Ideology and culture

This chapter evaluates the role of culture and ideology in relation to journalism. Journalists cannot ignore that they are not operating in a vacuum, immune to environmental influences. A “western” (or any ideological) approach to journalism is not a neutral norm to which others need to adhere. Journalists can keep themselves and each other in check by questioning the approach taken to a story and identifying the lens they employ. Secondly, diverse recruitment within media organisations is key, not just in terms of ethnic, gender or national backgrounds but also in terms of value profiles. There is no one Nation which holds the gold standard for journalism and can be used as a reference point for all others. In other words, there is no such thing as Greenwich Mean Time journalism.

This is a draft of a chapter accepted for publication by Oxford University Press in The Psychology of Journalism. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press
The version of record Meurs, Nathalie Van, Sharon Coen, and Peter Bull, 'Ideology and Culture', The Psychology of Journalism (2021; online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 July 2021) is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190935856.003.0008 . For permission to re-use this material, please visit https://global.oup.com/academic/rights