Civic and citizen demands of news media and journalists: What does the audience expect from good journalism?

Richard Van Der Wurff*, Klaus Schoenbach

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

102 Scopus citations

Abstract

What do citizens in the Netherlands expect from journalism? A large-scale survey shows that many audience expectations align fairly well with what experts and journalists consider important democratic functions of the press. We refer to these expectations as Civic Demands. In addition, more at odds with the profession's view, the audience wants journalism to take Citizen Demands into account: The complaints and wishes of citizens. We explore how these demands relate to audience characteristics and news media use. Findings suggest that journalists and citizens could very well cooperate in securing a future for high-quality journalism.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)433-451
Number of pages19
JournalJournalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
Volume91
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2014

Keywords

  • Audience analysis
  • Journalism
  • Media and society
  • Quality of reporting
  • Role conceptions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Communication

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