Praxeology of The New Journalism in Latin America

Abstract: 

By bringing new actors into the media ecosystem, the Internet and, more specifically, social media has undermined the dominant discourse of journalism as the final bastion of truth (Ekström & Westlund, 2019). According to many authors, the means of production and distribution have been affected to such a degree and at no return, forcing the media market to innovate and establish new business models (Graves & Konieczna, 2015; Deuze & Witschge, 2018; Anderson et al., 2012; Anderson, Bell and Shirky, 2015). The present study aims to discuss the various ways in which journalism can combat this challenging environment, engaging in new models and formats that bring together communities and a whole range of new actors through new praxeology of journalism production, circulation, and distribution. Answering the question: what the face of the new journalism is, its norms and practices, and how and if they are different from the traditional modus operandi of the profession. In Latin America, we have seen a growing number of organizations participating in the news ecosystem. Moreover, recent research, such as Harlow and Salaverría (2016), which mapped native-digital outlets in the region, concluded that “the most influential online-native websites are attempting to renovate traditional, outdated forms of journalism, serving as alternatives to mainstream media even if the organizations do not necessarily self-identify as ‘alternative’” (p. 11). At the same time, other authors have been concerned about the changes in labour relations established in these new economic arrangements (Figaro & Nonato, 2017), as well as the sources of funding (Santos, Pontes, & Paes, 2018). There is also an interest in grasping external elements, which help to shape the professional culture of journalists in the region (Mellado, Moreira, Lagos, & Hernández, 2012), and their strategies to work under violent conditions to produce investigative content (Saldaña & Mourão, 2018). The specificities of our object of study, contemporary digital journalistic practices spread in Latin American countries outside the mainstream, lead us to the application of an exploratory methodology (Bonin, 2012), as we speak of phenomena that are in full construction and mutation, without having yet reached an evident hegemonic model. Therefore, we decided to conduct a multiple case study, with two stages: the first with the application of an online questionnaire and the second with interviews. With the broader questionnaire, we seek to identify patterns and differences in the productive processes and working conditions of the respondent media groups, but also to perceive values ​​and worldviews about what they consider to be the social role of journalism. Already with the semi-structured interviews (Boni & Quaresma, 2005), conducted with a smaller number of Latin American journalistic content producers, we seek to deepen these perceptions, detailing the routines, innovations, and difficulties that pervade the practices they spread.