Mind the gap: Between journalistic role conception and role enactment

The study of journalistic role conceptions rests on the assumption that these conceptions shape the news stories that journalists create. However, limited empirical evidence exists to support this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment. This exploratory study compared role conceptions deduced from survey data of 56 journalists with a content analysis of those same journalists’ articles (N = 270). The findings suggest that this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment should be questioned rather than presumed.