The article reports study on the profession of musicians in the State of Paraíba, conducted by applying the analysis of contents of two daily newspapers of the State. The analysis itself was developed with a sample of issues of the years 2001 and 2003. Four categories were identified (social role of the music; encouraging the music; profession and associative political organization). Such empirical study resulted in the identification of key and important aspects, in the construction of a professional identity, as, professionalism versus amateurism; the myth of fame versus the anonymity; the depreciation of the so-called home talent versus the value of the foreign ones, and so on. Even though this type of media does not exhaust the subject, it establishes the position that the profession occupies in the society and may constitute itself a source for the development of new questions and hypotheses for the researchers interested in the topic.
musician; content analysis; profession
