Journalists tend to have a more “elitist” view of democracy, according to the st

Journalists tend to have a more “elitist” view of democracy, according to the study’s authors Tim Vos and David Wolfgang of U.M. This means that once a political candidate is elected into office, he will have control over decision making, without extensive input from the public. The job of journalists is simply to inform the public about what is going on in government to best prepare the public for the next election cycle.

“This version of democracy is what some theorists call ‘elitist democracy’— elites do the business of governing and journalism performs a checking function on behalf of a disinterested public,” the authors wrote in the 18-page report, which was originally published in October.

This differs from the “populist” view more widely held by Americans which is that the public should have input on political candidates’ decisions throughout their term. Under this philosophy of democracy, journalists would cover the opinions of different social groups.

“This disconnect has shown itself many times in recent months, as a large portion of the American public has expected political news to be covered in one way while reporters are covering political news in a different way,” Vos said.