HAM_F_02 What Journalists Want and What They Ought to Do: The Transformation of the Journalism/Audience-Relationship and Its Relevance for Social Cohesion

Objectives/ Research Questions

Journalism’s relationship to its audience is profoundly affected by the transforming media environment: the way how people use news is changing, as is what they demand from journalism. Citizens, for example, expect from journalists to provide greater transparency and focus more strongly on participation and dialogue. We observe this transformation in the form of the ubiquitous and instantaneous media criticism expressed in user comments, the apparently fragile trust in media among parts of the population, and, in extreme cases, accusations against the media of producing “fake news”. The declining number of subscriptions to newspapers and the low willingness to pay for online journalism are additional indicators that journalism often does not meet the expectations of its users.

However, we know very little about what exactly the public does expect from journalism and how these audience expectations relate to what journalists themselves regard as their professional task or as the self-perception of their own role. This also means that virtually nothing is known about the extent to which the views of journalism and its importance for social cohesion on both sides differ.

This project will answer two key questions: Which ideas and expectations do journalists in Germany have regarding the relevance of their work for social cohesion? And to what extent are these expectations and self-images (in)congruent with expectations and demands that citizens place on journalists?

Thematic Reference to Social Cohesion

Inherent to the social function of journalism (in Germany) is the idea that media and journalism (should) contribute to social cohesion. To this end, journalism must reach an audience. Hence, the quality of journalism’s relationship to its audience is at the core of most public debates about journalism today – be it with regard to the fragile trust in journalism, the “insurgence of the audience” in commentary sections and social media, or, more fundamentally, journalism’s importance for opinion formation and democracy. However, both public debate and research have, so far, largely neglected to shed more light on what citizens expect of journalism and to what extent their expectations match journalists’ own perceptions of their role. A precise picture of this is, however, indispensable for journalism to fulfil its societal function because it is only when the public’s expectations are not realized on a permanent basis that journalism can reach an audience.

Such findings are also relevant from a legal and media regulatory perspective. For example, constitutional communication rights, current media laws, and media-related self-regulation provisions all start from the premise that journalism assumes specific functions in a deliberative media democracy. The empirical findings may provide indications of not only possible misperceptions of these functions by journalists but also incongruent attributions and expectations of citizens towards journalism.

Thus, the project will examine the attitudes and reciprocal expectations of two groups of actors, both of which are particularly involved in the production of public spheres and the social cohesion mediated by them. This will, on the one hand, provide us with insights into the relationship between journalism and its audience and, on the other hand, allow us to analyse the supra-individual aspect of how a social institution – journalism – reorients itself within a changing media environment and society. The project aims to contribute to a better understanding of affective attitudes, which are the basis for the production and perception of (media) reality, especially from an empirical-analytical perspective. At the same time, however, we aim to develop conceptual and theoretical foundations that help us understand the importance of the journalism-audience relationship for the realization of social cohesion.