Parallel worlds: A computerized textual analysis of abstracts published in major journalism studies journals 2000-11

A total of 1018 English-language abstracts in the field of journalism studies, published from 2000–2011 in three internationally peer-reviewed journals, were subjected to computerized textual analysis and manual (human) discourse analysis to discover trends. The project aimed to build on previous studies and to describe what the researchers expected would be a new consensus snapshot among editors and top-level reviewers of the evolution and direction of Journalism Studies in the English-speaking world. Expected results emerged and are presented in detail: national priorities dominate two of the three journals while international and generally theoretical themes dominate the third. However, an unexpected result was that while the three journals contain identifiable themes in journalism studies over the twelve years examined, there was negligible evidence of interaction between these themes within or between the journals. Systems theory suggests that the ‘journalism’ itself, which has been the target of the ‘studies’ has been experiencing a period of stagnation and that very little, if any, overall interaction, discipline development and change has taken place. We argue that a root cause for this is the lack of professional leadership in journalism.