The Brussels Institute for Journalism Studies (BIJU) takes a distinctively multi- and interdisciplinary approach to the study of journalism, bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds such as linguistics, literary studies, communication studies, political sciences, legal studies, and logopedics.
As such, our research agenda is premised on the heterogeneous nature of journalism and defined by a primary focus on news production and journalism practice, and on the news product or 'text' (broadly understood), meaningfully located within broader socio-historical, political, judicial, technological and economic contexts. Additionally, we look into different sorts of media, both print, broadcast and online journalism, and mainstream as well as alternative news outlets, while accounting for the multimodality of journalistic discourses. In terms of journalism's topical areas, BIJU's multidisciplinary profile covers a broad range of domains, including (international) politics, environment, lifestyle, and culture.
Research projects within BIJU typically fit one or more of the following main research strands:
Journalism as Public Discourse
Research in this area focuses on questions and issues related to journalism's role in mediating and shaping public discourse(s) and, thus, in the representation and social construction of 'reality'. Key topics include terrorism and international conflict, politics, gender identities, and climate change. Methodologically, research in this strand uses (a combination of) linguistic, visual, or (critical) discourse analysis; conversation analysis; multimodal framing analysis; systematic-quantifying and qualitative content analysis; and qualitative (in-depth) interviews or ethnographic fieldwork.
Journalism as Genre
Research in this area focuses on questions and issues related to the (ever-evolving) codes and conventions defining journalistic genres and styles, and to the forms and implications of hybridity. Examples of research topics are metajournalistic genres, graphic journalism, and point of view in journalism. These topics are primarily examined through narrative, (linguistic) discourse, genre or semiotic analyses, often in combination with qualitative (in-depth) interviews.
Journalism as Practice
Research in this area focuses on questions and issues related to (developments in) methods of news gathering and news dissemination, and the legal and moral issues (professional ethics) involved. Research topics include analyses of the use of user-generated content by mainstream news media and professional journalists; the journalist-source relationship and sourcing in foreign news reporting; the impact of professional ideology on news production of traditional versus alternative news media; the ethics of press photography; and case studies of the tension between freedom of speech and the right to privacy. Typically, the methodology consists of (combinations of) in-depth interviews and surveys, ethnographic fieldwork, quantitative and qualitative content analyses, and legal analyses, applied within a (socio)linguistic, (media)sociological or communication studies framework.
Members of BIJU have consistently presented their work at conferences of, amongst others, the International Communication Association (ICA), the International Pragmatics Association (IPA), the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), and the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA).