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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-208631 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Schwarz, Salome |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, JMK |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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