2017 WJS Convention of Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS)
University of Cardiff (UK)
September 16 (Saturday), 9:00-17:00
Program of the Convention
09:00-09:30 Welcome Thomas Hanitzsch & Folker Hanusch
09:30-09:45 Coffee & Tea
09:45-11:00 Publications: Session 1 Thomas Hanitzsch
Worlds of Female Journalists, Corinna Lauerer & Genevieve Bonin
Labor Conditions of Women journalists among countries: Cross-gender and in-tra-gender determinants of empowerment, Rosa Berganza, Roberto de Miguel, Be-atriz Herrero & Jorge Toirac
Slow and fast journalism, acceleration of journalistic time – perception of jour-nalists, Halliki Harro-Loit
Temporality in journalism: Exploring perceptions of time in contemporary news-rooms ecosystems, Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou
A Diverse View on Diversity: Four Clusters of the Press and Hypotheses De-rived from the Worlds of Journalism Study Comparing Belgium to Sweden, Stefan Mertens, Olivier Standaert, Monica Löfgren Nilsson, Leen d’Haenens & Rozane De Cock
What their “own words” reveal: conformism and plurality of the journalistic roles around the world, Olivier Standaert
11:00-11:15 Coffee & Tea
11:15-12:30 Publications: Session 2 Folker Hanusch
Globalizing and Localizing Journalism Ethics: What are Societal, Organizational and Individual determinants? Basyouni Ibrahim Hamada
Making risky choices: Modelling journalists’ perceptions of aggressive news-gathering practices, James Hollings, Thomas Hanitzsch & Ravi Balasubramanian
Transitional Journalism, Kenneth Andresen & Abit Hoxha
Journalism Practices in African countries: A Cross-National Survey, Mahmoud Galander & Ashraf Galal
An overview of Latin American Journalistic Culture: Profile, situation and pro-fessional perception of journalists, Martín Oller, Adriana Amado, Jesús Arroyave, José Luis Benítez, Palmira Chavero, Miguel Garcés, Sallie Hughes, Mireya Márquez, Claudia Mellado & Sonia Virginia Moreira
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-15:00 2020-22 Study: Issues to Cover Thomas Hanitzsch & Folker Hanusch
15:00-15:30 Coffee & Tea
15:30-17:00 2020-22 Study: Logistics Thomas Hanitzsch & Folker Hanusch
17:00 End
Title of the paper presented: An overview of Latin American Journalistic Culture. Profile, situation and professional perception of journalists
Authors: Martín Oller, Adriana Amado, Jesús Arroyave, José Luis Benítez, Palmira Chavero, Miguel Garcés, Sallie Hughes, Mireya Márquez, Claudia Mellado y Sonia Virginia Moreira
Abstract:
This paper draws on survey data collected in the international Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS) with probabilistic samples of journalists in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico. Through descriptive and multivariate tests, we explain the so-called “Latin American journalistic culture” based on the profile, situation and perception of journalists about the contextual factors of influences, professional roles, autonomy, ethics, trust and journalism changes.
Although international studies have found remarkable similarities and differences among journalist and their conceptions about journalism around the world (Herscovitz, 2004; Mwesige, 2004; Ramaprasad, 2001; Weaver et al., 2007; Mellado et al., 2012), comparative studies of Latin American journalists have been scarce, and less so studies which connect countries’ changing political and media systems with journalists perceptions. Even though these countries are historical and culturally close, they are far from similar.
In this very diverse context, the configuration of Latin American journalism and media systems is, therefore, different from a typical polarized pluralist media system as for example in countries of southern Europa. Authors like Hallin and Papathanassopoulos (2002) found similarities between Latin American media systems and Hallin and Mancini’s Polarized Pluralist Model (2004). However, even though they are historical and culturally close – specially to Spain and Portugal -, Latin American countries are far from similar to European countries because most of them have experienced diverse types of authoritarian governments and forms of transition to democracy; (des)regulation of media systems, concentration and diversification based on a media systems fundamentally privatized, transition/confrontation between models of economic liberalization and social economy, political polarization, and social challenges – crisis, endemic inequality, violence and conflict, corruption, segregation, and so on – that define the idiosyncrasy of a unique Latin America journalistic culture.
Nowadays, there is a heated debate on the role of journalism, media policy and reform, and even a clear-cut antagonism between some media outlets and the populist heads of State and between governments, journalists and the largest media conglomerates. For example, countries like Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador face a reemergence and highly interventionist type of populist State (Oller, Amado and Moreira, in press), while others like Mexico, Chile, Colombia and El Salvador continue to display a high level of media concentration and collusion between media and political elites (Guerrero and Márquez, 2014; Hellmueller and Mellado, 2016; Garcés and Arroyave, 2016).
Even though it is possible to draw a regional journalistic profile – as shown by the results of this study – the heterogeneous nature of Latin America and the influence of external factors (Hanitzsch, 2007; Mellado, 2011) can explain the substantial differences between journalistic conceptions and practices in Latin American countries.
