Conflicts in the professional roles of journalists in Spain: Ideals and practice

Roses-Campos, Sergio and Humanes-Humanes, María-Luisa Conflicts in the professional roles of journalists in Spain: Ideals and practice. Comunicar, 2019, vol. 27, n. 58, pp. 65-74. [Journal article (Paginated)]

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Alternative locations: https://doi.org/10.3916/C58-2019-06, https://www.revistacomunicar.com/index.php?contenido=detalles&numero=58&articulo=58-2019-06

English abstract

Based on a survey of 122 journalists from four Spanish newspapers carried out from 2015 to 2016, this paper analyses to what extent these professionals perceive a disconnection –a gap– between their role conception and their perceived role enactment, that is between their professional ideals and their journalistic practice, and which are the most “conflicting” roles in a Polarized Pluralist media system. According to the perceptions of the professionals surveyed, journalists in Spain hold a role conflict when they work in a newspaper. The findings show significant differences between the role conception and the perceived role enactment in six of the seven professional roles. The biggest divergences are located in the watchdog, civic and disseminator roles. The conflict between the professional ideals and their implementation in the news is always resolved in favor of the media organizations. Our results are consistent and support the previous studies that have defined the Polarized Pluralist media system as a media ecosystem where journalists accumulate little power compared to the media organizations, which are in financial debt and dependent on political and economic powers. Results are discussed according to the literature review as well as the context in which the study was developed.

Spanish abstract

A partir de una encuesta realizada entre 2015 y 2016 a 122 periodistas de cuatro diarios españoles, el artículo estudia en qué medida estos profesionales perciben una desconexión –una brecha– entre sus ideales y su puesta en práctica, y cuáles son los roles más «conflictivos» en el contexto de un sistema de medios de pluralismo polarizado. Los resultados indican, a tenor de la percepción de los profesionales encuestados, que los periodistas presentan un conflicto de roles ya que se hallaron diferencias significativas entre la concepción de seis de los siete roles profesionales y la percepción de la puesta en práctica de dichas funciones. Las mayores divergencias se localizan en los roles vigilante, cívico y diseminador. Los conflictos de roles se resolvieron en todos los casos a favor de los intereses de quienes detentan el poder y en contra de los ideales de los periodistas. Estos resultados son congruentes y apoyan los hallazgos de publicaciones previas que retratan al sistema de medios de pluralismo polarizado como un ecosistema mediático donde los profesionales del periodismo, como colectivo, acumulan poco poder frente al ostentado por las organizaciones de medios, endeudadas por una excesiva «financierización» y dependientes del poder político y económico. Los resultados se discuten de acuerdo con la literatura existente, así como con el contexto en que se realizó la investigación.

Item type:	Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords:	Journalism; professional roles; professional attitudes; conflict; press; media system; quantitative research; survey; Periodismo; roles profesionales; actitudes profesionales; conflicto; prensa; sistema de medios; investigación cuantitativa; encuesta
Subjects:	B. Information use and sociology of information > BJ. Communication G. Industry, profession and education. G. Industry, profession and education. > GH. Education.
Depositing user:	Alex Ruiz
Date deposited:	01 Apr 2019 14:51
Last modified:	01 Apr 2019 14:51
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/10760/33840

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References

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