Journalism Values & Roles 1
Personal and Professional Dimensions of News Work
Exploring the Link Between Journalists Values and Roles
Abstract
Scholars studying news work have long focused on either journalistic
roles or journalistic values rather than trying to integrate the two as a way to
better understand internal forces that drive reporters and editors While media
research is filled with references to journalistic values there have been virtually
no efforts to bring social psychology research on values to bear as a way to
understand how journalists operate This study examines those underlying
values and looks at how values are reflected in the professional roles endorsed
by editors and reporters The link is not always clear but this study shows there
are some significant differences between the values held by editors versus
reporters and that these values can shape whether a journalist sees his or her role
to be simply to report the news to help provide context for it to assume a
watchdog role or to provide a public forum
Convention