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<p>By reading qualitative studies, surveys, organisational histories, and textbooks, one can claim that the ethos of journalists has undergone fundamental changes in recent decades. The “high modern” journalistic ethos of the 1970s and 1980s was committed to the core values of the journalistic profession: objectivity, public service, consensus maintenance, gate-keeping, and recording of the recent past. After the millennium, these central ideals have become more ambivalent and “liquid”: subjectivity, consumer service, the watchdog role, agenda-setting, and forecasting the future seem to be more tempting alternatives than before. This article develops an analytic framework that elaborates the simple narrative from “high modern” to “liquid modern” journalism. Five key elements, namely, (1) knowledge, (2) audience, (3) power, (4) time, and (5) ethics, are discussed and problematized to suggest a more nuanced view of the changing professional ethos of journalism.</p>
</abstract>

By reading qualitative studies, surveys, organisational histories, and textbooks, one can claim that the ethos of journalists has undergone fundamental changes in recent decades. The “high modern” journalistic ethos of the 1970s and 1980s was committed to the core values of the journalistic profession: objectivity, public service, consensus maintenance, gate-keeping, and recording of the recent past. After the millennium, these central ideals have become more ambivalent and “liquid”: subjectivity, consumer service, the watchdog role, agenda-setting, and forecasting the future seem to be more tempting alternatives than before. This article develops an analytic framework that elaborates the simple narrative from “high modern” to “liquid modern” journalism. Five key elements, namely, (1) knowledge, (2) audience, (3) power, (4) time, and (5) ethics, are discussed and problematized to suggest a more nuanced view of the changing professional ethos of journalism.

The Shift from High to Liquid Ideals: Making Sense of Journalism and Its Change through a Multidimensional Model

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

By reading qualitative studies, surveys, organisational histories, and textbooks, one can claim that the ethos of journalists has undergone fundamental changes...

Deuze: Ideal-typical values of the occupational ideology of journalism	Hanitzsch: Constituents and principal dimensions of journalism culture	Carpentier: Nodal points in the identity of the media professional
Knowledge: Objectivity	Knowledge: Objectivity versus subjectivityKnowledge: Empiricism versus analysis	Knowledge: Objectivity versus subjectivity
Audience: Public service	Audience: Citizen orientation versus consumer orientation	Audience: Professional elite versus representative of publicAudience: Control versus partnership
Power: Editorial autonomy	Power: Loyalty to hegemony versus counter-hegemonyPower: Active intervention versus passive neutrality	Power: Independence versus dependency
Time: Immediacy	Time: No core material to Hanitzsch	Time: No core material to Carpentier
Ethics: Ethicality	Ethics: Relativity versus universalityEthics: Idealism-minded versus strategic-minded	Ethics: No core material to Carpentier

The Shift from High to Liquid Ideals: Making Sense of Journalism and Its Change through a Multidimensional Model

Publié en ligne: 13 mars 2020

Pages: 141 - 153

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2013-0110

Mots clés
journalistic profession, core elements of journalism, professional ethos, high/liquid modern ideals, multidimensional model, analysis of change

© 2013 Kari Koljonen, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Three Models of the Core Issues in Journalism

The Shift from High to Liquid Ideals: Making Sense of Journalism and Its Change through a Multidimensional Model

Publié en ligne: 13 mars 2020

Pages: 141 - 153

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2013-0110

Mots clésjournalistic profession, core elements of journalism, professional ethos, high/liquid modern ideals, multidimensional model, analysis of change

© 2013 Kari Koljonen, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Three Models of the Core Issues in Journalism

Mots clés
journalistic profession, core elements of journalism, professional ethos, high/liquid modern ideals, multidimensional model, analysis of change