Epistemology, discourse and news: Possible approaches between discourse analysis and journalism research

Abstract

Modern times require a methodological effort to build theoretical mechanisms that may allow us to understand the complexity of the role played by contemporary journalism. In this connection, this manuscript proceeds with an analysis of the relationship between journalism and strategies for public visibility of social actors, and then sustains the inversion of the analytical perspective, which is traditionally verified by discourse analysis focused on the reflection on the production of news. By proposing the concept of discursive ruin, the work ascertains that the media visibility strategies of protest movements are also likely to give rise to informative texts, enabling the researcher to explicit discursive ruin gestures in view of the protest behavior, that reflect the ruin of transparency (and objectivity) of the journalistic language as well. Therefore, if the analyzer is able to overcome the mere accusations of directing meanings, he will be effectively capable of contributing to the construction of a more complex way of thinking about journalism and its discursive effects of truth.