Journalists’ training for democracy: the role of non-daily press in Spain (1975-1982)

Abstract

The practice of journalism underwent a profound and continuous renewal in the Spanish non-daily press during the years of the political transition to democracy. This article presents the interpretations of these changes based on the vision of the professionals who produced the editorial projects. The results have been obtained from the focus group discussion methodology applied to active communication professionals in non-daily publications of the time (1975-1982). The discussion groups allow us to conclude that the training, often self-taught, of professionals influenced the deontological considerations that the indistinction between journalist and militant supposes, characteristic of the period of dictatorship and political change. As a consequence of this style of journalism, the non-daily press disputes the hegemony of the movement's media in the formation of public opinion. However, according to these testimonies, most of the non-daily editorial projects with political objectives did not survive the arrival of a professionalizing daily press after 1976, mainly carried out by professionals trained in schools of journalism and universities.