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This article describes and discusses how normative journalistic roles are formulated across Europe. The material was obtained from the 2012–2016 wave of the Worlds of Journalism Study, a comparative study designed to assess the state of journalism throughout the world. The advantage of this study over similar undertakings in the past is that we did not confront journalists with ready-made statements but invited them to tell us, in their own words, what they thought the major roles of journalists in their countries ought to be. Open responses of more than 10,200 journalists from twenty-seven European countries yielded 12,860 references. Results show that the most important roles refer to the domain of political life, especially the informational-instructive and the critical-monitorial functions—a finding that is consistent across the twenty-seven countries investigated. Beyond this shared global vision, it is, however, possible to point out some national specificities, keeping in mind that even if the core of the normative roles remains somewhat universal, a detailed comparison of those roles in their cultural context allows us to grasp some differences in their hierarchy and their meaning.

This study aims to describe the growing influence of flexibility rationales on the early careers of young, francophone Belgian journalists. The study on the integration of new journalists enables us to grasp how the destandardisation of the beginnings of a career creates new identity forms in part distanced from the traditional values that had managed to make journalism a job that was distinct, recognised and more or less solidly positioned in the social sphere. At its most extreme, flexible rationale acts as a key factor in the increasingly frequent divide between a job and work. After having established these observations through a longitudinal study of a body of young journalists, the study analyses the impact of flexible rationales in the identity forms and the theoretical issue of boundaries between journalism and others business sectors.

Abstract
This article investigates the photographic coverage of the migration crisis in Belgium. It focuses on an event that captured the attention of the Belgian media in September 2015. At the end of the summer, hundreds of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, waiting for a hypothetical asylum in Belgium, suddenly set up a camp in the middle of the Maximilian Park, which is located in the heart of Brussels, near the Immigration Office. Up to 1000 people slept there until the camp was dismantled in early October. These events generated a wave of citizen solidarity and constant political agitation over regularization of the refugees. Technical, thematic and contextual analysis of the photographic coverage of the Maximilian Park in four Belgian newspapers (two 'popular' titles and two 'quality papers') helps not just to understand how what happened there is to be distinguished from other pictures and stereotypes of refugees, but also how these images express and feed longer crisis narratives at both Belgian and European levels. We observed that the photo coverage of the quality newspapers focused on the refugees and the living conditions in the park (while the tabloid newspapers largely ignored them). Instead of showing the refugees as a threat or as distant foreigners facing a new interlocutor (the volunteers of the park), those pictures chose to get as close as possible to the refugees' daily life and their difficult living conditions. In doing so, however, the pictures presented to the readers seemed far from the tendency to universalize 'the refugee' and do not question photojournalism as a form of humanism.

Based on qualitative responses from journalists working in 67 countries, this article presents evidence from a comparative assessment of normative journalistic roles. Different from other types of journalistic roles, normative roles refer to professional aspirations as to how journalism and journalists are supposed to contribute to society. While these roles are typically studied through standardized sets of statements, this study builds on journalists' own assessments of what should be the most important roles of journalism in their societies. The material for this analysis was obtained from the 2012–2016 wave of the Worlds of Journalism Study. Responses of 20,638 journalists from around the world yielded 45,046 references to journalistic roles. Results show that journalists still see their normative roles primarily in the political arena – a finding that is consistent across the countries investigated. In non-Western countries, journalists articulated a normative demand for intervention in social processes and a more constructive attitude toward ruling powers. Overall, our analysis demonstrates that the normative core of journalism around the world is still invariably built on the news media's contribution to political processes and conversations, while other areas, such as the management of self and everyday life, remain marginalized.

Based on qualitative responses from journalists working in 67 countries, this article presents evidence from a comparative assessment of normative journalistic roles. Different from other types of journalistic roles, normative roles refer to professional aspirations as to how journalism and journalists are supposed to contribute to society. While these roles are typically studied through standardized sets of statements, this study builds on journalists' own assessments of what should be the most important roles of journalism in their societies. The material for this analysis was obtained from the 2012–2016 wave of the Worlds of Journalism Study. Responses of 20,638 journalists from around the world yielded 45,046 references to journalistic roles. Results show that journalists still see their normative roles primarily in the political arena – a finding that is consistent across the countries investigated. In non-Western countries, journalists articulated a normative demand for intervention in social processes and a more constructive attitude toward ruling powers. Overall, our analysis demonstrates that the normative core of journalism around the world is still invariably built on the news media's contribution to political processes and conversations, while other areas, such as the management of self and everyday life, remain marginalized.

Earlier research has shown that public opinion and policy lines on the topic of immigrant integration are interrelated. This article investigates a sample of 24 countries for which data are available in the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), the World Values Survey (WVS), as well as in the Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS). To our knowledge, this is the first time that these data are connected to one another to study journalists' views on their role to promote tolerance and cultural diversity in societies with diverging immigration policies. The WJS presents an analysis of the role conceptions of professional journalists throughout the world, including a variable measuring the extent to which journalists conceive promoting tolerance and cultural diversity as one of their tasks. Our findings show that journalists (as measured in the WJS) mostly tend to promote tolerance and cultural diversity in countries with more restrictive immigration policies (measured by MIPEX) and less emancipative values (measured by the WVS) Promoting tolerance and cultural diversity is associated with a so-called interventionist approach in journalism culture. Furthermore, we used cluster analyses to attribute the countries under study to meaningful, separate groups. More precisely, we discriminate four clusters of the press among the 24 countries under investigation.

Canada, Belgium and Switzerland are multicultural countries with several similarities including having French as a minority language. The trio also shares similar media landscapes, systems and approaches to journalism to those of other Western European and Northern American countries. These commonalities offer an opportunity to probe for the possibility of a language-based differentiation in journalists' professional identities. Our comparative analysis of Worlds of Journalism Study data suggests that francophone journalists in our three countries have much more in common than not with their other-language peers. However, the francophone journalists seem more likely to identify with a politicized role that includes agenda-setting, citizen-motivation and scrutinizing power, and less likely to be driven by attracting and satisfying audiences. A différence francophone exists, but it is modest.

Canada, Belgium and Switzerland are multicultural countries with several similarities including having French as a minority language. The trio also shares similar media landscapes, systems and approaches to journalism to those of other Western European and Northern American countries. These commonalities offer an opportunity to probe for the possibility of a language-based differentiation in journalists' professional identities. Our comparative analysis of Worlds of Journalism Study data suggests that francophone journalists in our three countries have much more in common than not with their other-language peers. However, the francophone journalists seem more likely to identify with a politicized role that includes agenda-setting, citizen-motivation and scrutinizing power, and less likely to be driven by attracting and satisfying audiences. A différence francophone exists, but it is modest.

Special Issue: Comparing Journalistic Cultures ; Canada, Belgium and Switzerland are multicultural countries with several similarities including having French as a minority language. The trio also shares similar media landscapes, systems and approaches to journalism to those of other Western European and Northern American countries. These commonalities offer an opportunity to probe for the possibility of a language-based differentiation in journalists' professional identities. Our comparative analysis of Worlds of Journalism Study data suggests that francophone journalists in our three countries have much more in common than not with their other-language peers. However, the francophone journalists seem more likely to identify with a politicized role that includes agenda-setting, citizen-motivation and scrutinizing power, and less likely to be driven by attracting and satisfying audiences. A différence francophone exists, but it is modest.