From core to periphery: Boundaries of journalism

The digital age has led to fundamental change across many parts of society, including one of its key democratic institutions, journalism. Nowadays, everyone with an internet connection can fulfil some of journalisms functions like providing information and analysis, but also political parties, companies, and many social media influencers are increasingly providing products that are quite similar to journalism in appearance, content, and function. As a result, it has become very difficult to identify who is a journalist, or what qualifies as journalism. While scholarship and public discussions have begun to examine these new phenomena of what is often called peripheral journalism, we still have an incomplete understanding of how traditional journalists view these newcomers, how the newcomers themselves view journalism, and, crucially, what the audience actually thinks about them. Such an understanding is important, however, because it addresses essential definitional questions that have implications for public and policy discussions about the kind of journalism a society may want, how it can be supported, as well as how its quality can be measured. To examine these issues, this project will employ a multi- method approach using in-depth interviews with traditional and peripheral journalists across Austria, as well as focus group discussions with a wide range of Austrians about their views of journalism. In this way, we can better understand the jurisdictional claims and mutual relations between producers and audiences of journalism. The project is thus expected to generate much-needed knowledge about the phenomenon of peripheral journalism and how it challenges traditional journalism. By taking a broad view across specializations such as politics, economics, lifestyle and sport, it will paint a nuanced picture of the transformation in which journalism finds itself, thereby contributing to highly-relevant scholarly, policy and public discussions about the role of journalism today.

Journalism, as one of the most important institutions in modern democracies, has been particularly affected by the digital transformation, which has led to an almost overwhelming proliferation of journalistic content that can at least be considered journalism-like. This development makes it difficult to answer the question of who is actually a journalist-and who is not. This project has addressed this question, conducting 101 interviews with various individuals working in journalism in Austria, as well as 15 focus groups with 86 media users, about what counts as journalism today and what does not. The study represents one of the internationally most comprehensive examinations of the boundaries of journalism. Among the study's key insights is that traditional journalism no longer has the sole authority to interpret current events. Legitimacy is defined particularly through values, practices, and embeddedness in organizational structures. Consequently, new media formats-which are often not automatically regarded as journalism-are also granted a certain journalistic legitimacy. While many new formats are generally accepted as journalism by both journalists and the public, all media professionals aim to distinguish themselves from one another. Corporate communications, party-affiliated outlets, fake news platforms, and influencers are generally excluded from the definition of journalism, while podcasters and bloggers are often viewed as more journalistic in nature. Furthermore, media professionals and the public have different understandings of what constitutes journalism. Media professionals emphasize above all the social role of journalism and aim to provide information and guidance, as well as to hold those in power accountable. The audience emphasises particularly information gathering, while the watchdog function is not as present in their expectations. The audience also associates journalism more strongly with traditional newspapers and written text, whereas media professionals recognize a wide range of platforms as journalistic. Furthermore, traditional and new media professionals aim to achieve different goals with their work. While more traditional journalists focus on conveying information and providing entertainment, new actors are either significantly more activist in their objectives or interested in offering content they feel is missing from the media landscape.