The Changing Face of Journalistic Autonomy: A Case Study of De Standaard (1976–2020)

Autonomy is considered a prerequisite for the press to function in service of the public. Over the past few decades, both journalism and society at large have been subjected to significant change and instability, potentially affecting journalists’ independent modes of production. We, therefore, argue that a re-evaluation of journalism’s institutional strength to perform the societal functions bestowed upon it by the public is imperative. This paper attempts to contribute to this re-evaluation by examining to what extent legacy media journalists act according to their own professional logic rather than being historically conditioned to act according to external logics imposed on the field of journalism. We adopt a qualitative historical approach grounded in the theoretical framework of field theory for our examination of the development of journalistic autonomy at Flemish newspaper De Standaard. Based on a rich body of source material that emphasizes the rarely considered perspective of chief editors, we reconstruct journalistic autonomy as a dynamic concept shaped by an intricate web of interconnected macro-, meso- and micro-level developments and interactions.