Politinės žurnalistikos kultūra Lietuvoje: kokybinė prieiga ; The culture of political journalism in lithuania: a qualitative approach

Abstract

Generally speaking, we can describe the journalism culture as an ideology of media representatives, which defines their social function, identity, as well as reveals their motives in making professional decisions. Different stances on political issues and on politicians themselves is determined by the journalism culture of different media professionals. Their personal opinion and the position they choose are key elements forming the journalism culture of the whole country. It is more common to use quantitative research to identify the journalism culture of a specific country in order to analyze the data of hundreds or thousands of respondents. Most commonly, when discussing the concept of journalism culture of a specific country, quantitative research is used. In order to carry it out, several thousand or even tens of thousands of respondents are asked to answer closed-ended questions. The most popular and widely used model is Thomas Hanitzsch approach, which defines journalism culture as a combination of three main elements – Institutional Roles, Epistemologies and Ethical Ideologies. In this thesis, the Hanitzsch model is adapted to analyze the culture of political journalism in Lithuania using qualitative approach. Analyzing the responses of journalists gives a chance to look at this model from another perspective — to hear the motives of their choices and to determine if the Hanitzsch' suggested division of each dimension into two poles is enough to reveal all of the nuances of journalism culture. This master thesis is the first step towards the identification of Lithuanian journalism culture, based on subjective experience of the journalists. It is attempt to determine the sources of influence that the Lithuanian journalists are facing, the arguments that determine their choices and the challenges they face in their working environment. The aim of the thesis is to identify motives and arguments that determine the choices of journalists by using the method of qualitative approach suggested by Hanitzsch. The following tasks have been set to reach the aim of the work: 1.To discuss the concept of journalism culture and its relationship with political processes. 2.To present the research that has been done so far and introduce the Hanitzsch model chosen for this analysis. 3.Based on theory, to form a questionnaire for the practical part of the research. 4.To analyze the responses of journalists according to different dimensions formed by the research and to name which positions are chosen and what arguments determine these choices. The theoretical part of the thesis presents the concept of the journalism culture, discusses the research that has been done and widely presents the Hanitzsch model. Based on this model, the Lithuanian journalism culture will be analyzed using qualitative approach. The second part of the thesis presents a qualitative research which analyses the stances of journalists via seven dimensions. The research is carried out based on their responses delivered during in-depth interviews. In this part, besides the stances of journalists, their arguments in choosing the stances, subjective views of the situation, as well as their media experiences are also presented. The information gathered while conducting this research allows not only to find out the stances of the informants but to determine the reasons behind their specific choices. Even though the model presented by Hanitzsch is comprehensive and complex, when applied in quantitative research it limits the possibility to see into the situation thoroughly and to discover what specific challenges and market issues, shaping their journalistic culture, are seen by research participants themselves. When Lithuania takes part in quantitave market research, it would certainly be useful to conduct a more thorough qualitative analysis which would allow to determine arguments on which journalists are basing their stances.