Memory and forgetfulness in journalism

From paper to digital dematerialization

Abstract

Journalism has always contributed to shape shared social memory. The front pages of newspapers fulfilled an important communicational function, helping to build our imaginary about events that we do not even witness. In the early days of the internet, they were transposed to websites as home pages. In contemporaneity, however, we have seen a drop in the penetration of printed newspapers and the emergence of new forms of navigation, through links, which can affect the way in which we remember the news. The purpose of this article is to analyze the articulation between memory and forgetfulness that are triggered by reading the front pages in their printed and digital media and the consequences of dematerialization for journalism. To achieve the objectives, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 journalists who have already edited or still edited the front pages and home pages in leading newspapers in Brazil.