Newspaper Reporters’ Priorities and Beliefs About Environmental Journalism: An Application of Q-Methodology

Abstract

This article assesses the variety of discourses articulated by journalists reporting on environmental issues. In particular, it investigates how environmental journalists perceive their role and function as reporters of environmental issues as well as the problems they face while reporting. The authors interviewed 23 newspaper reporters covering environmental issues for the nine largest (in terms of daily circulation) daily Greek newspapers, by employing Q-methodology, a qualitative statistical approach specially adjusted for small samples. The subsequent analysis reveals three "factors," or distinct discourses, labeled "scientifically objective, environmentally responsible journalist," "environmental crusaders," and "objective-pure journalists." By analyzing factors' discourses, the authors concluded that these groups are highly similar to the "disseminator," "interpreter/investigator," and "populist mobilize" categories identified in previous research for journalists with different field orientations. However, the last category ("adversarial") did not appear in our sample. The authors encourage the replication of

Variations in Newspaper Coverage on Water in the U.S. Intermountain West

“…It is important to remember that journalists are likely also influenced by the perceived desires of their audience, thus having an effect on agenda‐setting functions. Thus, it would be interesting to study journalists’ and editors’ thought processes with regards to coverage of environmental topics such as water management based on previous research that used similar approaches (Giannoulis et al ; Wallington et al ; Gibson et al ).…”

Routine Influences on Aquaculture News Selection: A Q Method Study With New England Journalists

“…As a result, Q cannot support hypotheses, but it can “bring a sense of coherence to research questions that have many, potentially complex and socially contested answers” (Watts & Stenner, 2005, p. 75). Some past applications of Q methodology with journalists include exploring their role in environmental reporting (Giannoulis, Botetzagias, & Skanavis, 2010), international television reporting (Kim, 2002), new media reporting (Singer, 1997), and news story selection (Ward, 1967). Below, we specify study sampling and design, as well as data analysis, interpretation, and validity.…”

“…Factor loadings above 0.41 were significant at the .01 level. Journalists with statistically significant “pure” loadings (i.e., no cross-loading) were retained (Giannoulis et al, 2010). Factor loadings of journalists (Table 2) and factor scores of statements (Table 3) were interpreted and triangulated with data from the debriefing interview transcripts.…”

Identifying Dominant Stakeholder Perspectives on Urban Freight Policies: A Q-Analysis on Urban Consolidation Centres in the Netherlands

“…This fits well with the aim of searching for unknown opportunities or barriers related to logistics chains. Several applications of Q-methodology can be found in the literature, for example in Van Exel, De Graaf (2005), Ellis et al (2007), Akhtar-Danesh et al (2008), Kroesen, Bröer (2009), Cuppen et al (2010, Giannoulis et al (2010), Tielen et al (2011), Van Hooft et al (2015, Sleenhoff, Osseweijer (2016), all related to research issues where a variety of stakeholder perceptions exist.…”