Public journalism: an agenda for future research

This article summarizes the empirical research literature on public journalism as a means to articulate a broad agenda for future research. After a brief overview of the theory and practice of public journalism, it proceeds to outline potentially fruitful areas of inquiry relating to three of the most significant research foci: (1) journalists’ attitudes toward public journalism; (2) differences between public journalism-inspired and conventional, journalistic newswork practices; and (3) public journalism’s wider impact. Following this discussion, pedagogical implications of some of the issues raised are examined. The article concludes by considering the most important questions that future research on public journalism ought to address.