The education of journalists has greatly improved, and over two-thirds of Icelandic journalists have a university degree (Kolbeins, 2012); however, in an international context, this is not particularly high. Data from the Worlds of Journalism Study show that in 53 of the 67 analysed countries, 75 per cent or more of the journalists have university education. Furthermore, formal education in journalism is not nearly as common in the Icelandic media as in most countries. According to the Worlds of Journalism Study, only 25 per cent had specialised in journalism or communication studies. Out of the 67 countries that took part in the study in 2012, only in Bhutan (23%) and Japan (12%) are the percentages of journalists with journalism degrees lower than in Iceland (Worlds of Journalism Study, n.d.).
Staff shortages also seriously limit Icelandic journalists’ possibilities for “high-class journalism”. A study on the state of journalistic professionalism in Iceland showed that although oriented towards public service, journalists “are undermined by the realities of the media market” (Guðmundsson & Kristinsson 2019: 1700). Journalists are seldom specialists, which may make them more dependent on their sources (Ólafsson, 2020; Jóhannsdóttir & Ólafsson, 2018).
Our journalist interviewees said that resources were diminishing, and that could be even more exaggerated in Iceland than in larger states because most media outlets are very small. Journalists have little time and resources for investigative journalism, nor do they have much time to engage with further education to increase their professionalism as journalists.
