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.
The state, television, and political power in Brazil
This essay uses Gramsci's theory of politics to examine how TV Globo has become the key mediator between the Brazilian “ruling bloc” and the dominated classes in the construction and maintenance of hegemony. Brazil's broadcasting situation reveals a formidable presence of the state in granting licenses for station operation and regulation. The state is also one of the main advertisers as well as owner and operator of the physical infrastructure for communication. Despite that, the country lives under a virtual monopoly of TV Globo, the fourth largest network in the world and part of a huge privately owned conglomerate. The Globo media group is a powerful actor in the political process, and over the years it has manipulated its television newscasts by distorting, suppressing, and promoting information according to its own interests and those of the class fraction it represents.