Journalistic transparency in Latin America: Analysis of scientific journals ranked in SJR

Abstract

Objectives: Identify the presence, conceptualization, and debates about transparency in journalism in articles published in the region's top-ranked scientific journals, according to the SCImago Journal Rank index. 

Materials and Methods: To investigate the presence, conceptualization, and debates surrounding journalistic transparency, we conducted a qualitative content analysis (Bardin, 2011) of research published in Latin American journals. We utilized the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) for the year 2022, an index that measures the impact and influence of scientific publications worldwide, and also identified 18 journals listed in the “communication” category in the Latin American region. We accessed the websites of each journal and selected those that accepted research on journalism within their scope, and thus, our sample was reduced to seven journals: Brazilian Journalism Research, Comunicación y Sociedad, Contratexto, Cuadernos.info, Discursos fotográficos, Palabra Clave, and Revista de Comunicación. Research on journalistic transparency has gained ground, especially since the 2000s (Craft, 2019). Therefore, to have a broader scope and better understand how this topic has been addressed and if there have been changes in its conceptualization or associated themes, we did not restrict a time frame and opted to search through all available editions on the journals' websites, including those available in the first half of 2023. First, we established that the titles, abstracts, and/or keywords of the texts should contain the reference terms “transparency” and/or “journalistic transparency”. Data collection took place between June 1st and 4th, 2023. After inserting the terms into the search fields of each journal, 138 documents were identified across the seven scientific journals. From these documents, a new selection was made to select only those texts that related transparency to the context of a journalistic organization and the practice of its professionals. A careful reading of each work's abstract was necessary. Therefore, 124 articles were eliminated that focused on discussing governmental or private company transparency (non-journalistic), or that addressed journalism's adoption of mechanisms for public agency transparency effectiveness – such as the Access to Information Law (Nº. 12.527/2011) in Brazil. The final sample consists of 14 articles. 

Results: The first paper related to journalistic transparency, among the examined Latin American scientific journals, dates back to 2004. Over 19 years, from the identification of the first publication establishing a connection between transparency and journalistic practice, until 2023, when we verified the most recent paper, only 14 studies addressing the topic have been published. This initial finding indicates that academic production on the subject, in the most prestigious journals in the field of communication in this region, remains limited. Out of the 14 texts, it can only be observed that six (42.8 % of the publications) delve deeper into what is understood by transparency in journalism. Three of the texts are available in Cuadernos.info (Borrat, 2005; Freundt-Thuirne, 2005; Mauri-Rio et al., 2022) — two of which are published in a special edition on the topic of transparency in 2005 —, one in Brazilian Journalism Research (Maia, 2008), one in Comunicación y Sociedad (Ramon-Vegas et al., 2016), and another in Revista de Comunicación (Ramon-Vegas et al., 2020). 

The other articles (Forni, 2004; Jarque-Muñoz & Almiron-Roig, 2008; D’Andréa, 2009; Gonçalves, 2012; Campo-Lozano & Chaparro-Domínguez, 2018; Rodrigues & Seibt, 2020; Antunes & Sebastião, 2020; Moreno-Gil & Salgado, 2023) treat transparency as a value, a practice, or a characteristic of journalism without delving into the complexities or issues that this matter may pose. In these cases, the term serves as an anchor for other topics to gain space in the debate on journalistic practice. The concept of transparency intersects with other themes related to journalism. These are intertwined topics that often overlap. Recognized by various researchers as a value, transparency emerges in works that evaluate ethical codes and discuss professional ethical challenges (Campo-Lozano & Chaparro-Domínguez, 2018; Antunes & Sebastião, 2020). Often placed alongside already established principles of journalism, such as objectivity, it is also mentioned as an intrinsic characteristic of digital journalism (Jarque-Muñoz & Almiron-Roig, 2008; D’Andréa, 2009; Ramon-Vegas et al., 2016). Additionally, transparency is also cited as an essential element for the operation of fact-checking agencies (Rodrigues & Seibt, 2020; Moreno-Gil & Salgado, 2023). The term is also indicated as a tool for media accountability and is associated with journalistic credibility (Ramon-Vegas et al., 2020; Mauri-Rios et al., 2022). Another explored connection is that of transparency and photojournalism (Gonçalves, 2012). 

Conclusions: The results show that there is still room to expand and deepen the issues related to this topic. It should be noted that the scope of this research focuses on scientific journals indexed in the SCImago index, implying that our findings do not cover all studies conducted on this topic in the region. Despite this limitation, it is necessary to consider the relevance of the results obtained, which provide interesting observations for understanding transparency. Only 14 works were identified after searching through all publications made by the journals and available on their websites. We found three articles published between 2004 and 2005, indicating alignment with the movement to broaden research on transparency in journalism from the early 2000s (Craft, 2019). However, a progressive increase in publications on the topic in the following years cannot be confirmed. The reasons may vary, from a research culture focused on other journalism topics to influences derived from movements in journalistic newsrooms in the region. Although most of the analyzed works highlight transparency as an important value for journalism, especially in the digital context, there is no deepening on this topic. Even in papers where the concept of transparency is debated, the call for its use is always emphasized, without contextualization of the underlying logic and dynamics of its adoption. In this context, we emphasize that although it is present in research on various topics such as fact-checking, digital journalism, accountability, and photojournalism, transparency is always seen as synonymous with openness, which constitutes a perspective widely explored in studies on the subject. Despite that, it is crucial to highlight that other approaches have gained ground in addressing transparency (Karlsson, 2021).