Beyond Journalistic Norms: Role Performance and News in Comparative Perspective

Beyond Journalistic Norms contests and challenges pre-established assumptions about a dominant type of journalism prevailing in different political, economic, and geographical contexts to posit the fluid, and dynamic nature of journalistic roles.

The book brings together scholars from Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia, reporting findings based on data collected from democratic, transitional, and non-democratic contexts to produce thematic chapters that address how journalistic cultures vary around the globe, specifically in relation to challenges that journalists face in performing their journalistic roles. The study measures, compares, and analyzes the materialization of the interventionist, the watchdog, the loyal-facilitator, the service, the infotainment, and the civic roles in more than 30,000 print news stories from 18 countries. It also draws from hundreds of surveys with journalists to explain the link between ideals and practices, and the conditions that shape this divide.

This book will be of great relevance to scholars and researchers working in the fields of journalism, journalism practices, philosophy of journalism, sociology of media, and comparative journalism research.

Claudia Mellado is Professor of Journalism in the School of Journalism at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile. Her research focuses on the study of journalism cultures, journalistic role performance, and comparative studies. She is the principal investigator of the JRP Project (www.journalisticperformance.org). Her work has been extensively published in journals such as Journal of Communication, International Journal of Press/Politics, Journalism, JMCQ, Journalism Studies, and Communication Theory, Her last edited book is Journalistic Role Performance: Concept, Contexts, and Methods (Routledge, 2017)