An alternative to escape tabloidization or an alternative form of tabloidization? Brazilian popular newspaper market and the political economy of printed press

Abstract

Journalism and politics have their ties often examined from a prestige press perspective. Little or nothing is discussed about the political dimension of popular journalism in Brazil.

To make this debate more consistent, this paper aims to develop: a) a theoretical investment on the adequacy of the category “tabloid” and in the process of “tabloidization” before the Brazilian media scene; b) an analysis of economic and competitive issues inherent to popular journalism in Brazil; c) a proposal of a research agenda for the development of a methodological and epistemological model to identify and distinguish tabloid and quality papers; and finally d) a brief discussion on space occupied by the political section before others in Brazilian popular news coverage.

Keywords:
media and politics; political economy of journalism; popular journalism; tabloidization