Progress in Journalism's temporalities: A history of Brazilian centenarian newspapers

Abstract

This paper presents a research on commemorative issues published by three centenarian newspapers of Rio de Janeiro on special dates of their existence. These special editions reveal how the longest lasting newspapers in the former federal capital inserted themselves in the temporal frameworks of different eras as vectors of progress. Despite the fact that progress can be understood as an idea which gave rise to a series of doctrines in previous centuries, especially in the mentality of the local elite, it is considered in this paper to be a certain perception of rupture with the past and giving direction for the future. This research attempts to analyze these commemorative narratives, showing how they articulate multiple temporalities, that is, socially shared notions of time. However, in a hegemonic way, the narratives of these centenarian newspapers lead to the future, configuring a demand for a radical rupture between past and future.