Spanish Journalists and the Loss of News Quality: Professional Judgements

Abstract

This article discusses the opinions of Spanish journalists on the quality of their professional work and how it is being affected by the current economic, technological, commercial and professional context. The results are based on a questionnaire in which 363 Spanish journalists participated, all with a minimum of three years experience. Their answers reflect on the structure and behavior of media companies and current production of news. The article specifically focuses on exposing the journalists’ opinions on the quality of their work. The results show that 81% of the participants state that standards of quality in journalistic production has deteriorated. This deterioration is believed to be connected to the effect of the economic struggles in the sector. They suggested that the principle motives of this decline lie in the lack of economic and political independence, a lack of private investment and in the problems caused by technological changes. These situations all fall into the context of a precarious labor market within the sector. The article also links the results with academic works that have analyzed the quality of journalism over recent years. It offers, for the first time in the Spanish academic context, the Spanish journalists’ own point of view on these issues..