Money, Politics, or Ethics? Perceptions of the Factors Influencing Journalists’ Work

Mindful of the spread of negative sentiments toward journalism, scholars have been paying increased attention to audience perceptions of the news media and expectations from journalists (driving an “audience turn” in journalism studies). Adding to this body of knowledge, this study examines audience beliefs on journalistic autonomy, exploring which factors are perceived as influencing journalists. Based on an online survey among US adults (N = 900), we found that audiences were skeptical of the concept of journalistic autonomy, ranking five factors—political, economic, organizational, personal networks, and procedural—as having influence on journalists’ work. We also found that sociodemographic factors (political identity, gender, age, socioeconomic status, education, and race/ethnicity) can help predict audience perceptions of what influences journalistic work. Finally, we compare audience responses with the responses collected from US journalists by the Worlds of Journalism Study, revealing significant gaps in how the two groups perceived journalistic autonomy: journalists perceived procedural factors as more influential than audiences did, while audiences were far more concerned than journalists about economic and political influences, and perceived personal networks and organizational considerations as carrying greater influence than journalists. We discuss the implications of these findings of audience skepticism, inter-audience distinctions, and audience-journalists gaps and propose directions for future studies of news audiences.