Breaking News or Breaking the Newspaper? Print Journalists, Online Journalists and Their Medium-Based Loyalties
Article

This study explores the concept of “medium-based loyalties” by looking at the attitudes of journalists toward the predicted demise of the newspaper and the new media presented to be displacing it. In a survey of 110 newspaper and website reporters in the Philippines, this study found a manifestation of medium-based loyalties, consistent with previous studies that found differences between perceptions of journalists tied to different media: Newspaper reporters were more optimistic about the future of their own medium while website reporters rated their own medium more positively. Though journalists get socialized into the practice of journalism, it is apparent that within the profession are several sub-groups. A sub-group could be based on medium. In providing a way to understand the process behind attitudes of journalists, the concept of medium-based loyalties can help in offering ways to address the implications of these attitudes.