The American Journalist in the Digital Age

Abstract

This paper reports findings from a 2013 survey of 1080 US journalists and a 2014 survey of 1230 US citizens, focusing on their views of traditional journalism roles and the performance of journalism in the United States. The study finds significant differences in how journalists and the public evaluate news media performance and journalistic roles. It also finds that news consumption and social media use predict stronger support for traditional journalistic roles among journalists and citizens.

KEYWORDS:

• journalistic roles
• public perceptions
• survey
• US journalists

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Journalist sample: The findings we report come from online interviews with 1080 US journalists working for a wide variety of media organizations throughout the United States. These interviews were conducted from August 7 to December 20, 2013. The journalists were chosen randomly from news organizations that were also selected at random from listings in various directories. We compared our final main sample percentages with the overall workforce percentages from these estimates and found a relatively close match for all seven media types. The final sample of 1080 US journalists included 358 daily newspaper journalists, 238 from weekly newspapers, 132 from television stations and networks, 97 from radio, 92 from online news organizations, 103 from the wire services, and 60 from news magazines. The response rate was 32.6 percent (American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Response Rate 1 (RR1)).

2. Public sample: The sample of online respondents for this survey of the general US public was provided by Qualtrics, which relies on census-representative, 100 percent research-only panels managed by ClearVoiceSurveys.com. The response rate was 55 percent (AAPOR RR1).

3. Journalistic roles: For each of the following statements, please indicate how important or unimportant you think they are: (1) Get information to the public quickly; (2) Provide analysis and interpretation of complex problems; (3) Provide entertainment and relaxation; (4) Investigate claims and statements made by the government; (5) Provide analysis and interpretation of international developments; (6) Stay away from stories where factual content cannot be verified; (7) Concentrate on news that’s of interest to the widest possible audience; (8) Discuss national policy while it is still being developed; (9) Develop intellectual and cultural interests of the public; (10) Be an adversary of public officials by being constantly skeptical of their actions; (11) Be an adversary of businesses by being constantly skeptical of their actions; (12) Set the political agenda; (13) Give ordinary people a chance to express their views on public affairs; (14) Motivate ordinary people to get involved in public discussions of important issues; (15) Point people toward possible solutions to society’s problems.

4. Sex: Male/female. Age: In what year were you born? Education: What is the last grade or class that you completed in school? Grade 1–8; High school incomplete; High school graduate; Technical, trade, or vocational school; Some college; College graduate; Post-graduate training. Race: Are you Spanish, Hispanic or Latino? (yes; no). In which one of the following racial groups would you place yourself? White; Black or African-American; Asian or Asian-American; American Indian or Alaska Native; Pacific Islander; Other. Importance of religion: How important is religion or religious beliefs to you? Not at all important; not very important; somewhat important; very important. Political leaning: In general, would you describe your political views as: very conservative; conservative; moderate; liberal; very liberal. Income: Finally, we’d like to ask you some financial information. Would you please tell us what your total personal income was, before taxes, from your work in journalism during 2012? Less than $15,000; $15,000 to less than $20,000; $20,000 to less than $25,000 … $150,000 and over. Final demographics in journalist survey: sex (male = 62.5 percent, female = 37.5 percent), age (mean = 46, SD = 12.3), education (mean = 6.4, SD = 0.98, median = “college degree”), race (White = 89.2 percent, Minority = 10.8 percent), political leaning (mean = 2.3, SD = 1.2, median = “liberal”), income (mean = 10.8, SD = 7.6, median = $50,028), importance of religion (mean = 2.5, SD = 1.1, median = “somewhat important”). Final demographics citizen survey: sex (male = 49.3 percent, female = 50.7 percent), age (mean = 47.1, SD = 13.7), education (mean = 4.8, SD = 1.4, median = “some college”), race (White = 84.6 percent, Minority = 15.4 percent), political leaning (mean = 3.8, SD = 1.3, median = “liberal”), income (mean = 9.1, SD = 6.8, median = “$45,000 to <$50,000”), importance of religion (mean = 3.0, SD = 1.1, median = “somewhat important”).

5. We checked this finding by regressing citizens’ demographics on “perceived media bias” and perceptions of whether the media are doing “a good job informing the public.” The findings indicate that more-educated (β = −0.08, p < 0.01) and conservative respondents (β = −0.11, p < 0.001) are less likely to believe that the media are doing a good job informing the public. Consuming more traditional media (β = 0.14, p < 0.001), on the other hand, correlates with more positive perceptions of how well the media are informing the public. We also found that perceived media bias is associated with being male (β = 0.10, p < 0.001) and being conservative (β = 0.14, p < 0.001), but not with education.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Indiana University Bloomington [grant number 2013 American Journalist Study].