Ensam i Bryssel. En kvalitativ intervjustudie av svenska EU-korrespondenters upplevda autonomi från nyhetsredaktionen

Sammanfattning

Since Sweden’s introduction to the European Parliament in 1995, the number of editorially assigned Swedish correspondents monitoring the European Parliament has been on a steady decline. As a result, relevant political issues surrounding lawmaking and economic reforms within EU circles have been under-reported and deprioritized from an editorial perspective, most noticeably in favour of American news coverage. A newsroom restructuring of this sort, and its implications for future EU reporting, is viewed by researchers as unique for working situations among correspondents. However, there is still a consensus that more research is needed to understand the current working processes and routines of the EU correspondents. The following thesis aims to provide valuable qualitative information from qualified Swedish EU journalists, which can be used to develop a better understanding of the correspondents’ journalistic work. Specifically, the study examines EU correspondents’ perceived journalistic autonomy in relation to their respective newsrooms, based on descriptions of their working processes, and the effect of editorial factors such as deadlines and communication with the newsroom. Furthermore, the study reveals strategies used by EU correspondents to align with editorial expectations, streamline their journalistic workload, and maintain their professional identity. The theoretical framework used in the thesis comprises of one primary theory, the Hierarchy of Influences model, and a complementary theory in the form of professionalization theory. The former provides a framework for connecting journalistic routines with individual, organizational, and structural characteristics. The professionalization theory, meanwhile, is of value when assessing how closely the correspondents’ journalistic work correlates with professional journalistic ideals as defined by journalistic researchers of prominence. The study’s main findings show that while the EU correspondents experience a high level of editorial trust in their journalistic judgement, they also perceive their scope for action to be limited due to a constant lack of time. Consequently, in-depth material is deprioritized by the correspondents in favour of more straight-forward news stories, which limits their ability to work in accordance with professional ideals. EU correspondents combat this through various strategies, most notably by working together with fellow Swedish correspondents in Brussels to streamline the workload and facilitate more informed and detailed reporting.