Stepping Outside of the Mainstream Network : The Concept of Paradiplomacy and its Relevance to Journalism

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores the journalistic network, sourcing, and interactions with regard to reporting on international conflicts. As a contribution to the field of media and communication studies, this paper offers a new theoretical model of paradiplomacy in journalism and explains its relevance to the profession. After presenting literature on journalistic sourcing, paradiplomacy in related research fields, and media-related theoretical strands, findings from semi-structured interviews with German Public Broadcasting correspondents are categorized through thematic analysis and presented in two coherent graphics. The following explanation of this new model aims to describe the phenomenon of paradiplomacy in journalism to gain new theoretical assumptions. It helps to understand the possible influence of journalism on political decision-makers and society, without evaluating or criticizing the quality of the correspondents’ work or practices. The model suggests that journalists as internal players can be seen as mediators that deliver information between influencing external players like politicians, lobbyists, and NGOs and the audience. Thus, they create social debates and political pressure which in turn influences themselves in a repetitive cycle.