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¦¦¦¦¦ Background
The increasing interest in cross-national research in the field of journalism studies has yielded ample evidence that the way the news is produced varies by country and professional domain. In journalism research, it is now commonplace to speak of journalism as strongly linked to the culture within it operates. Researchers refer to a considerable array of concepts, including "journalism culture" (Campbell 2004: 80; Gurevitch & Blumler 2004: 337), "journalistic culture" (Donsbach & Patterson 2004: 252; Hollifield, Kosicki & Becker 2001: 112), "news culture" (Deuze 2002), "newspaper cultures" (Knott, Carroll & Meyer 2002: 26) or the "culture of news production" (Schudson 2003: 186), just to name a few. All these concepts are widely used and serve multiple purposes: They are employed to capture the cultural diversity of journalistic values and practices, and they sometimes suggest an all-encompassing consensus among journalists towards a common understanding and cultural identity of journalism.
 References to journalism's "professional" or "occupational cultures" (Viall 1992: 48) resonate with earlier conceptualizations of "professional" and "occupational ideologies" (Golding 1977: 298-300; Golding & Elliott 1979: 214; Schudson 1990: 24). While a shared occupational ideology is believed to serve as the "cultural cement" (Deuze 2005: 455) that holds journalists together as a profession and which, therefore, forms the foundation of journalism's identity, it is also seen as a bold expression of cultural hegemony of Western professional norms over local modes of practising journalism, as indicated by the Asian values debate (see Masterton 1996; Xiaoge 2005). Although this occupational ideology, associated with the values of impartiality, objectivity and accuracy (Golding & Elliott 1979: 115), is often granted universal status by journalists and researchers, the rise of counter-hegemonic articulations and practices (e.g., public/civic journalism, development journalism, peace journalism) raises many challenging questions, including the following two: Does such a common professional culture really exist in "the West", in Europe, in Asia, or anywhere else? Is there any class of "cosmopolite" journalists (Reese 2001: 178) who share a common occupational ideology and understanding of journalism?
In order to provide an answer to these and other demanding questions, we need at hand a clear conceptualization of journalism culture that can be applied in diverse cultural contexts. This was the main impetus behind the Worlds of Journalisms project: To develop a conceptual and methodological common ground on which systematic and comparative research on journalism cultures is feasible and meaningful.
During 2005 and 2006 the German journalism researcher Thomas Hanitzsch built up an internetional network of researchers, involving scholars from Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Russia, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Uganda, and the United States. In summer 2006, the project received a research grant from the German Science Foundation (DFG) to cover the pilot stage of the study. About one year later, the study received another large research grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The second grant was intended to conduct an additional content analysis and extend the study to a few additional countries.
References
Campbell, Vincent (2004) Information Age Journalism: Journalism in an International Context. London: Arnold.
Deuze, Mark (2002) 'National News Cultures: A Comparison of Dutch, German, British, Australian and U.S. Journalists', Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 79(1): 134-149.
Deuze, Mark (2005) 'What is journalism? Professional Identity and Ideology of Journalists Reconsidered', Journalism 6(4): 442-464.
Donsbach, Wolfgang & Thomas E. Patterson (2004) 'Political News Journalists: Partisanship, Professionalism, and Political Roles in Five Countries', pp. 251-270 in Frank Esser & Barbara Pfetsch (eds) Comparing Political Communication: Theories, Cases, and Challenges. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Golding, Peter (1977) 'Media Professionalism in the Third World: The Transfer of an Ideology' pp. 291-308 in James Curran, Michael Gurevitch & Janet Woollacott (eds.) Mass Communication and Society. London: Arnold.
Golding, Peter & P. Elliott (1979) Making the News. London: Longman.
Gurevitch, Michael & Jay G. Blumler (2004) 'State of the art of comparative political communication research: poised for maturity?', pp. 325-343 in Frank Esser & Barbara Pfetsch (eds.), Comparing political communication: theories, cases, and challenges. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hanitzsch, Thomas (2006) 'Mapping Journalism Culture: A Theoretical Taxonomy and Case Studies from Indonesia', Asian Journal of Communication 16(2): 169-186.
Hollifield, Ann C., Gerald M. Kosicki & Lee B. Becker (2001) 'Organizational vs. Professional Culture in the Newsroom: Television News Directors' and Newspaper Editors' Hiring Decisions', Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 45(1): 92-117.
Knott, Diana L., Virginia Carroll and Philip Meyer (2002) 'Social Responsibility Wins When CEO Has Been Editor', Newspaper Research Journal 23(1): 25-37.
Masterton, Murray (ed.) (1996) Asian Values in Journalism. Singapore: AMIC.
Reese, Stephen D. (2001) 'Understanding the Global Journalist: a Hierarchy-of-Influences Approach', Journalism Studies 2(2): 173-187.
Schudson, Michael (2003) The Sociology of News. New York: W. W. Norton.
Viall, Elizabeth K. (1992) 'Measuring Journalistic Values: A Cosmopolitan/Community Continuum', Journal of Mass Media Ethics 7(1): 41-53.
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