Liquid Journalism in Spain

Sammanfattning: Journalism is in a state of flux, so much so that as an industry it is unrecognisable compared to 20 years ago, before digital journalism became common practice. Where the pre-digital era of journalism relied heavily upon newspaper journalism for the dissemination of news, the current digital era of journalism has seen a convergence of media which has had both positive and negative consequences on the industry; production techniques, consumption habits and business models have all experienced change. This current embodiment of journalism is described by Mark Deuze (2006) as “liquid”, referring to the fast-paced radical changes experienced in many areas and as theorised by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman in his work on ‘liquid modernity’ (2000). Using a mixed methods approach of qualitative interviews with journalists and journalism educators, and a quantitative survey of both state and private university undergraduates in Spain, this study analyses how ‘liquid journalism’ is reflected in the Spanish context via the way journalism is taught in universities, practiced by professionals and perceived by future journalists – university undergraduates. Filling a research gap of investigating the attitudes towards entrepreneurial journalism of Journalism students in Spain, and building upon outdated research into Journalism education in Spain, the study provides a unique insight into the changing nature of journalism in the country from distinct perspectives. The study argues that although theory and practice are not necessarily in line, this is not necessarily negative for the future of journalism.