Brothers in arms? Portuguese and Brazilian journalistic worlds compared

Abstract

This study aims to gauge if there is a ‘de-territorialized’ Portuguese speaking journalistic community or whether diverse professional self-perceptions prevail amongst Portuguese and Brazilian counterparts. Based upon an extensive and manifold comparative analysis of 200 questionnaires – comprising the ‘journalism cultures’, their trust on social institutions’ and the ‘perceived influences on news work’ - it contrasts the cultural proximity of both countries, alongside a degree of globalization, with their rather dissimilar respective political and media contexts. It concludes that notwithstanding the expected psychological proximity and some signs of convergence between the two countries, the comparative evidence displays considerable differences which are the result of their respective institutional, social and cultural embedding. Thus, those partially different professional cultures prevent the existence of a translocal Portuguese speaking journalistic culture and corroborate the importance the contextual conditions