Epic Snowmen, Expert Takes, and Audience Orientation: How Journalistic Roles are Performed in Canadian Media

Abstract

Exploring the differences between normative visions and actual practices (Mellado, 2020), through a content analysis of more than 3,700 news stories contextualized with surveys, and further unpacked by interviews with journalists, this article provides a comprehensive overview of journalistic role performance in Canada. Findings show few, yet distinct, differences between French and English media, and that Canadian journalists are often present in their stories; use high levels of infotainment; and demonstrate strong performance of both the civic and service roles compared to other countries, but perform far less of the watchdog role than journalists surveyed perceived.