Mind the Gap 1 MIND THE GAP: Between Journalistic Role Conception and Role Enactment Earlier draft. For the most recent version, please refer to: Tandoc, E., Hellmueller, L., & Vos, T. P. (2012). Mind the gap: Between role conception and role enactment. Journalism Practice, 7(5), 539-554. doi: 10.1080/17512786.2012.726503 Edson C. Tandoc Jr., Lea Hellmueller, and Tim P. Vos The study of journalistic role conceptions rests on the assumption that these conceptions shape the news stories that journalists create. However, limited empirical evidence exists to support this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment. This exploratory study compared role conceptions deduced from survey data of 56 journalists with a content analysis of those same journalists’ articles (N = 270). The findings suggest that this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment should be questioned rather than presumed. KEYWORDS: cultural capital, gatekeeping, journalists, role conceptions, role enactment Introduction Journalists’ perceptions of their institutional role constitute an important form of the cultural capital of the journalistic field (Hanitzsch 2007). This form of cultural capital is important for good reason. How journalists understand public governance shapes how they understand their own role (Baker 2002). It is believed that journalists who embrace a role of investigative watchdog, for example, will eschew the repetition of politicians’ talking points and produce journalism that examines politicians’ actual actions. Indeed, media sociologists have long argued that journalists’ perceptions of their social role shape the stories they ultimately craft. For example, Graber (2002) predicted that journalists’ news stories would vary based on their role conceptions. Shoemaker and Reese (1996, 101) also argued: “It seems clear that the way in which journalists define their jobs will affect the content they produce.” This exploratory study tests this argument by examining journalists’ outputs based on their role conceptions. Stating that journalists should write stories in accordance with their conceived role implies that the bridge scholars assume between role conception and role enactment is foremost normative. Indeed, role conceptions have a stable and enduring form located in an institutional framework that reinforces that normative character (Christians et al. 2009). Coyne (1984, 260) concluded: “A role is not just a repeated format, but a format to-be-followed, a guide. To enact a role is, wittingly or unwittingly, to invite expectations of further conformity.” Thus, journalistic role conceptions amount to informal rules for how the news media ought to function (Weaver et al. 2007; Donsbach 2008). Since roles by definition regulate behavior, roles function in a two-stage process. Roles must be conceived and roles must be enacted (Biddle and Thomas 1979). Journalists must form