journalism education at universities and journalism ... · journalism education at universities and...

Journalism education at Universities and journalismschools in Portugal∗

By Manuel Pinto and Helena SousaUniversidade do Minho

Table of Contents

1 National Media: Looking Back intothe Past 1

2 The Long Wait for Journalism Educa-tion 5

3 Competing Perspectives in Journalis-tic Training 8

4 From Studies to Action: Who are theJournalists Today? 11

5 Conclusions 136 Bibliography 14

The current media system in Portugal andthe recent political history of the country aredeeply ingrained. One cannot fully unders-tand the current state of affairs in both thenational media system and in journalism stu-dies without considering the political dic-tatorship (1926-1974), the 1974 Revolutionand the subsequent social and political insta-bility.

During the dictatorship, attempts to deve-lop Journalism Studies were halted. The firstacademic Media programme was set up in

∗Publicado in Frohlich, Romy and ChristinaHoltz-Bacha (eds.)Journalism Education in Europeand North America, an International Comparision,Hampton Press (Forthcoming).

1979; today there are around 30 higher edu-cation programmes with a journalistic focus.This enlargement does not however meanthat the communication/journalism field is awell developed scientific area. Indeed, dueto its novelty, most programmes lack humanand financial resources.

In Portugal, there is no close relationshipbetween academic qualifications and journa-listic performance. Most professional jour-nalists have no academic training and only afew have specific journalistic training. Still,the situation is changing and it is graduallymore common for media organisations to re-cruit people with a university background.Traditionally, journalism has been a low pay,low prestigious career but the instaurationand consolidation of democracy has createdthe necessary conditions for a progressive re-newal of the profession.

1 National Media: Looking Backinto the Past

During the political dictatorship, frequen-tly known as Salazarism, the press in Por-tugal has been under institutionalised pre-censorship. Restrained in content, with poor

2 Manuel Pinto and Helena Sousa

distribution facilities and readership,1 thepress lost its Republican2 vitality. Indeed,there was a steady decline in the regionalpress: ’from 210 papers in 1926, to 170in 1933, 80 in 1944, and to a mere 17 by1963’ (Seaton and Pimlott, 1983:94). Atthat time, national press was virtually non-existent. Most city newspapers were familybusinesses whilst in towns and villages pa-pers were mainly controlled by the CatholicChurch. The press was generally underfun-ded, with very low or non-existent profits .

In terms of the electronic media, the firstrelevant intervention by the Salazar regimewas the creation of the government stationEmissora Nacional(EN) (now calledRádi-odifusão Portuguesa- RDP). EN resultedfrom the incorporation of almost all existingprivate stations and began transmitting regu-lar broadcasts from Lisbon on short and me-dium wave on the 1st of August 1935. Ne-vertheless, due to the country’s overall un-derdevelopment, ’it was not until 1955 thatsome 80 per cent of the population were te-chnically capable of listening to radio bro-adcasts, and not until the second half of the1960’s that the country came anywhere neara full nation-wide coverage’ (Optenhögel,1986: 240).

Recognising the importance of the newmedium, the Catholic Church - with a tra-ditional involvement in the regional press -

1 Illiteracy figures throughout Salazarism:1930 - 61.8% of the population over 7 years old.1940 - 49.0%1950 - 40.4%1960 - 31.1% (Serrão e Marques (1992), Vol.

XII:476). Currently, 10% of the population is still il-literate.

2The Monarchy was abolished in 1910 and fromthen on up until the implementation of the dicta-torship, the press was quite diversified and free.

also set up its own radio station,Rádio Re-nascença(RR) which started broadcasting in1937.Rádio RenascençaandEmissora Na-cionalwere clearly the most significant radiostations3 whose importance has grown notonly during Salazism and Marcelism4 but af-ter the 1974 revolution as well. The so-calledradio oligopoly was only challenged in the1980’s with the explosion of illegal radio sta-tions and with the subsequent attribution offrequencies to local and regional stations.

If Salazar did not oppose to the develop-ment of radio broadcasting, the same did nothappen in relation to television. ’Salazarfelt at ease with radio but deeply mistrus-ted television’ (Louro, interview5:12.01.95).Although television was set up - in the mid-1950’s - by a more liberal faction of the Sala-zar regime, the same repressive mechanismsapplied to television as to any other medium.

After the 1974 coup d’etat, the media en-dured major convulsions. Pre-censorshipwas immediately abolished whilst a feroci-ous confrontation for the control of the mostimportant media had just started. Very diffe-rent factions co-existed within the so-called’winners’ of the revolution. No consensuswould be easily achieved as to what role themedia should play in a post-dictatorial soci-ety and a chaotic situation could hardly havebeen avoided.

3In addition to RR and EN, there were a few localradio stations andRádio Club Português, a radio sta-tion owned by the Botelho Moniz family, a traditionalally of Salazar and Marcello.

4When Salazar became ill in 1968, Marcello Ca-etano took power but the regime would not last formuch longer.

5Soares Louro was formally chairman of bothRádiotelevisão Portuguesaand Rádiodifusão Portu-guesa, and is a long-standing member of the SocialistParty.

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Journalism education at Universities 3

Arguably because of the dangerous ’re-actionary forces’, leftist elements withinthe Movimento das Forças Armadas(MFA)contended that the media would have tobe controlled during the revolutionary pe-riod. There was a clear contradiction in theMFA programme which contemplated boththe ’abolishment of censorship and previousexamination’ and the creation of an ’ad hoccommittee to control the press, radio, tele-vision, theatre and cinema’ in order to ’sa-feguard military secrets and to prevent dis-turbances which could be provoked in publicopinion by ideological aggressions from themost reactionary sections of society’ (quotedin Bruneau and MacLeod, 1986: 165-166).

This ad hoc committee transformed itselfenormously, according to which faction wasmore powerful within the MFA movementand within theJunta de Salvação Nacio-nal. First, radical leftist media were cen-sored but, with the removal of the more con-servative General Spínola, after the 28th ofSeptember crisis, the leftist wing gained pro-gressive strength and the ad hoc Commit-tee concentrated its activity among the righ-tist/conservative press. From the 6th of Sep-tember 1974 to the 28th of February 1975, 28publications were suspended whose majo-rity was close to the Catholic Church (Mes-quita:1988:89).

The battle for media control right after therevolution and, particularly, after the 28thof September, was far from being foughtonly within the ad hoc Committee which hadpowers to suspend and punish newspaperswhich were out of the leftist ’revolutionary’line. Elements close to the MFA movementwere appointed to leading posts both in ra-dio and television. By early 1975, the pa-norama in the electronic media was percei-

ved as being chaotic. This highly volatile si-tuation got even worse with the installationof the communist provisional governmentsof Vasco Gonçalves, after the 11th of Marchcoup.

During this revolutionary period, the presswhich was still in private hands was ’trans-ferred’ to public ownership. Important sec-tors of the economy such as banking and in-surance were nationalised. Because manyleading newspapers were owned by strongeconomic groups and banks, they becamestate property. ’From the important dailies,only the República in Lisbon andO Pri-meiro de Janeiro, in Oporto remained in pri-vate hands’ (Mesquita et al., 1994:368). Thenationalisation of the press was never explai-ned as a political option. ’It was presented asan indirect consequence of the nationalisa-tion of the banking sector’ (Mesquita et al.,1994:368). But behind this option was cle-arly the will to control what was left out ofgovernment’s direct influence. Significantly,the nationalisation process was not reversedwith the removal of the communist prime mi-nister, Vasco Gonçalves, in November 1975.

What is remarkable about the media deve-lopment in Portugal is that laws drawn up du-ring an exceptional period shaped the mediauntil the 1980’s. This aspect suggests that theauthoritarian nature of the provisional leftistgovernments suited the newly created demo-crats. Despite the 1976 Constitution, with itsimpressive display of civil liberties, no elec-ted government was prepared to grant free-dom to the press. Generally, following thepolitical measures introduced during the re-volutionary period, politicians from all affi-liations have not openly designed media po-licies but have merely taken the necessary

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steps to ensure that the nationalised mediawould be favourable to those in power.

Given the nature of political, economicand technological developments in the mid-1980’s, changes in the national media werebound to happen. At a regional level, theEuropean Union was developing its policiesfor telecommunications and television bro-adcasting. Conservative governments in theUK, Germany and France (not to mentionthe US) persuasively argued for liberalisa-tion of markets and privatisation of state pro-perty; and last but certainly not least, impor-tant technological advances - mainly the de-velopment of satellite and optic fibre and thesubsequent convergence of distribution tech-nologies - had enormous implications. Theproliferation of European satellite TV chan-nels, for instance, started being used as anargument against the nationalRádiotelevisão(RTP) monopoly. RTP’s critics argued that,once one could receive international privateTV channels, there was no reason why oneshould not have national private channels.

At a national level, important changeswere also taking place. Up to the mid-1980’s, the political instability in the coun-try was so acute that any comprehensive setof political decisions was hard, if not impos-sible, to implement. In 1987, one year af-ter Portugal joined the EEC, the first majo-rity government was elected since the 1974revolution. At that time, the country’s eco-nomy was booming that being the main re-ason for a substantial rise in advertising re-venue which had increased, in total, fromaround £52 million in 1986 to around £400

million in 1994.6 In this economic circums-tances, relatively unconstrained newspaperssuch asO IndependenteandPúblico wereset up and their existence seriously impairedthe government’s ability to suppress politi-cally damaging material. In addition, the cli-mate of opinion was turning against the con-centration of the media in the state’s hands.The Cavaco Silva’s government itself belie-ved that if Portugal was to be seen as a trulyEuropean partner, changes in the economy,and consequently in the media market, hadto be introduced. A pro-business approachwas taken and the liberalisation of the me-dia market and privatisation of a substantialshare of state media was imminent.

In this context, the two Cavaco Silva’smajority governments7 undertook the mostcomprehensive changes in the media systemsince 1974-75. The first set of measuresdirectly related to the structure of the me-dia concerned the re-organisation of the ra-dio broadcasting sector. By mid-1980’s therewere so may illegal radio stations operatingthat the government could no longer ignorethat reality. Nevertheless, it was only in 1989that 310 local frequencies were allocated. Inthe following year, two regional frequencieswere attributed: one went toRádio Press,part of the Lusomundo group and the otherto Correia da Manhã Rádiowhich belongedto the Carlos Barbosa group.

In 1991, the two most important state ow-

6 These figures were estimated, utilising data fromSabatina and the opinion of several experts in the fi-eld.

7The first majority government since 1974 ran thecountry between 1987 to 1991; the second majoritygovernment was in power from 1991 to 1995 (thesewere respectively the XI and XII Constitutional go-vernments).

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ned newspapers were privatised. The go-vernment had been following a wide pri-vatisation programme and there were nogrounds to justify the maintenance ofJor-nal de NotíciasandDiário de Notícias un-der state control. The government was ina dilemma between its interest in control-ling those newspapers and the ideologicaland political belief in privatisation. In a con-troversial process, both were bought byLu-somundo, one of the most important multi-media groups in Portugal, perceived - at thetime - as having close links with the govern-ment.

The opening up of TV channels to privateownership has been on the political agendathroughout the 1980’s but it was materiali-sed in 1992/93. Three candidates bided forthe two TV national channels which wouldbe set up to add to the existing ones: RTP1and RTP2. One channel was granted to Soci-edadeIndependente de Comunicação(SIC),a company led by the former prime minister,Pinto Balsemão, an historic member of theSocial Democrat Party (in power at the time);the other channel was attributed toTelevisãoIndependente(TVI), a company made up ofentities and individuals close to the CatholicChurch.

Currently Portugal has four natio-nal terrestrial TV channels: two pri-vate/commercial channels and two publicservice channels. In addition to terrestrialtelevision, throughout the 1980’s the mostwell-off were able to receive dozens offoreign television channels mainly fromEutelsat and Astra satellites. Cable TV is amore recent development. The first licenseswere attributed by the government in 1995.Several companies are now operating in themost affluent urban areas of the country.

It is estimated that around 200 thousandhouseholds are connected to cable networks(Expresso, 13th June 1997).

Both the radio broadcasting sub-systemand the press are far more diversified than te-levision broadcasting. With the exception ofsmall local radios and local/regional newspa-pers, the media in Portugal are in the handsof so-called multi-media groups (v.Diáriode Notícias,13th April 1996). The state it-self owns, in addition to RTP and RDP, anumber of magazines and 50% of the uniquenational news agency, LUSA. The CatholicChurch is a major player in the media scene.Rádio Renascençais the most popular nati-onal radio and the Church owns more than600 publications. Besides the state and theChurch, the most important multi-media ac-tors are: Impalagest, Lusomundo, Presslivre,Impresa and Público/Sonae.

2 The Long Wait for JournalismEducation

If there is a close relationship between theoverall media system in Portugal and thepolitical/historical development in the coun-try, this connection is particularly obviousin the way journalism education has deve-loped. Indeed, the political dictatorship hashad a strong negative influence in the culturalarena in general and in education in particu-lar.

In cultural terms, the Salazar regime wasdominated by an elite who believed that pe-ople should be educated to be passive andnon-participatory in political life. The autho-ritarian and centralist regime did not favourthe development of Social Sciences and Hu-manities in the country. People was to be

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indoctrinated by the cultural/political elites,led by Salazar. ’Due to the lack of equili-brium in the human spirit, order is not spon-taneous; someone must command for the be-nefit of all’ (Salazar, 1945:138). In these cir-cumstances, there was not no point in pro-viding journalists with superior education orprofessional training which could bring thempublic recognition and/or intellectual toolsthat might put at stake the ideological appa-ratus of the regime.

Interestingly enough, decades before theimplementation of the dictatorship, in 1898,Lisbon hosted the 5th International PressConference and one of the resolutions wasprecisely the recognition that journalismschools had to be set up. Still, according tothe available data,8 it was only in 1940 thata first attempt in terms of journalistic trai-ning was made by the National Journalists’Union (Sindicato Nacional dos Jornalistas).The Union was set up in 1934 and its firstpresident, António Ferro, later became theHead of the Government’s Propaganda De-partment.

The Journalists Union’ project was a two-year course that could be attended by candi-dates to the profession with a minimum ofnine years of schooling (four years of ele-mentary school and five years of secondarygrade school) or to journalists working in acompany for at least one year. The studiesplan included theoretical matters in the jour-nalistic area and practical journalistic exer-cises. Although this project was fully deve-loped and the programme had actually beenscheduled, it never materialised. ’The pro-

8The information about the topic is scarce becausehistorical research about the media and journalism isjust starting.

gramme did not get the indispensable officialsupport’, states the Journalists’ Union bulle-tin (November, 1968, no 8).

Both the objectives and the content of thistraining programme were novelties whichwere possibly seen as a danger for a re-gime concerned in maintaining the statusquo. Furthermore, the lecturers invited bythe Union to teach the different study areaswere not all devoted supporters of the re-gime. Some, such as Marcello Caetano, cer-tainly were but others, such as the priest AbelVarzim, clearly diverged from the regime’sviews. This diversity certainly compromisedthe viability of the programme. In 1942, in aveiled criticism, the journalist Luis Quadroswrote: ’whilst the Portuguese mental aris-tocracy has been dignifying the liberal pro-fessions (...) conferring them academic de-grees, the most delicate activity in a nation- the orientation of the public opinion - hasbeen devoted to an incomprehensible ostra-cism’ (quoted in Marcos, 1986:282).

Apart from the regime’s lack of interestin the development of journalism studies, aconsiderable number of journalists did notrecognise their training as a priority. As aprestigious journalist put it: ’ the newcomerswere instructed not to become professionalsbut to follow the rules of the book’ (quotedin Correia, 1995a). Still, the Union conti-nued voicing the need to train its members.In 1967, for example, the Union’s bulletinJornalismopublished several articles aboutthe importance of journalistic training in thecountry.

In 1970, with Marcello Caetano alreadyin power, the Journalists’ Union presentedanother consistent proposal. At that time,there was a belief that the regime wouldopen up and therefore this would proba-

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bly be good timing for another attempt. Anew union leadership - relatively indepen-dent from the political establishment - setup a commission whose task was to developa project of superior studies in journalism.This commission brought together prestigi-ous journalists in the country and professi-onals with journalism degrees from foreignuniversities.9

This new project, approved by the Union’sGeneral Assembly in late 1970, contempla-ted a five-year programme with theoreticaland practical courses lasting 24 hours perweek. Overall, there were predicted 60 se-mestral courses distributed in the followingmanner: in the first three years, the studentswould have general Social Sciences studies(e.g. History, Languages and Literature, Po-litical Science, Economy, Public Opinion,etc.); during the last two years, the focuswould be on journalistic/communications to-pics. It is interesting to note that this pro-gramme included highly sensitive coursessuch as Contemporary History and ResearchMethods in Journalism and Social Sciences.

At that time, there were high hopes aboutthe future of this graduate programme. Onthe one hand, the regime was preparing awide educational reform, led by the Edu-cation Minister, Veiga Simão; on the otherhand, the Union’s project, submitted to thegovernment, was the result of deep research

9The foreign universities ’represented’ in thiscommission were: the Superior School of Journalismof Lille, the French Press Institute (University of Pa-ris), the Journalism School of Madrid University, theJournalism School of Navarra University (Spain) andthe International University Pro Deo (Rome). Im-portant names, in the journalism scene, were associ-ated to this project: Silva Costa, António Reis, Cá-ceres Monteiro, Oliveira Figueiredo, Jacinto Baptista,among others.

and prolific dialogue amongst a great num-ber of actors. It was believed that the con-ditions had been met to initiate journalismstudies in Portugal. But once again politicsdetermined otherwise.

According to the then President of theJournalists’ Union, Silva Costa, the pro-gramme did not receive the go ahead becausetoo many people were interested in the tu-telage of journalism studies (Costa, 1983).At least three government departments weresaid to be interested in ’supervising’ this ini-tiative: the Education Ministry, the Corpo-rations’ Ministry andthe Media Office. Thisreveals not only political fights within the go-vernment but also its inability to solve inter-nal contradictions.

Another factor which might have influen-ced the halting of this project was the paral-lel development of another journalism edu-cation project in the private sector. An im-portant economic group,Grupo Quina- withinterest in the media and owning the news-papersDiário Popular andRecord,and themagazineRádio-Televisão- decided to set upa Superior School for Media Studies, theEs-cola Superior de Meios de Comunicação So-cial. This potential link between the interestsof this economic group and the failure of theUnion’s project has yet to be researched. Inany case, neither the Journalists’ Union northe government were the architects and foun-ders of the first journalism programme in thecountry. It was theQuina group that, in1973, laid the foundation of superior studiesof journalism in the country. However, thisprogramme would not last long because theeconomic private groups close to the autho-ritarian regime were dismantled right afterthe 1974 Revolution and the journalism pro-gramme of theEscola Superior de Meios de

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Comunicação Socialwas closed down as aresult. A very small number of current pro-fessional journalists have been trained in thisschool.

Considering what has been said so far, itis quite clear that it was mainly amongstthe Journalist’s Union members that the needfor academic training has been felt and hasconsolidated throughout the years. Even ifthe initiatives were unsuccessful, the unionmade an effort to develop journalism studies.For political reasons, the government and theacademia did not take any initiative in thisstudy-area.

Indeed, higher education was far from apriority to the regime. From 1927 up untilthe Veiga Simão reform, in 1973, higher edu-cation did not get any serious attention (Car-reira, 1996a). The regime was particularlyconcerned with making of primary educationan privileged space for political/religious in-doctrination. As minister Carneiro Pachecowould put it in 1937, it was less relevant to’teach the alphabet’ than to ’model souls’(quoted in Carreira, 1996b:14).

The university population was thereforevery small. In 1960, for example, amongstthe 18 to 22 years old group, only 3,9%were attending university. When the 1974Revolution took place the percentage wasstill around 10% (Carreira, 1996a).10 It isalso relevant to our case the fact that, in1960, among the entire university popula-tion, only 6,4% were studying Social Scien-

10Percentage of population in higher education inthe 18-22 year old population:

1960 - 3,9%1970 - 8,5%1980 - 11.7%1990 - 23,0%Source: Official data quoted in Carreira, 1996a.

ces. In 1970, this figured augmented to 11%and after the Revolution it has been around20% (Carreira, 1996a).

After the revolution, important changestook place in the academic world. More stu-dents were allowed to enter higher educationand new programmes were developed. Oncethe previous regime was so opposing towardsthe expansion of Social Sciences, the newdemocratic regime, despite the initial ins-tability, has certainly created the necessaryconditions for a fresher approach towards va-rious study-areas, namely journalism. Theimplementation and development of journa-lism degrees was made possible by a new po-litical and social climate.

3 Competing Perspectives inJournalistic Training

In 1979, five years after the Revolution, thefirst university Communication programmein the country was set up. The initiativewas taken by the Faculty of Human Scien-ces of theUniversidade Nova de Lisboa. Du-arte Adriano Rodrigues, who got his Ph.D. inthe Catholic University of Lovain (Belgium),developed the programme and became theHead of the Communication Department. Inthe same drift, other Communication pro-grammes were developed in theUniversi-dade da Beira Interiorand in theUniversi-dade do Minho.

Rodrigues (1985) explains the philosophybehind the programme structure as such:

• students have to have a philosophicalbackground which helps them unders-tanding the historical trends and contra-dictions;

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• a special attention should be given tolanguage sciences in order to preventjournalists from being manipulated;

• a sociological and political knowledgeis needed so that journalists can un-derstand their strategic role in the so-cial/political arena and the conflictinginterests they will have to deal with;

• technical expertise should go wellbeyond the mere handling of tools; itshould provide means to understand itslimits and possibilities (for more, seeRodrigues and Miranda, 1989).

This university project has a strong theore-tical basis. The emphasis is clearly on broadcommunications issues rather than specificcommunication areas such as journalism, ad-vertising or public relations. It might there-fore be argued that in the early beginningsof communication higher education, techni-cal expertise was not on the top of the uni-versity programmes’ agenda.

In the communication field, the gapbetween university education (generally witha theoretical basis) and polytechnic educa-tion (mainly concerned with practice) be-came increasingly evident. In fact, these twoperspectives about the education of mediaprofessionals can be identified since condi-tions were met for public debate. Obviouslya yielding discussion had not been possiblebefore the 1974 coup d’etat and immediatelyafter the revolution there was still a highlyvolatile political climate. Therefore, only afew years later these two viewpoints becameclear and started producing different initiati-ves.

In parallel with university projects, moretechnical ones were also being developed. In

1983, theCentro de Formação de Jornalis-tas (CFJ) was set up in Oporto and two ye-ars later this centre produced a Polytechnicschool, theEscola Superior de Jornalismo(ESJ). The ESJ results from combined ef-forts of a group of journalists and a groupof professors from Oporto University,Uni-versidade do Porto. With the outgrowth ofESJ, CFJ redefined its role, being now mos-tly concerned with career development ofprofessional journalists whilst ESJ providesmostly academic degrees to young candida-tes to the profession.

In 1986, in the same line of thought andaction, it was founded in Lisbon theCen-tro Protocolar de Formação de Jornalistas(CENJOR). This centre which might be seenas a replica of CFJ results from combined ef-forts from the government (namely the Em-ployment and Career Development Agencyand the Media Office) from the Journalists’Union and from Press owners associations.Currently, CENJOR is developing specificprogrammes for professional journalists andis giving special attention to local and regio-nal media professionals.

The work developed by CFJ and CEN-JOR, with a greater technical emphasis, hasevolved in tandem with university Journa-lism education. If, in the early 1980’s, theuniversity Communication/Journalism pro-grammes were indeed very few,11 thingshave changed dramatically in the second halfof the 1980’s. Mário Mesquita, a formerjournalist and prestigious journalism profes-sor has ironically called this phenomenonthe ’the miracle of multiplication’ (1995a).

11The first one was, as we have seen, set up by theUniversidade Nova de Lisboa, in 1979 and the secondone was set up in 1980 by theUniversidade Técnicade Lisboa.

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Currently there are 27 higher education pro-grammes with a focus on journalism issues,even if their denominations vary from ’Com-munication’ to ’Journalism’. Another 30university programmes are related to com-munications but do not have predominatelya journalistic focus. Typically, these degreesare called ’Public Relations’, ’Entrepreneu-rial Communications’, ’Advertising’, ’Insti-tutional Communications’, among others.12

This expansion can only be understoodwithin the overall expansion of superior edu-cation in Portugal in recent years. Thegrowth has been particularly significant inthe private sector as the public sector,although growing considerably, could notabsorb a great number of candidates tohigher education. Under pressure, the go-vernment has facilitated the creation of pri-vate universities and schools mainly in areaswith few laboratorial needs such as SocialSciences. Being now relatively easy to setup a media programme and considering the’media-chic’ phenomenon, there is a risk thata par with the multiplication of programmes,there is also the ’multiplication of fraud’(Mesquita, 1995a). In general, most com-munication programmes in the country havevery limited financial and human resources.

Despite the great number and diversityof university programmes and the increa-sing number of students looking for a jour-nalistic job, it should be noted that there isonly one university degree specifically cal-led ’Journalism’. This programme started in1993 in theUniversidade de Coimbraandis led by Mário Mesquita who, in addition

12These figures were advanced by Mário Mesquitain a Public Debate about Journalism Education inPortugal,Auditório da Reitoria da Universidade doPorto, 18 October 1997.

to his long journalistic career, lectured jour-nalism in a Polytechnic School (Escola Su-perior de Journalismo) and in a University(Universidade Nova de Lisboa). This is theonly programme in the country with a spe-cific focus on journalism, although Mesquitadoes not see ’Journalism Studies’ in a narrowperspective of professional/technical exper-tise, apart from critical analysis and research(1985d:11).

The increasing number of university pro-grammes does necessarily mean that therehas been an increasing number of commu-nication/journalism students. Currently, it isestimated that 500 per year start their acade-mic career in the public sector and one thou-sand per year initiate their studies in privateuniversities and schools. Obviously, not allstudents finish their courses and not all tryto enter into the journalistic job market butcompetition for a place in newsrooms is al-ready fierce.

So far, it has not been possible to over-come the dichotomy between practice andtheory. There are still strong controver-sies about the best way to prepare journa-lists. On the one hand, there is an ongoingdebate about newsroom practice and tech-nical programmes versus Media/Journalismhigher education. A considerable number ofprofessional journalism still believe that onebecomes a journalist in the newsrooms anddo not trust journalism schools. On the otherhand, there is - within higher education -a somehow adversarial relationship betweenuniversity and polytechnic programmes. Ingeneral, universities believe that polytechnicschools have been proliferating for politicalrather than academic reasons and that theseschools have been set up in a light-heartedway.

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In time, the development and consolida-tion of the field will bring some consensusaround a number of issues which are stillhighly polemical. In countries with well de-veloped journalism studies, few argue thathigher education is not desirable for a profes-sional journalist, and probably few argue thata synthesis between a strong theoretical basisand technical expertise should not be attemp-ted in an academic journalism programme.Still, it is feasible that there will alwaysbe space for more career-oriented program-mes, with a strong connection to the profes-sional world, and for research-oriented pro-grammes, particularly concerned with criti-cal analysis of the journalistic profession.

The novelty of journalism as a study-area in Portugal has naturally consequencesin terms of post-graduate studies. Beforethe mid-1980’s there were virtually no post-graduate studies in communication in gene-ral or in journalism in particular. The firstCommunication Master programme was setup, in 1984, in theUniversidade Nova deLisboa, and it has had a theoretical approach.Since 1996, this programme allows studentsto specialise, among other areas, in Mediaand Journalism studies. Apart fromUniver-sidade Nova, few universities have initiatedMaster programmes. TheInstituto Superiorde Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresaandthe Universidade da Beira Interiorare al-ready running their Master Communicationprogrammes whilstUniversidade do Minhois, at this stage, developing its own.

4 From Studies to Action: Whoare the Journalists Today?

Journalism studies are, in fact, so recentthat only a small percentage of professionalshave a communication/journalism academicdegree. In any case, formal education or thelack of it is bound to be one among other as-pects which determine the journalistic out-come in the country.

In Portugal, various legal instruments re-gulate the profession and dictate its ethics.The Constitution and the Press Law draw thewider legal framework whilst the JournalistStatute, the Ethical Code of Journalists andthe Profession Press Card Regulation dealwith more specific professional topics.

The Constitution guarantees the freedomof press and identifies the role of the state inthe media, namely concerning public servicebroadcasting. Fundamental rights related tothe media independence and freedom of ex-pression are, according to the Constitution,to be safeguarded by the High Authority forthe Media (Alta Autoridade para a Comuni-cação Social). The Press Law deals not onlywith rights and duties of journalists but alsocovers judicial matters and organisational is-sues of journalistic companies. The legisla-tor has referred to the Journalist’s Union thewriting up of its own Ethical Code and Sta-tute.

The Ethical Code, approved in May 1993,states the rules of what is perceived ashigh quality journalism: objectivity, im-partiality, identification of sources, non-discrimination, respect for privacy, amongother attributes. The Journalist’s Statute ismore concerned with the accession to theprofession. Basically one becomes a jour-nalist when one has a contract with a journa-

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listic company to perform journalistic tasksas his/hers main occupation. During the firsttwo working years, the journalist is not con-sidered to be a professional but a candidate tothe profession. Apart from that, individualsolder than 18 with high school education andno criminal record might become journalists.Professional journalists are identified as suchby a Press Card. The Press Card is attributedby a special commission (Comissão da Car-teira Profissional de Jornalista). This com-mission is an independent public entity ledby a magistrate.

Basically these legal tolls tell us whomight become a journalist, in what circums-tances, and what are their rights and duties.But they tell us very little about those whoperform journalistic tasks in Portugal. As wehave seen before, the media underwent dra-matic changes after the mid-1980’s and thesechanges have had direct consequences in theprofession. Political/social stability and eco-nomic prosperity created the necessary con-ditions for a substantial increase in the quan-tity of publications and broadcasting stati-ons. In this context, the number of professio-nal journalists has expanded rapidly. Accor-ding to Garcia, before the Revolution therewere 700 journalists in the entire country.From 1975 to 1980 another 821 joined theprofession. By 1990, there were 2374 andcurrently 3850 (1994:69).13

The first attempt to characterise journa-lists as a group was developed by Oliveira(1988). More recent research (Garcia andCastro, 1993; Garcia, 1994; Garcia and Oli-veira, 1994) has shown that most journalistswork in the press (51,9%) whilst 13,8% work

13Updated figures are expected to come out in1998.

in the radio sector and 11,4% on TV. Jour-nalism is also a profession exercised mainlyin Lisbon. 50,7% of the professionals workin the capital which is not surprising consi-dering that Lisbon is the locus of politicalpower and considering the country’s overallasymmetric development. Although it is nowmore frequent for women to become journa-lists, journalism is still a profession domina-ted by men. Three quarters of all professi-onals are male. In terms of ages, it can besaid that mostly young people are now jour-nalists (70,1% have less than 44 and 23,4%are younger then 30). These aspects sug-gests that journalism is in deep change. Ithas young blood and a stronger than ever fe-male participation.

Although media companies are progres-sively recruiting journalists with academicbackground, no degree is actually required.Therefore, there is an enormous variety ofboth levels of formal education and types ofdegrees. Garcia and Oliveira (1994) studyreveals that 8,8% of journalists have primaryeducation (these journalists joined the pro-fession before high school was required),18% completed high school, 45,2% haveeither a technical degree or high educationfrequency (did not complete their universityprogrammes). Only 27,9% have a first de-gree in any scientific area (most frequently inSocial Sciences and Humanities). The highpercentage of journalists who have not fi-nished their academic programmes suggeststhat journalism has created working oppor-tunities for those who were not satisfied withtheir academic choices. Up to now no rese-arch has been conducted to find out the per-centage of journalists with specific journalis-tic training.

Traditionally, journalism has not been a

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prestigious profession. Censorship and thenon-existence of specific academic qualifica-tions, made it a low qualified and low paidprofession. Although the situation has beensteadily improving since the 1974 Revolu-tion and particularly since the mid-1980’s,journalism is still a poorly paid job. In termsof pay, Garcia and Oliveira (1994) studysuggests that journalists are well below, forexample, doctors and lawyers. The authorsbelieve that journalists’ income might becompared with those of nurses and accoun-tants. This is probably one of the rea-sons why a quarter of professional journa-lists have taken a second job as, for ins-tance, translators or teachers. Within theclass, there are obviously well paid journa-lists, such as news editors or TV news pre-senters, but these are clearly a minority.

The political dictatorship has clearly sha-ped the relationship between political powerand journalists for a long period of time.Once the government had complete con-trol over media content, journalists en-ded up reproducing state views or prin-ting/broadcasting innocuous news. With theimplementation of democracy, the situationwas bound to change but it took quite sometime for most media to achieve relative edi-torial independence from the political esta-blishment. In any case, and despite obviousprogress, journalists still lack autonomy asa professional group and their relationshipwith policy-makers is frequently ambiguous.

5 Conclusions

For historical/political reasons, there is notradition of journalism studies in Portugal.The authoritarian regime did not recogniseany interest in developing journalistic tea-

ching and research. In these circumstan-ces, the Journalists’ Union efforts to train itsmembers were all fruitless and only a fewyears after the revolution did the first acade-mic programme in communication start. Ba-sically, before the mid-1980’s there were noprofessional journalists in Portugal with spe-cific academic training.

In recent years, the number of commu-nication programmes has increased enor-mously. The vast majority of them are not’Journalism Studies’per se; journalism israther taught as part of broader communi-cation programmes. The study-area is stillpoorly defined mainly due to the novelty ofcommunication/journalism as academic de-grees. Most programmes have deficienciesin terms of human resources and technicalinfrastructures. It follows that research is ob-viously in its early stages and the number ofscientific journals dealing with communica-tions issues is indeed very restrict. It is there-fore too early to think about communicationand/or journalism as an autonomous scienti-fic area or research field.

The newness of communications studiesnaturally has implications in the relationshipbetween the journalistic profession and aca-demia. A considerable number of profes-sional journalists still view with suspicionhigher education in their field and are greatbelievers in ’training-on-the-job’ whilst aca-demia perceives professionals (in general) asinadequately prepared for the role their aresupposed to play.

A second level of fissure exists within aca-demia itself. On the one hand, universi-ties tend to be sceptical about the qualityof training in polytechnic schools. On theother hand, polytechnic schools generallybelieve university teaching is too theoretical

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and does not prepare students for the ’realworld’. Implicit behind these splits, there arelong-standing views about what is more va-luable: some say ’theory’, others say ’prac-tice’. In the future, the development of thefield should bring the debate to a more ela-borate and intricate level of analysis.

As we have seen, journalism education inPortugal is recent and incipient. However,because media organisations and journalisticcompanies are undergoing enormous chan-ges - which follow from economic and socialtransformations - attention should be givento new ways of thinking both the professionand work environment. The present ebulli-ence of the discussions has an healthy sem-blance but it could also have some perniciousovertones: i.e. overlooking new technologi-cal developments or the increasingly multi-layered nature of the work market. Ratherthan measuring the comparative advantagesof practice and theory, academics and jour-nalists should concentrate on the evolvingnature of the media and their ever changingrole in society.

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