Searching for Watchdogs: Investigating Journalistic Role Performance Using Latent-Class Analysis

Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that journalists’ role orientations (i.e., their attitudes, values) are reflected in the news (i.e., their role performance). Methodologically, such studies either ask journalists whether they perceive their own professional role in accordance with common conceptualizations (e.g., being a watchdog), or they search for journalistic roles in the news through content analyses, or apply combined approaches. However, methodologically, this decomposition of news has been primarily confirmatory in nature with the goal to find journalistic roles in the news. We therefore develop and empirically explore an alternative bottom-up approach to news content. Applying latent class analysis to an existing dataset from 16 Western democracies that includes 23 different, role-independent content indicators for political news shows that news composition types correspond well with six journalistic roles (informational-instructive; analytical-deliberative; critical-monitorial; advocative-radical; developmental-educative; collaborative-facilitative). If combined with existing confirmatory approaches, this methodological alternative could triangulate pitfalls of this line of research.