Journalists during COVID-19: Perceptions of Negative Impacts on Portuguese Journalism

Abstract

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has promoted a disruption of journalism, which reflects in both journalistic practices and journalism contents. A questionnaire survey conducted in the beginning of the pandemic with 200 Portuguese journalists showed a pessimistic scenario of the profession, with labor issues among journalists’ top concerns. This research aims at assessing the impact of COVID-19 in Portuguese journalism through journalists’ perceptions. A qualitative content analysis was carried out, focusing on the negative impacts on journalists and journalistic procedures. On the one hand, the pandemic fueled an already visible crisis in journalism and led journalists to struggle with several difficulties, among which are their own physical and mental health. On the other hand, the characteristics of this period reinforced the role of journalism in society. Some of the lessons learnt might be useful to deal with ongoing challenges: the multiplicity of (new) voices in the networked public sphere, the amplification of information disorders, the demand to deal with systematic change, the ability to work in adversarial conditions, the ever growing need of several literacies (media literacy, digital literacy, health literacy, science literacy). “The times they are a-changing” for journalists and journalism. Again.