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This study proposes the interventionist and the detached orientations to watchdog journalism through the conceptual lens of journalistic role performance. Based on a content analysis of 33,640 news stories from sixty-four media outlets in eighteen countries, we measure and compare both orientations across different countries using three performative aspects of monitoring: intensity of scrutiny, voice of the scrutiny, and source of the event. Our findings show that the interventionist approach of watchdog journalism is more likely to be found in democracies with traditionally partisan and opinion-oriented journalistic cultures or experiencing sociopolitical crises. In turn, the detached orientation predominates in democracies with journalistic traditions associated to objectivity. Although both orientations have a lower presence in transitional democracies, the detached watchdog prevails, while in non-democratic countries the watchdog role is almost absent. Our results also reveal that structural contexts of undemocratic political regimes and restricted press freedom are key definers of watchdog role performance overall. However, the type of political regime is actually more important—and in fact the most important predictor— for detached than for interventionist reporting.

Based on a standardized operationalization of the watchdog, civic, interventionist, loyal-facilitator, infotainment, and service roles, this study combines survey ( N = 643) and content analysis data ( N = 19,908) to explain gaps between newspaper journalists’ role conceptions and the performance of their press organizations in nine countries from Latin America, Western Europe, and Asia. Taking an institutional approach by focusing on institutional influences on the conception–performance gap at three levels (individual, organizational, societal), our results show that these gaps are largest for the two roles most connected with the public functions of journalism, the civic, and the watchdog roles. Multilevel analyses offer significant evidence on that, across all six analyzed roles, the size of the gaps differed more clearly between journalists and between media organizations, than among countries. Although influences on an individual level (i.e., perceived autonomy) have some explanatory power, influences on the organizational level and, more specifically, ownership and codified editorial policies are the factors that best explain conception–performance gaps. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of the public skepticism about the performance of journalism and the media.

The professional practices of Argentine journalists reveal the multiplicity of factors that impact journalistic culture. The results of the national study for the global project Worlds of Journalism offers evidence that the type of media organization in which journalists work does not generate different working conditions or respond to alternative professional models. The results reinforce the approach that the professional culture is the result of the interaction between personal values and the guidelines of organizations and companies. In this sense, the study of the professional culture of journalism needs to be approached from a multidimensional perspective that includes the study of legal frameworks, trade union protection, organizational guidelines and accepted ethical parameters.As práticas profissionais dos jornalistas argentinos mostram a diversidade de fatores que impactam na cultura jornalística. Os dados nacionais da pesquisa como parte do projeto global Worlds of Journalism apresentam evidências de que meios distintos não oferecem condições de trabalho diferentes nem modelos profissionais alternativos para os seus jornalistas. Os resultados revelam ainda que a cultura profissional depende da interação entre valores pessoais e das pautas de organizações e empresas. Nesse sentido, o artigo se propõe a abordar o estudo de cultura jornalística com base em uma perspectiva multidimensional que analise os marcos legais, a proteção sindical, as pautas organizacionais e os códigos de ética profissional.Las prácticas profesionales de los periodistas argentinos dan cuenta de la multiplicidad de factores que impactan en la cultura periodística. El resultado del estudio nacional para el proyecto global Worlds of Journalism ofrece evidencias de que el tipo de medios en los que se desempeñan no genera condiciones de trabajo diferentes ni responde a modelos profesionales alternativos. Los resultados refuerzan el enfoque de que la cultura profesional es resultado de la interacción entre valores personales y las pautas de las organizaciones y empresas. En ese sentido, se plantea la necesidad de abordar el estudio de la cultura profesional del periodismo desde una perspectiva multidimensional que incluya el estudio de los marcos legales, la protección gremial, las pautas organizacionales y los parámetros éticos aceptados.

Trust is a societal value that is difficult to gain and easy to lose. This article deals with the levels of trust that journalists working in eight post-authoritarian and post-totalitarian countries (Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Latvia, South Africa and Tanzania) have in various social institutions using data from the present Worlds of Journalism Study. In each country, results showed the level of trust in journalists’ own institution—the media—is higher than the level of trust in both political and regulative institutions. The expression of low trust, particularly in regulative institutions, in the sampled countries represents significantly different results from previous studies about journalists’ trust in countries with longer democratic traditions.

La complejidad de factores que atraviesan los periodistas en los distintos países obliga a repensar la definición de la profesión que maneja habitualmente la discusión pública, basada muchas veces en modelos teóricos abstractos sin considerar los condicionantes reales de las prácticas periodísticas. Una encuesta global aporta datos para describir el periodismo de la región, una profesión que perdió la exclusividad de la producción de la información y que quedó en el medio de disputas de intereses que lo superan. Se trata, pues, de ampliar el debate para repensar el lugar del periodista en el relato informativo contemporáneo, más allá de conceptos coyunturales como el de la posverdad.

There is no tradition of quantitative journalism in Argentina. Mostly local NGOs have led initiatives for access of information in the last decades, which in many cases were the background of some articles in mainstream media. So data journalism in the country is usually associated with public journalism. The exception is La Nacion Data, a special investigative unit in a local newspaper, identified worldwide as an important reference in data journalism. In recent years, La Nacion has been recognized for many innovative contributions to digital journalism. The investigation based on leaked emails from the minister of transportation in 2010 was a key moment for the newspaper, considered since that moment a powerhouse of Latin American data journalism. But it is still the only media in the country with a data journalism unit. Many factors can explain the limited development of this journalism model in other media, especially the La Nacion Data’s success and local recognition of its contribution to society and profession. From a social point of view, we can mention the tradition of secrecy in politics, the scarcity of open databases and the lack of a law of access of information till 2016. But the professional culture is the main obstacle. In general, watchdog journalism was a declining model in the last decades due to hostile political climates, weak professionalization and lack of resources in newsrooms to develop investigative reporting. Additionally, data journalism requires a quantitative perspective and an interaction between programmers and journalists. We propose to analyze in detail the factors of social context and journalistic culture in order to explain the situation of data journalism in Argentina.

CITES AND FACTS IN THE NEWS: POLYPHONY IN PRESS DISCOURSE Abstract: This article presents some enunciation theory ideas integrated with journalism studies to pro- pose an enhanced model for discourse analysis of news. It recommends distinguishing the subjects of the enunciation from the subjects of the statements (enonce) in order to identify journalists and sources' voices in the news discourse. This approach considers journalistic objectivity as a newsmaking ritual that gives clues of the process by which a statement become news. Considering the polyphony inherent to news, this concept applied to discourse analysis could explain how newspapers with different orienta- tion, ideologically and commercially speaking, offer the same coverage.

This article summarizes the background of empirical journalism studies in Argentina. In recent publications, researchers have consistently underscored the lack of data on the profession and the scarce development of theoretical frameworks related to journalism studies. The local investigations have prioritized approaches and methods that do not give the whole picture of the population of journalists. Most of the research tends to equate media analysis and media messages with journalism study and keeps on failing to provide data that allows for learning about the working conditions and the professional profile of the Argentinean journalists.

The sources diversity is a journalism quality indicator but it is not only the result of journalist decision as it depends of the sources availability. Argentine case shows how Argentine Presidential Press Office increasingly reduced the access to public information and official sources. This paper reviews the context for the relationship between journalists and presidential sources in Argentina in order to analyze the influence of the public officers’restrictions to the press conferences.