Professionalization of Latin American and U.S. Journalists

In the first of 2 reports, the level of professionalization is compared between Latin American & US journalists. The approach focuses on the self definition aspect of the professionalization process. A professionalization orientation was admin'ed to 60 Latin Amer journalists attending an advanced training program at CIESPAL (Centro Internacional de Estudios Superiores de Periodismo para America Latina) of the seminar participants had sufficient media experience for comparison with 115 previously-studied Milwaukee newsmen. The soc background of the sample of Latin Amer journalists indicates that the majority were young, well-educated & experienced newsmen: the Md age was about 32 yrs, almost 90% had attended a U, slightly more than half had studied journalism, the Md amount of media experience was more than 7 yrs. The general profile is not far diff from what one might find for newsmen in middle-sized newspapers in the US. The central focus is a battery of 24 job characteristics, half of which represent criteria for professionalization, with the other half bearing less relevance. Each R is asked to state, on a 4-point scale, how important each characteristic is to him, first for any job (desired job characteristics) & then for his own job (actual job provision). A measure of job satisfaction can be derived by comparing the level of desire for any job characteristic with its level of actual provision on the job. In general, the Latin Amer & US newsmen showed far greater similarity than dissimilarity in all areas. Not unexpectedly, the Latin Amer journalists showed the greatest gap between their desires & the actual provisions in the areas of salary & job security. In general, the Latin Amer's showed the lowest level in job satisfaction in the non-professional areas whereas the US journalists had less dissatisfaction in these areas. Across most areas, the Latin Amer's were somewhat less satisfied about their jobs. This was largely a function of what journalistic jobs provide rather than what is wanted from a job. AA.