Las universidades como medio para transformar la sociedad y su repercusión en la prensa escrita

Resumen

This thesis starts from the premise that universities� social function is creating and disseminating the knowledge derived from research, as well as to form outstanding men in society, capable of finding, planning and solving problems with no limited horizons. This is complemented when considering that mass media are a viable option to bring knowledge to common citizens, influencing public awareness about information access as a way for development. The study proposed here was done in México, which as a developing country and emerging economy requires the formation of public opinion through intellectuals and academics, by means of publications produced by universities, identifying the way of achieving social transformation and change through scientific journalism. Data collection was focused specifically on two higher education institutions in Chihuahua, México: Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH) and Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ), recording the actions taken by their researchers regarding their current practices related to scientific journalism. The objective of the research was to determine the causes which promote or inhibit the publication of scientific-academic content in mass media by professors and researchers of public universities in the state of Chihuahua, México. To meet such objective, the characteristics of the scientific-academic production developed specifically by professors recognized as members of the SNI (National Researchers System) in Mexico attached to the institutions mentioned above were analyzed, identifying the forms of divulgation of the knowledge they generated. For such effect, the study observes the researchers� role in press and the influence of mass media in their academic and divulgation activities, also Internal and external factors are analyzed that play a role in the communication of the science produced through the participation with newspapers, in particular the two most important in the state of Chihuahua (El Diario de Ciudad Juárez and El Heraldo de Chihuahua). The research work is methodologically based on data collection from the CONACYT (Mexico�s National Science and Technology Council) database, to identify university researchers, then select a representative sample and apply a questionnaire. A deep interview technique was also applied to the participant university and newspaper directors.