Understanding Journalistic Culture as Context and Result of Negotiation

Research into journalistic cultures primarily focuses on examining how normative demands on journalistic work are evaluated in different countries or reflected in media output. This article advocates an agenda for research on journalistic culture that foregrounds intrapersonal communicative negotiation processes that journalists engage in as part of their duty to facilitate public communication. It proposes a research approach that attends to the significance of journalists’ strategies for negotiating the inevitable conflicts, uncertainties, and ambiguities that come when trying to align ideals and practices. This proposed research approach allows for inclusiveness of work, not only from Western countries but also from non-Western and nondemocratic contexts. By focusing on journalistic negotiation across individual, community, organizational, social system, and global contexts, research may be more capable of discovering both tensions and challenges but also innovative strategies, interpretations, and improvisations that constitute different journalistic cultures.