Modeling Perceived Influences on Journalism: Evidence from a Cross-National Survey of Journalists (original) (raw)

Societies increasingly depend on means of public communication; hence, the importance of journalism as a social institution can hardly be denied. If journalism plays such a pivotal role in modern society, studying the social forces that shape its practice is all the more important for anyone wishing to understand contemporary culture. Unfortunately, the quest for the principal forces that shape the news is not quite an easy one, since "the list of possible variables is almost endless." 1 To reduce the complexity of such a vast array of influences, many studies focus on selected aspects of the interrelation between news work and its social contexts. Among the areas that have