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The pre-professional journalistic culture of Ecuador, Cuba and Venezuela is studied based on the perception that students of Social Communication and Journalism have about the professional roles of journalists and their motivations, expectations and professional experiences. For this analysis, a total of 1273 students from 21 universities enrolled in Social Communication and Journalism degrees were surveyed during the first semester of 2016 (Ecuador = 500, Venezuela = 390, Cuba = 383). This sample is statistically representative with a confidence level of 95 per cent and a margin of error of maximum 5 per cent. The results indicate that students in Ecuador, Cuba and Venezuela, despite the disparity and polarization of opinions, consider that the role of 'civic agent/disseminator' is the one that best fits the main functions of journalists and journalism, without forgetting their critical and patriotic feeling in favour of a social change and national development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the pre-professional journalistic culture of Ecuador, Cuba and Venezuela based on the degree of permissiveness held by Journalism students in regard to controversial ethical practices and their views of the media and the journalistic profession. We surveyed a probabilistic sample of 1,273 students from 21 universities enrolled on their first course (Ecuador=500, Venezuela=390, Cuba=383) in 2016. The results show that future journalists are reluctant to accept questionable journalistic practices, and hold a pessimistic view as to the quality and confidence of the media and the profession. We found that the degree of permissiveness is related to the perceived risk-reward analysis in terms of the quality of journalism in Cuba and Ecuador, and that the student perceptions of ethics differ in Venezuela and Ecuador. We conclude that, despite their political similarities in terms of having left-wing Governments, perceptions in the three countries diverge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]