Journalists : to license or not to license…

The existence or absence of some legal or professional pre-conditions for someone to be allowed to work as a journalist has been a reason for many controversies along the last decades – actually, since the very beginning of the efforts to establish journalism as a legitimate (and legitimized) ‘profession’, rather than an ‘occupation’ or a craft. The obligation to have some kind of license to work as a professional journalist exists in some countries (in Portugal, for example) but doesn’t exist – and, moreover, that simple idea is strongly criticized – in other countries. Those who oppose to any kind of license emphasize the importance of keeping journalism as an ‘open’ profession, accessible to any citizen, under the main argument that it is an activity grounded on the right to freedom of expression – a fundamental and universal right. Those who favour some kind of license or pre-requisite to become a journalist underscore the social relevance and sensitiveness of this job in order to fulfil another fundamental right of every citizen – the right to information (to a truthful, independent, accurate and comprehensive information on the actuality). And, because of that, they stress the importance of having well-prepared, professionalized, ethically responsible and accountable people working as journalists, in order to properly meet such a demanding right. In this paper, we try to review and discuss the arguments for and against this subject, putting it in historical perspective and balancing it with the new questions faced by journalism in the digital Internet era we are living now. Furthermore, we argue that a decisive issue in this debate is ‘who’ might (if so) have the responsibility to grant this professional license and look for its adequate use. In our opinion, this seems to be typically a matter for professional self-regulation, rather than state or government regulation, in order to keep and safeguard the values of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. On the other hand, the values of responsibility and accountability in journalism must be somehow kept and safeguarded as well, if the journalists’ professional group – or those engaged in journalism in its multiple possible forms – really wants to recover some lost credibility and confidence by the public. For this purpose, a real commitment with some requirements usually associated to professionalism – commitment with professional standards and techniques, but, more than that, commitment with a public interest and with clear ethical principles, values and norms – is a major challenge for journalists

Jornalistas e saberes profissionais

Nesta comunicação defendo a necessidade de discutir em novos moldes a tradicional dicotomia (e oposição) entre teoria e prática, no que se refere aos saberes profissionais associados à actividade jornalística. Mais especificamente, argumento sobre a importância de revalorizarmos a componente prática da aprendizagem do jornalismo, não a tratando apenas como um conjunto de técnicas que reproduzem mecanicamente o que outros já se habituaram a fazer, mas como um “saber de acção” ou um “saber profissional” que comporta, necessariamente, dimensões reflexivas (teóricas, se se quiser) de grande importância. O aprofundamento de uma “epistemologia da prática”, defendida por alguns autores, pode ser um bom contributo para colocar em novos moldes a questão da formação dos jornalistas – e da sua própria identidade

Journalists’ professional identity : new challenges to an old quest

The efforts made by journalists, in different countries and within different social and historical contexts, to have their ‘craft’ or ‘occupation’ recognized as a true ‘profession’, have always been somehow contradictory and ambiguous. The appeal of professionalism still divides opinions inside the professional group itself, with some voices claiming for a more demanding set of conditions to enter and work in this activity (for example, a University degree and stronger accountability mechanisms), and other voices insisting that it must be an ‘open’ job in order to guarantee the universal right to freedom of expression. Actually, the journalists’ professional group seems very often to claim the benefits and privileges of being legally treated as a ‘profession’, but doesn’t look equally demanding when it comes to the responsibilities and duties implied by such a status. The activity of gathering and disseminating news and information in the public sphere – which was some kind of a monopoly in the journalists’ hands – has, in the meantime, become accessible to almost everyone, everywhere, thanks to the Internet and the digital technologies. Within this context, new questions seem to challenge the very definition of a journalist or, at least, the core elements that should differentiate his/her professional identity from a multiplicity of other practitioners in the open field of public communication. And that, as we try to discuss in this paper, could bring us back to a kind of reviewed professionalism

Press Councils in Portugal and France : something new on the Western front

In a time when ultra-liberalism, de-regulation and market-driven trends increasingly dominate the media business, but also when their ‘clients’ increasingly demand to have a more active voice in the public communication process, the issues of media responsibility and media accountability seem to be gaining a renewed interest. The technological environment of our digital era, with the expansion of Internet, of social networks and of opportunities for selfedition, allowed many new actors to enter the media field, or to get much closer to it, claiming for a new relationship between the traditional media ‘producers’ and the traditional media ‘consumers’. These last ones demand more and more to be regarded as citizens, rather than just ‘consumers’, and therefore as partners in the process of news production and diffusion in the public sphere. But in order to achieve this, media must also be willing to open the doors of their ‘fortresses’ and accept that transparency and interaction with their publics are an unavoidable prerequisite for the legitimization of their power in a democratic society. This is what media social responsibility is all about, after all. In this context, an important role could be played by the so-called Media Accountability Systems (M*A*S*, as they were named by Claude-Jean Bertrand), and particularly by the Press Councils – mechanisms that bring together representatives of the media industry, of the journalists and of the public, in order to held the media more accountable on a voluntary, self-regulated basis. In the last year, two movements emerged in two Western European countries, both trying to launch a Press Council: France (where such a mechanism never existed, although the country was a pioneer in the struggle for press freedom) and Portugal (where a Press Council was created in 1975, soon after the recovery of democracy, but was extinguished fifteen years later, having been somehow replaced by a State-driven regulatory entity). In spite of their obvious differences, these two cases, besides coinciding in time, show some similarities that deserve our attention and can be regarded as examples of new trends in the media landscape. It is our purpose, in this paper, to look at the French and the Portuguese cases, trying to understand their specific backgrounds and to systematize the arguments of the main protagonists of the two movements going on. We’ll do this, in a first moment, through historical and documental research, and, in a second moment, through interviews to some of the leading supporters of this idea in both countries. As for the Portuguese case, we’ll also evoke the experience of the former Press Council, trying to shed light on the (mostly political) motives that led to its premature death

What is journalism and what only looks like it? Re-defining concepts, roles and rules in the wide field of communication

In today’s public information landscape, it seems to be increasingly difficult to draw a clear line between what is and what is not journalism (even if it appears as such). Under this cover, a lot of different practices are being developed in the wide field of communication, raising complex questions about what specifically defines journalism – whether it is carried out by formally recognized professionals or media companies, or by other kind of individuals and groups who now have easy access to public communication instruments (Internet sites, weblogs…) and commit themselves to gather, handle and diffuse some kind of information in the public sphere. We can say that professional journalists (and their institutional contexts) no longer have the monopoly of this activity – of this public service, we should say. Still, many new actors trying to enter this field – or to mix with it – very often don’t seem to respect some of the basic standards and ethical demands in which journalism is grounded, although they tend to use its technical tools and usual forms and models. In this paper, we present a case study of a Portuguese quality daily newspaper in which these questions were discussed (namely through the involvement of its ombudsman), following the publication of a piece of work presented just as a journalistic piece, but actually ordered and paid by an external advertiser. We argue for the need of a kind of back to basics effort, meaning specifically back to ethics, under the assumption that, particularly in our digital environment, the line defining the boundaries of journalism (and, therefore, distinguishing journalism from other forms of public communication) is, above all, not a matter of “who”, “what” and “where” things are done, but rather a matter of “how”, “why” and “what for” you do them. That is to say, only information gathered, designed and published according to the ethical principles and procedures of journalistic professionalism, genuinely aiming to serve the public interest and the need for the citizens to make sense of the world they live in, is really trustworthy information – which means that it is not an activity driven by some hidden, commercial, private interests of various kinds. We argue, furthermore, that these different kinds of information and communication in the public sphere should always be clearly identified and identifiable by the media users. In fact, this seems to be important in order to preserve the specific value and role that journalism can claim (and play) in contemporary societies, as well as to protect it from a sort of dilution in the broader and vague field of public communication activities and jobs

Ano agitado na imprensa semanária

[Excerto] O mês de Setembro de 2006 foi um mês especialmente agitado, no que respeita à imprensa semanária em Portugal. Por um lado, ele assistiu ao fim de um dos títulos mais marcantes (e frequentemente controversos) da nossa história recente – O Independente. Por outro lado, viu nascer um novo jornal – o Sol – e, em virtude de tal facto, registou recordes de circulação da publicação mais emblemática deste segmento, entretanto objecto de uma profunda remodelação – o Expresso. Espécie de ‘morte anunciada’, é o que se pode dizer do que sucedeu ao semanário O Independente no dia 1 de Setembro de 2006. Dirigido nos últimos anos de vida por Inês Serra Lopes (que adquirira, entretanto, a maioria do capital da empresa proprietária), o jornal não conseguia já vender mais do que uns escassos nove mil exemplares por semana (dados da APCT), quando, nos seus tempos áureos da década de 1990, ultrapassara os 100 mil exemplares de circulação e ameaçara consistentemente a liderança do Expresso nesta faixa de mercado.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

O jornalista, um “operário em construção”

O objectivo central desta comunicação é tentar compreender os contornos e as especificidades da profissão de jornalista, seja nos modos como ela é encarada e tratada pelos seus directos protagonistas, seja nos modos como ela é olhada e julgada pelo todo social em que está inscrita e com que interage. O pressuposto é o de que a profissão foi sendo o que quis ou pôde ser, mas também o resultado (instável, mutável, situado) de tensões, de equilíbrios, de negociações com os diversos actors sociais com que ela, de diferentes modos em diferentes tempos e espaços, se interrelacionou

O meio jornalístico no Portugal de hoje : evoluções recentes e dilemas persistentes

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - Programa Sapiens, Projecto de investigação colectivo “MEDIASCÓPIO : estudo sobre a reconfiguração do campo da comunicação e dos media em Portugal”, em curso no Núcleo de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade da Universidade do Minho

Jornalistas na busca inacabada de identidade

Nesta comunicação aborda-se a questão do jornalista enquanto profissional, como tal reconhecido e legitimado, e sobretudo do percurso longo e complexo que fez para atingir tal estatuto. Indo mais além da doutrina funcionalista, evocam-se as novas perspectivas propostas, a partir dos anos 1960-70, pela sociologia das profissões, designadamente o paradigma interaccionista e o “paradigma do poder”, defendendo-se que elas abrem horizontes mais ricos e adequados para compreender o percurso histórico dos jornalistas na afirmação do seu ofício como uma verdadeira profissão e, de par, na construção (contraditória e ainda inacabada) de uma identidade profissional, em termos tanto individuais como colectivos.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) – POCTI/COM/41888/2001

The ombudsman’s role in the eyes of the newsroom : results of a survey among portuguese journalists

Created just a few decades ago, the role of the press ombudsman is played in rather different ways according to the specific contexts in which he works and to the concrete persons who interpret the job. The multiplicity of definitions of the ombudsman's main functions allows, nevertheless, some consensus about the fact that he has some influence both outside and inside the newspaper. His relationship with the readers is, of course, a very important part of his work, perhaps the most important one (in some countries he is even called "the readers' representative" or "the readers' advocate"); but the impact of his inquiries and statements inside the newsroom shouldn't be forgotten too, since it is a relevant way of calling the attention to problems that the fast day-to-day routines tend sometimes to forget. Our study, based on a survey among Portuguese journalists - more specifically, among the journalists of the three Portuguese daily newspapers with an ombudsman -, focuses on the "internal role" of the press ombudsman, that is to say, how he interacts with the newsroom and how the newsroom regards him and deals with him. The results of this survey suggest that the journalists working in these newspapers have, generally, a very positive feeling about the ombudsman's job, even if they don't always agree with his judgements or if they are criticized by him. The fact that he regularly brings to internal debate and reflection some important ethical and professional issues, together with a broad feed-back from the readers' viewpoints, makes him a relevant agent of professional education - not at school but in the newspaper itself, and always with real cases as starting points -, helping journalists to develop a more careful and critical approach to their daily work. Besides that, the results of the survey suggest that the journalists themselves are conscious of the importance of the ombudsman's "internal role", emphasizing his contribution to a more careful reporting, together with a more transparent and accountable attitude of the newspaper towards its readers