The data presented in this appendix is drawn from the survey of Australian journalists conducted under the auspices of the Media and Democracy project. Six hundred journalists involved in daily news and current affairs production around Australia were sent the questionnaire in June and July 1992. Forty-one per cent completed and returned the self-administered 178 question survey. The survey was also sent to 50 opinion leading investigative journalists, producers and editors, who had taken a prominent role in the production of the investigative and watchdog journalism published and broadcast in Australia during the 1980s. Nearly 80% of this sample responded.

This survey has also been administered in five other countries, in one of the most ambitious cross-national studies of journalists ever undertaken. To ensure that the Australian survey adequately addressed the issues central to my preoccupations, I added 35 questions explicitly addressing the news media's Fourth Estate role, and an entire section on investigative journalism. Journalists selected to participate in the survey were chosen at random. The method of selecting the sample varied from country to country, depending on the available information. In Italy for instance the sample was drawn from the national directory of journalists; in Britain, Sweden, United States and Germany it was drawn from a sample of news rosters from selected news organisations; in some cases individuals were selected by news editors and others directly by correspondence.

Overview of methodology

In Australia I worked directly with the Australian Journalists' Association (AJA), an organisation I was a member of, and had a history of collaboration with, on previous research.