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News Media Landscape in aFragile State: ProfessionalEthics Perceptions in a Post-Ba'athist IraqJeannine E. Rellya, Margaret Zangera & ShahiraFahmya

a School of Journalism, The University of ArizonaAccepted author version posted online: 09 Feb2015.Published online: 09 Feb 2015.

To cite this article: Jeannine E. Relly, Margaret Zanger & Shahira Fahmy (2015)News Media Landscape in a Fragile State: Professional Ethics Perceptions ina Post-Ba'athist Iraq, Mass Communication and Society, 18:4, 471-497, DOI:10.1080/15205436.2014.1001032

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News Media Landscape in a FragileState: Professional Ethics Perceptions

in a Post-Ba’athist Iraq

Jeannine E. Relly, Margaret Zanger, and Shahira FahmySchool of Journalism

The University of Arizona

During the years of Ba’athist dictator Saddam Hussein, media personnel wereunder tight control and tortured or executed when they strayed from thegovernment line. In the decade following the fall of the Ba’athist regime,thousands of Iraqi journalists were trained in liberal democratic professionalnorms, and hundreds of news outlets opened even as some of the old patronagepractices and violence continued. This study utilized Shoemaker and Reese’shierarchy of influences model to examine factors influencing a proxy indicatorfor professional ethics, the value of conflict of interest avoidance among a pur-posive sample of Iraqi journalists (N¼ 588). We found that the news media rou-tines and ideological levels, though not strong, had the greatest influences onthis conflict of interest avoidance perception criterion indicator, the proxy for

Jeannine E. Relly (Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2008) is an assistant professor in the

School of Journalism at The University of Arizona. Her research focuses on press-state rela-

tions, democratic institutions, and freedom of expression and access to information in countries

in conflict and political transition.

Margaret Zanger (M.S.L., Yale Law School, 1989; M.A., The University of Arizona, 1985)

is a professor of practice in the School of Journalism at The University of Arizona. Her research

focuses on international journalism and the Middle East with an emphasis on Iraq, the Kurds,

and crises reporting.

Shahira Fahmy (Ph.D., University of Missouri, 2003) is an associate professor in the School

of Journalism at The University of Arizona. Her research is situated in the areas of global

reporting and visual journalism with a specific focus on the Middle East and issues that intersect

these domains in the context of wars and conflicts in the region.

Correspondence should be addressed to Jeannine E. Relly, School of Journalism, The Uni-

versity of Arizona, 845 North Park Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721-0158. E-mail: jrelly@email.

arizona.edu

Mass Communication and Society, 18:471–497, 2015Copyright # Mass Communication & Society Division

of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

ISSN: 1520-5436 print=1532-7825 online

DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2014.1001032

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professional ethics. The findings suggest a tension between liberal democraticjournalism training at the routines level and ideological aspects, in some cases,such as ethnic identity and political ideology. Strong influences on perceptionsof conflict of interest avoidance were the type of media platform=Westernjournalism training, Arab ethnicity over Kurdish ethnicity, ideology of‘‘democrat’’ over Kurdish nationalist or Islamist. No influence was apparentfor Internet use frequency or state versus nonstate media.

INTRODUCTION

In the decade after the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority handed overgoverning power to Iraqis, hundreds of millions of dollars were spent ondeveloping that country’s news media (Ricchiardi, 2011). In addition,hundreds of news outlets opened in Iraq (al-Ansary, 2011; Amos, 2010),replacing the tightly controlled government-sponsored radio and televisionstations, newspapers, and magazines. The results of this growth and journal-istic training have been affected, however, by ongoing instability in the coun-try. Iraq is now listed as among the world’s ‘‘fragile states, divided alongreligious, political, ethnic or other fault lines’’ (Deane, 2013, p. 3). Further,the Committee to Protect Journalists (2014) confirmed the killing of 166 jour-nalists since 1992 and placed the country in the top spot on the organization’simpunity list. At a critical juncture for Iraq and global news media, thisexploratory research seeks to study a hierarchy of influences (Reese, 2001;Shoemaker & Reese, 1996, 2014), such as violence, government control, West-ern journalism training, ethnicity, religion, and political ideology, on Iraqijournalists’ professional value perceptions. Following an early flush of moneyand interest in post-invasion Iraq, funding has decreased, foreign pressbureaus have closed, and global reporting on Iraq has waned (Al-Mukhtar,2010; Ricchiardi, 2011) even as the country has continued to face dauntingchallenges from within and outside the nation (Awad & Eaton, 2013).

A study of professional ethics values related to conflicts of interest amonga broad sector of Iraqi journalists largely is absent from the academic litera-ture, though Kim and Hama-Saeed (2008) conducted important qualitativeresearch that examined professional values among 22 Iraqi journalists in thepost-Ba’athist years. Al-Rawi (2012, 2013) also studied the shaping of Iraq’ssectarian media. Kim (2010, 2011) examined factors influencing Iraqi jour-nalists’ perceptions of press freedom and violence. Our study contributes tothe growing body of scholarship in the region and elsewhere that examinesthe importance of context and other influences on professional norms andprofessionalization (Deuze, 2005; Hallin & Mancini, 2004; Waisbord,2013), professional values (Pintak & Ginges, 2008, 2009; Pintak & Nazir,

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2013; Pintak & Setiyono, 2011; Weaver, Beam, Brownless, Voakes, &Wilhoit, 2007; Weaver & Wilhoit, 1986) and professional culture(Hanitzsch, 2006, 2007; Waisbord, 2013).

The study follows a substantial period of investment in news mediadevelopment in Iraq by the United States and other nations (Amos, 2010;Kumar, 2006; Ricchiardi, 2011). At some points during the occupation, aU.S. ‘‘democracy promotion’’ program spent as much as $10 billion amonth in the area (Epstein, Serafino, & Miko, 2007, p. 9). Under these pro-grams and efforts, thousands of Iraqi journalists received training on the lib-eral democratic model (Ricchiardi, 2011), originated largely in parts ofWestern Europe and North America. The model is known for its emphasison marketization, professionalism, and journalistic autonomy from institu-tions of power (Hallin & Mancini, 2004, p. 145). Against this background,our overarching research question focuses on the extent to which a hierarchyof influences shapes Iraqi journalists’ perceptions of conflict of interestavoidance, a proxy for professional ethics values.

Some scholars have noted that the end of an authoritarian regime does notnecessarily mean the beginning of democracy (Hadenius & Teorell, 2007,p. 145) or the development of a news media that values democratic account-ability and independence from conflicts of interest. However, professionalautonomy is a matter of degree, and ‘‘there is a great theoretical and practicalinterest in studying the extent to which journalists are autonomous enoughto enable the flow of credible and reliable information to the citizenry’’(Reich & Hanitzsch, 2013, p. 134). Our study contributes research in thisarea by examining the influence of liberal democratic journalism trainingon journalistic values in a country fraught with continuing violence, a historyof patronage, and severe repression of independent news media. As the litera-ture points out, during processes of political development, professionalmodels of journalism from the international arena are often grafted ontoother cultures, and this sometimes leads to the formation of hybrid norma-tive ideals (Awad & Eaton, 2013; Relly, 2011, 2012; Rohde, 2005, p. 7).

The following sections examine the historical context of media in Iraq,Western news media development in the country, the literature on the concep-tualization of professionalization and professional autonomy, and the frame-work of the hierarchy of influences model that will be employed in this study.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND MEDIA DEVELOPMENTLANDSCAPE IN IRAQ

Although a history of a democratic polity in Iraq has been disputed(Al-Rawi, 2012, p. 12), it has been noted that during the monarchical

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era—1921 to 1958—the country had a British-based parliamentary politicalsystem and the constitution of that time allowed for political participationand freedom of expression despite some opposition party harassment andan institution of emergency laws (Dawisha, 2005, pp. 724–725).

The Republican period (post-1958) and the later rule of Saddam Husseinslowly led to ‘‘brutal treatment at the hands of the Ba’athists and the mediafell under severe censorship, restrictions, scrutiny, and persecution’’(Al-Deen, 2005, p. 8; Dawisha, 2005, p. 733; Rugh, 2004). The exceptionwas the three Kurdish governorates in Northern Iraq between 1991 and2003. That area of the country was autonomous from the central govern-ment control after an international intervention to protect the Kurds fromthe Ba’ath regime in the years after the 1991 Kurdish and Shiite uprising(Human Rights Watch, 1993; Zanger, 2001, 2004).

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the country’s new constitutionestablished the Republic of Iraq as ‘‘a single federal, independent and fullysovereign state in which the system of government is republican, representa-tive, parliamentary, and democratic’’ (‘‘Full Text,’’ 2005). Yet democracyhas not consolidated in Iraq, and the press there has been ranked ‘‘not free’’(Freedom House, 2003–2013). Overall, scholars and others have noted thatthe news media environment in Iraq has been in a state of flux and a con-stant challenge for journalists after the abrupt end of the state-controlledmedia of the Ba’ath regime (Amos, 2010; Freedom House, 2003–2013; Inter-national Media Support, 2005; Ricchiardi, 2011).

In post-Saddam Iraq, myriad U.S. and U.K.-based trainers from inter-national nongovernmental organizations assisted in the development of newsmedia and monitoring press violations (Al-Rawi, 2013; Ricchiardi, 2011). Thegroups trained Iraqi journalists in the liberal democratic journalism model,provided input on media policy, assisted in the development of unions andassociations for journalists, and provided monitoring and advocacy for thesafety of journalists (International Federation of Journalists and the Feder-ation of Arab Journalists, 2004; International Media Support, 2005). Inaddition, religious and political groups from Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, andother countries subsidized news media in Iraq (Awad & Eaton, 2013, p. 5).

PROFESSIONALIZATION AND PROFESSIONALISMIN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

While country- and donor-driven news media development and funding areexpanding around the world, so is a body of literature that contradicts atheory of universal professional journalism norms (Hanitzsch, 2006, 2007;Pintak, 2014; Pintak & Setiyono, 2011; Rao & Lee, 2005; Waisbord, 2013;

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Ward, 2005). It has been suggested that advancing liberal democraticarguments in support of journalism professionalization is intended to pro-tect news coverage from ‘‘colluding political and economic powers’’ or thatit is ‘‘necessary to curb arbitrariness and discretionalism, and to ensure thatjournalists pursue a thematic news agenda that isn’t in lockstep with polit-ical and economic elites’’ (Waisbord, 2013, pp. 169–170). And although theliberal democratic model as an export ideal has long focused on the role thatnews media play in political development and government accountability,scholars have found that given the varying societal, political, and economiccontexts within many countries in transition, liberal democratic-stylejournalistic norms and values often do not fit (Freedman, 2009; Gross,2004; Kenny & Gross, 2008; Shafer & Freedman, 2003; Yang, 2012). Inan assessment of research that is focused on journalists’ characteristics in31 countries, Weaver and Willnat (2012) concluded, ‘‘The patterns of simi-larities and differences that emerge from these cross-national comparisonsare not easily explained by conventional political, economic, and culturalcategories, or by existing theories of mass communication, but they arestriking and intriguing in their variety’’ (p. 5).

We examine the case of Iraq in the context of other nations in whichchanges in the news media historically have been expected in so-called tran-sitions away from autocratic or authoritarian governments. Coman (2004)noted that in some regions, such as the former Soviet countries, critical junc-tures along the way ‘‘did not allow for the establishment of the system ofinstitutions, norms and values through which Western journalism was builtand imposed, through a slow and gradual accumulation of professionalidentity’’(p. 47). We submit that this could be the case in areas of Iraq,where violence alone has disrupted every aspect of daily life. Further, it ispossible that there may be defensiveness against Western news media devel-opment related to ethics values in the profession, which has occurred inother countries (Hafez, 2002).

AUTONOMY AS A PROFESSIONAL VALUE

The professional value of autonomy from special interests has been cited asone of the hallmarks of journalistic ‘‘professionalization’’ in some regions ofthe world (Hallin & Mancini, 2004, pp. 34–35). From the liberal democraticnorm theoretical perspective, scholars have found that news media playa critical role in government accountability (Brunetti & Weder, 2003;Christians, Glasser, McQuail, Nordenstreng, & White, 2009; Lawson,2002; Relly, 2012). Camaj’s (2013) cross-national study suggests news mediamay serve as ‘‘a potentially powerful external control on undemocratic

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behavior of rent seeking’’ (p. 22), a major concern in some post-authoritarianenvironments.

Our research is centered on a type of autonomy that focuses on ‘‘theextent to which journalists can make decisions free of pressures’’ (Reich& Hanitzsch, 2013, p. 135) in a postdictatorship context. Scholars haveexamined professional perceptions of journalistic values and challengesin the field in other states in the region and elsewhere (Coleman &Wilkins, 2004; Kirat, 2012; Pintak & Ginges, 2008, 2009; Ramaprasad &Hamdy, 2006; Ramaprasad & Kelly, 2003) and found ethics issues citedamong the largest professional challenges (Pintak & Ginges, 2008, 2009).We study influences on journalists’ perspectives on professional ethics aftera period of intense news media development in Iraq (Al-Rawi, 2012, 2013),as researchers found that professional conflicts of interest were of concernin a qualitative study in the country (Kim & Hama-Saeed, 2008). Further,just over a decade ago it was the culture of Saddam Hussein’s regime todistribute lavish gifts among loyal state-controlled media (Ricchiardi,2011, p. 8). In more recent years, the new Iraqi government reportedlygave away plots of land, cheap flats, and cash to some Iraqi journaliststo curry favorable coverage (al-Ansary, 2011; Cloud, 2006; InternationalJournalists’ Network, 2005; Robertson, 2009). U.S. Department ofDefense contractors also paid Iraqi news outlets to plant stories in newsreports (Burns, 2006). Kim and Hama-Saeed (2008) wrote that Iraqi jour-nalists had no professional codes of ethics and this was ‘‘another obstacleto the improvement of the journalistic performance of the Iraqi media’’(p. 290). Thus, we link the concept of journalistic autonomy with conflictof interest avoidance by applying Wilkins and Brennen’s (2004) frameworkthat describes conflicts of interest as placing individual interest abovegreater public good and allowing money to interfere with professionalduties through exploiting a professional post for personal advantage(p. 302).

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The literature suggests that the meaning of journalistic professionalism‘‘needs to be understood in relation to its specific cultural context’’ (Reese,2001, p. 178). Weaver et al. (2007) noted that ‘‘it is rarely possible to statewith certainty what forces’’ cause a journalist to adopt a particular attitudeor perception about professional journalistic values. However, the hierarchyof influences model could serve as a framework to examine potential factorsinfluencing these perceptions (Voakes, 1997).

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Individual-Level Influences

Although Berkowitz and Limor (2003) found that some individual factors(along with extra-media-level factors) were among the strongest influenceson the professional value of ethical decision making among U.S. journalists,another comparative study found that the individual level was less influen-tial (Berkowitz, Limor, & Singer, 2004). The literature has been mixed onthe relationship among age, gender, and education on journalistic practice(Hanitzsch, 2006; Hanitzsch et al., 2010; Kim, 2010; Pintak & Ginges,2009; Reese, 2001; Shoemaker, Eichholz, Kim, & Wrigley, 2001; Shoemaker& Reese, 1996; Weaver et al., 2007; Zhu, Weaver, Lo, Chen, & Wu, 1997).

Routines-Level Influences

Tuchman (1972) wrote about ‘‘strategic ritual,’’ professional work as itrelated to procedures in journalists’ routines. Scholars have utilized indica-tors of these routines to examine attitudes and perceptions of news values(Hanitzsch et al., 2010; Kim, 2010; Reese, 2001; Shoemaker & Reese,1996; Shoemaker et al., 2001; Tuchman, 1972; Weaver et al., 2007; Zhuet al., 1997). Further, research has shown that journalists around the worldshare some occupational characteristics (Deuze, 2005; Kim, 2010) and thatnews media platforms, such as print, digital, and broadcast, also havedemonstrated influence on news reporting (Kim, 2010).

Organizational-Level Influences

As scholars have noted, influences on journalists at the organizational levelmay be direct or indirect, and include policies and political, societal, legal,and economic pressures and mandates (Hanitzsch et al., 2010; Kim, 2010;Reese, 2001; Shoemaker & Reese, 1996; Weaver et al., 2007; Zhu et al.,1997). More than half (56%) of the journalists in one survey (n¼ 601) inthe Middle East, outside of Iraq, found that the challenge of businesspressures from media ownership was significant (Pintak & Ginges, 2009).Weaver et al. (2007) found a host of constraints on professional autonomy,including commercial imperatives of news organizations as ‘‘profit-makingbusinesses’’ (p. 76). One study found media ownership and type of media(state-run, political party, private) played a role in perceptions about physi-cal violence in Iraq (Kim, 2010).

Extra-Media-Level Influences

External groups as an influence. Pintak (2014) suggested thatprofessional values can be influenced by ‘‘an array of political, social and

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economic factors’’ (p. 498). Influences that are extrinsic to journalists andnews organizations have included advertisers, governments, special interestgroups, politicians, religious leaders, other media groups, citizens, nongo-vernmental and intergovernmental organizations. In recent years, scholarshave been looking at such influences as militias, organized crime groups,and other entities outside of the law (Hanitzsch et al., 2010; Kim, 2010;Reese, 2001; Shoemaker & Reese, 1996).

Physical threats as an external influence. Attacks on journalists arethe reality in conflict zones around the world (Kim, 2010), and studies haveexamined these influences on journalists in war zones (Hahn & Lonnendon-ker, 2009; Kester, 2010; Kim, 2010; Kim & Hama-Saeed, 2008). In Iraq,journalists are regularly abducted and sometimes murdered, and ‘‘manyof these deaths reflect reprisals for Iraqi journalists’ work’’ (Kim &Hama-Saeed, 2008, p. 582).

Internet access as a proxy influence for democratic norm diffusion.Research has demonstrated that the Internet can be a strong democratizingforce (Best & Wade, 2009; Nisbet, Stoycheff, & Pearce, 2012), and, we sub-mit, a potential influence on the democratic accountability values of inde-pendence from conflicts of interest in the journalism profession. However,one study of 152 nations found that citizens most impacted by the Internetwere in wealthier nations with developed institutions of democracy(Groshek, 2009, p. 249).

Ideology as an Influence

As Reese (2001) noted, ‘‘from a critical ideological perspective,’’ journalismprofessionalism is a challenge to summarize because it is ‘‘connected withlarger social interests’’ (pp. 183, 185). Ideology has been described as a toolfor those in power as well as a tool for social change. According toShoemaker and Reese (2014), ‘‘Whether ideological influences on the massmedia are judged to be good or bad, positive or negative, functional or dys-functional, depends largely on point of view’’ (p. 71). The literature suggeststhat ideological influences on perceptions about journalism professionalvalues can be placed in the subsystem of society (Shoemaker & Reese,2014, pp. 70–71).

In Iraq religion, ethnicity, and political ideology have been major sourcesof societal conflict in the more open years since the fall of Saddam Hussein,whose regime of minority Sunni Arabs constituted the ruling class eventhough the Shiite sect was the majority in the country (Al-Deen, 2005,p. 8; Price, Griffin, & Al-Marashi, 2007, p. 68; Wimmer, 2003, p. 119).

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Further, Pintak (2014), who noted that ‘‘Islam is a religion, but it is also aphilosophy,’’ wrote that in Muslim-majority countries, ‘‘Islamic values playan important and unifying role within the hierarchy of influences that shapeworldview among journalists’’; yet there are many other factors that influ-ence these journalists’ values (pp. 484, 498). Because of the importance ofvalues in professional dimensions in general (Plaisance & Deppa, 2008;Plaisance & Skewes, 2003), we argue for the examination of the influenceof ethnicity and religion on the value of journalistic autonomy from institu-tions of power.

Further, in some countries the media reflect the political orientation ofthe government, whereas in other nations, the news media are independentof the state (Hallin & Mancini, 2004, p. 27). In Iraq, it is important to notethat hundreds of privately owned news media outlets have opened over thelast decade, and most are funded by ethnic groups and political parties(Freedom House, 2013, p. 3). In addition, the primarily Arab ethnicmajority has had long-standing tensions with the Kurds, the second-largestethnic group in the country (U.S. State Department, 2012).

The literature also has focused in small part on ‘‘the persistence of prac-tices and a cultural profile inherited from the old regime, which contributeto perpetuating a new order that is either corrupt or authoritarian, or evenboth at the same time’’ (de Albuquerque, 2013, p. 744). Further, other scho-lars have argued that ‘‘the instrumentalization of the news media’’ hasincluded political parties or the state, and other interests, which can leadto limitations on journalists’ autonomy (Hallin & Papathanassopoulos,2002, p. 181). Moreover, others have suggested that ‘‘political parallelism’’may influence journalistic perceptions of autonomy in a non-Western con-text (Blumler & Gurevitch, 1995; de Albuquerque, 2013; Hallin & Mancini,2004). However, we acknowledge and concur that ‘‘political parallelism andjournalistic autonomy do not sum up all possible kinds of connectionbetween media and politics’’ (de Albuquerque, 2013, p. 748). Thus, we sug-gest that through testing political ideology in a broad way, we will furtherexplore this relationship.

Based on this literature, our exploratory study addresses an overarchingresearch question that examines, To what extent do factors within a hierarchyof influences serve as determinants of Iraqi journalists’ perceptions of conflictof interest avoidance nearly 10 years after the end of the Ba’ath regime?

METHOD

We conducted a survey of Iraqi journalists between July 20, 2011, andAugust 26, 2011. The questionnaire was developed in English and then

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translated into Arabic and Kurdish. The translators were two Iraqinationals who had worked with international correspondents in the country.After pretesting the questionnaire, we then had the revised versionback-translated from Arabic and Kurdish into English. We then distributed840 questionnaires that were self-administered by a purposive sample ofjournalists in newsrooms that included the largest cities in the country. Ithas been noted that a nonprobability sample is appropriate in conflict zonesand jurisdictions that do not have an official number of journalistsaccounted for in the country (Kim, 2010). We collected 588 usable question-naires for a response rate of 70%, which is high for recent times.

We use the hierarchy of influences model (Shoemaker & Reese, 1996) totest the relationships between five levels of influence (individual, news mediaroutines, organizational, extra-media, and ideological) and the criterion vari-able that is a proxy for the professional value toward conflicts of interest.More specifically, the liberal democratic value of conflict of interest avoid-ance is measured through an index. At the time of this research, the mainin-country journalism organizations were not aware of any ethics codes.

Criterion Variable Measurement

Using Wilkins and Brennen’s (2004) reference to professional conflicts ofinterest as tending to be situated around exploiting a position for privategain (p. 302), we adapted items used by other scholars in the region (Kirat,2012; Pintak & Ginges, 2008, 2009). We operationalized perceptions of con-flict of interest avoidance using three Likert scale measurements. The ques-tionnaire read, ‘‘Please check the response that best matches yourperspectives of the following practices’’; ‘‘It is acceptable to take moneyto report positive stories’’; ‘‘It is acceptable to take money to publish orbroadcast a story given to your new organization by someone outside ofthe newsroom’’; and ‘‘It is acceptable to pay a source for information thatyou will include in your news report.’’ The 7-point scales ranged fromstrongly disagree (lowest end of the scale) to strongly agree and then werereverse coded. To create the conflict of interest avoidance index, we tookthe mean of the three variables. The index had a Cronbach’s alpha of.773 for the reliability of the measurement, which is considered ‘‘respect-able’’ in the social sciences (Aron & Aron, 2002; DeVellis, 2003, p. 95).

Explanatory Variables

Individual-level influences. Explanatory indicators used at theindividual level are age, gender, and education. We recoded the continuous

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variable for age into modified categories: ages 17–29, 30–39, 40–49, >50.Gender is a categorical measurement (0¼male, 1¼ female). We recodedthe education variable as follows: (a) some primary school or primaryschool degree; (b) some secondary school or secondary school degree; (c)diploma (2-years of college) – journalism or other=some college; (d) bach-elor of arts or bachelor of science; and (e) graduate degree (master of artsor science or doctorate).

News media routines level influences. Among the indicators of newsmedia routines influences, the study used news media platform. We askedjournalists to choose, ‘‘What form of media do you work in most?’’ and anumber of respondents chose multiple platforms. We recoded to accommo-date: (a) broadcast, (b) print, (c) news agency, (d) online, and (e) multipleplatforms. The item is in column 1a in Table 2.

Because Western journalism training was a major funding interventionwhen the United States and its allies occupied Iraq and continues to thisday, Western media training is one of the main variables in the study. Ineach model, we tested the influence of news media development at the rou-tines level, using this variable as a proxy for routines that may have been

TABLE 1

Mean, Standard Deviation, Frequency Distribution and Measure of Cronbach’s Alpha for Iraqi

Journalists’ Perceptions of Conflict of Interest Avoidance

Perceptions ofa

conflict-of-interest-

avoidance indicators M=SD Agreeb %Somewhat

disagree % Disagree %

Strongly

disagree %

It is acceptable to take

money to report positive

stories. N¼ 583

5.32 (1.97) 23.6 8.6 15.4 44.9

It is acceptable to take

money to publish or

broadcast a story given to

your news organization

by someone outside of the

newsroom. N¼ 583

5.39 (1.88) 19.5 7.2 17.5 43.9

It is acceptable to pay a

source for information

that you will include in

your news report. N¼ 583

4.68 (2.04) 33.4 9.1 11.7 31.7

Note. The responses to the items are on a 7-point scale. For ethics, 1 is strongly agree and 7 is

strongly disagree.aCronbach’s a for perceptions of professional ethics¼ 0.773. bCategories for levels of ‘‘agree’’

were collapsed into one category.

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TABLE 2

Hierarchical Multiple Regression for Influences on Perceptions of Conflict of Interest

Avoidance

Variables

Model 1 Model 2

B Model 1a B Model 1b B Model 2a B Model 2b

Individual level

Age .03� .03� .02� .02�

Gender (female high) .17 .23 .14 .18

Education �.09 �.07 �.08 �.06

R2 (%)

Media routines levela (Reference group: Broadcast)

Print �1.07�� — �.75�� —

News agency �.13 — �.13 —

Internet �1.23�� — �.92� —

Multiple platforms �.97�� — �.78�� —

R2 change (%) .06��� — .04�� —

Western journalism traininga — .76��� — .65���

R2 change (%) — .05��� — .04���

Organizational level

Media ownership challenges .23�� .21�� .22��� .24���

state or nonstate media �.05 .14 .01 .12

R2 change (%) .03�� .02� .03�� .03��

Extra-media level

External Challenge Index .10�� .10�� .07�� .08��

Internet use .02 .03 .04 .02

R2 change (%) .03�� .03�� .02�� .02��

Ideological level

Model 1

Kurd .00 �.66� — —

Muslim �.11 �.27 — —

Christian �.43 �.41 — —

Other �.63 �.73 — —

Model 2

Arab nationalist — — �.30 �.02

Islamist — — �1.03��� �.71�

Kurd nationalist — — �1.10��� �1.10���

Nationalist — — .08 .30

Other — — �.20 �.08

R2 change (%) .01 .02 .06��� .06���

Total R2 (%) .15��� .14��� .16��� .16���

Adjusted R2 (%) .11��� .11��� .13��� .14���

aWe used Western journalism training as a proxy for the routines level indicator for news

media platform.�p< .05. ��p< .01. ���p< .001.

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adopted within each platform as a result of Western training.1 The item inthe questionnaire read, ‘‘Have you been trained by or worked with Westernjournalists?’’ We coded 1 (yes) and 0 (no). The Western journalism trainingitem is in column 1b of Table 2.

Organizational-level influences. We examined news media ownershipchallenges as an influence, given that scholars have linked political andeconomic pressures on organizations as an influence on journalists in theregion (Kim, 2010; Pintak & Ginges, 2008, 2009) and elsewhere (Hanitzschet al., 2010; Reese, 2001; Shoemaker & Reese, 1996; Weaver et al., 2007;Zhu et al., 1997). We used Pintak and Ginges’s (2008, 2009) item in the ques-tionnaire, asking survey participants to check one item that shows how sig-nificant the media ownership challenge would be for Iraqi journalists. Theitem was accompanied by a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (completely insignifi-cant) to 5 (most significant). Another organizational-level variable examinedwas type of media. Because of the opaque nature of funding in privately runnews media in Iraq (Awad & Eaton, 2013; Ricchiardi, 2011), we used a cat-egorical variable for state-run¼ 0 and nonstate news media¼ 1.

Extra-media-level influences. For our external-challenges index, weutilized the relevant concepts from Pintak and Ginges’s (2008) items for‘‘most significant challenges’’ to journalism in the Arab region. Pintakfound government control and corruption were among the strongest chal-lenges to those in the profession. We also utilized Pintak and Ginges’s itemsof physical violence, religious group, and corporate (commercial company)pressure because of the literature that has indicated these are specific issuesin Iraq or elsewhere (Kim, 2010, 2011; Kim & Hama-Saeed, 2008; Pintak,2014; Pintak & Nazir, 2013), even though fewer than 40% of journalistsin other Arab countries found these items to be a challenge. The question-naire asked study participants how significant the following challengeswould be for Iraqi journalists: (a) government control over the media, (b)corruption in government institutions, (c) commercial company pressures,(d) physical violence against journalists, and (e) religious group pressures.Response options to each item were on a scale from 1 (completely insignifi-cant) to 5 (most significant). The Cronbach’s alpha for the externalchallenges index is .703.

Further, given that previous research has shown the influence of Internetuse on democratic values (Best & Wade, 2009; Groshek, 2009; Nisbet et al.,

1We note that one reviewer suggested that this variable could have been alternatively used

on the individual level as a form of education.

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2012), we used the Internet as a proxy to look at exposure to democraticaccountability norms. The indicator for Internet stated, ‘‘In your reportingduring a typical week, you use the Internet . . . ’’ We collapsed the responsesinto the following categories: 1 (never), 2 (1–3 days a week), 3 (5–7 days aweek), 4 (every day), and 5 (several times a day).

Ideological-level influences. We first tested primary identity as an indi-cator for ideology. We based our categories for ethnicity and religion in Iraqon government information and the literature (Al-Deen, 2005; Bengio, 2012;U.S. State Department, 2012). The categories were listed following theitem: ‘‘Do you consider yourself primarily to be: (a) Arab, (b) Assyrian,(c) Chaldean, (d) Iraqi Arab, (e) Iraqi Christian, (f) Kakayee, (g) Kurd,(h) Muslim, (i) Sabian, (j) Shia Muslim, (k) Shabak, (l) Sunni Muslim,(m) Turkoman, (n) Yazidi.’’ We recoded these categories as follows: Arab(Arab and Iraqi Arab), Kurd (Kurd, Kakayee, and Yazidi), Muslim (ShiaMuslim, Sunni Muslim, and Muslim), Christian (Chaldean, Iraqi Christian,and Assyrian), Other (Sabian, Shabak, and Turkoman). We combined theShiite Muslim, the Sunni Muslim, and the Muslim categories into one cate-gory because of the low number of respondents choosing Sunni Muslim(n¼ 11) and Shiite Muslim (n¼ 20) as primary identity. We suspect that thischoice, in part, could reflect a hesitation to identify by religious sect basedon the context for the Sunni minority at the time of the study and thehistorical legacy of the former Ba’ath regime, as well, in repressing ShiiteMuslims. We used the category of ‘‘Arab’’ as the reference group in thenational-level models, as Arab Iraqis are the largest ethnic group in thecountry (U.S. State Department, 2012).

To examine political parallelism at the ideological level, we utilizedPintak and colleagues’ (Pintak & Ginges, 2008, 2009; Pintak & Setiyono,2011) categories for political identity with a slight modification to includethe Kurds. The categories are as follows: Arab nationalist, democrat,Islamist, Kurdish nationalist, nationalist, and other.

RESULTS

Our study uses the hierarchy of influences model to examine factors influen-cing Iraqi journalists’ perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance valuesafter nearly a decade of intense Western journalism training in the country.Our study (N¼ 588) examined Shoemaker and Reese’s five levels of influ-ence on perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance. We specifically focusedon the professional value of journalistic ethics as the concept relates to auto-nomy and independence from conflicts of interest and liberal democratic

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values that were advanced through media development in the country(Ricchiardi, 2011).

Respondents’ ages ranged from 17 to 66 years, with the mean at 34.4years (SD¼ 8.5 years); the median is 33 years. The survey had 137 respon-dents identify as women (23.6%) and 443 respondents identify as men(76.2%), as is common in newsroom demographics in the region (Kim,2010; Kirat, 2012; Pintak & Ginges, 2009). More than half (67%) of therespondents had attended college, and 9.9% had a primary education or less.Broadcast journalists represented 59.5% of the respondents, 27.9% workedfor print or news agencies, 5% represented digital journalism, and theremainder (7.6%) worked in multiple platforms. Most of the journalists indi-cated that they worked for nonstate media (n¼ 431, 78.6%) and the remain-der for state-run media (n¼ 117). More than one in two journalists (56.3%)were trained by Western journalists. Although more than half (56.4%) of thejournalist respondents used the Internet at least daily, greater than one third(35.2%) logged on less than daily, and nearly one in 10 journalists (8.4%)never went on the Internet.

Table 1 offers a summary of the mean, standard deviation, frequency dis-tribution, and Cronbach’s alpha measurement for the study criterion vari-able, conflict of interest avoidance. The mean value for the criterionindicator is 5.13 (SD¼ 1.96). The study found that the majority of Iraqijournalists disagreed, to some extent, with the items that stated it is accept-able to take money to report positive news stories or to take money for pub-lishing or broadcasting a report given to the news outlet (more than 60%).Yet fewer (52.5%) disagreed at least ‘‘somewhat’’ with paying a source forinformation that would be included in a news report.

Using journalists’ perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance as a cri-terion variable measurement, we conducted five steps of hierarchicalregression to examine the influence of demographics at the individual level,news media platforms (or with Western journalism training as a proxy fornews media platform) at the routines level, ownership challenges and work-ing for a private news outlet versus state media at the organizational level,external challenges or the Internet on the extra-media level, and primaryidentity or political ideology at the ideological level. We created two modelswith the same independent variables for every level through to the ideologi-cal level. The only differences between the models are that Model 1 con-tained primary ethnic or religious identity as an influence at theideological level and Model 2 utilized political ideology as an influence,using a modified version of Pintak and Ginges’s (2008, 2009) categories.

The findings in Table 2 show that Model 1a and 1b, which used primaryethnic or religious identity as an ideological influence, explains 15% and14%, respectively, of the variation in the professional values’ criterion

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variable for ethics perceptions; the adjusted R2 for the model is 11%. Model2a and 2b with political ideology explains 16% of the variation in the cri-terion variable, with an adjusted R2 of 13% and 14% (for 2a and 2b, respect-ively). The Variance Inflation Factor test for multicollinearity indicates thatthe largest value for both models is 1.58; the variance inflation factor is wellbelow the 10 or more that could demonstrate a collinearity issue (Cohen,Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003).

Across the models, age was the only demographics variable at theindividual level (younger) in Model 1, B¼ .03, and in Model 2,B¼ .02, p< .05, that demonstrated significance. The influence was weak.Model 1a was the strongest model at the routines level. Working inbroadcast journalism (reference group) had the strongest and most posi-tive influence on perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance, comparedwith print news media (B¼�1.07, p< .01), Internet-based media (B¼�1.23, p< .01), and multiple platforms (B¼�.97, p< .01) of newsmedia. We then tested both models using training by Western journal-ists, the news media development variable, in place of the news mediaplatforms. We found that training by Western journalists in both modelswas a strong and highly significant predictor of conflict of interestavoidance perceptions. In Model 1b, Western journalism training con-tributed strongly and significantly (B¼ .76, p< .001) as it did in Model2b (B¼ .65, p< .001).

At the extra-media level, external challenges contributed significantlyin Model 1a and 1b (B¼ .10, p< .01) and slightly less in Model 2a(B¼ .07, p< .01) and 2b (B¼ .08, p< .01). When we examined percep-tions of conflict of interest avoidance in Model 1a and 1b, which hadprimary identity at the ideological level, the only significant variablewas 1b for Arab ethnic identity, the reference group, when comparedwith Kurdish identity (B¼�.66, p< .05). In Model 2a, which had polit-ical ideology indicators at the ideological level, identity of ‘‘democrat,’’the reference group, over Islamist (B¼�1.03, p< .001) and KurdishNationalist (B¼�1.10, p< .001) identities demonstrated strong and sig-nificant influence on conflict of interest avoidance perceptions. WithModel 2b, ‘‘democrat’’ also showed stronger influence than Islamist(B¼�.71, p< .05) and Kurdish Nationalist (B¼�1.10, p< .001) onthe criterion variable.

All four of the models were significant in contributing toward perceptionsof conflict of interest avoidance. Model 1a contributed 11% of the varianceto the model (R2¼ .15, F¼ 3.86, p< .001); Model 1b contributed 11% of thevariance (R2¼ .14, F¼ 4.54, p< .001). Model 2a contributed 13% of thevariance to the model (R2¼ .16, F¼ 6.34, p< .001); Model 2b contributed14% of the variance (R2¼ .16, F¼ 5.21, p< .001).

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DISCUSSION

This study utilized the hierarchy of influences model (Reese, 2001;Shoemaker, 1991; Shoemaker & Reese, 1996, 2014) as a framework toexamine forces that influence Iraqi journalists’ perceptions of professionalvalues in the post–Saddam Hussein period. Our research provides importantcross-sectional findings about professional norm perceptions among jour-nalists in Iraq, where the United States spent more than a half a billiondollars on news media development in the post-Ba’athist occupation period(Ricchiardi, 2011). Our models examined factors that influence conflict ofinterest avoidance perceptions, a hallmark of liberal democratic values(Waisbord, 2013) and professionalism in the West (Marquez Ramırez,2014).

We acknowledge that professional norms in areas in conflict within theregion still are being established, in part, because of the media ecology inwhich journalists must perform their duties, ‘‘where psychological, legal,and physical attacks on media workers are commonplace’’ and where cor-ruption and professional ethics are considered major challenges (Pintak &Ginges, 2008, 2009, p. 166). And we note, as did Reich and Hanitzsch(2013) with the literal definitions for journalistic professional autonomy,that journalism ethics or independence from conflicts of interest, ‘‘cannotbe investigated with regard to its objective nature and quality, only withrespect to the way it is perceived by journalists’’ (p. 136).

Further, as noted by Bastian and Lukham (2003), ‘‘democratic institu-tions are never introduced in a political, economic and social vacuum. Theycome into being within specific historical contexts, national societies andcultures’’ (p. 2). Thus, given that enduring democratic institutions take dec-ades to build (Relly, 2012), we positioned our analysis to examine how thismaelstrom of circumstances has influenced Iraqi journalists’ perspectives onconflicts of interest less than 10 years after the fall of the regime. Our studyfound, as have other studies in the region (Kim & Hama-Saeed, 2008; Kirat,2012; Pintak & Ginges, 2008, 2009) and elsewhere (Berkowitz & Limor,2003), that when asked multiple ways, a majority of journalists indicate thatit is unacceptable to take money for reporting positive stories or publishingor broadcasting a story given to a news organization. Of interest, the find-ings indicate that fewer journalists perceived an issue with paying a sourcefor information. This could demonstrate divergent professional valueswithin the sample and a potential example of a hybrid approach to normsintroduced from practitioners outside of the country. In this section, we firstoutline the most significant levels of influence in the models and the theor-etical implications, and then we discuss findings related to key determinantsand the other less influential levels of the hierarchy.

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In our models, we found that the news media routines and ideologicallevels had the greatest influences on our indicator for perceptions of con-flicts of interest avoidance. Thus, our findings do not fit with research thatindicates the lower levels of influences are the strongest in the hierarchy ofinfluences (Shoemaker et al., 2001) nor the original nested proposition thathigher, or ‘‘macro,’’ levels of the model often influence journalistic valuesmore than the lower level ‘‘micro’’ influences (Reese, 2001; Shoemaker &Reese, 1996). These findings, though weak, may speak to the tensionbetween liberal democratic journalism training at the routines level andideological aspects, such as ethnic identity and political ideology (Pintak,2014).

At the news media routines level, Western journalism training, our proxy,strongly influenced perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance in bothmodels as did working in a broadcast platform, which has the widest audi-ence in Iraq (Amos, 2010). Although broadcast work had more influence onstrong perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance than any other platform,these journalists did not have more Western media training (53.2%) whencompared with the other news media platforms (60.7%). However, qualityor duration of training may be a factor.

At the ideological level in Model 1b, the study found that Arab identitywas a greater predictor of strong conflict of interest avoidance perceptionsthan Kurdish identity, which is an important finding given that Iraqi Kurdshad a more than 10-year jump on exposure to democratic norms throughinterfacing with Western journalists, satellite television news, and the Inter-net when it was banned elsewhere in the country (Zanger, 2001, 2004). Thisis in contrast to Yang’s (2012) work, which used secondary data and foundthat democratic polity had a positive effect on media bribery level reduction.Again, at the ideological level in Model 2a and 2b, this finding further wasexpanded for political ideology, where journalists identifying as ‘‘demo-crats’’ had a much stronger influence on perceptions of conflict of interestavoidance than those identifying as Kurdish Nationalists.

These latter findings related to Kurdish journalists may demonstrate thatsome cultural values, which often are difficult to measure, may have a stron-ger influence on journalism values than normative professional frameworks(Marquez Ramırez, 2014) that are liberal democratic in nature. Weacknowledge the literature from cross-national work that has found politicalculture and duration of the polity to have influence on perceptions of con-flicts of interest (Relly, 2012). We also acknowledge that building institu-tions, such as an uncompromised news media in conflict and postconflictenvironments, has been found to be a challenge (Diamond, 2006, p. 97).We also note literature that points out that in some countries patronageand taking political gifts are long-held cultural traditions, though these same

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actions in other nations are considered conflicts of interest for journalistsand counter to the public interest (Camaj, 2013; Relly, 2011). Research else-where has made it clear that the way in which journalism is perceived orpracticed varies across the world. As Hanitzsch (2006) noted, diversity oftenincludes ‘‘even counter-hegemonic, journalism cultures’’ (pp. 181–182),which could be apt in Iraq with the recent period of Western training.

The individual, organizational, and extra-media levels had weaker influ-ences than the routines and ideological levels. At the individual level, ourcultural demographics indicator was gender, which demonstrated a positivebut not significant influence, which may be attributed in part to the minoritypercentage of female journalists in Iraq and the region, as reported in thisstudy and by other scholars (Kim, 2010, 2011; Kirat, 2012; Pintak & Ginges,2008, 2009). Our findings reflect those of Berkowitz and Limor’s (2003)U.S.-based study of the profession that showed at the individual level ofthe hierarchy, gender and education were not significant influences on jour-nalists’ perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance. Yet similar to thoseresearchers, we suggest the strength of gender (female) in its relationshipto strong perceptions of conflicts of interest deserves further attention inthe future. Education, which was inversely related to strong ethics percep-tions (but not significantly), reflects work by other scholars (Ahrend,2002; Camaj, 2013) who noted that education does not necessarily have aconflict-of-interest-deterring influence in countries without news mediarights.

At the organizational level, type of news organization (state vs. nonstate)did not influence journalists’ perceptions of conflicts of interest as expected.We note that Hallin and Mancini (2004) pointed out that clientelism can beassociated with private news media and public media. It is important topoint out that sources of funding of Iraqi news outlets may influence percep-tions or attitudes about news media freedom, political and sectarian per-spectives, and other professional values but not necessarily conflict ofinterest avoidance. Although Breed’s (1954) work suggested that ‘‘socialcontrol’’ in the newsroom shapes journalistic values, more recent researchin the United States has suggested that ‘‘newsroom socialization does notexert a strong influence on general values’’ (Plaisance & Skewes, 2003,p. 844).

That said, media ownership challenges exhibited a significant influenceacross models. If these challenges are related to economic issues, a policybriefing report on the news media in Iraq 10 years after the fall of SaddamHussein may offer insight. Awad and Eaton (2013) noted, ‘‘Despite an oilrich economy, the prospects for an advertising base capable of sustaininga genuinely independent media remain distant’’ (p. 5), which increasinglyplaces strain on news organizations to survive. It also has been noted that

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nonstate news media has been in a struggle for power with some owners,building what scholar Ibrahim Al Marashi described as ‘‘ ‘ethno-sectarianmedia empires’ ’’ (Awad & Eaton, 2013, p. 23). In the region, Pintak andGinges (2009) found business pressure from media ownership to be a majorchallenge. In the United States, Weaver et al. (2007) also found that theprofit-making apparatus of news outlets was a constraint on professionalautonomy. This also could be explained in part by Berkowitz and Limor(2003), whose work suggested that ‘‘journalists are caught in a dialecticbetween their professional ideals and the profit-motivated concerns thatkeep news organizations in business and financially viable’’ (p. 784). Inthe region, according to Pintak and Ginges (2009), ‘‘Arab journalism isstruggling to remove the twin yokes of state control and the influence ofpowerful corporate interests close to the ruling families of the region’’ (p.172). In Iraq, journalists struggle with the twin yokes of state control anddominant party control.

At the extra-media level, our findings were unexpected. The only signifi-cant influence at this level was the External Challenge Index, which includedphysical violence against journalists, government control over news media,government corruption, religious group, and corporate pressure. But theeffect size was relatively weak across models for this variable. Previousresearch (Kim, 2010, 2011; Kim & Hama-Saeed, 2008) has found that thesechallenges have a moderate influence when predicting attitudes about highlyspecific democratic normative attitudes of the press. We thus suggest thatfuture research should attempt to further examine whether the specific valueof conflict of interest avoidance may be considered quite separate fromother professional liberal democratic normative values in countries thathave a recent history of news media patronage and gifts for favors, as inIraq.

The Internet did not serve as a significant influence on perceptions ofconflicts of interest. In 2012, it is important to note, only 7% of those livingin Iraq had Internet access (Freedom House, 2013, p. 3). Thus, low Internetpenetration in the country may be a factor for journalists; slightly more thanone in two journalists in our study utilized the Internet daily. Although Iraqhas one of the lowest Internet penetration rates in the region, mobile phonepenetration is high and growing, as is the use of social media (InternationalResearch & Exchanges Board, 2011; International TelecommunicationUnion, 2012). These factors likely will be a key influence in the future.

This study has limitations. First, cross-sectional research is, indeed, ameasure of a period in time, and the circumstances in Iraq are naturallydynamic and costly to track. Nonetheless, the timing of this research isimportant given the size of the news media development investment in Iraqand the amount of time that elapsed after the fall of the dictatorship, which,

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according to the literature, would seemingly offer a period of diffusion ofany outside norms (Relly, 2012). Second, as always, there are potentialsocial desirability issues, and we submit this is possible with values itemsrelated to conflicts of interest. Third, although our study examined onedimension of ethics that has been noted in the literature to be a major issue(Kim & Hama-Saeed, 2008), we recognize that future research should exam-ine and add to the many other dimensions of ethics from frameworks thatother researchers have developed (Berkowitz & Limor, 2003; Kirat, 2012;Plaisance & Skewes, 2003). Fourth, because of a host of factors, such asdevelopment funding, foreign military occupation, violence, historical con-text, and ethno-religious tensions in Iraq, among other issues, it is difficultto compare its context to cases outside of the region, such as the formerSoviet Union or satellite nations or countries in Latin America, that havehad major political and social transitions.

Future research addressing the broad conceptual area of the journalisticvalue of conflict of interest avoidance, and other professional values, shouldcontinue to develop lines of inquiry in post-authoritarian, developing, andpostconflict countries, where large investments in news media have beenmade and continue. As Plaisance and Skewes (2003) explored the linkagesbetween journalists’ values and roles in the United States, future researchcould examine whether values of strong conflict of interest avoidance per-ceptions are linked with other liberal democratic values and professionalrole perceptions by way of journalism training in countries where patronageis a longtime cultural phenomenon.

CONCLUSION

This research contributes to a narrow strand of literature that examinesinfluences on democratic normative journalism values in unstable, violent,and postdictatorship environments. The study indicates that after a nearlydecade-long period of Western-oriented journalism training in Iraq in theyears following the fall of Saddam Hussein, a majority of journalistsacknowledge that, at a minimum, the classical liberal democratic norm ofconflict of interest avoidance is a known journalism professional value. Thiswas demonstrated in the study most strongly by the influences of Westernnews media training and specific democratic political ideological perspec-tives. This, in part, supports earlier work that argued political parallelismis less significant an influence in the liberal democratic model and at thesame time ‘‘political parallelism and journalistic autonomy do not sumup all possible kinds of connection between media and politics’’ (deAlbuquerque, 2013, p. 748).

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At the same time, the weak economic market for news media support(Freedom House, 2013), the well-documented culture of patronage, andthe influence of ethnic and political groups on the news media make theinstitutional conditions for the professional value of conflict of interestavoidance a challenge to democratic ideals that advance the ‘‘consolidationof professionalism’’ in a global context (Waisbord, 2013, p. 41). The processof democratic political development is, indeed, often measured by the ‘‘abil-ity to meet western democracies’ standards, and the fourth estate ideal inparticular’’ (de Albuquerque, 2013, p. 744). However, ideally, this studywould not be positioned as a comparison against these normativeprofessional ideals. Rather, it would be better considered, as Hallin andMancini (2004, p. 14) suggested, as an analysis of how the liberal democraticnorm of conflict of interest avoidance is situated in a postdictatorship set-ting given Western journalism training, the historical context, and thepolitical and social settings.

Finally, as Waisbord (2013) noted in a wide-ranging examination ofconceptualizations of journalism professionalism in a global context,‘‘Without democracy, it is hard to think about the consolidation of pro-fessionalism’’ (p. 41). This, perhaps, would be the case in Iraq, had therenot been extensive news media training in liberal democratic values. Yetwe agree with Pintak and Ginges (2009), whose research spans the MiddleEast region, that ‘‘professional standards and norms are still evolving’’with the ‘‘seeming clash between traditional Western journalistic mores,’’and other political realities; these societal, political, economic, and culturalinfluences (pp. 166, 171), we submit, will continue to shape journalisticvalues in Iraq.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Mariwan R. Hama and Ziad al-Ajili for their assistance with thisresearch and the journal reviewers for their helpful input.

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