The New Generations of Journalists in Portugal
The New Generations of Journalists in Portugal
- A generation of journalists who entered the profession during the dictatorship and in the years marked by regime change.
Motivated firstly by the atmosphere of the suppression of freedoms and then, under democracy, by political confrontation, they have a strong propensity for political and social intervention. Furthermore, they compensate for the lack of academic training (at the time there were no higher education courses in the field and university entry was limited to a sociologically well-defined elite) with a culture based on the experience they have lived through and their reading on a classical level.
- A generation of journalists who entered the profession between 1986 (stabilisation of the democratic regime, membership of the Common Market, economic and financial development, stimulation and diversification of consumption, the appearance of new information and communication technologies, the privatisation and creation of generalist daily newspapers, the multiplication of specialist publications, and the opening-up of radio and television to private operators) and the end of the century. Benefiting from a climate of expansion, many of these new journalists, who now had a university education, speedily acquired management posts in the media companies. Consequently, their discourse is extremely favourable to the profession, though showing a certain reserve with regard to the "sense of mission" that drove many of their predecessors. They set their conception of journalism, which they call "pragmatic", against the earlier conception, which is considered "romantic".
- A generation of journalists who entered the profession after the year 2000. According to the Professional Credentials Committee, there are around 4000 journalists in this situation. It is a generation that developed in the middle of an economic and financial crisis. It is confronted with a labour market that is in permanent recession: companies that close, create associations with each other or are incorporated into multimedia groups, with the implicit reduction in staff. In this group of journalists, in which the eternal trainees are increasing, i.e. those who do one traineeship after another without ever managing to regularise their occupational situation, there is a prevailing sense of pessimism and bitterness (of course, the problem is not specifically Portuguese [Ac98]). In other words, disenchantment prevails, with a profession that, in the public arena, has always been characterised by its privileged status.
The small number of young journalists interviewed in the project mentioned above, "The Sociological Profile of Portuguese Journalists", does not allow us to draw final conclusions on this matter. However, it does give certain indications, according to which we are witnessing:
- a lack of belief in the journalist-actor's role in processes of social change;
- the rejection of informal relations within editorial offices and of the sharing of the social unity, likes and habits that used to give form to the so-called "tribe of journalists";
- the aggravation of individualistic drives that are accompanied by a certain annoyance with respect for ethical or professional codes;
- the unconditional acceptance of what the hierarchy imposes;
- the primacy of technical training, to the detriment of diversified cultural knowledge and forms of expression.
By its nature, this research will have an international dimension. As a base of comparison, we have chosen two countries, one European and the other non-European, with which Portugal has special relations: France and Brazil. In June 2000, on the initiative of the Institut Français de Presse, there was a meeting in Paris between researchers from Laval University (Quebec) and different French universities (Paris II, Paris III, Rennes, Strasbourg, Nice and Versailles). The debate covered the mutations in journalism on both sides of the Atlantic [RiWa02]. Along the same lines, the culmination of the project "The New Generations of Journalists in Portugal" will be a Portuguese, French and Brazilian conference (Lisbon) on the topic.
- A generation of journalists who entered the profession during the dictatorship and in the years marked by regime change.
Motivated firstly by the atmosphere of the suppression of freedoms and then, under democracy, by political confrontation, they have a strong propensity for political and social intervention. Furthermore, they compensate for the lack of academic training (at the time there were no higher education courses in the field and university entry was limited to a sociologically well-defined elite) with a culture based on the experience they have lived through and their reading on a classical level.
- A generation of journalists who entered the profession between 1986 (stabilisation of the democratic regime, membership of the Common Market, economic and financial development, stimulation and diversification of consumption, the appearance of new information and communication technologies, the privatisation and creation of generalist daily newspapers, the multiplication of specialist publications, and the opening-up of radio and television to private operators) and the end of the century. Benefiting from a climate of expansion, many of these new journalists, who now had a university education, speedily acquired management posts in the media companies. Consequently, their discourse is extremely favourable to the profession, though showing a certain reserve with regard to the "sense of mission" that drove many of their predecessors. They set their conception of journalism, which they call "pragmatic", against the earlier conception, which is considered "romantic".
- A generation of journalists who entered the profession after the year 2000. According to the Professional Credentials Committee, there are around 4000 journalists in this situation. It is a generation that developed in the middle of an economic and financial crisis. It is confronted with a labour market that is in permanent recession: companies that close, create associations with each other or are incorporated into multimedia groups, with the implicit reduction in staff. In this group of journalists, in which the eternal trainees are increasing, i.e. those who do one traineeship after another without ever managing to regularise their occupational situation, there is a prevailing sense of pessimism and bitterness (of course, the problem is not specifically Portuguese [Ac98]). In other words, disenchantment prevails, with a profession that, in the public arena, has always been characterised by its privileged status.
The small number of young journalists interviewed in the project mentioned above, "The Sociological Profile of Portuguese Journalists", does not allow us to draw final conclusions on this matter. However, it does give certain indications, according to which we are witnessing:
- a lack of belief in the journalist-actor's role in processes of social change;
- the rejection of informal relations within editorial offices and of the sharing of the social unity, likes and habits that used to give form to the so-called "tribe of journalists";
- the aggravation of individualistic drives that are accompanied by a certain annoyance with respect for ethical or professional codes;
- the unconditional acceptance of what the hierarchy imposes;
- the primacy of technical training, to the detriment of diversified cultural knowledge and forms of expression.
By its nature, this research will have an international dimension. As a base of comparison, we have chosen two countries, one European and the other non-European, with which Portugal has special relations: France and Brazil. In June 2000, on the initiative of the Institut Français de Presse, there was a meeting in Paris between researchers from Laval University (Quebec) and different French universities (Paris II, Paris III, Rennes, Strasbourg, Nice and Versailles). The debate covered the mutations in journalism on both sides of the Atlantic [RiWa02]. Along the same lines, the culmination of the project "The New Generations of Journalists in Portugal" will be a Portuguese, French and Brazilian conference (Lisbon) on the topic.
