Marisa Torres da Silva

“In Journalism, We Are All Men”: Material voices in the production of gender meanings

This study uses qualitative data to examine how male and female professionals in newsrooms experience and vocalize gender both in their lifeworlds and in media production in general. The research was based on semi-structured interviews with 18 Portuguese journalists. The responses were analysed through phenomenological and feminist lenses and indicated the issues men and women considered salient or negligible within our realms of inquiry. The study used the lived experience of the media professionals to identify two clusters of meaning that help explain how material practices and norms in journalism are lived and understood in the newsroom: gender views in journalism and gender differences in day-to-day professional life. Overall, the findings confirm that organizational factors and the traditional gender system play important roles in journalists’ attitudes and perceptions about the role of gender in their work. The results are significant because they show how gender is simultaneously embodied and denied by both female and male journalists in a process of phenomenological “typification” and adoption of a “natural attitude” towards the gender system that may prevent the disclosure of new possibilities and understandings of the objective social world and of our gender relations.

NEWSROOM PRACTICES AND LETTERS-TO-THE-EDITOR

Letters-to-the-editor provide a significant forum for public debate, enabling the exchange of information, ideas and opinions between different groups of people. Since journalistic work is central to the processes of citizenship, this article observes the social context surrounding letters-to-the-editor in four Portuguese press publications. Keeping in mind the existence of a set of selection criteria, based on newsroom practices, it is possible to characterize the debate that takes place in the letters’ section as a construction. As with any other editorial content, the published letters are also a result of a selection, editing and framing process, shaped by journalistic routines and subject to limitations such as space and time.Letters-to-the-editor provide a significant forum for public debate, enabling the exchange of information, ideas and opinions between different groups of people. Since journalistic work is central to the processes of citizenship, this article observes the social context surrounding letters-to-the-editor in four Portuguese press publications. Keeping in mind the existence of a set of selection criteria, based on newsroom practices, it is possible to characterize the debate that takes place in the letters’ section as a construction. As with any other editorial content, the published letters are also a result of a selection, editing and framing process, shaped by journalistic routines and subject to limitations such as space and time.

Hemorheological alterations in sickle cell anemia and their clinical consequences – The role of genetic modulators

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is an autosomal recessive disease caused by the HBB:c.20A>T mutation that leads to hemoglobin S synthesis. The disease presents with high clinical heterogeneity characterized by chronic hemolysis, recurrent episodes of vaso-oclusion and infection. This work aimed to characterize by in silico studies some genetic modulators of severe hemolysis and stroke risk in children with SCA, and understand their consequences at the hemorheological level.Association studies were performed between hemolysis biomarkers as well as the degree of cerebral vasculopathy and the inheritance of several polymorphic regions in genes related with vascular cell adhesion and vascular tonus in pediatric SCA patients. In silico tools (e.g. MatInspector) were applied to investigate the main variant consequences.Variants in vascular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM1) gene promoter and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS3) gene were significantly associated with higher degree of hemolysis and stroke events. They potentially modify transcription factor binding sites (e.g. VCAM1 rs1409419_T allele may lead to an EVI1 gain) or disturb the corresponding protein structure/function. Our findings emphasize the relevance of genetic variation in modulating the disease severity due to their effect on gene expression or modification of protein biological activities related with sickled erythrocyte/endothelial interactions and consequent hemorheological abnormalities.

The social and financial value of investigative journalism

This article aims to discuss solutions for journalism, placing particular emphasis on the social and financial profit of its noblest genre, investigative journalism. Starting from an evaluation of the dimension of the sustainability crisis that journalism currently faces, we address the specificity, risks, requirements and burdens of investigative journalism. This superior form of journalism, however, entails tangible social gains, as well as the possibility of generating revenues for the media, when quality is also an engine for commercial success. We argue that the future of journalism necessarily passes through here - and perhaps, as Julia Cage proposes, using a reconstructed financing model that can rescue journalism through market control.

Stakeholder discourses about critical literacies and audience participation

The next section of this book looks into the horizons that lie ahead for audiences, a short while from today, towards 2030. In chapters 11 through to 14, colleagues will look at key societal drivers of future change, such as the increasing ubiquity of connected gadgets attendant to the Internet of Things, and critical concerns around datafication and the arrival of Big Data. In this chapter, we conclude presenting work on the here and the now, hereby presenting outcomes from the stakeholder consultation part of our foresight work. We distil and discuss themes that emerged from stakeholder interviews around micro and macro forms of action, the inherent technological implications, ensuing academic social responsibilities, and the relevance of investing in critical thinking as part of critical literacies, more broadly, as a fundamental component for positive action. These findings, around the importance of critical literacies, irrespective of technological conditions, resonate into the very futures that The Future of Audiences considers in the chapters that follow.

Audiências e cross-media

As praticas digitais que decorrem da ubiquidade dos media e da sua utilizacao possibilitaram a combinacao de multiplas plataformas no consumo de noticias. Neste artigo, procuramos identificar repertorios mediaticos (padroes de uso dos media noticiosos) em Portugal, de modo a compreender como sao construidas as preferencias mediaticas das audiencias e de que forma o consumo noticioso integra os seus habitos quotidianos. Neste sentido, desenvolvemos uma analise a padroes de consumo de media noticiosos a partir de uma abordagem mista de metodos qualitativos e quantitativos baseada na Meto dologia Q (Davis & Michelle, 2011), a partir de uma amostra constituida por 36 participantes. A analise dos padroes de consumo de noticias permitiu identificar e analisar sete repertorios mediaticos em funcao do uso, relevancia e utilidade atribuida pelos sujeitos aos media noticiosos. Os resultados revelam perfis hibridos de consumo mediatico e uma tendencia para consumos de noticias numa logica movel e multiplataforma, embora os media tradicionais continuem a desempenhar um papel determinante nos repertorios mediaticos em Portugal.

Diversidade nos media em Portugal: enquadramento político e desafios atuais

Este artigo pretende constituir-se como um “estado da arte” das politicas publicas no que toca a diversidade nos media em Portugal, com um foco particular no dominio da inclusao social no âmbito do servico publico de media. Os indicadores utilizados dizem respeito as salvaguardas legais e politicas publicas referentes aos media comunitarios, ao acesso de minorias, comunidades locais, mulheres e pessoas com deficiencia aos media, bem como aos contextos de literacia mediatica. Ainda que a maioria destes indicadores estejam consagrados na lei ou beneficiem de politicas publicas especificas, concluimos que ha ainda trabalho consideravel por fazer, nomeadamente no que concerne a literacia mediatica e a representacao de grupos minoritarios e mulheres nos media. Este artigo resulta de uma investigacao em curso que complementa dados e revisao de literatura no âmbito dos projetos: Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM), implementado pelo Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) no European University Institute e financiado pela Comissao Europeia; e DIVinTV – Televisao Publica e Diversidade Cultural em Portugal, financiado pela FCT.