Journalism, the public and its social function contemporary perspectives

Abstract

Professor silvio Waisbord, a sPecial guest at the sbPJor encounter which took place in Sao Bernardo at the close of 2008, emphasizes that for the press to really function as a platform for the expression of the citizens interests, it is necessary to maintain strong ties to civic society. In the author s opinion, in the Latin American democracies these ties are compromised, since the States and the markets have a much stronger influence on the press. In the dossier of this edition, Waisbord develops his idea regarding this topic and other Brazilian authors debate some aspects of the relationship between the citizen and the media. Carlos d Andrea, for example, discusses the possibilities and the challenges of the citizen s collaborative participation and the role of the professionals in the production processes of a journalistic organization. Emerson Cervi, a journalist and professor at the Federal University of Parana and at the State University of Ponta Grossa, observes how newspapers consider the social context to explain journalistic production. If the media should promote the debate in the public sphere, the author s case studies point out that the political theme and mediatic democracy based on the discussion of themes of interest to the public are prejudiced. Fernando Resende, a professor at the Fluminense Federal University, discusses journalistic production of discourses from an epistemological perspective. For the author, the media field constituted by the triad discourse/narrative/machines has already proved to be incomplete. Based on two journalistic documentaries, he studies the differences in representation of the Brazilian journalistic discourse. Among the articles in this edition, we would like to point out that the discussion regarding the role of the press in contemporary society has concerned many researchers. Professors Braulio Neves from Unicamp JOURNALISM, THE PUBLIC AND ITS SOCIAL FUNCTION CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES