Reterritorialização informacional: as formas de comunicar no interior do Espírito Santo

Abstract

This research focuses on the transformations in the communicational and journalistic ecosystem, and aims to identify the habits of communication and information exchanges about current affairs by residents of small towns in Espírito Santo. These towns are located far from the capital's media conglomerate, and are seen as a news desert. The research examines the city of Alfredo Chaves (located in the state’s southern coastal micro-region). As our theoretical foundation, we use the concepts of public sphere, citizenship and community communication, debated in the field of journalism and in studies focused on the new communication ecosystem. In addition to the bibliographical research, intended to support this work, we will resort to documentary research aimed at mapping the main journalistic vehicles in Espírito Santo and in the researched regions, where the researched municipalities are located. The methodological scheme is completed with a direct approach to the residents of the researched territories through in-depth interviews and a focus group, in order to build proximity with the researched universes. The analyzes show how the territory, even within the same city and a few meters away, determines access and support from public authorities and the media, both in the propagation of educational and cultural projects and even in basic demands. It is also notorious how community communication appears almost naturally in the so-called "news deserts", because facts happen anyway. Communication is inherent in human beings. In territories that have been underserved by professional journalism for so long, public and virtual spaces (such as social media) help fill in the gaps left by the closing of newspapers.