Durante el proceso de transición a la democracia vivida en España en la década de los setenta, la prensa desempeñó un papel clave. En concreto, algunas publicaciones, como el semanario Cambio 16, contó con un protagonismo especial, dados la influencia y el éxito que obtuvo en sus primeros años de andadura editorial. Sin embargo, muy poco se ha investigado sobre los orígenes y primeros años de existencia de esta revista, considerada por los expertos como una publicación fundamental por su aportación al proceso de cambio democrático en España.
Why Journalism Still Matters is a collection of articles that reflects on the value and importance of journalism to western democratic systems. As the book's introduction indicates, these are thoughts that the author, Michael Schudson, has pondered during his long academic career covering fields such as journalism history, media sociology, political communication, and public culture. His voice is polyphonic, as he approaches today's journalism problems from different perspectives (professional, sociological and political), a fact that greatly enriches the ideas he offers us. Michael Schudson is currently Professor of Journalism at the graduate school of journalism at Columbia University, and author of a dozen monographs, among which are The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life (1998), The Sociology of News (2003, 2011) and The Rise of the Right to Know (2015), already reviewed in this journal in Volume 2, Issue 1. The book is composed of 11 chapters (most of them already published as articles) and divided into four parts: 'Where Journalism Came From', 'Going Deeper into Contemporary Journalism', 'Short Takes on Journalism and Democracy' and an Afterward. Right from the introduction Schudson proposes that journalism matters more than ever today. Not all journalism is the same. He argues that the journalism that matters is professional journalism, which he defines, according to Hallin, as that in which reporters are committed more strongly to the norms of the profession than to political ideas (1). In the first part, Schudson makes a historical review of the practice of journalism that was born with the Enlightenment. Journalism is neither eternal nor consubstantial to man: it is born when certain circumstances are present, which are precisely those that make democracy possible. The need for good professional formation for journalists is argued from the starting point of a fictional interview with the 'spirit' of Walter Lippman (1889-1974), a theorist admired by the author. In this first part the author also explains how the development of journalism is linked to its process of professionalization, which began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the emergence of full-time journalists. From 1920 onwards, began what he calls the stage of Objectivity 1.0, when the development of the press allowed it to influence political activity and, simultaneously, to develop propaganda and public relations, trying to influence newspapers. The term 'objective' begins to be used, as the ideal to be achieved by the newspapers, which reaches its maximum brilliance in the 1950s and 1960s. Then, social riots, linked to a culture of protest and mistrust of the ruling classes, gave rise to an investigative, analytical, critical, more aggressive and less conformist journalism. Journalism began to pay more attention to the context than to the facts-precisely in order to understand the facts well-giving rise to objectivity 2.0. According to Schudson we may be entering a phase of objectivity 3.0, which is chara...
is an American neuroeconomist who explores the relationships between the brain and the economy. In particular, he is interested in knowing what physio-neural mechanisms determine or intervene in human and social economic activity. In 2012 he published a surprising essay entitled The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity, whose ideas serve as a starting point for the book we are now discussing: Trust Factor. The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies. Zak defends the thesis that what distinguishes us humans from animals is that we are the only ones who develop moral feelings. As humans we are obsessed with morality, whether we have faith in God or not. Based on this axiom (whose veracity he accepts without the need for proof) he asks himself as a scientist if this 'obsession' has a biological basis. More specifically, he is interested in discovering whether there is a chemistry of morality. His investigations, which results are spread throughout the book that we review, lead him to conclude that there really is, because everything is related to oxytocin, a hormone that is released before pleasant stimulation, such as hugging, caressing, or performing actions that make us feel good. The release of oxytocin into our blood makes us more confident, open and friendly. The conclusion that Zak draws is this: Oxytocin is the substance that moves us to be good people, and not so much specific ideas or beliefs. Moreover, as he has stated on other occasions, the act of praying with confidence to God causes the release of oxytocin in people with faith, which moves them to feel pleasure in prayer and to perform courageous actions of generosity and dedication to others. For this author, we are moral beings because we release oxytocin. And, for the same reason, we are immoral because we lack it. Oxytocin is the substance that makes us simply human (p. 21). If we apply these conclusions to the field of business and economics, we find the thesis that Zak defends in this book: a company is predisposed to success when all employees enjoy good levels of oxytocin. Therefore, executives should encourage good business habits to stimulate oxytocin among their employees, as they will have more confidence, more empathy and more cooperation, the business will be more profitable and the income will increase. Zak, who 'scientifically' supports all these arguments, concludes that in companies with a high level of trust, compared to those with a low level of confidence, their employees are 50% more productive, have 106% more energy, are 76% more involved and are 66% more sociable with other employees (p. 196). In addition, they suffer less stress by 74% and work more happily by 36% (p. 195). These results combined with knowledge of the hormonal processes involved in oxytocin release show that building trust can be truly beneficial, both for managers, employees and companies in terms of productivity and effectiveness. To build trust, Zak proposes eight actions or attitudes that can be encouraged within companies to help emplo...
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