Abstract
The chapter explores the role perceptions and practices of journalists across four transitional countries (Egypt, Kenya, Serbia and South Africa). It is based on a comparative analysis of 100 in-depth interviews with journalists covering different democratization conflicts. While journalistic norms of objectivity and the watchdog role seem to have widespread appeal, results also show tensions between these norms and what is possible and indeed desirable in situations of political instability, societal divisions, violence and state interference. The chapter adds in-depth knowledge to existing empirical studies on journalism in conflict societies and highlights the dilemmas, ambiguities and context specific values that guide journalists in uncertain times. The findings point at the emergence of hybrid forms of journalism and their often ambivalent impact on the communication and resolution of democratization conflicts.
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Notes
- 1.
The Serbian ombudsman case was not included in the journalism study.
- 2.
The interviews have been organized, conducted, translated and transcribed by our colleagues from the four country teams: Gamal Soltan, Yosra El Gendi, Rachel Naguib, Lama Tawakol and Aseel Yehia Osman for Egypt; Nicole Stremlau, Toussaint Nothias, Seth Ouma and Charles Katua for Kenya; Filip Ejdus, Aleksandra Krstić and Ana Stojiljković for Serbia; Herman Wasserman, Tanja Bosch, Wallace Chuma, Kendi Osano, Sue Nyamnjoh and Travis Noakes for South Africa. We thank them for their valuable work.
- 3.
A professional journalist is defined here as a person who works (as an employee or freelancer) for journalistic media, and is involved in producing and editing journalistic content or is otherwise engaged in editorial supervision or coordination. A description of the sample of interviewed journalists can be found in Lohner et al. (2016b).
- 4.
Due to conditions in the field, reconstructions were done in 19 of the 25 interviews in Serbia, in 14 of the 26 interviews in Kenya and in 14 of the 24 interviews in Egypt. Since many South African journalists who agreed to be interviewed faced time constraints, a reconstruction could only be done in two of the 25 South African interviews. For applied procedures of analysis as well as quality measures, see Lohner et al. (2016b).
- 5.
Interviews have been coded with the following country codes: EGY (Egypt), KEN (Kenya), SER (Serbia), RSA (South Africa). The code ‘Jour’ indicates that the interviewee is a journalist, and the number following it is the number of the interviewee in the MeCoDEM sample.
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Lohner, J., Neverla, I., Banjac, S. (2019). Conflict-Sensitive Journalism? Journalistic Role Perceptions and Practices in Democratization Conflicts. In: Voltmer, K., et al. Media, Communication and the Struggle for Democratic Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16748-6_3
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