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The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford runs a mid-career Fellowship Programme for journalists from all over the world. This document provides key reading recommendations for them, and potentially for journalists elsewhere and others interested in grappling with what academic work can tell us about journalism, its place in society, its implications, the institutions that sustain it, and its future.

The document is organised into 23 broad topics, with a suggested starting reading for each marked in bold, followed by a sample of additional readings. Because of the structural inequalities in academic research, the majority of the readings are from high income democracies.

This reading list is curated by Meera Selva, former Director of the RISJ Fellowship Programme, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Director of the RISJ, and Dr Joy Jenkins (2019), Dr J. Scott Brennen (2020), Dr Anne Schulz (2021) Dr. Kirsten Eddy (2022) and Dr Amy Ross Arguedas (2024) on the basis of suggestions from RISJ staff and researchers, RISJ journalist fellows, and all the different academics, journalists, and others who have provided is with ideas from our open calls. We update it from time to time. Thanks to everyone who has made this possible.

1. Some classic big ideas on journalism
2. What is journalism and news?
3. News audiences
4. Trust and the news media
5. Inequality and polarisation in news use
6. Framing and media effects
7. Relations between media and politics
8. News, race, and recognition
9. Women and journalism
10. The business of news
11. Innovation in the media
12. Platform companies and news media
13. Digital media and technology
14. Misinformation and disinformation
15. Democracy, journalism, and media
16. Censorship and propaganda
17. International/comparative research including examples of work on specific countries
18. Media and race: the case of the US
19. Media policy
20. Local journalism
21. Climate change, journalism, and communications
22. Filter bubbles, echo chambers, and partisan identity
23. Journalism and AI
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