ABSTRACT
Comparative research has clearly gained currency in the field of journalism studies. However, the cross-cultural inquiry into journalists’ orientations and professional views is not a new area of research. With their comparison of journalists from the United States and Latin America, McLeod and Rush (1969) started a tradition that was taken further by, among many others, Patterson and Donsbach (1996), as well as Weaver (1998) with the first edition of The Global Journalist. While producing interesting insights into the variation of journalistic cultures across the globe, comparative journalism research suffered from a number of shortcomings (Hanitzsch 2009, for an overview). Journalism researchers often focused on Western countries at the expense of other world regions, most notably Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia. Concepts and theories that underpinned much of the research primarily originated from the West and were not necessarily suited to non-Western contexts. Furthermore, the extent of methodological sophistication too often fell behind essential standards of sound comparative research.
