Digital Media in Brazil: crisis or new identity

Abstract

This paper focuses on a broad refl ection about one of the most turbulent eras of human communication: for the past ten years we have seen a unique conjunction of new media technological breakthroughs, an unusually close relationship between information producers and consumers, with the latter nearly in the position of a key player; and a new market which gives information an exchange value. As a consequence, this era has brought instability and uncertainty to the whole information value chain. The leading word has been “crisis”. The Brazilian information businesses in particular went through this period bemoaning their fi nancial and quality losses, deciding upon strategic deviations and retreats in their core business, watching over their main revenue source – advertising – migrating to a cross media model. But, are we going through a real crisis? Why not think about the advent of a new social structure that rethinks and revalues social relationships? We believe that Journalism and its business are exactly at the core of a reconfi guration process of their identity.