Prehistory of journalism studies: Discovering the Brazilian tradition

Abstract

Aiming to broaden and diversify knowledge about the origins of journalism studies, this article proposes a longitudinal examination of research on the press and journalists produced in Brazil, from the 1840s to the 1940s. It is shown that the first intellectuals interested in investigating the subject were doctors, engineers, jurists and theologians, as well as self-taught. Instead of simply classifying the production of this dilettante group under the label of “Whig history,” the study intends to understand the meaning and role that they, in common, attributed to journalism: the beacon of a young nation in progress. The analysis of the set of historical accounts identifies an approach that is at the same time liberal — as it frames absolutist Portugal as the main obstacle to the introduction of the press in Colonial Brazil — and nativist — as it overestimates the development of Brazilian journalism during the period of the Empire, equating it with the British and French cases. Ultimately, these reactions to colonial powers could be seen as early impulses to current efforts to decolonize the field.