Management of Journalism Transparency: Journalists’ perceptions of organizational leaders’ management of an emerging professional norm

Abstract

ABSTRACT This survey of 524 U.S. journalists explores how journalists perceive transparency, an emerging professional knowledge base, ethical value and set of practices, has been managed as a normative innovation. The study follows the recent addition of transparency to the ethics codes of two leading U.S. professional journalism associations: Society of Professional Journalists and Radio Television Digital News Association. The study includes a broad sampling of journalists working for both legacy and online media outlets, and explores the relationship between how journalists perceive transparency has been managed and the extent to which journalists practice transparency in their work. Results indicate journalists perceive transparency has not been a management priority, and how transparency is managed has a significant effect on the extent it is practiced. These results are consistent across media types, coverage areas, demographics and extent of professional experience. The data provide evidence that if the potential of transparency as a digital-age journalistic tool is to be realized, news managers must take a more active role in its development as professional knowledge, a newsroom norm and set of practices.