Midiatização, circulação e jornalismo regional: uma análise dos fluxos comunicacionais e das práticas de atores sociais

Abstract

This study deals with the transformations of journalistic practices in cities that compose the Intermediate Geographic Region of Santa Maria, in the center of Rio Grande do Sul. It consists of mapping the towns and the initiatives of journalism professionals linked to traditional media for the continuous promotion of the circulation of information and the circuits in which new conditions of meaning production are structured. Different studies already observe journalism from the technological, editorial, marketing, and work point of view; however, this research consists of understanding journalism within the interactional processes and discursive dynamics, considering the transformations in journalistic work caused by the insertion of new technologies in the communication process and the changes promoted over the years through restructuring of regional journalism. The question that guides the research is: which practices journalists develop in small towns that refer to changes in their reading contracts, tentative processes, and learning? The general objective is to analyze the journalistic practices of social actors who work in small towns, promoted through communicational flows. As specific objectives, we have: to map, in that region, the performance of journalists, broadcasters or communication professionals. In addition, it is intended to describe the journalistic practices of two social actors who work in Restinga Sêca and Faxinal do Soturno, identifying enunciative marks that point to the updating of reading contracts with their audiences. Such questions are permeated by the context of platforms (VAN DIJCK, 2013) and mediatization of the societies (VERÓN, 1997), in which the relationships become more complex by the emergence of circulation (FAUSTO NETO, 2018; BRAGA, 2017). This is a case study, inspired by the evidence paradigm applied to communication (BRAGA, 2004), from which the practices of journalists Gilberto Ferreira (Faxinal do Soturno) and Norton Avila (Restinga Sêca) were elected for study. The methodology is qualitative with an analytical-descriptive orientation, observing the practices of these professionals in different media, besides conducting interviews with these two social actors. With the analysis, their strategies are observed as foundations for the practices of new dynamics of journalists. Therefore, it is concluded that the continuous promotion of the circulation of information can promote, through communicational flows, the development of new dynamics of journalists' practices in small cities.