ABSTRACT

Given the sheer explosion of studies in recent years, this chapter takes stock of attempts to diversify our understanding of journalistic cultures. Beyond this look at the status quo, it focuses on two key questions which present continuing challenges for scholars. First, it highlights the field’s Western bias, and asks: What is the value of contextualist approaches to studying journalistic cultures comparatively? Second, in an attempt to even further reflect realities on the ground and the need for comprehensive approaches, it asks: Who is a journalist in the digital age? From the mid-1980s to late 1990s, Hanitzsch identifies a range of studies comparing Western nations with each other, driven very much by European scholarship which began challenging US supremacy in international journals. The chapter focuses on two key debates: questions of the value of contextualist approaches to studying journalistic cultures comparatively; and the question of who counts as a journalist in the digital age.