A literature review of approaches to the professionalism of journalists

Abstract

This literature review of professionalism was prepared by San Jose State University graduate student Marianne Allison as a research committee project of the Mass Communication and Society Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The project was prepared under the guidance of Professor Diana Stover Tillinghast. It reviews the literature on two approaches to professionalism in general and of the professionalism of journalists in particular: the “structural‐functionalist approach”; and the “power approach.”; Traditional and recent discussions of the nature of professionalism in occupational sociology are presented. Studies of the professionalism of journalists both in the United States and cross‐culturally are critiqued. The paper suggests several areas of fruitful research, and contains an extensive bibliography.