Public funding of private media: How perceived work environment and journalistic roles explain support for public policies

Public funding of private media has a long tradition in Europe and, in face of the dying traditional business models, there is an increasing demand for such mechanism in several democratic contexts. Portugal has not, until now, a national public policy to support private companies, nor, for instance, a tradition of media subsidies. However, due to the financial struggles of most media companies, the topic is hot on the agenda. This paper examines Portuguese journalists’ views on public funding of private media. While the issue of public funding has been widely discussed in the public sphere, the support of professionals for such a public policy has not yet been widely studied. Based on a survey of 280 journalists, this study shows significant support for public funding of private companies. This support is associated with journalists’ work environment, such as perceptions of their employer’s financial and economic conditions or the type of media organization (public, private, non-profit), but not with self-perceived precarity. Different journalistic roles are also related to support for public funding: professionals who subscribe to a more adversarial role refuse public funding, whereas journalists who align more with the dissemination function support it.