This thesis examines how local journalists in Uppsala would like to work with news reporting, based on their journalistic roles. To answer this main research question, the paper follows three more particular sub-questions: How do local journalists in Uppsala view their current journalistic role? What journalistic role would the journalists like to fulfill?  What do the journalists think about the future of local journalism? The chosen method of this exploration is qualitative interviews, with six journalists working at two different editorial offices in Uppsala. By drawing from the theoretic framework by Thomas Hanitzsch and his suggestions on journalistic roles, the paper found that the populist disseminator role is the most apparent among Uppsala’s journalists, in terms of the normative dimension. However, for practical reasons they often have to prioritize the entertainment factor, which is more in line with the accommodative role. In terms of their own preferences, most of the journalists express a deep wish for more investigative journalism in their work. In other words, their cognitive role is more in line with the detached watchdog. Despite current problems, all interviewed journalists are hopeful about the future of local journalism, believing people today need it more than ever before. They also suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic strengthened local journalism, reminding people of its necessity. Overall, this thesis gives an insight into the current situation for local journalists and provides both solutions to the challenges as well as reasons for its highly important place in society.

The aim of the thesis is to understand how investigative journalists in Sweden experience hostility, as well how they cope with hostility in their professional role and in their private lives. The work of investigative journalism aims to scrutinize those in power, politicians and organizations, to ensure that abuse of power doesn't go unnoticed. The revealing reportage is in many cases unfavorable to the ones being exposed. This can put investigative journalists at a higher risk for being victims of acts of hostility.  The theoretical framework draws upon Hanitsch and Vos (2017) conceptual framework of journalistic roles, as well as a theory by Ivask et al (2023) about journalistic approaches. These combined help to create a greater understanding of how the journalists are affected in different aspects. Methodologically, the research relies on semi-structured interviews with ten investigative journalists in Sweden, to reach a deeper understanding of their experiences and how they reflect on hostility. These interviews were conducted over a period spanning from October to December 2023. The findings of the study unveil the diverse ways in which hostility affects investigative journalists. While all journalists express a desire to remain unaffected by hostility, some individuals encounter psychological challenges that influence their editorial choices. In contrast, others demonstrate resilience by refusing to allow hostility to compromise the integrity of their work or instill fear in their professional pursuits. The provision of organizational support and the implementation of proactive measures to counteract hostility emerge as pivotal factors in mitigating the impact of such adversarial encounters.

This study analyzes how Swedish and Turkish journalists cope with threats, hatred, and harassment, and what role journalistic ideals and organizational support play in their coping process. The study is based on qualitative interviews, analyzed utilizing aspects from the theoretical framework of systems and coping theories. The aim of the study is to delve into personal experiences in circumstances where journalists face threat, hatred, or harassment to increase our understanding of how journalists cope with them and what happens to their journalistic ideals during this process. The results show that both groups have a similar view on which journalistic ideals are important. Both groups of journalists used emotion-focused and problem-focused coping mechanisms which utilized journalistic ideals in one way or another, to feel control over the situation. In some cases, ideals were experienced as comforting, and in others, they were compromised. Lastly, organizational support was seen and experienced as a part of individual coping only for Swedish journalists, who expressed it as a primary method to cope with hostile situations, while it remained absent for Turkish journalists in this study.

Previous research indicates that journalistic roles change in times of crisis, from critically reviewing authorities to disseminating information. Why does this happen? And are these indications true within a Swedish context? The aim of this study is to investigate how journalistic roles in Swedish media has changed over time during the covid-19 pandemic and what factors that lies behind the change.[JB1]  To do this, a quantitative content analysis of Swedish news articles was used in combination with qualitative interviews with journalists. The content analysis found that the presence of critical roles (detached watchdog and critical change agent) decreased during the first months of the pandemic while the presence of informational and regime-friendly roles (populist disseminator and opportunist facilitator) increased. One year into the pandemic, the presence of critical roles resurged towards a normal level while the two informational and regime-friendly roles decreased. The qualitative interviews show that, whilst the perceived journalistic roles did not change during the pandemic, the ability to put those ideals to practice was affected by several external factors. These factors include: the dominance of corona-related news, the challenging nature of critically reviewing an ongoing crisis, a general lack of corona-related knowledge, changes in work practice and working environment, and a lack of previous experience from similar crises. The change in practiced journalistic roles was generally viewed by the respondents as unintended and problematic. This underlines the important difference between perceived and practiced journalistic roles.  [JB1]Reviderat.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most impactful crises in recent times, with severe implications for people around the globe. Since its beginnings in late 2019, the crisis has been closely monitored by news media, which function as one of the primary information sources for the public. This study looks at the many different challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has brought upon journalism and how journalists reporting on the pandemic have been experiencing them. The project is based on the central premise that journalism holds an especially important position within the socio-political make-up of democratic societies, and employs the social responsibility theory of the press to argue that journalists should act with responsibility to the public in mind and stick to generally agreed on professional values. It further assumes, based on previous research, that a crisis calls for increased social responsibility but at the same time creates challenges for journalists, which put their ability to adhere to established standards at risk. To determine, which challenges of this sort journalists have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and how these have manifested, a series of semi-structured interviews has been conducted with German journalists who have been involved in reporting on the pandemic. The results show that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to newsrooms and has proven challenging to journalists in various ways regarding their work routines, physical safety, and emotional labour, which at times even put their ability to perform expected professional roles in jeopardy. This project adds to a growing body of research on COVID-19 from a journalism studies perspective, which can help determine grievances for the profession that need to be addressed and provide points of departure on how to deal with and prepare for future crises.