PRODUCTION OF NEWS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: impacts of the "new normal" on the productive routine of women journalists
journalism; sexual division of labor; gender studies; productive routine of journalism; political economy of communication
Labor dynamics underwent changes in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, such as the adoption of the home office and the adaptation of the home environment to accommodate the demands of the professional field.
Journalism was also impacted, since it is a social practice, marked by a process of permanent reinvention (ADGHIRNI, 2012), and it was crossed by changes in the way of investigating the news and contacting sources, activities often carried out with personal equipment and adapted to what is possible in the home environment. With this, the boundaries between the public and the private were blurred, enhancing the accumulation of productive and reproductive labor by women. Our research problem sought to understand the impacts generated by the pandemic on the productive routine of journalists who work in the media located in the Federal District, in Brasília, in the 'Politics' section, and how they interfere in the production of news. The specific objectives are centered on showing what are the changes in this routine during the pandemic; describe the implications of being a woman in the professional journalism market; define what are the impacts of labor changes on women's productive routine; describe how the impacts on the working conditions of women journalists affect the production of news and understand what is the perspective of these women on the moment they are going through. For this, we carried out a literature review; open, semi-structured interviews with journalists from different media and age groups; and a qualitative content analysis of these journalists' oral records. We will use as theoretical support studies on the theory of journalism (VIZEU, 2014; TUCHMAN, 1999; ROCHA, 2018; BERGAMO; MICK; LIMA, 2012; TRAVANCAS; 1993) and the Political Economy of Communication (MOSCO, 2010; VELOSO; 2013). In addition to these perspectives, we will use Habermas (1984) and Silvia Federici (2017) to discuss the structural change in the public sphere, also relying on studies on symbolic violence(BOURDIEU, 2002) and gender (SAFFIOTI, 2004; HIRATA, 2009 ). The results of this study point to the existence of new newsworthiness criteria during the pandemic and the overload of journalists, with impacts on the social construction of reality through news.