Page 52 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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Concepts and Models

other ways fit the concept of professionalization most closely – than
those of less prestigious ones. Journalists in Spain, meanwhile, are much
more likely to have journalism degrees than those in Germany, but
this clearly does not mean that Spanish journalism is characterized
by a higher level of professionalization than German journalism. Be-
cause formal training is unnecessary, moreover, entry to the profession
of journalism is not formally regulated. Ironically, the only exception
in Western Europe or North America is Italy, where membership in
the Order of Journalists is based on an examination and is manda-
tory for practice of the profession. By other criteria, however – as we
shall see subsequently – Italian journalism has a particularly low level of
professionalization.
The focus of this section is specifically on journalistic professionalism.
It is most often in relation to journalism rather than to other media-
related occupations that the issue of professionalization is raised. How-
ever, it should be noted that similar questions can be raised about other
kinds of media professionals. In public broadcasting systems, particu-
larly, where all broadcast programming has been seen in some sense as a
public service, it is quite relevant to raise similar issues about the degree
of professional autonomy of television producers.
DIMENSIONS OF PROFESSIONALIZATION. As much as it departs from the
ideal type of the liberal professions, journalism has come to share im-
portant characteristics with them, and it can be very useful to compare
media systems in terms of the degree and form of professionalization
of journalism. We will focus primarily on three fairly closely related
dimensions of professionalization.
(1) Autonomy. Autonomy has always been a central part of the defini-
tion of professionalism. This is one of the key reasons why many
occupations try to “professionalize” themselves, to justify greater
control over their work process. The classic case is medicine: even if
bureaucratization has limited the autonomy doctors enjoyed in the
era when virtually all (at least in the classic U.S. and British cases)
3
were “free” professionals, there is still a strong presumption that
certain kinds of decisions can only be made by medical profession-
als, and that outside interference is inappropriate. Journalism has
never achieved a comparable degree of autonomy. The autonomy of
doctors or lawyers, for one thing, is based on the “esoteric” character

3
In continental Europe, some professionals have more typically been civil servants
rather than participants in a market for services (McClelland 1990). But this does not
necessarily mean they were less “professionalized” by the criteria we develop here.

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