Watchdog or copycat? Examining news diversity in Slovenian journalism system

Vobič, Igor (author), Robnik Šikonja, Marko (author), Žagar, Aleš (author), Mance, Boris (author)

The study examines the dynamics of news diversity within the Slovenian journalism system, a small and structurally constrained media market facing ownership concentration, political instrumentalisation, and resource limitations. Drawing on critical approaches to news diversity and the concept of the journalism system, the study conceptualises pluralisation and homogenisation as concurrent and interdependent processes that structure, enable, and limit democratic communication. The analysis investigates whether the Slovenian journalism system sustains a watch-dog function that fosters plural public debate or gravitates toward a copycat logic marked by content uniformity. Empirically, we analysed 13,207 news items from television, radio, and online outlets using text-reuse detection, network clustering, and large language model–assisted source extraction. The findings reveal that news diversity in Slovenia is structurally conditioned, segmented, and unevenly distributed, shaped by intertwined ownership, organisational, and ideological factors. Pluralisation coexists with homogenisation, yet the symbolic power of dominant actors—political and institutional elites—remains largely intact, reproducing systemic inequalities in the journalism system. These results show that news diversity is fundamentally determined by broader political-economic relations that define who can speak and which perspectives are prominent. The study underscores the normative importance of news diversity as a cornerstone of democratic communication and calls for structural reforms to foster a more inclusive and pluralistic journalism system.

• Language: English
• Keywords: news diversity, journalism system, homogenisation, pluralisation
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Geographic coverage: Slovenija
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences; FRI - Faculty of Computer and Information Science
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 5-34
• Numbering: God. 30, br. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177821
• UDC: 070(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 1330-6928
• DOI: 10.22572/mi.30.2.1
• COBISS.SI-ID: 263960579
• Publication date in RUL: 08.01.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Medijska istraživanja : znanstveno-stručni časopis za novinarstvo i medije
• Shortened title: Medijska istraž.
• Publisher: Doron, Fakultet političkih nauka
• ISSN: 1330-6928
• COBISS.SI-ID: 16248157

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Pas čuvar ili mačak-lopov? Ispitivanje raznolikosti vijesti u slovenskom novinarskom sustavu
• Keywords: novinarstvo, informacije, Slovenija