Our Dean becomes Coordinator of the Worlds of Journalism Study for Central and Eastern Europe

The Worlds of Journalism Study meeting in Madrid chose the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences Alice Němcová Tejkalová and Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova from the University of Liverpool to be the project’s coordinators for Central and Eastern Europe.

"I immensely appreciate the confidence of my colleagues who elected myself and Vera unanimously, which gives us a sense of both huge assurance and great commitment on our part. I am really looking forward to working with them. I am glad that we will be able to tailor and target questions specifically to our region since a study of such scope is unprecedented here and the data we will have gathered will therefore be of seminal importance," says Alice Němcová Tejkalová.

Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS) is the most extensive comparative research project in the history of journalism. It aims to regularly assess the state of journalism in all the participant countries. As of now, two waves of the questionnaire study have been carried out among journalists so far, the last covering 67 countries. 2020 will mark the start of gathering data  for the third wave covering over 75 countries. The project has met with enthusiastic response from academics, spawning a great variety of associated studies in journals and books.

Published in June this year by the University of Columbia Press, the most recent publication Worlds of Journalism: Journalistic Cultures Around the Globe is a comprehensive study based on the second wave of the project. Dr Němcová Tejkalová and Dr Filip Láb, Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Communication and Journalism, co-authored the chapter Perceived Influences: Journalists’ Awareness of Pressures on Their Work. A ground-breaking work in many respects, one of its hallmarks is openness and accessibility. After the necessary period of exclusivity had passed, allowing the participating researchers to process the data, the whole dataset was published on the project’s website and is now also available to researchers who work outside the project.

Alice Němcová Tejkalová and Filip Láb have been coordinating the Czech section of the project since 2012. After the recent WJS Madrid meeting, they invited Jan Miessler, their colleague from the Communication and Journalism Institute to take part in the study. "We needed to boost our small team and bring in a new, fresh perspective. Moreover, we are in the process of further enhancing our research with visual ethnography. The visual ethnography pilot project and the attendant publication in the prestigious Journalism Practice journal co-authored by Kateřina Svatoň Gillárová has sparked great interest among our colleagues. Because of that, we are going to offer at least two PhD candidate positions in the field next year," Dr Němcová Tejkalová comments.

And what makes such demanding work feasible? "Well, none of this would be possible without the many journalists who are willing to share their opinions and experience with us. And of course, without the support of our Institute, and for that big thanks are due to our Director Dr Jakub Končelík," the Dean, Dr Němcová Tejkalová, concludes.

For more information about the project, including the Czech report on the second wave of the questionnaire-based study, visit Worlds of Journalism.