Brazilian Journalism Research: Courageous Adventure in Search of an Identity

Abstract

two or three decades as a result of the proliferation of postgraduate programs in communication which have concentrated all the research in this area. Despite the profusion of projects, journalism research is still very incipient as a specific scientific field. The identity of this field is not defined and much is lacking for the theories and paradigms to be consolidated. In the universities and support agencies, journalism is considered an applied social science and its mention refers more to the teaching of the professional practices than to a scientific reflection. In this emerging academic scenario, launching a scientific magazine devoted to a limited, recent field in the academic world such as journalism seemed an audacity and an even more courageous adventure when the publication is entirely edited in English, a language which is little cultivated in the Brazilian academic world. For this reason, the decision by a small group of researchers initially gathered around the Associacao Brasileira de Pesquisadores em Jornalismo (Brazilian Association of Journalism Researchers – SBPJor) to create the Brazilian Journalism Research (BJR) in the first semester of 2004 was interpreted by many as an idea which was out of place. The pessimistic forecasts declared that there already were sufficient magazines, that journalism did not represent an autonomous field within the communication sciences and that a magazine in English would not have any resonance in the Brazilian academic community. I refute this pessimism and demonstrate the wisdom of the launching of the magazine for the consolidation of the journalism discipline in Brazil. BJR was consolidated among researchers and became a BRAZILIAN JOURNALISM RESEARCH: COURAGEOUS ADVENTURE IN SEARCH OF AN IDENTITY