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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
No text of the news sections dared to personalize so much the responsibility of the
case, pointing the finger at the minister and suggesting so evidently collusion with other
interests.
It is also worth discussing the degree of autonomy the humourist possesses within the
publication. Público is the daily newspaper with the longest and more successful
humorous section. One of the comedians (António Jorge Gonçalves) recognized that
there are discussions with the newspaper editor about the topic and the approach to
each cartoon, but it remains an artist’s decision. The other one (Luís Afonso) stressed
that with the current software to access the newspaper back office, the editor only sees
the cartoons when they are already online. Hence the only constraints are
organizational (when there are already too many pieces on the subject in one issue) or
commercial (when the interests of a sponsor can be tweaked) within a framework of
healthy autonomy.
They found their work more relatable to the columnist’s than to the journalistic function.
They express free opinions, but the work still requires an analysis of current affairs (to
see which topics are broad enough to warrant treatment) and documentation (to decide
what to draw).
Both valued the advantage of not having to deal with sources since this provides a
safeguard against the sanctions and pressures from external sources. Both defined
themselves as representatives of the audience, i.e., social agents halfway between the
newspaper and its public, a sort of moral reserve or a reader’s ombudsman.
Conclusion
The role of humour in the journalistic construction of risk stories warrants further
approaches. We believe that, in this case, the humorous sections embodied the relief
role envisioned by Morris (2003) in face of the information overload that was produced
about a previously unknown threat. Cartoonists joke about what is important as the
transformation of fearful subjects into current news takes place.
At the same time, we find in humour a willingness to discuss news frames - even if not
in an objective way – that is non-existent in traditional news sections. Even the
columnists or the interviewees who questioned the government's risk management
waited until late June, two months after the beginning of the case, to voice their
concerns.
The role of humour in the contemporary press justifies the attention of sociology. We
therefore recommend additional studies to gauge the scope of these sections on
attitudes and behaviours about the risk society. Moreover, crisis managers should take
into account these non-conventional spaces of intervention in the press, realizing that a
cartoon like Figure 5 has tremendous impact on the audience and raises doubts on the
merits of health officials plans at the worst possible time.
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