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).