O homem atrás da máquina: um estudo de caso sobre a reconstrução da identidade do jornalista de impresso diante do uso das novas mídias

Abstract

Our research investigated in which way newspaper’s journalists identity is influenced by the use of new media on their jobs at the newsroom. For this, we evaluated how the use of smartphone as work tools triggered conflicts and tensions among reporters from Diário do Nordeste who started questioning their own identity as newspaper’s journalists. The choice of Diário as the object of this analysis can be explained by the fact that the newspaper ¬– the second in circulation in the northeast of Brazil – is one of the first in the local scenario to implement journalistic convergence strategies. We adopted as the delimitation of the research the case study of what Diário do Nordeste identifies as multimedia practice. Using data collection techniques, as the empirical observation and depth interviews, was possible to comprehend how the production of multimedia content generated the construction of a whole new habitus at Diário’s newsroom, marked by the development of journalist’s new cognitive competences. We also investigated how the transformations descendant from multimediatic production influenced the relation of force and power in the newsroom. Starting from the hypothesis that the journalists which defines themselves as multimedia are in dominance, we initiated the analysis of conflicts and tensions established on the daily routine of these professionals. From theorical point of view, we discussed identity concept, modernity consequences, we also did a communication theories revision and of its relations with discussion about the presence of technology in contemporaneity and yet reflected about mediatic and journalistic convergence, using the ideas from authors like Henry Jenkins (2008), Salaverría e Negredo (2008), Esther Applegren (2005) and Rosely Fragoso (2006). In the end, we presented how Diário do Nordeste’s journalists define themselves, if as newspapers journalists or multimedia ones and reflected about the new professional shape designed on labour market, marked by the knowledge, practice and paginal functions and on-line journalism related functions convergence.