[ecrea] VIII International Conference Latina de Comunicación Social

*We are pleased to invite you to the **Panel Session based on the 
Journalistic Cultures Studies in the **VIII International Conference 
Latina de Comunicación Social, December 2, 5, 7 and 9, 2016**, **La 
Laguna (Tenerife), Spain*

* Panel Session: “Journalistic Cultures Studies”*

**

*Chair and discussant: Martín Oller Alonso*

*Co/Chair and discussant: Carlos Arcila and Palmira Chavero*

**

**

*Thematic Axes of the Panel*

Its diversity is manifest from individual perceptions that journalists 
have about some of the main dimensions studied in the analysis of the 
Journalistic cultures around the world:

Comparative studies in journalism

Professional role of journalists

Objectivity as an ideal and as a method within the media

Ethical guidelines

Professional autonomy (self / censorship)

Trust and credibility in institutions and in journalism

Contextual influences

Access to information of journalists (sources)

Changes in journalism today

Journalism /online/ / /offline/

Technology and media

Journalistic routines

Risks of journalists and media

Relationship between journalists, media and powers

**

*Journalistic Cultures*

The researchers of this project intend to analyse and define the 
journalistic cultures of different countries around the globe. We 
understand journalistic culture as a specific cognition of journalists 
about journalism. Within this, they evaluate their cultural ideas and 
orders, through which they create their reality, thus shaping their 
professional actions within the collective knowledge (Hanitzsch, 2007: 373).

Given that journalists’ professional work is rooted in a culture and in 
common ways and attitudes which, in turn, is included in a set of 
guidelines and general cultural practices. The identity of journalists 
has been at the centre of research on journalistic culture and, for this 
reason, the links between the journalist, journalistic culture and 
cultural context must be studied. As stated Esser (2004: 155), different 
cultures cannot be understood as communities of homogeneous values. 
Rather they are hybrids that involve national traditional elements 
linked to other international elements, interacting with each other 
dynamically

Throughout the last century, it has been taken as reference Western 
journalistic culture, acting at all times as a model and even imitate. 
However, through this project, we present the contextualization of the 
journalistic culture of Ecuador, since the information currently 
practice varies from place to place, determined by the different social, 
political, cultural and economic environments. The multiplicity, or 
multipolaridad- journalism, has led us to study the so-called 
“intermediate journalistic cultures”, defined by having distinctive 
features of the “Western journalistic culture”. Today, more than ever, 
these fragmented cultures pigmented and develop the monochrome static 
concept based on the standardization of all international journalistic 
features.

*Intermediate journalistic cultures*

  From the concept  suggested by Bourdieu1 (1984: 359)  of “cultural 
intermediaries”  and from the standpoint of Zelizer (2004: 52) speaks of 
journalists as an “interpretive community” based on subjective 
selection, we can reach a reconceptualization of the role of the media 
and journalists in countries where the journalistic culture differs from 
the concept of Western journalistic culture. Bourdieu (1984: 99-114), 
through his theory of social fields  mentioned in the 2nd chapter in The 
social space and Its transformations of his book Distinction: A Social 
Critique of the Judgment of Taste 1984, defines journalistic limits as a 
profession and how these intersect with other professional fields such 
as politics and economy. So, from the standpoint of Bourdieu (1984) and 
Zelizer (2004), we note that journalism in the countries in developing 
and with undemocratic political regimes can also create a particular 
media community and features that share a common set of rules.

Thus, we managed to establish a specific field of work with which to 
unravel the different professional identities in modern journalistic 
culture of these countries, defined from the concept of presentation and 
representation given by Bourdieu (1984).Why Zelizer (2007: 25) states 
that journalism is shown as an interpretative social field of the 
community in which it is located, with its 1 “We cannot raise the 
cultural practices within that culture, strictly and ordinary sense, is 
associated with the culture in the anthropological sense.” A 20 own 
rules and speeches. A circumstance that makes journalism appears in a 
situation of constant negotiation and relativism with respect to 
different cultural perspectives. I argued so far leads us to consider 
three key points in the processing and analysis of journalists as part 
of the social media field: 1) the definition of journalists as such in 
their societies and in their academic studies; 2) possible definitions 
of journalism in these intermediate cultures, and 3) the problematic 
location of a unified and homogeneous organization due to media 
decentralization. In conclusion we note that to understand the 
intermediate journalistic cultures- which differ from the standardized 
concept of Western journalistic culture-, it is necessary:  1º. Define 
journalists as symbolic producers, able to conceptualize, build and 
convey the meanings of cultural forms; but also to articulate and 
disseminate ideologies that identify a nation. 2º underscore the 
symbolic importance of these managers because these countries 
(postcolonial, on process of development or under undemocratic regimes) 
are the major producers of strategic meanings ordering reality (Mahon, 
2000).

Although sometimes, as it has been mentioned as ratifies Zelizer (2007: 
21), often it takes Western journalistic culture (dominated by the 
Anglo-American variant) as an example or as standard, currently there 
are numerous distinctive journalistic practices along worldwide, 
determined by the contexts in which they are located, as well as for its 
social features, political, economic and cultural. Today, there are 
common and distinguishing features that define the various forms of 
practicing journalism worldwide. These singularities are what lead us to 
try to clarify the distinctive and common features of journalistic 
culture in different regions of the globe.

*Comparative perspective in the analysis of journalism*

Media culture has been explicitly theorised as a unit for comparative 
research (Hepp & Couldry, 2012) because it helps to broaden the 
perspective and to address a range of questions that cannot be answered 
in the context of single-country studies (Voltmer, 2008).

Comparative research in communication and media studies is 
conventionally understood as contrasting different macro-level cases 
(e.g., world regions, countries, subnational regions, social milieux, 
language areas, cultural thickenings) at one or more points in time. 
[...] [It] differs from non-comparative work, since it attempts to reach 
conclusions beyond single cases and explains differences and 
similarities between objects of analysis against the backdrop of their 
contextual conditions (Esser, 2013: 115).

For these reasons, comparative media and journalistic culture researches 
have gained relevance in recent years (Esser & Hanitzsch, 2012). “This 
growing number of comparative studies indicates that journalism and 
journalism research no longer operate within national or cultural 
boundaries” (Weaver & Löffelholz, 2008: 8).

This study contrasts the universal Continental European model of Hallin 
& Mancini (2004), that analyses the highly politicised and literary 
style of the southern European journalistic model (Spain), and the 
moderately politicised, corporatist style of central European journalism 
(Switzerland) (Hallin & Mancini, 2004; Mancini, 2005; Esser & Umbricht, 
2013) with the model of intermediate journalistic cultures (Oller & 
Barredo, 2013) of Ecuador. Hence, the model of Hallin and Mancini is 
criticised, since the discussion is centred on the applicability of this 
model to other parts of the world (Albaek et al., 2014). In the case of 
Ecuador, its contextual conditions and “[...] national historiographies 
of socialist mass cultures […] are a necessary first step for 
cross-national comparative research” (Perusko & Cuvalo, 2014: 137).

*Important Deadlines*

– *From March 7 to November 7*, 2016: submission of the proposal in the 
form of an abstract of maximum 1 page (the proposal must include some 
recent references).

– November 7, 2016: acceptance of the proposal (authors will be notified 
in the shortest possible time about the acceptation of their papers).

– November 14, 2016: full paper submission.

– November 21, 2016: full paper acceptance.

Papers can be submitted in English, Spanish or Portuguese. The abstracts 
should be in English or Spanish followed by 5 keywords. Please provide 
the full names, affiliations, and e-mail addresses of all authors, 
indicating the contact author.

Papers, and any queries, should be sent to: (martin.olleralonso /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(martin.olleralonso /at/ gmail.com)>; (pchavero /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(pchavero /at/ gmail.com)>; (carcila /at/ usal.es) <mailto:(carcila /at/ usal.es)>

Authors of the accepted papers will be notified by e-mail.

*Website*

http://www.revistalatinacs.org/16SLCS/2016_convocatoria_8_congreso.html



For any further information please contact with Dr. Martín Oller Alonso 
((martin.olleralonso /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(martin.olleralonso /at/ gmail.com)>), 
Professor of University of Americas; Professor of the Master in 
Journalism of the Faculty of Journalism at the University of La Habana; 
Executive Committee Member Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS); Coordinator 
for Latin America and Ecuador (http://www.worldsofjournalism.org/); 
Journalistic Role Performance around the World Project Member 
(http://www.journalisticperformance.org/); Chair of the /Culturas 
Periodísticas/ Project (http://culturasperiodisticas.com/)





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