What is it about?
We wanted to know what journalists in Finland were trying to achieve with their reporting on asylum and refugee issues in 2015-2016, during the height of the so-called refugee crisis in Europe. At that time, news journalism on this issue became highly contentious, with different groups accusing news media of biased reporting. We interviewed 24 Finnish journalists and let them talk about their experiences when covering refugee issues.
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Why is it important?
Professional journalists often like to think of themselves as impartial and detached observers of politics, so that the audiences can trust them to give truthful accounts of events. Because of strong anti-immigrant and pro-refugee mobilisation, the refugee debate challenged that self-conception in many ways. A better understanding and openness of what values and political ideals journalists stand for would help improve the transparency and credibility of journalism.
Perspectives
It's important to keep in mind that reporters are not of one mold and tend to hold rather diverging ideas about their social roles, that is, ideas about what they are supposed to do and what is expected from them by their peers, employers and readers and viewers. In their work, reporters constantly adapt to such diverging expectations, choosing shiftin their roles from one situatiation to the next.
Markus Ojala
Helsingin Yliopisto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Watchdogs, Advocates and Adversaries: Journalists’ Relational Role Conceptions in Asylum Reporting, Media and Communication, June 2018, Cogitatio,
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v6i2.1284.
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