Situation of journalism in Venezuela: from the quantitative to the qualitative approach

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore information on the situation of journalists and the media (internal context), self-censorship and the technical and economic precariousness of both actors (internal context) and, finally, the processes of verification, self-regulation and self-censorship, as well as the usefulness of information for citizens (journalistic production). Three focus groups were chosen: a) directors of public and private schools of social communication, b) managers of digital and traditional media, and c) union and trade union leaders. In-depth interviews were also conducted with journalists. The actors recognized the precariousness with which journalism is exercised, the effort of media and journalists to report what is happening in the country, they bet on journalism in Venezuela, stated that they have a role to play and proposed articulating actions for the strengthening of this action consubstantial to democracy (Kovach and Rosentiel, 2012; Pellegrini, 2012). Methodological complementarity (Bonilla-Castro and Rodríguez, 2005; Chaves-Montero, 2018) was based on the need to understand the framework of journalism action (Bisbal, 2015a and 2015b; Bisbal and Cañizález, 2018) and to enhance communicative power. This complementarity favored, on the one hand, the information and sensitization of the participants in focus groups based on data based on the objectivity of procedures, and, on the other hand, the self-recognition of the actors of their leadership and advocacy capacity to promote the necessary changes in the practice of journalism.