Comparing Journalistic Role Performance Across Thematic Beats: A 37-Country Study

Claudia Mellado, Mireya Márquez-Ramírez, Sarah Van Leuven, Daniel Jackson, Cornelia Mothes, Carlos Arcila-Calderón, Jérome Berthaut, Nicole Blanchett, Sandrine Boudana, Katherine Y.N. Chen, Sergey Davydov, Mariana De Maio, Nagwa Fahmy, Martina Ferrero, Miguel Garcés, Lutz Hagen, Daniel C. Hallin, María Luisa Humanes, Marju Himma-Kadakas, Guido KeelClaudia Kozman, Aleksandra Krstić, Sophie Lecheler, Misook Lee, Christi I.Hsuan Lin, Marco Mazzoni, Kieran McGuinness, Karen McIntyre, Jacques Mick, Cristina Navarro, Dasniel Olivera, Marcela Pizarro, Henry Silke, Terje Skjerdal, Agnieszka Stępińska, Gabriella Szabó, Diana Viveros 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

Keywords

  • journalism
  • news beats
  • professional roles
  • role performance
  • soft and hard news

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