{"id":10255,"date":"2020-07-13T18:49:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T16:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newws.leibniz-hbi.de\/?post_type=hbi-publications&#038;p=10255"},"modified":"2026-08-23T18:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T16:52:11","slug":"what-journalists-want-and-what-they-ought-to-do","status":"publish","type":"hbi-publications","link":"https:\/\/newws.leibniz-hbi.de\/en\/hbi-publications\/what-journalists-want-and-what-they-ought-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What Journalists Want and What They Ought to Do"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"description\">\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4630 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/newws.leibniz-hbi.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/What-Journalists-Want-and-What-They-Ought-to-Do.-InCongruences-Between-Journalists-Role-Conceptions-and-Audiences-Expectations-300x193.png\" alt=\"Cover Journalism Studies\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newws.leibniz-hbi.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/What-Journalists-Want-and-What-They-Ought-to-Do.-InCongruences-Between-Journalists-Role-Conceptions-and-Audiences-Expectations-300x193.png 300w, https:\/\/newws.leibniz-hbi.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/What-Journalists-Want-and-What-They-Ought-to-Do.-InCongruences-Between-Journalists-Role-Conceptions-and-Audiences-Expectations-768x494.png 768w, https:\/\/newws.leibniz-hbi.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/What-Journalists-Want-and-What-They-Ought-to-Do.-InCongruences-Between-Journalists-Role-Conceptions-and-Audiences-Expectations.png 840w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/h2>\n<p class=\"description\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newws.leibniz-hbi.de\/en\/employee\/wiebke-loosen\/\">Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/newws.leibniz-hbi.de\/en\/employee\/julius-reimer\/\">Julius Reimer<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/newws.leibniz-hbi.de\/en\/employee\/sascha-hoelig\/\">Dr. Sascha H\u00f6lig<\/a> analyze the self-image of journalists in their article published in the journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/toc\/rjos20\/current\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Journalism Studies<\/a>. The focus is not only on their own role perception, but also on the expectations of their audience &#8211; in other words, what journalists want and what they ought to do.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/1461670X.2020.1790026?journalCode=rjos20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">To the article<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Abstract<\/h2>\n<p>This article analyzes how journalists\u2019 role conceptions compare to what the population expects fromthem. We model this interrelation as part of the reflexive relationship between journalism and audiences which is characterized by mutual (self-)expectations that can be more or less congruent. Through a representative CATI-survey (n\u2009=\u20091,000) we explore the tasks German citizens expect journalists to fulfill and compare them with existing representative data on German journalists\u2019 own role conceptions as collected in the \u201cWorlds of Journalism\u201d study. For that purpose, we adapted the item battery on journalistic role conceptions for the audience&#8217;s perspective and complemented it with potential new journalistic tasks such as moderating public discourse online. Results show that what journalists want to do most is also what the population thinks they should do: these are primarily the traditional journalistic tasks of objective reporting as well as analysis and explanation, but also the promotion of tolerance and cultural diversity. Looking more closely at the population&#8217;s opinions reveals that respondents, in general, also want journalists to provide source transparency. However, individual citizens\u2019 preferences are diverse, with age, gender, and news usage practices correlating with different expectations of journalism.<\/p>\n<p>Loosen, W.; Reimer, J.; H\u00f6lig, S. (2020): What Journalists Want and What They Ought to Do. (In)Congruences Between Journalists\u2019 Role Conceptions and Audiences\u2019 Expectations. In: Journalism Studies, 21 (2020) 12, pp. 1744-1774, DOI: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/1461670X.2020.1790026?journalCode=rjos20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">10.1080\/1461670X.2020.1790026<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2433,"template":"","tags":[398],"class_list":["post-10255","hbi-publications","type-hbi-publications","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-miscellaneous"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.6 (Yoast SEO v28.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Journalists Want and What They Ought to Do - Leibniz HBI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newws.leibniz-hbi.de\/en\/hbi-publications\/what-journalists-want-and-what-they-ought-to-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Journalists Want and What They Ought to Do\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen, Julius Reimer and Dr. Sascha H\u00f6lig analyze the self-image of journalists in their article published in the journal Journalism Studies. 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