What Journalists Are Owed: How Structures, Systems and Audiences Enable News Work Today

The study of news and news practice is rich in examinations of what journalists owe to society. However, this book looks at what journalists can expect from society: what roles ownership structures, colleagues, governments and audiences should play so journalists can do their jobs well – and safely.

What Journalists Are Owed draws on a variety of research perspectives – legal and ethical analysis, surveys, interviews and content analysis – in different national settings to look at how those relationships among stakeholders are developing in a time of rapid and often unsettling chance to the political and economic environments that surround journalism. Journalism can be a risky business. This book opens some discussions on those risks can be described and mitigated.

There’s no shortage of writing about what journalists owe society – but if society wants journalism done well, what does it owe journalists in return? This volume opens a discussion on the cultural, legal-system and professional agreements that societies should provide so journalists can do their jobs in increasingly hostile political environments. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Studies.

Fred Vultee is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication, Wayne State University, USA.

Lee Wilkins is a Professor Emerita at the Department of Communication, Wayne State University, USA and Professor Emerita at the School of Journalism, University of Missouri, USA.