The news expectation predicament: Comparing and explaining what audiences expect from the roles and reporting practices of reporters on right-wing extremism

Abstract

News about right-wing extremism pertains to the media’s information and watchdog functions in democratic societies. Since audience orientation is important to the journalistic profession, it is important to know what different news audiences expect of journalists regarding their professional role and their reporting practices when it comes to media coverage of right-wing extremism. To bridge this research gap, by employing a quota sample representative of the general German population ( n = 1314) and an independent sample of Muslims living in Germany ( n = 248), we demonstrated that Muslims expect a more active role from journalists and even accept controversial reporting practices to combat right-wing extremism. More left-leaning individuals were found to expect more controversial reporting unless they were afraid of right-wing extremism. Among these more left individuals, fear of terrorism seems to activate the argument that a democratic society should not give up its core principles, including the professional autonomy of its journalists and ethical reporting practices.

Roles periodísticos de los medios en Ecuador durante el estado de excepción por la COVID-19

“…Finalmente, en la tercera dimensión hay tres tipos de periodistas: los cívicos, quienes se centran en su relación con el público ofreciendo un espacio para que la ciudadanía pueda manifestarse, dándoles credibilidad a las fuentes ciudadanas; el periodista de entretenimiento, como su nombre denota, tiene la función de entretener y ver a las personas como una audiencia a quien se debe emocionar, con historias de personajes mediáticos sobre su vida privada; y, finalmente, el periodista de servicio, quien tiene el objetivo de brindar tips, consejos y asesoramiento a las personas para que apliquen en su vida diaria Baugut y Scherr, 2021). Con base al estilo de redacción que tengan los periodistas, dependiendo a quién favorezca con su contenido y analizando las noticias con estos indicadores, se le puede atribuir el rol al que pertenece (Mellado y Hallin, 2018).…”

The Increasing Frequency of Terms Denoting Political Extremism in U.S. and U.K. News Media

“…Thus, news media elites could be tempted to undermine political attitudes they dislike by portraying them in terms that suggest extreme political beliefs for agenda-setting purposes (McCombs 2005). Indeed, some members of the public, according to political or religious orientation, have been shown to favor controversial journalistic practices such as politically biased reporting as means to combat political extremism (Baugut and Scherr 2021).…”