Nordic journalists’ conceptual roles and perceived influencesA European and inter-Nordic comparison

Hovden, Jan Fredrik; Väliverronen, Jari

Nordic journalists’ conceptual roles and perceived influencesA European and inter-Nordic comparison

Nordicom Review

Volume 42 (2021): Issue 1 (January 2021)

By:

Jan Fredrik Hovden and Jari Väliverronen

Open Access

|May 2021

Figures & Tables

Indexes for perceived roles and influences for European journalistsComments: Bertin graph with country means for perceived roles and influences. 18 countries, N = 10,254. Black categories are above-average for the variable.Source: Authors

Perceived roles and influences (European variations)Comments: Map of the variations in perceived roles and influences among journalists in 18 European countries. Principal component analysis, Axis 1–2. Active and passive categories. Non-European liberal countries added for reference.Source: Authors

Media systems and perceived roles and influencesComments: The figure shows the relative placement and spread of journalists from different media systems in the space of European differences in perceived roles and influences. Principal component analysis, axes 1–2: Concentration and confidence ellipses for Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) media systems; Eastern Europe added for reference. The five small confidence ellipses show the uncertainty in the different media systems’ positions. These ellipses’ separation indicates their significantly different positions on the plane. The five big concentration ellipses show individuals’ spread. A normally shaped cloud contains 86% of the individuals in a category.Source: Authors

Perceived roles and influences (Nordic variations)Comments: Map of the variations in perceived roles and influences among journalists in the Nordic countries.Principal component analysis, Axis 1–2. Active and passive categories.Source: Authors

Nordic differencesComments: The figure shows the relative placement and spread of the five countries’ journalists in the Nordic plane of perceived roles and influences. Principal component analysis, axes 1–2: Concentration and confidence ellipses.Five Nordic countries, N = 3,246.Source: Authors

Principal component analysis of journalists in 18 European countries

	Axis 1	Axis 2	Axis 3	Axis 4
Eigenvalue	6.38	4.69	2.77	2.37
% of explained variance	14.9	10.9	6.4	5.5
Cumulated %	14.9	25.8	32.2	37.8

% of contribution to axes

Roles	51.5	61.0	66.0	45.8
Influences	48.5	39.0	34.0	54.2

Correlation with indexes

Monitorial	0.57	−0.70	−0.11	−0.05
Interventionist	0.68	−0.31	0.42	−0.01
Collaborative	0.48	0.07	0.50	−0.13
Populist	0.26	0.35	0.44	0.48
Political	0.61	0.30	−0.24	−0.54
Organisational	0.49	0.40	−0.10	0.14
Procedural	0.46	0.05	−0.49	0.33
Economic	0.44	0.50	0.08	0.19
Personal	0.39	0.37	−0.18	0.10
Autonomy	−0.04	−0.16	0.05	0.16

Nordic WJS sample methodology

Country	Year of data collection	Sample	Method	Number of respondents	Response rate (%)
Denmark	2015	All members of Journalism Union	Online	1,362	19
Finland	2013	Stratified sample (media type and geographical location) of all journalists	Mixed (phone & email)	366	50–55
Iceland	2012	The whole population of journalists	Mixed (face-to-face & online)	187	53
Norway	2013	All members of Union of Journalists and Union of Editors	Online	656	36
Sweden	2013–14	Members of online Journalist Panel	Online	675	36

Principal component analysis of Nordic journalists

	Axis 1	Axis 2	Axis 3	Axis 4
Eigenvalue	5.63	4.03	3.01	2.59
% of explained variance	13.1	9.4	7.0	6.0
Cumulated %	13.1	22.5	29.5	35.6

% of contribution to axes

Roles	69.6	42.4	78.2	56.4
Influences	30.4	57.6	21.8	43.6

Correlation with indexes

Monitorial	−0.72	0.53	−0.18	0.10
Interventionist	−0.67	0.14	0.53	−0.13
Collaborative	−0.32	−0.11	0.52	−0.06
Populist	−0.16	−0.41	0.14	−0.62
Political	−0.53	−0.44	−0.13	0.53
Organisational	−0.37	−0.37	−0.01	0.00
Procedural	−0.34	−0.26	−0.42	−0.22
Economic	−0.31	−0.44	0.10	−0.15
Personal	−0.28	−0.51	−0.12	0.02
Autonomy	0.04	0.13	−0.12	−0.15

Selected characteristics of Nordic journalists

	Iceland	Norway	Finland	Sweden	Denmark	Total
Reach

Local	2	27	13	27	10	16
Regional	6	22	27	32	20	23
National	91	51	60	40	70	61

Ownership

Private	75	81	77	72	68	73
Public	25	19	23	28	32	27

Medium

Newspaper	64	60	49	59	50	55
Magazine	3	12	27	14	20	18
Broadcasting	32	28	24	27	29	28
Online outlet or standalone	3	2	1	0	8	4

Beat

Generalist	72	65	52	38	59	56
News/current affairs	1	1	11	0	1	2
Politics	7	6	6	25	11	12
Economy	5	3	3	6	4	4
Crime and law	0	1	1	3	1	1
Culture	3	9	5	6	5	6
Sports	8	4	3	5	3	4
Health	0	4	2	0	3	2
Entertainment	0	2	1	2	1	1
Other	5	6	16	16	11	11

Full-time, part-time, or freelance

Full-time	90	73	78	74	71	74
Part-time	5	5	4	7	5	5
Freelance	5	23	18	18	23	21

Editorial rank

Senior/executive manager	16	11	7	4	6	7
Junior manager	15	6	20	18	23	18
Rank-and-file	69	83	73	78	71	75

Experience

Less than 5 years	24	15	7	2	12	10
5 years or more	76	85	93	98	88	90
Age (mean)	39.6	43.3	43.4	51.3	45.9	44.7

Gender

Female	35	50	55	46	43	46
Male	65	50	45	54	57	54

Educational level

High school	21	8	12	13	6	9
Bachelor	47	67	27	52	65	57
Master’s or higher	32	25	61	35	29	34

Educational specialisation

Journalism	22	48	45	61	78	63
Other communication	9	17	11	7	9	10
Both	1	8	8	10	0	4
Neither	68	28	37	22	13	23

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0034 | Journal eISSN: 2001-5119 | Journal ISSN: 1403-1108

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Language: English

Page range: 141 - 161

Published on: May 13, 2021

Published by: University of Gothenburg Nordicom

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

Keywords:

Nordic journalists,

journalistic roles,

perceived influences,

media systems,

comparative analysis

Related subjects:

Social sciences,

Communication science,

Mass communication,

Public and political communication

© 2021 Jan Fredrik Hovden, Jari Väliverronen, published by University of Gothenburg Nordicom
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

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Nordic journalists’ conceptual roles and perceived influencesA European and inter-Nordic comparison

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Principal component analysis of journalists in 18 European countries

Nordic WJS sample methodology

Principal component analysis of Nordic journalists

Selected characteristics of Nordic journalists

Paradigm

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