The cultural journalist around the globe: A comparative study of characteristics, role perceptions, and perceived influences

Abstract

This article presents a global-comparative study of journalists reporting about art and culture, that is, cultural journalists. In the literature, this particular group is said to be different from other types of journalists, because their professional work is guided more by an aesthetic logic than a news logic. Until now, however, this difference has mainly been studied in national contexts. Applying a global-comparative perspective by using data from The Worlds of Journalism Study, this article shows that cultural journalists around the globe do in fact differ systematically from other types of journalists in their social and professional characteristics, and also in terms of perceptions of influences on daily work and professional role perceptions. Even though media systemic contexts play a role, cultural journalists do have distinct characteristics worldwide. This is the first study to apply such a global-comparative perspective to the role perceptions of this particular group of journalists.

Cultural journalism—Journalism about culture

“…Others have argued that cultural journalists appear loyal towards artists and cultural producers, as they are often closely intertwined professionally or even personally, sharing the same passion for arts and culture (e.g., Forde, 2003;Kristensen, 2018). Hovden and Kristensen (2018) show that monitoring elites is less important to cultural journalists, who are more inclined to educate the audience, tell stories, and promote tolerance, i.e., to provide "a cultural filter" (Riegert et al, 2015;Roosvall & Widholm, 2018) on sociocultural issues. This is inconsistent with the adversary or watchdog role.…”

“…This suggests that cultural journalists adhere more to a subjective belief in how reality or truth can be conveyed, often basing their claims to truth on an analytical approach. For these reasons, cultural journalists have been labelled "journalists with a difference" (Forde, 2003;Hovden & Kristensen, 2018), who exercise "arts exceptionalism" (Harries & Wahl-Jorgensen, 2007) and apply an "aesthetic paradigm" (Hellman & Jaakkola, 2012).…”

“…Few single country studies of production cultures have focused on the role perceptions and professional norms of cultural editors and journalists, especially in Northern-European contexts (Harries & Wahl-Jorgensen, 2007;Hovden & Knapskog, 2015;Riegert et al, 2015;Sarrimo, 2017;see Botma for the South-African context, 2008, though a broad, global comparison has also been made (Hovden & Kristensen, 2018). As indicated, these studies show that the cultural journalism production culture differs from other types of journalism cultures, but also that media systemic contexts matter.…”

Cultural journalists on social media

“…Cultural journalists are therefore often trained in arts and humanities rather than journalism. Empirical research has shown that cultural journalists perceive themselves as better educated than other journalists (e.g., Harries & Wahl-Jorgensen, 2007;Hovden & Knapskog, 2015), and they do, in fact, have more or a higher level of education than other types of journalists (Hovden & Kristensen, 2018). Th is has provided them with a mindset that focuses on aesthetic norms and values rather than news values, suggesting that cultural journalists tend to have one leg in academia and another in journalism (Kristensen & From, 2015b).…”

“…Many cultural journalists work freelance and Nete Nørgaard Kristensen & Unni From Article: Cultural journalists on social media have loose media institutional couplings. Even today, a larger share of cultural journalists have non-permanent positions and work part-time compared to other types of journalists (Hovden & Knapskog, 2015;Hovden & Kristensen, 2018). Self-branding and proliferating the public self on social media may thus be particularly important to cultural journalists in this increasingly precarious job market.…”