When one cannot stop reporting: journalists’ work process during the Covid-19 pandemic

This is a study with a qualitative approach with the objective of analyzing, based on the theoretical framework of Institutional Socioanalytical Analysis, the journalists’ discourse about their work process during the Covid-19 pandemic. From the projective interview with ten journalists, it was pointed out that the fear of infection by Covid-19, the decrease in wages, and violence were configured as crossings in their work processes. As a result, journalists sought lines of flight, such as, for example, meditation and reading of literary works to face the existing problems at work. In addition, the subjects stated that learning with the use of new technologies and the feeling of doing important work presented themselves as issues that potentiated their work. Thus, it is necessary to strengthen public policies to protect journalists, in the sense of valuing the profession, combating violence, and increasing the quality of life of these professionals. Mainly, this discussion should be used as a political agenda for intervention in the journalistic workers themselves, with a view to coping with the crossings and transformation, since its negative effects are complex, including with regard to the health of these individuals.


Introduction
The Sars-CoV-2, novel coronavirus, which causes the disease Covid-19, was detected on December 31, 2019 in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the circulation of the new coronavirus on January 9, 2020; and the next day, the first sequence of Sars-CoV-2 was published by Chinese researchers. On January 16, 2020, the first import into Japanese territory was notified. On January 30 of that year, the WHO declared the epidemic an international emergency 1 .
Thus, taking into account the high infectivity of the etiological agent of Covid-19, the lack of previous immunity in the human population and of a vaccine against this virus at the beginning of the pandemic caused the growth in the number of cases to be exponential. As a result, Nonpharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) were indicated, with the aim of inhibiting transmission between individuals, slowing down the spread of the disease and, thus, delaying and reduciIg the peak of occurrence in the epidemic curve 2 .
NPI are public health measures with an individual scope (washing hands, respiratory etiquette, use of a mask and social distancing), environmental (routine cleaning of environments and surfaces, procedures that help eliminate viruses) and community (actions taken by managers, employers and/or community leaders to protect the population, such as, for example, restricting the operation of schools, universities, places of community activities) 3 .
In addition to health issues, the Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on economic, political, social and cultural dynamics. When it comes to the adoption of community-based NPI, changes were also noticed in work dynamics due to the high transmissibility of Covid-19. As a result, several countries determined that only public services and essential activities were to be maintained.
In Brazil, Decree No. 10,282, of March 20, 2020 4 , stated that public services and essential activities are those indispensable to meet the unavoidable needs of the community, thus considered those that, if not met, endanger survival, health or the safety of the population, such as health care, including medical and hospital services; national defense and civil defense activities; telecommunications and internet, among others.
Despite constituting essential services, it is important to emphasize that both the exercise of work activities and working conditions are important sources of exposure to the virus 5 . In turn, the work situation is a territory for the spread of the disease 6 .
In this pandemic, if the need to protect health professionals gained significant prominence, a similar situation did not occur for other professional categories. In Brazil, graphic elements displaying data stratified by sex, geographic space and age group are often created with the aim of providing subsidies for better control and prevention of Covid-19, as well as planning and allocation of resources needed to operationalize health systems. However, the morbidity micro-indicators, in the publications of these statistics are not disaggregated to the level of occupation, which prevents the assessment of where and under what circumstances the subjects that tested positive or were diagnosed with the disease were working; nor do they provide the opportunity to identify dissemination focuses related to work activities 5 .
Among the groups considered essential and whose work activity is aimed at the proliferation of important information about Covid-19 -which is also an important measure to combat the pandemic -we can highlight the role played by journalists, whose, during their professional practice of reporting news, need to do in logo investigations of the facts, with several the streets and making live contact with other individuals that serve as sources for the articles on the agenda.
In addition to the Covid-19 pandemic, the journalist's work routine is often permeated by exposure to different psychosocial risk factors, such as: living with situations of strong emotional impact, the urgency of time, pressure from editors-in-chief for 'closing the agenda', the intense competition for the 'storyline' and for the primacy of the news with its competitors, among others 7 . This fact tends to accelerate in pandemic situations such as  A study aimed at identifying the working conditions of 557 communicators in their functions during the Covid-19 pandemic showed that there was an increase in working hours, an intensification of work activity, in which the adoption of personal protective equipment was identified as a complicator of the workercompany-public relationship. Professionals felt more tired; insecure about the future; and feared being contaminated, as well as for the lives of family members and for the collapsing of the health system. In addition, they showed concern about work, such as job loss, salary reduction, among other issues that tormented and made working hours more stressful 8 .
Considering that "the living and working conditions of individuals and groups of the population are related to their health situation" 9(78) , the NPI brought social and economic changes -in particular -to the work process of professionals from different sectors, and taking into account that information about Covid-19 is constant, this study aims to analyze, from the theoretical framework of Socio-analytical Institutional Analysis, the discourse of journalists abou t their work process during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Methodology
This is a study with a qualitative approach, having as theoretical-methodological framework the Institutal Analysis in its Socioanalytical aspect.
Socioanalysis was conceived within Institutional Analysis -one of the schools of the Institutionalist Movement -, in 1970, by René Lourau, being defined as a method of intervention in a situation that is based on analyzing the relationships that the multiple parties in the social game sustain with the overt and hidden system of institutions 10-13 .
Institutions are understood as logical decision trees that control human activities indicating what is indifferent, prohibited and permitted. Institutions are understood in a movement that generates them (instituting), an outcome (instituted) and a process (institutionalization). In order to concretely carry out their regulatory function, institutions materialize in organizations or establishments 14 , such as the media.
Through Socioanalysis, researchers (socioanalysts) offer subsidies for the analysis of the members (study participants) of an organization (such as telecommunications companies), regarding their relationships, conventions, attitudes and usual practices. For this to happen, 'analyzing devices' are used (material that stimulates discourse on the subject, for example), which organize the subversion (another version) of the institution (media, for example) with the help of words and the participation of members , so that there is the emergence of the unsaid (what is veiled) 15 .
The universe of this study was formed by ten journalists who worked as street reporters in television newspapers, in compliance with the following inclusion criteria: 1) having a degree in journalism; 2) work as a street reporter on a television news program and; 3) have made at least three reports on the street about the Covid-19 pandemic.
The production of the material took place through a news panel about the work process of journalists during the Covid-19 pandemic, a projective interview and notes from a field diary prepared by the researchers.
The fieldwork implemented from May to September 2020 was divided into two stages. The first step consisted of creating a news panel (analyzing device). For this, initially, the researchers made a random choice of news about the work of journalists and the interface with Covid-19 through the Google search tool in the news tab.
Seeking to fully cover the 90 cm wide by 120 cm long space of the panel, the researchers made the choice, one by one, of all the news, which totaled seven articles chosen at random, that is, the total of articles that fit on the panel without compromising the resolution of the material. The panel served as support for the projective interview, since this technique, as stated by Goldenberg 16 , uses visual resources to stimulate the response of the researched subjects.
The subjects covered by each article were characterized as follows: 1) Politicians 'mock' journalists for working during the Covid-19 pandemic; 2) Mental and physical health of reporters during the Covid-19 pandemic; 3) Interdiction of the Planalto stairs, forcing journalists to gather together; 4) Journalist who died of Covid-19 accused television station of neglecting the matter; 5) Ex-reporter of a network suffers from Burnout Syndrome; 6) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) emphasizes the importance of journalists' safety in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic; 7) Reporter is attacked when showing agglomeration in a bank line during the night in Manaus-AM.
In the next step, the researchers randomly chose the first participant of the study to carry out the invitation and clarification of the research, taking place as follows: 1) access to the website of a television station, identified in this study as station A; 2) investigation of the videos about Covid-19 in the search toolbar on the site; 3) choice of the first study participant from the last video published at the time of the search, that is, the reporter who was reporting on the last video posted on the website was the first participant invited for the study.
The researchers contacted the reporter via professional e-mail, at which point the invitation to participate in the study was made, the Free and Informed Consent Term (ICF) was presented in PDF and the study objectives were explained. After the participant's acceptance, the signed and scanned informed consent was sent to the researchers' e-mail. Then, the interview was scheduled at the time established by the study participant.
The projective interview, with a maximum duration of 60 minutes, took place through the communication platform called 'Google Meet', which is a device that allows instant messaging and video chat. For this study, the researchers only used the voice call, and the entire meeting was recorded with the aid of a recorder. The news panel was presented to the study participant at the time of the interview.
After the completion of each interview, the study participant indicated another journalist to participate in the research, according to the technique called 'snowball', resulting in a total of ten study participants. The snowball technique consists of identifying a subject and asking him to indicate another, who, in turn, will indicate another, and so on, until the point of redundancy is reached -when it is observed that the information obtained are sufficiently confirmed; from this, the inclusion of other participants is no longer justified 17 .
The speech of each journalist was transcribed, and then, together with the notes from the field diary, the accurate reading of all material was carried out.
The discursive corpus formed by the set of journalists' discourses was analyzed according to the concepts of Socioanalysis in order to follow the lines that were formed during the interviews, thus emerging circles that broke up in 'The work process of journalists during the Covid-19 pandemic: crossings and potentialities'.
The study was carried out with a favorable opinion from the Research Ethics Committee of the Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, under registration CAAE 31732620.5.0000.5108.
In order to maintain confidentiality, each of the participants was named as cardinal numbers; and the name of the stations, by letters of the alphabet.

Characterization of study participants
Ten journalists participated in the study, only two of them female. Their age ranged from 27 to 38 years. Regarding the ethical/racial point of view, five subjects declared themselves to be brown; four, white; and one, indigenous. Regarding religion, Catholicism prevailed, with five subjects. Regarding location, subjects who live in the Southeast region prevailed, with six participants, two from the North region, one from the South region and one from the Midwest region.
Regarding professional aspects, the time working in the field of journalism ranged from four to ten years; the link with the current broadcaster, from one to nine years; and in the scope of the reports, state coverage matters prevailed.

The work process of journalists during the Covid-19 pandemic: crossings and potential
The infection of people by Covid-19, with its first cases appearing in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, can be understood, from the perspective of Socioanalysis, as an event, that is, a process and result of the affirmative activity of chance that it is configured as a substrate of small or large transformations that revolutionize history in all its levels and scopes 14 .
In the absence of specific treatment and few doses of vaccine available for Covid-19, small and large transformations are revolutionizing history as they reveal historical situations of neglect of public policies, including the underfunding of the public health system, science, technology and public universities, in addition to the devaluation of work and workers 18 . During an epidemic, the work organization of different occupational groups undergoes profound changes in terms of working hours, overtime and work rhythm 19 , as in the case of the work process of journalists who have been working tirelessly to bring information about Covid-19 in times of a pandemic.
It is worth mentioning that, in addition to the changes imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, communication professionals, such as journalists, have faced profound changes in the jobs market. The socio-technical structure of the means of production has been transformed with digital media and the internet. These events were assimilated by the communication market, with an increase in the precariousness of work, densification of the pace of activities and an increase in worked hours 8 , which can have a direct influence on the individual's illness process, since work can be seen as a social health determinant social -and, together with other factors, such as education and housing, for example, impact on the population's quality of life.
In this way, the Covid-19 pandemic finds the communication area in deep crisis, with dramatic perspectives for the jobs market of communication professionals, such as, for example, precarious contracts, layoffs, salary reduction, work densification, which leads to stress, aggravated by uncertainties about the future 8 .
The journalists interviewed in this study pointed to the decrease in salary, the increase in violence during work activity and the fear of being infected by Covid-19 as crossings experienced during the work process in the pandemic.
A crossing is configured as an intertwining, interpenetration and articulation of conservative orientation that serves as exploration, mystification and domination 14 .
Regarding the reduction of wages during the pandemic, the journalists interviewed made the following statements: Here Reductions in wages and working hours were instituted by the Emergency Employment and Income Maintenance Program, of Law nº 14,020, of July 6, 2020, which authorizes employers to change wages and working hours during the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, by 25%, 50% or 70%, with a supplementary salary granted by the government 20 . Certainly, the most harmful effects of such a measure are reserved for workers whose income is immediately allocated to usual expenses, such as food 21 -one of the products that increased the most during the pandemic 22 .
According to a survey carried out by the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj) 23 , 3,930 journalists who work with a formal contract, at the bases of 16 unions in the country, had their salary and working hours reduced during the pandemic. Another 81 journalists had their employment contracts suspended, and 205 were fired. However, these data may be underreported as they correspond to a little more than half of the number of Unions of Journalists that represent the category in the country and it is the responsibility of companies to notify unions about the occurrence of individual agreements.
It is also worth mentioning that income is also an important social determinant of health, that is, it influences the individual's healthdisease process; and when there are differences or inequality in the processes of income distribution, there is an impact on health seen by the scarcity of resources of individuals and the absence of investments in community infrastructure (education, transport, sanitation, housing, health services, etc.), resulting from economic processes and political decisions 9 , such as the Emergency Employment and Income Maintenance Program.
In addition, even when the salaries reduction are justified by the reduction of the presencial workload on television stations, according to the testimony of journalist 1, as stated by Travancas 24 , the profession presupposes the dedication of personal time fully to work, because there is an implicit charge, if not explicit, that being a journalist means working 24 hours a day, and not just when you are in the newspaper doing street stories. This process can be understood in Socioanalysis as exploitation, that is, a procedure of expropriation of forces, means and results of productive methods carried out by dominant sectors (communication companies) on producers ( journalists) 14 .
Another crossing experienced by journalists during the Covid-19 pandemic is violence during their work activities, as exposed in the following excerpts: Work-related violence is defined as a voluntary attitude of a subject or group against another subject or group that causes psychological or physical damage, that occurs in the work environment, or that involves relationships established at work or work-related activity, and can be considered also as a form of negligence in relation to working conditions; deprivation and violation of fundamental principles and labor and social security rights; as well as omission of care, help and solidarity in the face of some misfortune, characterized by the naturalization of death and work-related illness 25 .
As for journalist workers, according to Fenaj 26 , situations of violence are organized as follows: murders; arrests/detentions; attacks; violence against union organization; censorship; restrictions on freedom of expression by judicial means; impediments to professional practice; verbal aggressions; threats/intimidation; and physical assaults.
Brazil is the second country in the Americas with the highest number of journalists killed as a result of their work situation 27 . According to Fenaj 26 , in 2019, there were 114 cases of discrediting the press and 94 of direct attacks on professionals, totaling 208 cases of violence. The number is 54.07% higher than that recorded in 2018, when there were 135 cases of attacks on journalists.
In 2020, the situation worsened. There was a real explosion of violence against journalists and against the press. 428 episodes were recorded, 105.77% more than in 2019. Discrediting the press, as in the previous year, was the most frequent violence: 152 cases, representing 35.51% of the total 28 .
In addition, the fear of infection by Covid-19 also permeates the daily work of journalists, as seen in the following excerpts: [...] on the street I am afraid, because sometimes we are in contact, we are going to interview someone, for example, a person who has a relative inside the health unit and is suspected of Covid-19. When it really peaked, when people could not transfer to the ICU, we interviewed these people and were afraid, because, for example, it was the wife of the boy who was inside the hospital, or it was the son. So, to a greater or lesser extent, this person had contact with the infected relative and was there, very close to us. (Journalist 8, Southeast region).
[...] the only thing that was added to my psychology was fear, because it is the fear of contagion, which everyone has. (Journalist 10, Southeast region).
Thus, it is important to consider that fear in the midst of a pandemic, as reported by journalists 1, 4, 8 and 10, increases the levels of anxiety and stress in subjects and intensifies the symptoms of those with preexisting psychiatric disorders 29 . In addition, the number of people affected by mental health conditions tends to be greater than the number of people affected by the infection. Previous experiences in pandemics have shown that the implications for mental health can be longer in duration and more prevalent than the epidemic itself and that the psychosocial and economic repercussions might be incalculable if one considers their resonance in different contexts 30 .
It is worth mentioning that all the crossings reported by journalists, such as the fear of infection by the new coronavirus, the salary reduction and violence, for example, lead these workers, from the perspective of Socioanalysis, to an anti-production, that is, the productive powers -natural, psychic and social -are captured by the great entities of control and reproduction (the State, Capital, for example), and their forces are turned against themselves, leading them to sterile repetition or self-destruction 14 . This can be seen, for example, in the difficulties presented in carrying out work activities, as seen in the testimony of journalist 4: I start swapping words, sometimes, on the air and I'm afraid to go live to do something naturally that I used to do without problems. When you start having problems related to the language you speak, it starts to bring you a lot of suffering and this sometimes happened because you are so stressed, so afraid. (Journalist 4, Southeast region).
Taking into account the testimony of journalist 4, it is worth noting that the journalist's work is characterized by a complex production process that begins with the perception, selection and transformation of an event (raw material), resulting in a report (product) 31 . In addition, there is an intensification of work demands in times of a pandemic that directly impacts production routines, product quality, and, especially, the well-being of these journalists, or even more seriously, forces them to putting their lives at risk, covering the daily life of environments linked to the disease (cemeteries, hospitals and crowded public spaces) 32 . However, participants in this study mentioned the practice of meditation and reading literary books, for example, as lines of flight to keep themselves well, improve quality of life and work productivity.
A line of flight is a vector of disorganization, a redistribution of possibilities that lead to an at least partial, unprogrammable transformation, linked to the unpredictable establishment of spaces-times, of unprecedented institutional arrangements; to make something escape, to make a system escape 34 , in accordance with the following reports: These questions lead to a power that stimulates the desire as a creation and freedom of action of each journalist, which constitutes their subjectivity in the elaboration of new strategies in their daily work, as opposed to molar practices 14 , that is, actions interspersed with regularity, stability, conservation and reproduction, in which sedentary capture equipment operates.
Thus, according to the testimonies of the journalists participating in this study, it is possible to perceive that, despite the crossings experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic, these subjects manage, through self-analysis -a knowledge about themselves, their needs, desires, demands, problems, solutions and limits 14 , proposed by Socioanalysis -observe the potential presented in the daily work and use strategies to promote ethical and democratic journalism, which can be perceived in people's daily lives through the dissemination of news. This also happened because these journalists, through an analysis of the implication, realized the relationship they establish with the media institution.

Final considerations
The Covid-19 pandemic has accentuated behavioral changes throughout society, forcing workers to adapt their work processes, especially those who perform essential functions, such as journalists.
Thus, in this study, the results of the interviews carried out with ten journalists who work in the coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic were presented, which found the existence of several crossings -fear of infection by the virus, salary changes and violence, for example -that hinder the quality of life of journalists and productivity in their work. Despite this, the journalists stated that learning and the feeling of doing important work are elements that enhance their work process.
The testimonies undertaken by each journalist constituted feelings and perceptions about working bringing information to the population in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. These testimonies and stories carefully shape the dictates of acting in services widely attacked by governments, the weaknesses faced by the imposition of the pandemic and the accelerated demand for information in real time.
It is necessary to strengthen public policies to protect journalists, in the sense of valuing the profession, combating violence and increasing the quality of life of these professionals. Mainly, this discussion should be used as a political agenda for intervention in journalist workers themselves, with a view to facing the crossings and transformation, since their negative effects are complex, including with regard to the health of these individuals.
From the point of view of collective health, it is important to emphasize that, although journalists seek lines of flight to alleviate the problems arising from the intense work process during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is necessary to think about health promotion actions that ensure not only the individual health of each journalist, but also coordinated intersectoral action involving education, housing, income, work, food, education, access to essential goods and services, leisure, among other social determinants of health.
In addition, it is necessary to continue following the unfolding of the work process of journalists in the post-pandemic, grouping findings and reflections that help the discussion about the crossings faced by this professional category in their daily work and the repercussions on the health of these workers brought during the work process in the Covid-19 pandemic. It is therefore necessary to carry out more studies that seek as an object the interface between the work of journalists and the health area.