O uso do WhatsApp como fator de mudanças no trabalho dos jornalistas, no jornalismo e na identidade profissional

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate, contextualize and contribute to the debate about the impacts of the use of WhatsApp in the professional routines of journalists who work in newsrooms in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Based on a comparison with the ways of doing journalism before the digital resources, when professionals were more present in the streets covering local facts, the dissertation addressed the changes caused by the internet in the journalists' perspective. The methodology included the application of an online questionnaire with 40 journalists, with questions elaborated to register the professionals' perception of this moment of transition, in which analogical forms of reporting (created, tested and based in a period in which journalism followed the capitalist-industrial model) now coexist with digital reporting methods, focused on the dissemination and sharing of content on the web, mainly through platforms. Among the results, the study found that journalists normalized the use of WhatsApp in the news gathering process, conducting entire interviews via the application. According to the interviewees, the use of WhatsApp has resulted in some practical implications: it is now possible for them (and also required by the editors) to investigate and to publish articles more quickly; the coverage team and the use of cars became even more limited; the news sources and the editors are now consulted easily. The precariousness of working conditions and the decrease in the quality of content were pointed out as negative changes in this new mode of journalistic production. Journalists perceive, however, that WhatsApp has expanded their ability in news covering and their access to documents, in addition to having speeded up and facilitated the process of reporting.