“If We Don’t Take the Risk, Who Else Would?” Self-perceptions of Foundations that Financially Support Journalism

Abstract

This study adds to the existing literature on atypical newswork and foundation funding in journalism by exploring considerations and organizational choices foundations make when interacting with journalists in a Western-European context. The study relies on 18 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with representatives of Dutch-based foundations that support journalistic production processes on local, and/or national and international level. Using a combination of the strengths of Howard Becker’s notion of art “worlds” and Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory as theoretical scope, the interview data suggests that in their everyday practices, foundations perceive and navigate three key tensions: (1) between the allocation of grants to journalists and the precarity of (atypical) working conditions many journalists face, (2) between ideological notions of what good journalism “should be about” and the everyday realities of journalism production, and (3) between the powerful position of foundations within the world of journalism and the autonomy of journalists. The organizational choices made by foundations when confronted with these tensions highlight how and to what extent journalistic production processes are both enabled and constrained.