The American Journalist Under Attack

Figures

Chapter 2

Figure 1: U.S. Journalists’ Perception of the Media’s Responsibility for Political Divisions in the United States by Political Affiliation in 2022 (in %)

Figure 2: U.S. Journalists’ Perception of the Media’s Responsibility for Political Divisions in the United States by Media Sector in 2022 (in %)

Chapter 3

Figure 1: U.S. Journalists’ Gender by Years of Professional Experience in 2022 (in %)

Figure 2: U.S. Journalists of Color by Years of Professional Experience in 2022 (in %)

Figure 3: U.S. Journalists of Color by Type of Media Sector in 2022 (in %)

Chapter 5

Figure 1: Dimensions of U.S. Journalists’ Perceived Job Autonomy by Year (in %)

Figure 2: U.S. Journalists’ Assessment of ‘How Good a Job Their Organization Does in Informing the Public’ by Year (in %)

Figure 3: U.S. Journalists’ Assessment of ‘How Good a Job Their Organization Does in Informing the Public’ by Type of Media Sector in 2022 (in %)

Figure 4: U.S. Journalists’ Assessment of ‘How Good a Job Their Organization Does in Informing the Public’ by Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Age, Political Orientation, and Sexual Orientation in 2022 (in %)

Figure 5: U.S. Journalists’ Median Annual Income by Year (1970 Income Shown in 2021 Dollars)

Figure 6: U.S. Journalists’ Median Annual Income by Type of Media Sector in 2012 and 2021

Figure 7: U.S. Journalists’ Job Satisfaction by Year (in %)

Figure 8: U.S. Journalists’ Job Satisfaction by Type of Media Sector in 2022 (in %)

Figure 9: U.S. Journalists’ Job Satisfaction by Ethnic or Racial Minority Status in 2022 (in %)

Chapter 6

Figure 1: Perceptions of Journalistic Functions

Chapter 7

Figure 1: U.S. Journalists’ Gender by Year (in %)

Figure 2: U.S. Journalists’ Gender by Age in 2022 (in %)

Figure 3: U.S. Journalists’ Median Annual Income by Year and Gender (1970 Income Shown in 2021 Dollars)

Figure 4: U.S. Journalists’ Median Annual Income by Years of Professional Experience and Gender in 2021

Figure 5: Perceived Effects of Social Media on Journalism by Gender in 2013 and 2022 (in %)

Chapter 8

Figure 1: Percentage of Journalists of Color by Type of Media Sector in 2013 and 2022

Figure 2: Percentage of Journalists of Color and White Journalists by Years of Experience in 2022

Chapter 10

Figure 1: Perceived Importance of Social Media For Reporting Stories in 2013 and 2022 (Percentage of Journalists Who Say They Are “Very” or “Extremely Important”)

Figure 2: Time Spent Each Day With Social Media in 2013 and 2022 (Median Minutes Per Day in Each Group)

Figure 3: Purpose of Work-related Social Media Use in 2013 and 2022 (Percentage of Journalists Who Use Social Media “Regularly” For Each Activity)

Figure 4: Perceived Positive Effects of Social Media on Journalists’ Own Work in 2013 and 2022 (Percentage of Journalists Who Believe Effects Are “Somewhat” or “Very Positive”)

Figure 5: Perceived Positive Effects of Social Media on Journalism Profession by Media Sector in 2013 and 2022 (Percentage of Journalists Who Believe Effects Are “Somewhat” or “Very Positive”)

Figure 6: Perceived Effects of Social Media on Journalism Profession in 2013 and 2022 (Percentage of Journalists Who Either “Agree” or “Strongly Agree”)

Figure 7: Relationship Between Social Media Usage and Attitudes Toward Social Media in 2022

Chapter 11

Figure 1: U.S. Journalists Who Experienced Online and Offline Threats in 2022 (in %)

Tables

Chapter 2

Table 1: U.S. Journalists’ Evaluations of U.S. News Media Performance in 2022 (in %)

Table 2: U.S. Journalists’ Perceived Trust in U.S. News Media, Political Bias, Blame for Political Divisions, and Ability to Heal Divisions (in %)

Table 3: U.S. Journalists’ Perceptions of Key Aspects of Overall News Media Performance (in %)

Table 4: U.S. Journalists’ Perceptions of Overall News Media Performance by Political Party Affiliation (in %)

Table 5: Predictors of U.S. Journalists’ Perceptions of Overall News Media Performance and Support for Democracy

Table 6: What U.S. Journalists Think They Can Do to Protect Democracy in the United States

Chapter 3

Table 1: Estimated Full-Time Editorial Workforce in U.S. News Media Across Decades of Studies

Table 2: Regional Distribution of Journalists Compared With Total U.S. Population (in %)

Table 3: Distribution of Journalists by Region and News Medium in 2022 (in %)

Table 4: Age Distribution of U.S. Journalistic Workforce Across Decades of Studies (in %)

Table 5: Gender of U.S. Journalists Across Decades of Studies (in %)

Table 6: Representation of Women Journalists in U.S. News Media Across Decades of Studies (in %)

Table 7: Representation of Women Journalists in U.S. News Media and in U.S. Labor Force by Age (in %)

Table 8: Racial and Ethnic Origins of U.S. Journalists Compared With Total U.S. Population (in %)

Table 9: Religious Backgrounds of U.S. Journalists Compared With Religious Preference of U.S. Adult Population (in %)

Table 10: Political Leanings of U.S. Journalists Compared With U.S. Adult Population (in %)

Table 11: Political Leanings of U.S. Journalists—Supervisors and Staffers (in %)

Table 12: Political Party Identification of U.S. Journalists Compared With U.S. Adult Population (in %)

Table 13: Political Party Identification of U.S. Journalists—Supervisors and Staffers (in %)

Table 14: Frequency of News Use by U.S. Journalists (Percentages of Days per Week)

Table 15: Demographics of Supervisors and Staffers (in %)

Chapter 4

Table 1: Number of U.S. College Programs, Majors, and Degrees in Journalism-Mass Communication Compared with Number of U.S. Jobs in Journalism, Communication, and Publishing

Table 2: U. S. Journalists’ Formal Education by Age (in %)

Table 3: U.S. Journalists Who Are College Graduates by Media Type (Percentages of Journalists Who Graduated from College)

Table 4: College-Graduate Journalists by Region of Employment Compared to U.S. Population (Percentages Graduating From College)

Table 5: College Major of U.S. Journalists by Region of College (Percentages of College-Graduate Journalists)

Table 6: Fields of Study of U.S. Journalists in College (in %)

Table 7: College Major of U.S. Journalists by Media Type (Percentages of College-Graduate Journalists)

Table 8: College Major of U.S. Journalists by Age (Percentages of College-Graduate Journalists)

Table 9: Preferences of U.S. Journalists for Continuing Education (Number and Percentages of Mentioned Preferences)

Chapter 5

Table 1: U.S. Journalists’ Median Age, Years of Experience, and Current Job Tenure Compared to U.S. Labor Force

Table 2a: Job Functions by Media Sector in 2022 (in %)

Table 2b: Changes in Job Functions Across the Decades of Studies (in %)

Table 3: U.S. Reporters’ Perceived Autonomy and Influence by Media Sector Across the Decades of Studies (Percentage of Journalists Who Say They do Reporting ‘Regularly’ or ‘Occasionally’)

Table 4: U.S. Reporters’ Perceived Autonomy and Influence by Gender and Minority Status (Journalists Who Say They do Reporting ‘Regularly’ or ‘Occasionally’)

Table 5: Predictors of Perceived Job Autonomy Among U.S. Journalists

Table 6: U.S. Journalists’ Median Annual Income Over the Decades of Studies by Media Sector and Region (in US $)

Table 7: U.S. Journalists’ Median Annual Income Over the Decades of Studies by Gender, Age, and Education (in US $)

Table 8: Predictors of U.S. Journalists’ Median Annual Income in 2021

Table 9: Factors of U.S. Journalists’ Job Satisfaction by Year of Study (Percentages of Journalists Saying Factors Are ‘Very Important’)

Table 10: Predictors of U.S. Journalists’ Job Satisfaction

Table 11: Intention of Working Outside the Media Within Five Years by Individual Characteristics and Year of Study (in %)

Table 12: Factors That Distinguish Between U.S. Journalists Who Plan to Stay in Journalism and Those Who Plan to be Working Outside the Media in Five Years

Chapter 6

Table 1: Predictors of U.S. Journalists’ Support of “both-sides-ism”

Table 2: Importance Journalists Assigned to News Media Roles (Percentages of Journalists Saying Roles are ‘Very Important’)

Table 3: Factor Analysis of Professional Role Perceptions for U.S. Journalists

Table 4: The Interpretive-Investigative Function (Percentages of Journalists Seeing These Roles as ‘Extremely Important’)

Table 5: The Adversarial Function (Percentages of Journalists Seeing These Roles as ‘Extremely Important’)

Table 6: The Disseminator Function (Percentages of Journalists Seeing These Roles as ‘Extremely Important’)

Table 7: The Populist-Mobilizer Function (Percentages of Journalists Seeing These Roles as ‘Extremely Important’)

Table 8: Predictors of Professional Functions Among U.S. Journalists

Table 9: Journalists’ Acceptance of Controversial Reporting Practices (Percentages of Journalists Saying These Practices ‘May be Justified’)

Table 10: Opinion on Paying for Confidential Information by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Saying This Practice ‘May be Justified’)

Table 11: Opinion on Unauthorized Use of Business or Government Documents by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Saying This Practice ‘May be Justified’)

Table 12: Predictors of Approval of Using Government or Business Documents Without Permission Among U.S. Journalists

Table 13: Opinion on Unauthorized Use of Personal Documents by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Saying This Practice ‘May be Justified’)

Table 14: Opinion on Badgering Sources by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Saying This Practice ‘May be Justified’)

Table 15: Opinion on Disclosing Names of Rape Victims by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Saying This Practice ‘May be Justified’)

Table 16: Opinion on Claiming to be Somebody Else by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Saying This Practice ‘May be Justified’)

Table 17: Opinion on Getting Employed to Gain Inside Information by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Saying This Practice ‘May be Justified’)

Table 18: Opinion on Hidden Microphones or Cameras by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Saying This Practice ‘May be Justified’)

Table 19: Opinion on Using Re-Creations of News by Actors by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Saying This Practice ‘May be Justified’)

Table 20: Predictors of Approval of Controversial Reporting Practices Among U.S. Journalists

Chapter 7

Table 1: Amount of Formal Education of Male and Female Journalists (in %)

Table 2: U.S. Journalists’ Gender by Race and Ethnicity (in Percent with N in Parentheses)

Table 3: U.S. Journalists’ Professional Positions by Gender (in %)

Table 4: U.S. Journalists Supervising Others by Medium and Gender (in %)

Table 5: Amount of Editing Performed by U.S. Journalists by Gender in 2013 and 2022 (in %)

Table 6: U.S. Journalists’ Freedom to Cover Subjects, Select Stories, and Emphasize Aspects of Stories by Gender in 2013 and 2022 (in %)

Table 7: Importance of Job Dimensions by Gender (Percentages of Journalists Who Rated Each Dimension ‘Very Important’)

Table 8: U.S. Journalists’ News Beats by Gender in 2022 (in %)

Table 9: Importance of Journalistic Roles by Gender (Percentages of Journalists Who Rated Each Role ‘Extremely Important’)

Table 10: U.S. Journalists’ Opinions Regarding Controversial Reporting Practices by Gender (Percentages of Journalists Saying These Practices ‘May be Justified on Occasion’)

Table 11: Perceived Newsroom Diversity in Terms of Race, Gender, Age, Political and Sexual Orientation by Gender of U.S. Journalists (in %)

Chapter 8

Table 1: U.S. Journalists’ Party Affiliation by Race (in %)

Table 2: Amount of Editing Performed by U.S. Journalists of Color and White Journalists (in %)

Table 3: Freedom to Cover Subjects, Select Stories, and Emphasize Aspects of Stories Among U.S. Journalists of Color and White Journalists (in %)

Table 4: Job Satisfaction of U.S. Journalists of Color and White Journalists (in %)

Table 5: Factors of Job Satisfaction Among U.S. Journalists of Color and White Journalists (Percentages of Journalists Who Rated Dimensions ‘Very Important’)

Table 6: Importance of Journalistic Roles for U.S. Journalists of Color and White Journalists (Percentage of Journalists Who Rated Roles ‘Extremely Important’)

Table 7: Opinion of U.S. Journalists of Color and White Journalists Regarding Controversial Reporting Practices (Percentages of Journalists Saying These Practices ‘May be Justified on Occasion’)

Chapter 9

Table 1: Demographics of U.S. Commercial and Public Media Journalists (in %)

Table 2: Perceptions of Media Performance Among U.S. Commercial and Public Media Journalists

Table 3: Factor Analysis of Journalistic Role Perceptions Among U.S. Commercial and Public Media Journalists

Table 4: Role Perceptions Among U.S. Commercial and Public Media Journalists (Percentages of Journalists Saying Roles are ‘Extremely Important’)

Table 5: Acceptance of Controversial Reporting Practices Among U.S. Commercial and Public Media Journalists (Percentages of Journalists Saying These Practices ‘May be Justified on Occasion’)

Table 6: Importance of Actions Taken For the Future of Democracy Among U.S. Public Media Journalists (in %)

Table 7: Experience with Threats Among U.S. Commercial and Public Media Journalists (Percentages of Journalists Saying They Have Experienced Threats)

Chapter 10

Table 1: U.S. Journalists’ Use of Social Media Platforms for Work by Demographics (Percentages of Journalists Who “Regularly” Use These Social Media)

Table 2: Types of Social Media Used by Media Sector (Percentage of Journalists Who “Regularly” Use These Social Media)

Table 3: Purpose of Social Media Use by Media Type (in %)

Table 4: Predictors of U.S. Journalists’ Social Media Use (Total Time Spent With Social Media Per Day)

Table 5: Perceived Effects of Social Media on Journalism Profession by Media Type (Percentage of Journalists Who Either “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” With Each Statement)

Table 6: Predictors of U.S. Journalists’ Attitudes Toward Social Media

Table 7: Social Media “Enthusiasts” and “Skeptics” Among U.S. Journalists in 2013 and 2022

Chapter 11

Table 1: U.S. Journalists’ Experience With Online Threats by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Who Say They Have Experienced Threats)

Table 2: U.S. Journalists’ Experience With Offline Threats by Medium (Percentages of Journalists Who Say They Have Experienced Threats)

Table 3: U.S. Journalists’ Experience With Online and Offline Threats by Gender (Percentages of Journalists Who Say They Have Experienced Threats)

Table 4: U.S. Journalists’ Experience with Online and Offline Threats by Race (Percentages of Journalists Who Said They Have Experienced Threats)

Table 5: Perceived Effects of Threats on Journalistic Work by Gender (in %)

Table 6: Perceived Effects of Threats on Personal Life by Gender (in %)

Table 7: Predictors of Job Satisfaction, Feeling Safe, and Leaving Journalism Among U.S. Journalists

Chapter 12

Table 1: U.S. Journalists’ Perceptions of the Most Important Problem Facing Journalism in the United States

Foreword

As this book goes to press, American journalism is facing an unprecedented wave of change and challenge. Consider: AI, social media, shifting consumer preferences and business models, and a twice-elected U.S. president who’s aggressively testing how far courts and the public will allow him to go to punish news outlets when fact-based reporting interferes with his political goals.

Drawing on six decades of national surveys of U.S. journalists, this book offers an unparalleled longitudinal analysis of how the profession has evolved amid shifting technological, political, and economic landscapes. Its importance lies in documenting the profound changes in journalists’ demographics, values, roles, and working conditions, especially in response to the digital revolution.

Today, we’re seeing in real time the risks of billionaire- and corporate ownership of news organizations, and the leverage federal regulators may exert when news operations are controlled financially by players with far more to gain or lose on the non-news side of their holdings.

We’re seeing how the decline of local newspapers has expanded news deserts and political polarization—and how non-profit and for-profit organizations are trying to fill those gaps. How podcasts, TikTok, Substack, and other emerging forms of information and entertainment sharing are capturing new audiences while eroding old audiences. How news giants of the last 40 or 50 years are managing existential efforts to remain independent, viable, relevant, and essential.

We’re watching how journalists employed across all of these structures are seeking to learn and adapt.

The authors of this book, and the journalists who took part in the 2022 survey on which its findings are based, were working in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the third year of the COVID pandemic. Inflation was new. A guy named Elon Musk was in the process of buying a company called Twitter. October 7 hadn’t yet happened. ChatGPT was about to be released. Gemini was still a year away. The 2024 election was over the horizon.

Yet many of the questions gripping the news business now already were being asked:

• Can traditional mainstream news survive?
• Is the Watergate-era framework for accountability journalism over, and if so, what will take its place?
• Should objectivity remain the goal and basis for news reporting?
• How can newsrooms tell the story of America unless their demographics—gender, ethnicity, region, and educational attainment—reflect the nation’s?
• Should journalists play an active, or bystander, role in protecting democracy?

The framework that authors Lars Willnat, David H. Weaver, and Cleve Wilhoit draw on for this book has roots dating to 1971, when the team of John Johnstone, Edward Slawski, and William Bowman launched a foundational national survey of journalists amid then-President Richard Nixon’s attacks on the press. The 2022 survey is an update to the current authors’ last major survey, conducted in 2013.

As a journalist who writes about American politics, and as the founding director of Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism & Citizenship in Washington, DC, I’m keenly interested in the questions—and changing answers—that this survey seeks to capture each decade.

I’m also impressed by the authors’ ability to obtain responses. If you think the public is reluctant to talk to pollsters, try surveying journalists about themselves! If you think promising anonymity would get most scribes to open up, I have some land in Florida to sell you. Yet through an exhaustive methodology footnoted in the pages ahead, the authors pushed ahead and persevered, surveying 1,600 journalists. What follows gives us as close as possible to a representative sample of the nation’s 86,000-and-falling ranks of full-time journalists.

In the pages ahead, you’ll read about how efforts to hire more women and journalists of color are reshaping newsrooms, and how pay gaps are closing. You’ll read that most journalists describe themselves as political independents—but how those who do align with a major party are much more likely to be Democrats than to be Republicans. You’ll read about how journalists have the highest levels of college education in history, disproportionately high compared with the general population.

You’ll learn what journalists see as the biggest threats to their profession. And how journalists are thinking more than before about how their work relates to the future of democracy, including the protection of the First Amendment that empowers us to ask questions and report facts on behalf of the public.

The results are enlightening.

Margaret Talev

July 2025

Preface

As in earlier books in The American Journalist series, this one builds on the work of other scholars, principally John W. C. Johnstone, Edward J. Slawski, and William W. Bowman at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who did the first major national survey of U.S. journalists in 1971, reported in their 1976 book, The News People: A Sociological Portrait of American Journalists and Their Work. That study produced baseline information on U.S. journalists’ backgrounds, education and training, careers, work patterns, and attitudes toward their jobs, roles, ethics, and responsibilities. It included journalists working for a wide variety of printed and broadcast news media, including newspapers, news magazines, wire services, television, and radio.

Since then, we have carried out five additional national surveys, in 1982–83, 1992, 2002, 2013, and 2022, reported in The American Journalist, The American Journalist in the 1990s, The American Journalist in the 21st Century, The American Journalist in the Digital Age, and now The American Journalist Under Attack. These surveys included many of the same questions asked by the Johnstone team more than 50 years ago, but also several new ones concerning the impact and use of new technologies, especially those based on the Internet, social media use, attacks on journalists, and the changes in the working environments of journalists throughout the United States.

The chief concerns in this book, as in earlier ones, are with changes in the backgrounds and education of those working in U.S. news media; their working conditions and jobs, including the use and impact of new media; and their views concerning their roles and ethical values. In addition, this book focuses on threats to representative democracy, attacks on the news media and journalists, and how their professional attitudes are affected by that context.