Comparing journalistic role performance across thematic beats: A 37-country study

C Mellado, M Márquez-Ramírez, S Van Leuven, D Jackson, C Mothes, C Arcila-Calderón, J Berthaut, N Blanchett, S Boudana, K Y N Chen, N Davydov, M De Maio, N Fahmy, M Ferrero, M Garcés, L Hagen, D C Hallin, M L Humanes, K Himma-Kadakas, G KeelC Kozman, A Krstić, S Lecheler, M Lee, C I Lin, M Mazzoni, Kieran Mcguinness, K McIntyre, J Mick, C Navarro, D Olivera, M Pizarro, H Silke, T Skjerdal, A Stępińska, G Szabó, D V Aguilar

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Studies suggest that, at the routine level, news beats function as unique “micro-cultures.” Exploring this “particularist” approach in news content, we compare how the interventionist, watchdog, loyal, service, infotainment, and civic roles materialize across 11 thematic news beats and analyze the moderating effect of platforms, ownership, and levels of political freedom on journalistic role performance in hard and soft news. Based on the second wave of the Journalistic Role Performance (JRP) project, this article reports the findings of a content analysis of 148,474 news items from 37 countries. Our results reveal the transversality of interventionism, the strong associations of some topics and roles, and the limited reach of news beat particularism in the face of moderating variables.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)97-126
    Number of pages30
    JournalJournalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
    Volume101
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2024

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