Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

Journalistic Information: from mediation to mediatization

Abstract

This paper proposes a reflection on the journalistic information, pondering its features and functions in the contemporary context. We start from a conceptual discussion of journalistic information, analyzing its interfaces with the Advertising in the media space. Using Ferrara to discuss spatiality and communicability and Muniz Sodré and Bragança de Miranda to reflect on the aesthetics of culture, besides defining the print media as corpus, we seek to present the forms of the word as an instrument and the characteristics of sensitive condition of the subject in this process.

Keywords:
Journalistic information; Spatiality; Culture; Aesthetics; Mediatization

Resumo

Este artigo propõe a reflexão sobre o jornal impresso com base em pesquisa empírica, ponderando sobre suas características e funções no contexto contemporâneo. Partimos de discussão conceitual sobre a informação jornalística, analisando suas interfaces com a Publicidade na espacialidade midiática. Pautados por Ferrara, na discussão sobre espacialidade e comunicabilidade, e Muniz Sodré e Bragança de Miranda, para refletir sobre a estetização da cultura, delimitando a Mídia impressa como corpus, visamos apresentar as formas de tecnização da palavra e as características da condição sensível do sujeito neste processo de midiatização da informação jornalística.

Palavras chave:
Informação jornalística; Espacialidade; Publicidade; Estetização; Midiatização

Resumen

Este artículo propone la reflexión sobre el periódico con base en la investigación empírica, ponderando sobre sus características y funciones en el contexto contemporáneo. Partimos de la discusión conceptual sobre la información periodística, analizando sus interfaces con la Publicidad en la espacialidad mediática. Pautados por Ferrara, en la discusión sobre espacialidad y comunicabilidad, y Muniz Sodré y Bragança de Miranda, para reflexionar sobre la estilización de la cultura, delimitando la prensa como corpus de la discusión, buscamos presentar las formas de mecanización de la palabra y las características de la condición sensible del sujeto en este proceso de mediatización de la información periodística.

Palabras clave:
Información periodística; Espacialidad; Publicidad; Estilización; Mediatización

Introduction

Considering that nowadays there is a centrality of the media in the processes of sociability and in the political debates we aim, on the one hand, understand the new cultural dynamics and, on the other hand, analyze the impact on social relations of this building process of media representations. In this analytical scope, we proposed in 2013 a post-doctoral project research1 1 We have developed a reflection on the print media, giving priority to the analysis of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, since 2010 and we have published articles discussing the understanding of the public sphere, the conception of power and urban space, forms of representation of different social subjects, among other considerations. In 2013 we submitted a comparative research between Brazil and Spain, proposing the analysis of two newspapers - Folha de S.Paulo and El País - on the ways of representation of the excluded subject in the economic context of neoliberal influence, with distinct State organization aiming to analyze the impact and role of cultural practices in the processes of media representations. This research was approved by FAPESP and developed jointly with Facultad de Ciencias de la Informaciónde la Universidad Complutense de Madrid - research completed and approved in September 2014. , in a comparative perspective (Brazil-Spain) in order to reflect on the role of culture in the processes of media representations in countries with economic dynamics of neoliberal profile. Starting from the Spanish economic crisis intensified in 2009, we tried to analyze the clashes between entrenched cultural practices versus economic logic of hegemonic character, considering the mediation of States with their own dynamics, in media representations of excluded subjects due to the crisis/ economic structure in Spain called 'desahusiados' and in Brazil, the equivalent of these, which are the housing needy, specifically for this project - the slum dweller or 'squatters'2 2 We will not analyze here the terminology used because it is not the focus of our reflection in this article. .

This article is a small piece of that research, focusing on exclusive analysis of the characteristics of media support in Brazilian context. Thus we propose specifically the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, considering the section Cotidiano in full, in the period between June and November 2009 - this period is related to an important moment for the subjects analyzed in both countries. In the original research, which this article is part from, we start searching articles about the excluded subject - 'squatters' -, formalizing this mapping on tables containing the date of publication, the topics covered, the size of the article and its place in the layout page, creating a link between quantitative and qualitative research, through discourse analysis. Gradually we realized the importance of the characteristics of the support in the constitution of its contents and we started analyzing also the layout of the section components, as a form of constitution of the discourse. Thus, based on the reflection of Chartier "... it is crucial to remember that no text exists outside support which gives it more comprehensible; any understanding of a text, no matter what kind, depends on the ways in which it reaches the reader" (CHARTIER, 2001CHARTIER, Roger. Textos, impressão, leituras. In: HUNT, Lynn (Org.). A nova história cultural. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2001. p.211- p.238., p.220), we proceeded to two possibilities: the analysis of the characteristics of the support and content analysis of the articles, considering the composition of both structures in the newspaper discourse. The theoretical perspective underlying the discourse analysis of all the research is the analysis proposed by Foucault, which little will be expressed on this article, as we have chosen here to address aspects of analysis of the support for a wider comprehension of the constituted discourse. Therefore, we prioritized the authors listed in the summary for providing us a reflection on the strategies of spatiality and communicability that are specific to them, enabling us to reflect on the characteristics and consequences of the recurrent mediatization process.

We bring as central hypothesis for this article the understanding that the support organization is an essential aspect in setting up a particular discourse, specific of the mediatization logic of our own society, based on the culture of anesthetization, favoring, on the one hand, the configuration of a fluid and dispersed representation, and, on the other hand, precisely because of the first aspect, unconditionally affecting the sensitive condition of contemporary subject, in this case, the Brazilian reader3 3 The comparative research between Brazil and Spain confirms the proposition of our research, demonstrating how cultural differences profoundly affect the media representation and the specific comparison of the two supports has shown the profound distinctions present in them, indicating a mediatization logic very inceptive in the Spanish newspaper. . Because of that, when thinking about the newspaper layout, we could not avoid the analysis of the role of Advertising in the newspaper body, realizing that it becomes a central element in the constitution of discourse and thus in the mediatization format constituted; hence the emphasis on the relationship Journalism-Advertising present in this article.

Journalistic information and knowledge

Many authors have been discussing the conceptual meaning of terms such as information and news, journalistic information and knowledge, and their imbrications (TRAQUINA; MEDISTCH; ROMANO; FRANÇA). So we start this debate without the intention of developing that in this article but we start to ponder it from a case study. We begin from the etymological sense of the term information:

El sustantivo informatiose deriva del verbo informare, que, como puede verse fácilmente, se compone de "in" y "forma", esto es, formar en, dar forma a algo. de ahí que los significados de "informar" sean: formar, configurar, dar forma a la materia, esculpir, dibujar una imagen, presentar, describir, enseñar, educar, capacitar a alguien para algo.

Así que "información" significa nada más y nada menos que "formación", "configuración", "educación", tanto en sentido literal como figurado. En sentido literal significa proveer a algo de forma, y en sentido figurado a lo que hoy denominamos con las palabras formación o educación.

En este último sentido entendemos "Información" como proceso de formación y educación a través de las instrucciones y enseñanzas recibidas y como resultado de ese proceso (ROMANO, 1993ROMANO, Vicente. La formación de la mentalidade sumisa. Madrid: Ediciones Endymion, 1993. Disponível em: www.rebelion.org/docs/121965.pdf. Acesso em: 15 jan. 2015.
www.rebelion.org/docs/121965.pdf...
, p.30).

It is worth noting that, in roman's words, the information establishes a continuous correlation between what the author called in the literal sense "to give form to something" as a description, concretion, image drawing, and at the same time, figuratively, as training and education, to empower someone to something. Thereby we see that the information has a constitution of its own, but it is in correlation with someone, hence its schooling sense and educational process training of the subject. This definition approaches the understanding of Paulo Freire, presented by Meditsch"...when any information is communicated from one person to another successfully, this implies that it was not just transferred, as it would be from a floppy disk to a computer, but that was re-cognized by the person who received it" (Meditsch, 1997MEDITISCH, Eduardo. O Jornalismo é uma forma de Conhecimento? revistas. univerciencia.org, 1997, disponível em www.bocc.ubi.pt.
www.bocc.ubi.pt...
, p.5). By pondering this second aspect, taking the information as empowerment, we agree with Meditsch by proposing that journalistic information is knowledge; we consider that all appropriation is an individual intellectual development process. reflecting on these questions we asked ourselves about the characteristics of journalistic information today, and about the conditions of journalistic knowledge production because, again agreeing with the author, the characteristics and understandings of knowledge are historically established. This proposal stems from the finding of a modus operandi in the organizing of the section Cotidiano that belongs to the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper and was fully observed over six months. Notice in the example below:

Picture 1
'Caderno Cotidiano', Cover, 06/06/2009

We used the cover as an example because we assume that it has an essential importance in demarcation of the newspaper interest of highlights and we have noticed that this cover of the section Cotidiano contains only the headline of a story that will be developed within it: "Worsening the quality of groundwater in São Paulo", accompanied by a photograph on the top right of the page. We quickly notice the disproportionate distribution of space between the journalistic information and the Advertising. If we consider only the case itself, we would say that is no surprise, because the printed newspapers of general circulation survive today selling Advertising space, a fact present in all media. In our view, however, this example raises some important issues and indicates characteristics of our time and that we would like to problematize.

We start from the observation of the newspaper layout, considering the information space and the space of Advertising as interconnecting spaces, playing significant role in the construction of knowledge (FERRARA, 2007FERRARA, Lucrécia D'Alessio (org). Espaços comunicantes. São Paulo: Annablume, 2007.). As the author stands "spatiality, visuality and communicability are three categories of space as phenomenon and experience of the world and they manifest themselves differently, as the spatiality as a proportion, construction or reproduction" (FERRARA, 2007FERRARA, Lucrécia D'Alessio (org). Espaços comunicantes. São Paulo: Annablume, 2007., p.13) and it is from this perspective that we want to address the construction of information, in relation to the presence of Advertising and the whole of newspaper layout. We understand that the traces of this spatiality highlight the important role of the dynamics of the construction, opposed to the stability of symmetric and uniform proportion and bear the mark of reproduction, intensifying the association between spatiality and visuality in the characterization of space and altering the conditions of communicability. That is, the experience constituted from newspaper space imbricates irreversibly spatiality, especially in its process of construction and visuality reinforced by the impact of the reproduction, creating its own logic of communicability, a way of reading the world, favoring the construction of a specific knowledge, historically given. For this reflection, as we have already pointed out, we assume the premise proposed by the same author that spatiality is a constituent part of the "ideological communication culture", i.e., the articulation spatiality/visuality is a communicating component and the communication is discourse and reflects characteristics of a culture.

The composition Information-Advertising in the analyzed section is continuous, which marks a strategy that is economic, political and cultural. Considering the characteristics of this spatiality, already constituted as reproduction, we accentuate the description of its construction, in a compositional proportion. Initially we realized four forms of distribution of the newspaper page space, considering the cover of the section Cotidiano, for example:

Picture 2
Covers of the 'Caderno Cotidiano' on the dates above mentioned

As it can be seen the SA abbreviation refers to a small Advertising piece occupying half of 1/3page; hP, the Advertising piece occupying 1/2 a page; FP is the piece that takes full page, portraying either a text column or just the headline of the article that will be discussed within the section. We also propose what we call "almost FP", as it uses two columns of text, with Advertising vertically, as shown above. Besides we have the WA, without Advertising piece, which prevailed in situations where the article was about some tragedy. during the research period there were two tragedies: the French plane that crashed in the Atlantic in June 2009 and the h1N1 flu. observe, now, their constancy. The first column presents the months analyzed in this project and in the other columns the amount of Advertising per month in different formats. Look at the tab:

2009 SA HP FP AlmostFP WA June 4 11 13 - 2 July 1 9 15 3 3 August 7 6 15 2 1 September 4 8 16 1 1 October 4 5 22 - - November 5 9 17 2 -

It is possible to note that there is a regularity of the sum of Advertising SA and hP and the entire FP Advertising, and, except for the month of June, the covers with FP prevailed and occupied more than half of the month, which we understand that constituted a pattern of use of the covers of the section Cotidiano. If the sale of Advertising in print media is measured by the size of the used space, we found the prevalence of it in relation to journalistic information on the covers the section Cotidiano. We understand that the newspaper needs the publicity for its own maintenance; however, we understand that this format indicates a change in the meaning of its core product, the journalistic information.

The first observation already indicates a disparity in the distribution of the space, considering the proportionality at that time because in at least half of the month the cover prioritizes the Advertising instead of the information. In addition, we must consider the proportionality of the valued space of the page, as "...the odd page is more expensive than even page and the page center is more expensive than the footer, among other hierarchies" (ZILOCCHI, 2007ZILOCCHI, Ana Maria D. Espaço: entre a notícia e a informação In: FERRARA, Lucrécia D'Alessio (Org). Espaços Comunicantes. São Paulo: Annablume, 2007. p.72-85., p.78). This occupation does not stop just to cover, and continuing its presence inside the section in different proportions as indicated below. These examples also call the attention to other aspects related to the construction of spatiality/ visuality in the composition of different signs, as the continued use of color, text breaks with infographics, charts, maps, graphs and photos, structuring a mosaic of small articles:

Picture 3
'Caderno Cotidiano', June 2009

It seems that the journalistic information, initially the central Journalism product, competes at a disadvantage with Advertising, observing its spatiality, and favors a non-linear reading, much more fluid, because sprayed by different elements. Pondering on these aspects, we must consider studies that resize the characteristics of journalistic information, where Advertising is understood as 'news and information'. This statements grounded in Marshall McLuhan to propose the notion of mosaic, understanding that "the newspaper cuts community events and makes them available as a mass of discontinuous and disconnected topics [...] that welcomes the inclusion of many tribes and the diversity of particular views" (McLuhan apudZILOCCHI, 2007ZILOCCHI, Ana Maria D. Espaço: entre a notícia e a informação In: FERRARA, Lucrécia D'Alessio (Org). Espaços Comunicantes. São Paulo: Annablume, 2007. p.72-85., p.77). In this perspective, both respond to the specific characteristics of this liquidity environment: fluidity, fragmentation or flexibility and strengthening the sensory, seeking signs of impact, which can be verbal or visual, making both publicity and the journalistic information impactful products. We noticed inFigure 3these features present in the organization of internal pages of the section Cotidiano: the articles are interrupted by Advertising in varied and visually heavy layout. To this is added the link between information and Advertising as news:

So reading this image mosaic means reading hierarchies of sizes and proportions, centralization, dialogues and conflicts between text and images. It also means reading manifestations of time and space that reveal aspects of local and global culture (ZILOCCHI, 2007ZILOCCHI, Ana Maria D. Espaço: entre a notícia e a informação In: FERRARA, Lucrécia D'Alessio (Org). Espaços Comunicantes. São Paulo: Annablume, 2007. p.72-85., p.78).

In the highlighted passage we note the importance of Advertising in the articulation of aspects, experiences and global perspectives in counterpoint or in composition with the journalistic article of the section Cotidiano, which portrays essentially local characteristics. observe the figure below (fig. 4).

Picture 4
'Caderno Cotidiano', 09/06/2009

The cover of this issue enunciates an article "After confrontation, heliopolis calls for better treatment", whose title highlights a desire for social condition and an Advertising piece that clearly exposes this desire in a housing project. We have the spatiality and its visuality marked by the preponderance of an Advertising piece and the articulation between the title of the article and the Advertising image ensuring the visuality of social projects. In this case, the 'better treatment' presented in the headline is associated with two images that refer to what is meant by quality of life; they are two images of living, opposing and somehow they are two distinct products within the cover layout, but dialogue articulated demonstrates, firstly, market strategy conducting the social perspectives, indicating that within the capitalist logic, an enclosed place, happiness is done with money and with the ability to consume these material and symbolic products, including the vision of social subjects the objects of desire and setting 'a domain of the places by sight'. At the same time, as indicated, the news has a relevant theme to the contemporary, the well-being idea. Therefore, the community asks for better treatment and the market offers the intimacy of the home in relation to nature. At this point we ask ourselves, once again, then, about the meaning of journalistic information. We have seen so far, the approach of the Advertising and the article to the news, structuring the concern about the impact and the movement. In this process, they become cultural and consumption products. And with it, we return to the question about the prospect of knowledge placed from the reflection on the reading procedures. Thus, we begin to discuss the communicative dimension of these spatialities.

Communicability and technical instrumentalization

We propose now to reflect on the conditions of communicability, understanding that we must articulate the characteristics of what is reported in dialogue with the communication process. We have seen so far a new structuring of journalistic content, re-dimensioning what is news, incorporating Advertising in its scope and proposing a reading process in mosaic. The condition of the support has changed its mediating function as well. In dialogue with Muniz Sodré, we understand that it happens to be configured no longer as a mediation process, but as mediatization processes:

What sustains is the tendency to replace the objectivist discourse, argumentative and rationalist, compatible with the classic press, for the emotionalist narrativity (as chaos) of mediatization, which means changing the reasoned opinion by the aesthetical perception of performance (SODRÉ, 2011SODRÉ, Muniz. Antropológica do espelho. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2011., p.41).

Let's think about the mediatization by parts. As discussed by the author, the mediatization presupposes in its visible structure, the techno-interaction, which holds the incorporation of technologies in the access to information, enabling what Fausto Neto calls the circulation,"...a place where producers and receivers meet in complex games of offer and recognition" (Neto apudBRAGA, 2012BRAGA, José Luiz. Circuitos versus campos sociais. In: MATTOS, Ma. A.; JEDER JUNIOR, J.; JACKS, Nilda. Mediação e midiatização. Salvador: Edufba, 2012. p.31-52., p.39). This is visible in the proliferation of post-mass media, as well as in the changes processed in the print media itself, which started, at the same time, to provide its contents in digital format. It is also visible in the technical implementation of the information, that is, the way it is processed and read - this aspect has already been discussed and highlighted by Sodré to indicate, as the central transformation, the passage from linear reading to mosaic reading: a fluid and multiple way of reading and appropriation. This logic, however, also carries a mode of perception, characterizing what the author called the 'objectivist discourse, argumentative and rationalist[...] for the emotionalist narrativity, as chaos'. This passage indicates changes in the discursive strategies used in the production of the edition, as well as in the reading procedure. We must remember that the mosaic structure, which highlights the news notion and incorporates Advertising, responds clearly to the market logic.

Here begins, according to the author, what mediatization does not show. This is based on the perception in opposition to the traditional logic of mediation, grounded on the argumentative rationality. By prioritizing the sensory it is necessary to motivate it, creating then, in case of print media, the subject of this article: the continuing concern about the proportionality/constructability of news and the care of its semiotic composition. As also discussed by this logic, the reading occurs in mosaic because there the perception does not require linearity but, motivation and constancy; to Sodré, here it is constituted what he calls the evidential logic as opposed to symbolic logic. The latter privileges the social values and, in the index, it is ensured the possibility of relation to reality, constituted in a fragmented and scattered way, hence the idea of 'index and chaos'. By passing from symbolic logic to evidential logic there is the realization that society has lost its symbolic values and consequently the mediating institutions of this process. This brings embedded the fact that these institutions (family, school, church, political institutions etc.) have lost the capacity of signification of the world which, in other words, means that they have lost their ethical foundation, their range of structuring values. We will return to this aspect when deepen the discussion on the sensitive condition.

Thus, the senses must be continuously mobilized to create sensations, and the mobilization is done by the continuous sharpening of these same senses, exploiting colors, proportions, unusual layout and excesses. Considering specifically the verbal text, it is possible to note the strategies built both in the correlation of the headlines with images and texts, as in exploring the emotional narrative. If the sensory needs continuous mobilization, visual sense in this mobilization process proceeds decoding the information, seeking initially recognizable aspects. This is interesting because we identified in the newspaper a type of Advertising strategy that explores not the strangeness, but precisely the accommodation. observe the figure 5 below. It features three covers of Cotidiano section, virtually consecutive editions. And, in our view, they constitute, along with the layout of newspaper space, part of its strategies. We understand here, as strategies, not only the relationship with market interests, this aspect is obvious, but also the technical instrumentalization of spaces that would originally be of rational construction of knowledge. As indicated by Miranda "This is mainly due to the inability to realize the new role of technique that is no longer a simple rational instrument, a means, to increasingly affect the constitution of contemporary experience" (MIRANDA, 2002MIRANDA, José A. Bragança. Teoria da cultura. Lisboa: Edições Século XXI, 2002., p.8).

Picture 5
Covers of the 'Caderno Cotidiano', on the dates above mentioned

To this, the same author calls aestheticization4 4 In the original text the word 'esteticização' was taken from Bragança de Miranda, whose spelling [originally] is the Portuguese of Portugal. In the text it appeared as 'estetização' in Brazilian version, as used by Muniz Sodré. In English this article adopts the word 'aestheticization'. of experience, reminding us that Benjamin was the first to realize the technical instrumentalization of the world, initially occurred within the arts, and today many authors (Miranda, Marcuse, Sodré, and others) discuss the instrumentalization of experience, occupying all areas of sensitive condition. For the definition of condition, resumes Haroche:

It means a way of being, a situation of something, and also a way of life and, by extension, distinction, ideal and obligation that is required and that it is whether accepted or not. From a more structural and abstract point of view, it is what is expressed by the ways in which processes may last and change over time, they are updated not only internally, that is they internalize on people, but also externally, i.e. in social life (HAROCHE, 2008HAROCHE, Claudine. A condição sensível. Rio de Janeiro: Contra Capa, 2008., cover).

In the context of audiovisual media this process is readily apparent as it explores the different senses, and, in the prevalence of non-verbal texts, the predominance of the image. We propose, however, to ponder on this process in print media, primarily composed of verbal text. We understand that the print media also proceeds in the same way, through its own support, because in the end what we find is that the sensory is also exercised for one type of procedure and this because, as Miranda shows, the word is also dominated by the technique:

It passes through the hiding and immateriality of technique, but also for its complete immersion in history and bodies, as shown by biotechnology, implantation, prosthetics, genetic engineering. The border between bios and techné is called into question, with which it reaches an extreme situation. The word that used to characterize the human as a rational animal (Aristotle) cannot avoid of being injured from this merger of biological and technological (MIRANDA, 2002MIRANDA, José A. Bragança. Teoria da cultura. Lisboa: Edições Século XXI, 2002., p.110).

We aim to identify in this article some logic that explains the predominance of technique, with the clear idea we have not addressed all aspects, which would lead us to the varied textual and thematic articulations. In the case of Figure 5, we saw the procedure of accommodation of the eye, because we immediately recognize the image and its signification. This, on the one hand, reinforces the message, highlighting the economic function of Advertising and, on the other hand, it exercises the distraction as sensory procedure, because it is known and repeated.Benjamin (1985)BENJAMIN, Walter. Obras escolhidas I- magia e técnica, arte e política. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1985.had already proposed this discussion when elaborated the concept of 'tactile reception', showing how the new arts, cinema and photography exerted perceptual distraction, conducted by the media. We see below, this reinforced logic, exploring now the stimulus of the verbal text:

Picture 6
Coverso f the 'Caderno Cotidiano', on the dates above mentioned

In the latter case, not only the product of Advertising piece is the same, as well as the text itself is repeated as it is started the same way:'residents burn...'. What does this instrumental cause in everyday reading of the newspaper? or asking otherwise, what does the tactile reception provoke into the communicability process? or, resuming Sodré, which effectively is not visible in mediatized communication process?

Conclusions

Based onBaitello (2005)BAITELLO JR, Norval. A era da iconofagia. São Paulo: Hacker, 2005., we can identify a continuous process of lack of communication generated by the excess of signs, by the dispersion of the composition, by the repetition of the verbal, confusing or dispersing the reader, the central aspect of the lack of communication. At the same time, the images in the page layout are empty images, as well as the images created by the newspaper reading, both are limited and, therefore, are unable to feed the imaginary and consequently provoke the imagination. To Baitello, if the information does not generate communication, it is not able to bind and if it does not bind, it just connects, it does not actualize the communication itself.

Arendt (2000)ARENDT, H. A condição humana. 10.ed. Rio de Janeiro: Forense Universitária, 2000.would say that this is the clear process of emptying the human condition, because to the philosopher this condition is effective on the preponderance of the ACTIoN, a concept linked to the practice of the word in its argumentative rationality.Miranda (2002)MIRANDA, José A. Bragança. Teoria da cultura. Lisboa: Edições Século XXI, 2002., approaching Arendt, despite following different paths, says "If so, this maze is the labyrinth of the word, there is no other. But if the word fades, the problem is complicated. And how does it relate unethical or politics to the failure of the word?" (MIRANDA, 2002MIRANDA, José A. Bragança. Teoria da cultura. Lisboa: Edições Século XXI, 2002., p.43). It is interesting to notice the relationship that the author creates between word and ethics. We have seen Muniz Sodré in the same reflection, understanding that it is set a 4thBio5 5 For a discussion of the 4thBio, Muniz Sodré resumes Aristotle. This philosopher believed that the man could relate to the world through three ways or Bios -'contemplative life',from the philosophers; 'political life' from citizens; and, finally, 'the life of the body', translated by Arendt as the life of labor, i.e., the one guided by the need. Sodré understands that it is set now another way of relating to the world, or a 4thBios, that would be the 'sphere of business' which happens to articulate the cultural experience to the market logic, independent of values to sustain it. , guided by media ethos and it is precisely here that we can understand what the author designated as not visible strategies for the maintenance of a hegemonic logic.

The word ethos, and the different ways as it was written in Greek, echoes the sense of living, with all the extensions and connections of that idea. It designates both the dwelling and its conditions; the standards and practical acts that man kind repeatedly performs and due to that they get used to it, taking shelter in a specific space. hence it also assigns character and, by derivation, in Aristotelian rhetoric, the moral image that he used to discursively build to the public (SODRÉ, 2011SODRÉ, Muniz. Antropológica do espelho. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2011., p.45).

The ethos expresses a way of being, indicating forms of sociability. If we resume Eunice durham (apudARANTES, 1984ARANTES, Antonio. Produzindo o passado: estratégias de construção do patrimônio Cultural. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1984.), we see that one of the central aspects of culture is the cultural practice or the customs. These, in our point of view, relate to the sensitive condition and consequently to the memory (this is a central theme, but not detailed in this article), both fundamental for the constitution of social practices. The crisis of the word is the crisis of the 'action', that is, of the human condition, to Arendt, as already indicated because it is the crisis of the logos, of the capacity for reflection and knowledge construction. To Muniz, it is set up the 'mediatized ethos'"progressively built by the varied dimensions of entertainment or aesthetic, in a broad sense, whose resources come from the social imaginary, from the sensory ethos and from the private subjectivism" (SODRÉ, 2011SODRÉ, Muniz. Antropológica do espelho. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2011., p.40). This ethos, guided by the 'media aesthesia' follows the same logic of consumption, emptying an ethical character, now centered on hedonism, which is individual. references and collective values were lost and, instead, it is valued the individuals in their desires and individual readings. We have seen that the newspaper then provides information as news, incorporating article and Advertising, where in the latter continuously reinforces the hedonism. We have also seen that the senses are sharpened, in an exercise of a reading that is fragmented, scattered, and chaotic.

The reflection proposed in this paper does not end the theoretical and conceptual debate evoked in the beginning, due to the complexity of the topic and to the possibilities of approaches. our aim was to ponder on the journalistic text in the contemporary context, from perspectives delimited by our proposition. Thus we understand that we live in a new cultural logic, considering that the characteristics of contemporary culture underwent profound changes in their paradigms. The printed newspaper is a product of the 16thcentury and played an important role in the settling of bourgeois sociability, in the 18thcentury, so well analyzed by habermas. In this context the newspaper was the media by the word, the construction of cultural references (material and symbolic of the bourgeoisie), ensuring a rich binding process through communication. In that context the printed newspaper was mediator and was guided by values. We aimed to observe the role of the newspaper today, in this new cultural context, pondering over its ability of communication, of binding and of building knowledge. Thus, throughout our project, which goes beyond the scope of this article, we demonstrate that the newspaper discourse is univocal, resuming the idea of hegemonic perspective, proposed by Sodré and presented here, despite the spreading of different sections, themes and profiles of journalistic texts. We also conclude that the social classification, expressed in the forms of representation of different social strata responds to the same logic. In the scope of this article, we realized that the configuration of journalistic information goes to the same results. In this sense, presenting the general understanding of what the information is and its relationship with the market, we realized the process of building the lack of communication by confusing, exceeding, fragmenting, repeating; after or at the same time, the aestheticization of experience, affecting likewise the sense of knowledge and the sensitive condition. According to Haroche:

The conditions of appropriation and transmission of knowledge in contemporary societies are deeply disturbed: the growing mass of continuous information in contemporary societies, concomitantly with a reflectivity and a permanent fluidity, contributes to unseen forms of individualism; leads to a fragmentation, to a dispersion, to a disengagement that block, in a certain way, the continuity, the sense of self (Bauman, 2000; Sennett, 1998; Kauffmann, 2003) (HAROCHE, 2005______. Crise da consciência contemporânea e expansão do saber não Cumulativo. Revista Educação e Pesquisa, São Paulo, v.31, p.221-234, 2005., p.350).

On reflection throughout his text, Haroche deepens the idea itself of what it would be knowledge and based on Gauchet (2002) proposes: "it induces a non-cumulative knowledge, narrowly specialized, quickly surpassed and exceeded. It produces a thought loss of intelligibility, a loss of meaning, a specialization without function or reason, an ineligibility" (HAROCHE, 2005______. Crise da consciência contemporânea e expansão do saber não Cumulativo. Revista Educação e Pesquisa, São Paulo, v.31, p.221-234, 2005., p.356). In this sense, returning to the beginning of our text, we can still agree with Meditisch, to understand that journalistic information produces knowledge but, based on Muniz and Haroche, we need to ask ourselves about the characteristics of this knowledge. Finally, we only wish to place this article in the context of its production, because at the time we completed the making of it, we watched the new social confrontations that have begun with the proposal of the 'Free Pass' and we saw the printed media trying to adapt to this new context. We hope that this scenario contributes to new horizons, allowing the breaking of paradigms presented here.

  • 1
    We have developed a reflection on the print media, giving priority to the analysis of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, since 2010 and we have published articles discussing the understanding of the public sphere, the conception of power and urban space, forms of representation of different social subjects, among other considerations. In 2013 we submitted a comparative research between Brazil and Spain, proposing the analysis of two newspapers - Folha de S.Paulo and El País - on the ways of representation of the excluded subject in the economic context of neoliberal influence, with distinct State organization aiming to analyze the impact and role of cultural practices in the processes of media representations. This research was approved by FAPESP and developed jointly with Facultad de Ciencias de la Informaciónde la Universidad Complutense de Madrid - research completed and approved in September 2014.
  • 2
    We will not analyze here the terminology used because it is not the focus of our reflection in this article.
  • 3
    The comparative research between Brazil and Spain confirms the proposition of our research, demonstrating how cultural differences profoundly affect the media representation and the specific comparison of the two supports has shown the profound distinctions present in them, indicating a mediatization logic very inceptive in the Spanish newspaper.
  • 4
    In the original text the word 'esteticização' was taken from Bragança de Miranda, whose spelling [originally] is the Portuguese of Portugal. In the text it appeared as 'estetização' in Brazilian version, as used by Muniz Sodré. In English this article adopts the word 'aestheticization'.
  • 5
    For a discussion of the 4thBio, Muniz Sodré resumes Aristotle. This philosopher believed that the man could relate to the world through three ways or Bios -'contemplative life',from the philosophers; 'political life' from citizens; and, finally, 'the life of the body', translated by Arendt as the life of labor, i.e., the one guided by the need. Sodré understands that it is set now another way of relating to the world, or a 4thBios, that would be the 'sphere of business' which happens to articulate the cultural experience to the market logic, independent of values to sustain it.

Referências

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  • MEDITISCH, Eduardo. O Jornalismo é uma forma de Conhecimento? revistas. univerciencia.org, 1997, disponível em www.bocc.ubi.pt
    » www.bocc.ubi.pt
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    » www.rebelion.org/docs/121965.pdf
  • SODRÉ, Muniz. Antropológica do espelho Petrópolis: Vozes, 2011.
  • ZILOCCHI, Ana Maria D. Espaço: entre a notícia e a informação In: FERRARA, Lucrécia D'Alessio (Org). Espaços Comunicantes São Paulo: Annablume, 2007. p.72-85.
  • Jornal Folha de S.Paulo - Caderno Cotidiano - Junho a novembro de 2009.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    Jul-Dec 2015

History

  • Received
    13 Mar 2015
  • Accepted
    06 July 2015
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