The world communication development has been depending on the journalism. Being in Canada, have helped me to understand that even though we all live in the same world, the journalism is different in every country. In this writing I would like to mention some of the differences between Colombian and Canadian journalism.

As is known, Colombia is a country that has been constantly involved with violence, drugs traffic and wars. All of these aspects have affected Colombian's journalism. First studying in Colombia to be a journalist is not as useful as in other countries. There are not many universities that offer this carrier. It happens because for being a journalist in Colombia is not really necessary to study. In fact, most of the best journalists in Colombia have not studied journalism or even have not got any degree at all. Thus, the journalism in Colombia is poor and the Journalists don't have enough skills. Other important fact is that the people think that studying journalism is useless because the mentality there is that any good writer or any person with good voice (in case of radio) is able to be a journalist. Second, the journalism style is not objective at all. The economy of the country is based on two main groups, " GUERRLAS" and " THE WEALTHY SECTOR". Therefore, the owners of T.V news, Radio stations and Newspapers belong to one of these groups. As a result these groups show to the country what is convenient for them. Each T.V news, Radio Station and Newspaper present the news in a different way, depending in what is good for them and what is not. Other big problem is that Journalism is not political correct. Many T.V news and newspapers get money from some of the influent political parties (Liberal and Conservative). Thus, the news are sometimes hidden to the country or at least they sometimes change them just to protect the party that gave them money. Finally, being a journalist in Colombia is very dangerous. One year ago, Colombia was categorized as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for being a journalist because of the high risk of been killed or kidnapped. This happens because if the journalists give their own opinions and the Guerillas or the Drug dealers didn't like what they said, they give the order to kill who ever said what they didn't want to hear. Therefore, those journalists that give their own opinion are in high risk of been killed or many times they have to live the country because of threats made by those terrorist groups.

Canada is a very peaceful country and does not have many things happen to be shown. Because Canada's closest neighbor is U.S.A, and there are too many things happen, the Canadian journalism is focusing a lot in what happen in the states. Nevertheless, studying in Canada is great. Most of the well-known colleges and universities have the journalism degree or program (four years or two). Having theses facilities make the student a very structured person with a wide academic knowledge. When I see I TV news or a read a newspaper is clear that the journalists know what they are talking about. Second the journalism here is objective and does not have influence from the wealthy sector of the country. Even though, the influence is given by U.S.A is clear that the news are shown with objectiveness and they are realistic. The only problem that I can see is that here nothing really happen. This aspect can make the journalism boring and not dynamic. Finally, being a journalist in not dangerous. Because Canada is a very stable country and does not have terrorist groups, journalists can give their own opinion without being scared of loosing their life.

After giving a brief description of Canadian and Colombian journalism, I would like to compare both of them. First is easier to study and to become a journalist in Canada than in Colombia because here are more choices and more facilities. While in Colombia the style is not objective, the journalists are not well prepare and they don't have good skills, in Canada the style has plenty of objectiveness and the journalists seem to be prepared and full of skills. Finally, in Colombia being a journalist is almost the same as wanting to be killed and may be looking for being kidnapped. While in Canada, the journalists don't have those kinds of risks and the government protects them. As a conclusion, I think that being a journalist in Colombia is more exciting that being in Canada because more things are happening down there but is not enough to put the life in risk.

November 19, 2001