The Larrikin Paradox is concerned with the unexplored nexus between Australian journalism's larrikin tradition and Enlightenment-informed normative theories relating to journalism's public responsibility in liberal democracy. Australian journalism's larrikin tradition, with its connotations of irresponsibility, has so far been considered an inappropriate lens through which to conceptualise Australian journalism's public role. Yet, paradoxically, it is the larrikin's capacity for irresponsibility that gives him, or her, the potential to be an enacting agent of Australian journalism's public responsibility. Using a form of Cultural Historiography, The Larrikin Paradox tests this Thesis Statement: In Australian history, larrikin journalists have been responsible for facilitating and protecting democratic freedom in the public sphere from authority. Because this freedom is in a state of vulnerability, contemporary Australian journalism still needs its larrikin tradition to vouchsafe a work culture capable of maintaining its declared responsibility to 'inform citizens' and 'animate democracy'. However, the dearth of theory concerning the larrikin as a democratic figure has meant that The Larrikin Paradox has had to conceptualise it, more or less, from scratch. After first assembling the figure from over a century of references to the larrikin, The Larrikin Paradox approaches this conceptualisation using a process of historiographical recovery and interpretation. Using a literature review of larrikinism in general, The Larrikin Paradox investigates a possible larrikin axiology relevant to Australian journalism micro-culture. This axiology is gleaned from an analysis of the term's meanings in sources such as dictionaries and commentaries on Australian English, as well as biographical and autobiographical material directly related to Australian journalism. Once gleaned, this axiology is used to inform an investigation into the history of larrikinism in Australian journalism. The history is drawn from those salient sources of journalism as a micro-culture: biographies and autobiographies by, or about, Australian journalists. Here we assume that our axiological 'compass' can help us seek out the larrikin elements in those micro-cultural sources; thereby identifying manifestations of larrikinism within almost 150 years of Australian journalism history. With larrikinism's historical and axiological significance established, The Larrikin Paradox moves on to a comparative analysis of Australian journalism during the Whitlam (1972 - 1975) and Howard (1996 - 2007) eras using oral history and industry-specific publications. This part of the investigation finds there is marked divergences in Australian journalism's cultural interpretation of its larrikin tradition arising from distinct socio-political contexts. In short, the Howard generation (1996 - 2007) of journalists is found to be less larrikin than those of the Whitlam generation (1972 - 1975). However, with the cultural theories of Stuart Hall (1978) and Raymond Williams (1958, 1977) in mind, The Larrikin Paradox concludes that the larrikin, as a democratic figure, can be re-constructed within the micro-culture of Australian journalism.

This thesis aims to provide an insight into the stereotypical imagery of journalists on the screen and its changes in popular culture, namely in film. Much research has been done on categorising different filmic characters and on journalist in popular culture as well as in real life, but from my knowledge no comparative approach focussing on the changes in the filmic stereotypes has been undertaken yet. Therefore my literature review covers existing research on journalists in film and the various categories scholar do put these characters in. Using qualitative content analysis, namely by watching and opposing sixteen selected movies, this study aims to give some in-depth view into the question if and how filmic stereotypes have changed over the approximately seventy years that lie between the films from the first (1930-1949) and second (1990-2004) period of analysis. In eight comparative chapters this study argues that some stereotypes have changed while others remain the same. Influential factors for these changes as found in the thesis are for example history, culture and audience expectation. The reason some stereotypes do not change is that they are deeply embedded in American myth that is even harder to change than stereotypes. The thesis concludes that most journalistic figures underwent considerable changes or even disappeared with only the crusading journalist, as a mythical heroic figure, hardly changed at all.

The news media are expected to provide equal space to female and male political actors, promoting the idea of equal access to political power, since they are recognized as a holder of power with a social responsibility to respect gender equality. However, as previous research shows, political news coverage is characterized by so-called “gendered mediation” (Gidengil and Everitt 1999), i.e., gender imbalance, stereotypes, and a lack of discussions about gender inequality. Scholars point to media logic, organization, and individual characteristics of journalists as the main reasons for this pattern, but still very little is known about how and why gendered mediation is practiced and processed in political news. This dissertation focuses on gendering understood as the perceived imprint of gender on the media portrayal of politics and politicians, as well as the processes by which gendered representations materialize. By applying a perspective of comparative journalism culture studies (Hanitzsch 2007; Hanitzsch and Donsbach 2012), it examines the processes and modes of origin of gendering as they are perceived and experienced by journalists. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 40 journalists working for the quality press in Russia and Sweden. The results show that the national culture of political journalism, and the context it is located within, are of crucial importance for understanding gendering and its modes of origin. Gendering may cause problems to the democratic development of society and the position of the quality press in it; however, it also offers a potential for promoting gender equality. The choice of the form of gendering does not fully depend on journalists. It depends on the contextual possibilities for journalists to fulfill the gender-ethical ideal of the quality outlet as long as they need to meet the demands of society and market, and to face the challenges of political communication.

This study explores the occupational culture of journalism in a Southwestern China metropolis, Kunming, answering the questions of what and how journalists there give meaning to their work through analyzing the substance and form of the journalism culture. Over three months of fieldwork in four different local newspapers revealed a gap between the meanings these journalists aspire and the meanings they can materialize through practice, due to political and economic constraints. As a result, the journalists felt conflicted and deeply frustrated but at the same time tried to push the boundaries in different ways, including active use of digital technology and social media. The study also found that the journalism culture was intrinsically intertwined with the social, cultural and global environment within which it resided, as social conflict, widespread mistrust and global influences played important roles in shaping the meanings the journalists gave to their work. The journalism culture was also one of contradictions and uncertainties, still in the making and changing at a rapid pace. It is a journalism culture of a particular transitional era and place, with Chinese characteristics.

This thesis is a qualitative study that examines the correlation between the activist movement #MeToo and the possible effects it had on journalists’ professional conduct with regard to ethics, through the theoretical framework of journalism culture and patriotic journalism. The analysis is based on six semi- structured interviews with journalists that were involved in publications during the height of the #MeToo movement in Sweden. The study indicates that the movement influenced the informants, several found it difficult to differentiate the personal and work-related impact it had on them at the time. Their intense coverage of the movement was fueled by the engaged public, as well as the activist movement itself, which could be interpreted as market orientation or interventionism – or both. Their expressed solidarity with the movement’s values and goals, as well as the fact that their own industry had a specific #MeToo- campaign, positioned the journalists between their solidarity to the society and their professional identity.

The press coverage of any armed conflict has traditionally played a crucial role during times of war since major abuses of human rights and war crimes are brought to the public due to journalists’ coverage. When Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022, it dominated the news for weeks since many parts of the world were heavily affected. Many scholars have investigated the challenges that come when reporting on wars and conflicts. There are, however, few studies that have focused on Serbian journalists. Therefore, this study sets out to investigate how Serbian journalists cover the war in Ukraine and what influences their reporting by conducting in-depth interviews with seven journalists working the political beat. Nygren et al. (2018) found that journalistic culture and political context direct and shape the coverage to a large extent. Therefore, Thomas Hanitzsch’s model of journalism culture (2007) is used as the main theoretical framework of the project.   The study has shown that Serbian journalists generally believe that staying objective and presenting all sides of the conflict should guide the coverage of the war. However, they are put in a difficult position because of their country’s conflicted stance: Serbia has ties to Russia and the EU; it condemned the war in Ukraine but refused to impose sanctions on the aggressor. Consistent with the previous literature, the study found that Serbia’s political-historical context shapes the journalistic coverage when reporting on the conflict. Journalists are generally critical of their government but tend to agree with it when discussing the war. This finding can be linked to the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999 and the Serbian economy, which heavily depends on Russian oil, gas, and investments and would considerably decline if Serbian sanctions were imposed on Russia. Although, when counteracting propaganda, fake news, and disinformation, some Serbian journalists took a more active and assertive role in reporting on behalf of the socially disadvantaged, which in this case was the Ukrainian people who were underrepresented in the media coverage.

<p>The master’s project consists of two parts: the journalistic part Project Awaiting (texts) including four journalistic genres and the subsequent Research Report Project Awaiting. These are 23 pages and 32 pages respectively.</p>