideology of journal-
ism.
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Biographical note
Mark Deuze is Assistant Professor at Indiana University’s Department of Commu-

nication in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. He is also external advisor to the Journalism
and New Media program of Leiden University, the Netherlands. He received his
PhD in the social sciences from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
His work has appeared in journals such as Journalism and Mass Communication
Quarterly, New Media and Society, Journalism, and Journalism Studies.
Address: Department of Telecommunications, Indiana University, RTV 319; 1229
East Seventh Street, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. [email: mdeuze@indiana.edu]

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Journalism

What is journalism?: Professional identity and ideology of journalists

The online version of this article can be found at:

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Citations (this article cites 30 articles hosted on the

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Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications

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In choosing new media and multiculturalism as conceptual case studies I

The 20th-century history of (the professionalization of) journalism can be

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Downloaded from http://jou.sagepub.com at University of the West of Scotland on October 7, 2008

ideology is generally referred to as a dominant way in which news people

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• Public service: journalists provide a public service (as watchdogs or ‘news-

Reese (2001) suggests the ideological perspective can be seen as a global

Journalists provide a public service

The public-service ideal can be seen as a powerful component of journalism’s

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Journalists are neutral, objective, fair and (thus) credible

American authors in particular have identified objectivity as a key element of

Journalists must enjoy editorial autonomy, freedom and independence

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supportive of community engagement in their work. Most if not all innova-

Journalists have a sense of immediacy

Journalists have a sense of ethics and legitimacy

Parallel to the history of 20th century professionalization of journalism runs

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as far as to claim ethics as the all-encompassing value in journalism. In doing

Journalism and technology: multimedia

Parallel to the professionalization process of journalism in the 20th century

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established way of doing things, and in particular refused to work in synergy

Journalism and society: multiculturalism

Recognition of cultural diversity is generally seen as a function of multi-

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In many Western democracies, such as Australia, the USA, Great Britain

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If news organizations opt for convergence or are striving to be more inclusive

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characteristics of the changes digitalization and convergence bring to con-

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context the public journalism movement can be understood as a way to bridge

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more aware of entrenched inequalities in society, and expects media pro-

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media professionals in both fields tend to advocate a turn to ideal journalistic

The argument as outlined in this article builds on similar arguments in the

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1 Key international journals: Journalism Quarterly, Journalism: Theory, Practice and

Bardoel, J. (1996) ‘Beyond Journalism: A Profession between Information Society and

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Bauman, Z. (2000) Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

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Deuze, M. (2004a) ‘What is Multimedia Journalism?’, Journalism Studies 5(2):

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