The mechanisms of media selfregulation in the Republic of Croatia

Ivanuš, Željana. (2018). The mechanisms of media selfregulation in the Republic of Croatia. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Information Science.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij informacijskih i komunikacijskih znanosti) [mentor Vilović, Gordana].

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Abstract

In their everyday work journalists should follow the principles prescribed by codices, ranging from redaction codices to the basic one – national Code of honour of Croatian journalists. In case any of the regulations of the journalist code have been violated, a reaction of the self-regulatory bodies is expected to take place. Journalism is a public profession and every mistake is evident, and therefore it is necessary for the journalist profession to develop various systems of media responsibility. Previously conducted research has established that Croatian journalists and editors do not abide by the Code of honour of Croatia journalists, mandatory for all Croatian journalists, and Journalists’ Council of Honour reacts only to reports submitted by the damaged parties. The Croatian Media Council is also inactive, and corrections and apologies are very rare in Croatian media. The aim of the research of this doctoral thesis was to determine whether or not the mechanisms of media self-regulations in Croatia are effective, and which internal and external factors seem to influence journalist work. The following research questions were presented themselves throughout the research thesis: 1. Which media self-regulation mechanisms are in place in Croatia? 2. How do media self-regulation mechanisms in Croatia work? 3. Is there a link between the education levels of journalist/editor, and abidance of the media self-regulation? 4. Is there a correlation between the work experience of journalists and editors and their abidance of the Code of honour of Croatian journalists? 5. Do journalists and editors working in printed media respect the Code of honour more than journalists and editors working in online media? 6. Is there an editing censorship in Croatian media due to which journalists do not abide by the Code of honour? 7. How much do external factors influence journalists and editors (advertisers, PR, agencies, politicians, crisis)? 8. How much do internal factors influence journalists and editors (education, work experience, media owners)? In order to provide answers to these questions the following hypothesises were proposed: H1:The mechanisms of media self-regulation in Croatia are not effective. H2:Media self-regulatory authorities do not have an effective system of sanctioning journalists, editors, and publishers in cases of media ethics violations. H3:Journalists with a lower education level abide by the Code of honour less than those with a higher level of education. H4:Editors with more work experience abide by the Code of honour more than editors with less work experience. H5:Journalists working in newspapers abide by the Code of honour more than journalists working in electronic media. H6:Journalists working in newspapers abide by the Code of honour more than journalists working in online media. In order to confirm or disprove these hypothesises two research studies were conducted. The first research was a quantitative research which used a survey conducted on a sample group of journalists and editors of printed, electronic, and online media. Through this research attitudes and opinions of journalists and editors on media self-regulation and its effects on their everyday work were examined. The second part of the research was qualitative – a semi-structured interview was conducted with scientists with media as the main focus of their interest. The aim of the interview was to find out how the scientific population perceives the mechanisms of media self-regulation, media ethics, and the role of journalists in Croatia. The survey showed that journalists are not familiar enough with the existing mechanisms of media self-regulation, since only slightly more than half of the subjects said they were familiar with the mechanisms (55.3%), while 44.7% of the subjects said they were not at all or in general familiar with the mechanisms. It would be difficult to expect the journalists to abide by the mechanisms they do not have enough knowledge and information of, since clearly they could not apply them in their work. Journalists themselves are not confident in how efficient the mechanisms are, as two thirds of them (67.4%) believe that the mechanisms are not effective. It is clear that journalists, regardless of their education level, work experience, and type of media they work in, are aware that there is no reaction to unethical news stories violating the basic postulates of the journalist profession. Therefore, it can be concluded that the main hypothesis of this research has been confirmed – even though journalists are aware of the importance of the mechanisms and they are willing to learn about them, the overall lack of knowledge about the mechanisms is relatively high. The lack of information and the overall high conviction that the mechanisms are ineffective, as well as the overall distrust in the professionalism of their colleagues both confirm the main hypothesis. The second hypothesis has also been confirmed, as it has been proven that a majority of the subjects (75%), regardless of their education level and work experience, believe that media self-regulation authorities do not have an effective sanctioning system in place in the cases of journalism ethics violation. As the differences between subject groups were not statistically significant, it can be concluded that the opinion dominating in all subject segments is that the sanctioning system in cases of violating journalism ethics is ineffective. The third hypothesis examined the link between education level and how likely a journalist is to abide by the Code of honour. The difference between the subject groups based on education levels in average was not shown to be statistically significant in connection to any of the observed factors, regarding whether or not they agreed with the influences various factors seem to have on work. There was also no statistical significance when it came to the level, and type of education. The only statistically significant result was regarding the question “which mechanism of self-regulation are you familiar with”: 50.5% of subjects with higher education answered this accurately, which is significantly more than the 28.6% of the accurate answers given by the subjects who have finished high school. The conclusion is that the perception of the influence of various factors on work is not affected by the subjects’ education level and type. Therefore, the hypothesis was partially confirmed: the subjects with a higher education level were significantly more familiar with the existing mechanisms of media self-regulation; apropos they were able to list out more self-regulatory mechanisms. The research also aimed at examining whether or not there is a link between editor work experience and their abidance to the Code of honour. The hypothesis was not proven, since the only significant result is with editors with 20 years or more experience who believe that media self-regulation mechanisms in Croatia are not effective in relation to the degree of agreement with editors with 20 years of less of experience. The hypothesis that journalists in printed media abide by the code more than the journalists in electronic media was not proven. The only statistically significant difference was noted in how much the subjects, estimated whether they have enough information on the importance of the mechanisms: those employed in printed media have more information (36.2%) than journalists working in electronic media (18.2%). Based on all the tested differences this hypothesis could not be proven. The sixth hypothesis looked into whether journalists in printed media abide by the Code of honour more than journalists in online media. Based on the statistical significance tests of the differences in answers this hypothesis could also not be proven.The survey highlighted key internal and external factors which seem to influence journalists’ work. The subjects proposed that the biggest influence among the internal factors are the editors (3.76 on the scale from 1 to 5), media management (3.06), media owners (2.89), and colleagues from the sales and marketing department (2.78). Among the external factors, the biggest influences were the advertisers (3.14), competitor media (3.07), national politicians (2.55), and local politicians (2.37). The scientists taking part in this research believe that Croatian journalists do not have enough knowledge when it comes to the mechanisms of media self-regulation, also confirmed by the conducted survey. As the main culprits responsible for the unsatisfying state in this area they highlighted editors not experienced or mature enough for their job, as well as the Croatian Journalists' Association (CJA), which did not raise enough attention when it comes to the awareness concerning the importance of the reform of the media self-regulation needed to be adjusted in order to deal with the challenges presented by the digital age. This is the first research conducted in Croatia exploring the attitudes and opinions of journalists and editors on the mechanisms of media self-regulation and factors which influence their abidance to the Code of honour. The research has shown that the reason behind the lack of ethicality of Croatian journalists is the lack of knowledge when it comes to the mechanisms of media self-regulation, apropos the professional standards, since almost half of the subjects in the research were not familiar with the mentioned mechanisms (44.7%). Here seems to lie the key to all future actions aiming to change the current state. The key actors behind this change can be media houses, local branches, and the head office of the CJA itself, as well as the academic community, since professional and credible journalism should be in all of theirs interest.

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