Journalistic professionalism in Iceland: A framework for analysis and an assessment

• Published in: Journalism
• Main Authors: Guðmundsson, Birgir, Kristinsson, Sigurður
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2017
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1464884917695416; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1464884917695416; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1464884917695416

This article assesses the state of journalistic professionalism in Iceland, and puts it in the context of international trends. Based on six key aspects of the image of professionalism in conjunction with a classification of professionalism into two types – occupational and organizational – a framework is suggested for understanding the status and development of journalism with respect to its aspirations and discourse concerning professionalism. The case of Icelandic journalism is examined through this approach. The occupational group of Icelandic journalists is faced with an on-going negotiation between occupational/internal professionalism and organizational/external professionalism and it is found that occupational professionalism is struggling in Icelandic journalism while the characteristics of organizational professionalism grow stronger, in part because of commercialization and technological change.