Media roles, and ethics: perceptions of Brazilian, American and French journalist
This paper analyzes self-perceptions of media roles and ethics of a sample of Brazilian journalists and compares them with American and French journalists. French and American styles of journalism have had major inﬂ uences on Brazilian newspapers at different points in time. The study included a self-administered survey with 402 journalists working for 13 leading news organizations and personal interviews with renowned journalists of Sao Paulo- Brazil’s main media hub.  The typical Brazilian journalist in this study was a young white middle-class male, politically left leaning oriented, more likely to be married and Catholic. Respondents held a pluralistic view regarding media roles and expressed higher tolerance of controversial journalistic practices compared to that of their counterparts. Findings are in line with the social-political environment in which journalists operate. They do not enjoy special rights of access to government information, tend to distrust public institutions and have still been adapting to press freedom since the country’s redemocratization.
Journalism students: Left-wing and politically motivated?
In both the public and scientific debates on journalism in western countries, it would appear to be taken for granted that journalists’ political opinions can influence their professional output. Since journalists tend to lean more to the left than the general population, it is often assumed that media content has a left-wing bias. This article discusses and analyses the political motivations among journalism students. A case study of Danish journalism students indicates that most of the students were not politically motivated when choosing to pursue an education in journalism. Left-wing students tend to be slightly more politically motivated; however, the differences between the respective groups of journalism students are minor. Moreover, other sources of motivation are deemed more important, irrespective of political opinions. The case study concludes that political motivation plays a limited role in the decision to study journalism.
LAND DEGRADATION IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD: ISSUES AND POLICY OPTIONS FOR 2020
Land degradation takes a number of forms, including depletion of soil nutrients, salinization, agrochemical pollution, soil erosion, vegetative degradation as a result of overgrazing, and the cutting of forests for farmland. All of these types of degradation cause a decline in the productive capacity of the land, reducing potential yields. Farmers may need to use more inputs such as fertilizer or manure in order to maintain yields, or they may temporarily or permanently abandon some plots. Degradation may also induce farmers to convert land to lower-value uses. For example, farmers may plant cassava, which demands few nutrients, instead of maize, or convert cropland to grazing land.