Journalism researchers have tended to study journalistic roles from within a Western framework oriented toward the media’s contribution to democracy and citizenship. In so doing, journalism scholarship often failed to account for the realities in non-democratic and non-Western contexts, as well as for forms of journalism beyond political news. Based on the framework of discursive institutionalism, we conceptualize journalistic roles as discursive constructions of journalism’s identity and place in society. These roles have sedimented in journalism’s institutional norms and practices and are subject to discursive (re)creation, (re)interpretation, appropriation, and contestation. We argue that journalists exercise important roles in two domains: political life and everyday life. For the domain of political life, we identify 18 roles addressing six essential needs of political life: informational-instructive, analytical-deliberative, critical-monitorial, advocative-radical, developmental-educative, and collaborative-facilitative. In the domain of everyday life, journalists carry out roles that map onto three areas: consumption, identity, and emotion.
AckerJ (1990) Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society4: 139–158.
2.
AldridgeMEvettsJ (2003) Rethinking the concept of professionalism: The case of journalism. British Journal of Sociology54: 547–564.
3.
BartschBSchneiderFM (2014) Entertainment and politics revisited: How non-escapist forms of entertainment can stimulate political interest and information seeking. Journal of Communication64: 369–396.
BeckU (1992) Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: SAGE.
6.
BennettWLGressettLHaltomW (1985) Repairing the news: A case study of the news paradigm. Journal of Communication35: 50–68.
7.
BlumlerJGGurevitchM (1995) The Crisis of Public Communication. New York: Psychology Press.
8.
BrunsdonCJohnsonCMoseleyRWheatleyH (2001) Factual entertainment on British television: The Midlands TV Research Group’s “8–9 Project”. European Journal of Cultural Studies4: 29–62.
9.
CampbellV (2004) Information Age Journalism: Journalism in an International Context. London: Arnold.
CarlsonM (2015) Metajournalistic discourse and the meanings of journalism: Definitional control, boundary work, and legitimation. Communication Theory. Epub ahead of print 4November. DOI: 10.1111/comt.12088.
12.
ChanJMPanZLeeFLF (2004) Professional aspirations and job satisfaction: Chinese journalists at a time of change in the media. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly81: 254–273.
13.
ChanMJSoCYK (2005) The surrogate democracy function of the media: Citizens’ and journalists’ evaluations of media performance in Hong Kong. In: RomanoABromleyM (eds) Journalism and Democracy in Asia. London; New York: Routledge, pp. 66–80.
14.
ChaneyD (2001) From ways of life to lifestyle: Rethinking culture as ideology and sensibility. In: LullJ (ed.) Culture in the Communication Age. London: Routledge, pp. 75–88.
15.
ChristiansCGGlasserTLMcQuailDet al. (2009) Normative Theories of the Media: Journalism in Democratic Societies. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
16.
CohenBC (1963) The Press and Foreign Policy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
17.
Commission on Freedom of the Press (1947) A Free and Responsible Press – A General Report on Mass Communication: Newspapers, Radio, Motion Pictures, Magazines, and Books. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
DonohueKG (2003) Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Idea of the Consumer. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
20.
DonsbachWPattersonTE (2004) Political news journalists: Partisanship, professionalism, and political roles in five countries. In: EsserFPfetschB (eds) Comparing Political Communication: Theories, Cases, and Challenges. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 251–270.
21.
EideMKnightG (1999) Public/Private service: Service journalism and the problems of everyday life. European Journal of Communication14: 525–547.
22.
GardinerME (2000) Critiques of Everyday Life. London: Routledge.
23.
GeorgeC (2013) Diversity around a democratic core: The universal and the particular in journalism. Journalism14: 490–503.
24.
GoldingP (1977) Media professionalism in the Third World: The transfer of an ideology. In: CurranJGurevitchMWoollacottJ (eds) Mass Communication and Society. London: Arnold, pp. 291–308.
25.
GrabeSWardLMHydeJS (2008) The role of the media in body image concerns among women: A meta-analysis of experimental and correlational studies. Psychological Bulletin134: 460–476.
26.
HabermasJ (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
27.
HachtenWA (1981) The World News Prism: Changing Media, Clashing Ideologies. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press.
28.
HallinDC (2000) Media, political power, and democratization in Mexico. In: CurranJParkM-J (eds) De-Westernizing Media Studies. London: Routledge, pp. 97–110.
29.
HanitzschT (2007) Deconstructing journalism culture: Towards a universal theory. Communication Theory17: 367–385.
30.
HanitzschT (2011) Populist disseminators, detached watchdogs, critical change agents and opportunist facilitators: Professional milieus, the journalistic field and autonomy in 18 countries. International Communication Gazette73: 477–494.
31.
HanitzschTVosTP (2017) Journalistic roles and the struggle over institutional identity: The discursive constitution of journalism. Communication Theory27: 115–135.
32.
HanuschFHanitzschT (2013) Mediating orientation and self-expression in the world of consumption: Australian and German lifestyle journalists’ professional views. Media, Culture & Society35: 943–959.
33.
HowarthD (2000) Discourse. Buckingham: Oxford University Press.
34.
InglehartR (1997) Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
35.
InglehartRWelzelC (2005) Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
36.
JanowitzM (1975) Professional models in journalism: The gatekeeper and the advocate. Journalism Quarterly52: 618–626.
37.
JohnstoneJSlawskiEBowmanW (1972) The professional values of American newsmen. Public Opinion Quarterly36: 522–540.
38.
JosephiB (2005) Journalism in the global age: Between normative and empirical. Gazette67: 575–590.
39.
JosephiB (2013) How much democracy does journalism need?Journalism14: 474–489.
40.
KöcherR (1986) Bloodhounds or missionaries: Role definitions of German and British journalists. European Journal of Communication1: 43–64.
41.
KovachBRosenstielT (2001) The Elements of Journalism. London: Atlantic Books.
42.
LasswellH (1948) The Structure and Function of Communication and Society: The Communication of Ideas. New York: Institute for Religious and Social Studies.
43.
LeeC-C (2001) Servants of the state or the market? Media and journalists in China. In: TunstallJ (ed.) Media Occupations and Professions: A Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 240–252.
44.
McGoldrickA (2000) Peace journalism – An introduction. In: Friedrich Ebert Foundation (ed.) The Media in Conflicts – Accomplices or Mediators?Bonn: FES, pp. 19–24.
45.
McQuailD (2000) McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory. London: SAGE.
46.
MastertonM (ed.) (1996) Asian Values in Journalism. Singapore: AMIC.
47.
MehraA (1989) Press Systems in ASEAN States. Singapore: AMIC.
48.
MeyenMRiesmeyerC (2012) Service providers, sentinels, and traders. Journalism Studies13: 386–401.
49.
NeroneJ (1995) Revisiting four theories of the press. In: NeroneJ (ed.) Last Rights: Revisiting Four Theories of the Press. Urbana, IL; Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 1–30.
50.
NeroneJ (2013) The historical roots of the normative model of journalism. Journalism14: 446–458.
51.
NorrisPOdugbemiS (2010) Evaluating media performance. In: NorrisP (ed.) Public Sentinel: News Media and Governance Reform. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications, pp. 3–29.
52.
ParkDWPooleyJ (eds) (2008) The History of Media and Communication Research: Contested Memories. New York: Peter Lang.
53.
PastiS (2005) Two generations of contemporary Russian journalists. European Journal of Communication20: 89–115.
54.
PintakL (2014) Islam, identity and professional values: A study of journalists in three Muslim-majority regions. Journalism15: 482–503.
55.
PintakLGingesJ (2008) The mission of Arab journalism: Creating change in a time of turmoil. The International Journal of Press/Politics13: 193–227.
56.
PintakLNazirSJ (2013) Pakistani journalism: At the crossroads of Muslim identity, national priorities and journalistic culture. Media, Culture & Society35: 640–665.
57.
PutnamRD (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
58.
RamaprasadJHamdyNN (2006) Functions of Egyptian journalists: Perceived importance and actual performance. International Communication Gazette68: 167–185.
59.
RimalRNLapinskiMK (2015) A re-explication of social norms, ten years later. Communication Theory25: 393–409.
60.
RomanoA (2003) Politics and the Press in Indonesia: Understanding an Evolving Political Culture. London: Routledge.
61.
RomanoA (2005) Asian journalism: News, development and the tides of liberalization and technology. In: RomanoABromleyM (eds) Journalism and Democracy in Asia. London: Routledge, pp. 1–14.
62.
RosenJ (2000) Questions and answers about public journalism. Journalism Studies1: 679–683.
63.
RubinAM (1981) An examination of television viewing motivations. Communication Research8: 141–165.
64.
SchmidtVA (2008) Discursive institutionalism: The explanatory power of ideas and discourse. Annual Review of Political Science11: 303–326.
65.
SchmidtVA (2010) Taking ideas and discourse seriously: Explaining change through discursive institutionalism as the fourth ‘new institutionalism’. European Political Science Review2: 1–25.
66.
SchrammW (1964) Mass Media and National Development:The Role of Information in Developing Countries. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
67.
SchudsonM (2001) The objectivity norm in American journalism. Journalism2(2): 149–170.
68.
ShotterJ (1993) Cultural Politics of Everyday Life: Social Constructionism, Rhetoric and Knowing of the Third Kind. Toronto, ON, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
69.
SiebertFSPetersonTSchrammW (1956) Four Theories of the Press: The Authoritarian, Libertarian, Social Responsibility, and Soviet Communist Concepts of What the Press Should Be and Do. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
70.
StathamP (2007) Journalists as commentators on European politics: Educators, partisans or ideologues?European Journal of Communication22: 461–477.
71.
TaylorL (2002) From ways of life to lifestyle: The ‘ordinari-ization’ of British gardening lifestyle television. European Journal of Communication17: 479–493.
72.
TongJ (2011) Investigative Journalism in China: Journalism, Power, and Society. London: Continuum.
73.
UnderwoodD (2001) Reporting and the push for market-oriented journalism: Media organizations as business. In: BennettWLEntmanRM (eds) Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 99–116.
74.
VosTP (2012) ‘Homo Journalisticus’: Journalism education’s role in articulating the objectivity norm. Journalism13: 435–449.
75.
Wahl-JorgensenK (2013) The strategic ritual of emotionality: A case study of Pulitzer Prize-winning articles. Journalism14: 129–145.
76.
WeaverDH (ed.) (1998) The Global Journalist: News People around the World. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.
77.
WeaverDHWilhoitGC (1986) The American Journalist. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
78.
WeaverDHWilhoitGC (1996) The American Journalist in the 1990s: U.S. News People at the End of an Era. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
79.
WeaverDHWillnatL (eds) (2012) The Global Journalist in the 21st Century. New York: Routledge.
80.
WeaverDHBeamRABrownleyBJet al. (2007) The American Journalist in the 21st Century: U.S. News People at the Dawn of a New Millennium. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
81.
WongK (2004) Asian-based development journalism and political elections: Press coverage of the 1999 general elections in Malaysia. Gazette66(1): 25–40.
82.
WrightWR (1960) Functional analysis and mass communication. Public Opinion Quarterly24: 610–613.
83.
WuWWeaverDJohnsonOV (1996) Professional roles of Russian and U.S. journalists: A comparative study. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly73: 534–548.
84.
XiaogeX (2005) Demystifying Asian Values in Journalism. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish.
85.
ZelizerB (1993) Journalists as interpretive communities. Critical Studies in Mass Communication10: 219–237.
86.
ZelizerB (2013) On the shelf life of democracy in journalism scholarship. Journalism14: 459–473.
87.
ZillmannD (1988) Mood management through communication choices. American Behavioral Scientist31: 327–341.
88.
ZillmannDBryantJ (1985) Affect, mood, and emotion as determinants of selective exposure. In: ZillmannDBryantJ (eds) Selective Exposure to Communication. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 157–190.
