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International empirical research on the perception that journalists have of their professional roles and functions has increased considerably in recent years, although not in the case of Spain. The present research, included within the transnational comparative study "The Worlds of Journalism Study", analyses data from a survey conducted in Spain (representative and stratified by type of media and autonomous community) of 390 journalists from 117 media, who were consulted about their work to detect the professional functions they most identified with. The study establishes six roles: watchdog, citizens' spokesperson, instructor of the audience, promoter of the status quo, infotainment journalist and disseminator of objective information. In line with recent political, economic and social developments in Spain, professionals feel more identified with the role of citizens' spokesperson. This function downplays the predominant role of disseminator of objective information reflected in recent studies of a similar nature on the subject of Spanish journalists. A further finding of the research is the existence of two large groups of journalists: the stimulators and the "narcotizers" of public opinion. Moreover, it is observed that some organizational factors (in particular, media ownership) and other individual ones (gender, age and years of professional experience) significantly influence the perceptions of professional roles.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International empirical research on the perception that journalists have of their professional roles and functions has increased considerably in recent years, although not in the case of Spain. The present research, included within the transnational comparative study "The Worlds of Journalism Study", analyses data from a survey conducted in Spain (representative and stratified by type of media and autonomous community) of 390 journalists from 117 media, who were consulted about their work to detect the professional functions they most identified with. The study establishes six roles: watchdog, citizens' spokesperson, instructor of the audience, promoter of the status quo, infotainment journalist and disseminator of objective information. in line with recent political, economic and social developments in Spain, professionals feel more identified with the role of citizens' spokesperson. This function downplays the predominant role of disseminator of objective information reflected in recent studies of a similar nature on the subject of Spanish journalists. A further finding of the research is the existence of two large groups of journalists: the stimulators and the "narcotizers" of public opinion. Moreover, it is observed that some organizational factors (in particular, media ownership) and other individual ones (gender, age and years of professional experience) significantly influence the perceptions of professional roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surveying 1,700 journalists from seventeen countries, this study investigates perceived influences on news work. Analysis reveals a dimensional structure of six distinct domains--political, economic, organizational, professional, and procedural influences, as well as reference groups. Across countries, these six dimensions build up a hierarchical structure where organizational, professional, and procedural influences are perceived as more powerful limits to journalists' work than political and economic influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]