Mapping Journalism Culture: A Theoretical Taxonomy and Case Studies from Indonesia

Abstract

Given the persistent variation in the ways journalism works across cultural boundaries, researchers are often quick to speak of ‘journalistic’ or ‘ professional cultures’ without conceptual clarity. Consequently, ‘journalism culture’ has become an increasingly vague concept, inviting misunderstanding and theoretical ambiguity. This paper, therefore, introduces a taxonomy of journalism cultures, consisting of the territorial, essentialist, value-centered, milieu-specific, organizational and professional journalism cultures. Empirical evidence is provided for three of these cultures, drawing on data from a survey of 385 professional journalists in Indonesia. The results suggest that if culture has some kind of severe impact on journalism, it is not likely to appear on the level of the individual (micro) and organization (meso), but rather on the societal level (macro).

Keywords:

• Journalism Culture
• Professional Ideology
• Territory
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Ownership

Notes

1. The International Communication Association in 2004 created a special interest group for Ethnicity and Race in Communication. Additionally, issues related to race and ethnicity increasingly gain momentum at international conferences.

2. http://www.sinus-sociovision.de

3. The special province of Yogyakarta does geographically belong to Central Java, but in administrative terms, it is autonomous from the surrounding province Central Java.

4. According to Hardjana (2000) and Siregar (2002), roughly three out of four Indonesian media organizations operate from the main island Java and half from the capital Jakarta.

5. Jakarta: center, high level of industrialization, predominantly Javanese and Sundanese; Yogyakarta: periphery, low level of industrialization, predominantly Javanese; North Sumatra: periphery, medium level of industrialization, predominantly Sumatra, Javanese and Malay.