| Abstract [eng] |
Based on academic research, in times of political crisis the media not only mediate between government institutions and citizens, but also shape public attitudes, emotional states, and behavior. Meanwhile, it is argued that crises often intensify political pressure on journalists and create uncertainty that may affect their professional decisions and adherence to core principles such as objectivity and neutrality. Therefore the aim of the study is to determine how Lithuanian journalists perceived their professional role in 2025 while covering the resignation of the Government, and what impact they believed they had on the course of the political crisis and on public understanding of it. An interpretivist methodology combined with qualitative content analysis was employed to conduct the study. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were analyzed, conducted with representatives of different Lithuanian media outlets who covered the government’s resignation. The applied methodology made it possible to analyze journalists’ professional self-perception as a socially constructed phenomenon, focusing not on actual impact but on the meanings constructed by journalists themselves. The analysis revealed that during the 2025 political crisis Lithuanian journalists most often assumed the role of politically oriented observers. The political crisis did not become an impetus for media representatives to fundamentally reconsider their professional identity. On the contrary, instead of adopting mobilizing or moralizing roles, journalists in crisis conditions declared that they grounded their work even more consistently in normative journalistic principles. However, the crisis context – an increased workload, emotional strain, and constant uncertainty – significantly affected the daily work of Lithuanian journalists. The study showed that these circumstances compelled journalists to adhere even more strictly to existing ethical norms, while they assessed their influence on the course of the political crisis and on public understanding as indirect – through the prioritization of information, the maintenance of public pressure, and the creation of conditions for citizens to independently form their opinions – yet ultimately contributing to faster decision-making by those in power and to the political evaluations formed by society as it followed the situation. The study demonstrated that the 2025 political crisis significantly reshaped the Lithuanian media agenda and limited journalists’ ability to independently set news priorities. Journalists’ conscious distancing from political activism did not imply political passivity. Even without overt engagement, journalists can exert political influence by consistently highlighting issues. The active involvement of civic activists and investigative journalists during the political crisis prompted traditional journalists to reflect on the boundaries of their profession and, in this context, to more clearly define the importance of neutrality, professional distance, and the separation of facts from opinions. The findings provide a basis for future comparative studies of journalistic roles in different political crisis contexts and highlight the importance of combining interviews with media content analysis in order to more deeply examine the relationship between professional self-perception and actual journalistic practice. |
