This article discusses the first theoretical considerations of a research on the methodology of journalistic genres. The goal is to observe to what extent categories such as "finality," "purpose," lead and approach operate and how capital notions for journalism studies (currency, instantaneity, periodicity, news value, fact, event) can work in the analysis of journalistic genres. For five days, by means of the "constructed week" method, we analyzed the main news items on the home pages of two reference news sites: elpais.com and oglobo.globo.com. The first considerations are: 1) the notion of instantaneity reveals the importance of the notions of fact and event in understanding journalistic genres; 2) finality is a notion of sociocultural dimension associated with the notion of "function of journalism," which is determined by notions of format and structure ("sequences"); 3) periodicity is the notion of the order of the product, another element that should be part of studies on journalistic genres; 4) the notion of approach does not work; and 5) the logic of the so-called informational text is not necessarily of expository and/or explanatory sequences, as has been stated and restated in studies of journalistic genres, but may, instead, fall within the domain of argumentation sequences and of varied sequences.
journalistic genres; theories of journalism; news websites