Discursive “travel”: The reader circulation in the mediatic systems of newspapers from the countryside of Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The starting point of this paper focuses on the consideration that a mediatization process of the society is currently in progress. This process affects different social practices, such as religious, political, economical and journalistic. With the emergence of these new technical and discursive procedures, the reader starts to move into the production as well as into the reception. In this context, the journalistic work has also modified itself with the segmentation of the professional activities and with the requirement for a multimedia profile. The journalist nowadays can measure the level of “popularity” and the reach of the news by mapping the readers’ answers, comments and likes, which leave discursive marks in the spaces where news circulate. Therefore, the circulation starts to be seen not just as a place for passage, but also as a place for staying, even though this staying must be considered as something temporary, where the reader writes all his notes, like in a travel diary. So, this paper analyzes the discursive characteristics left by readers when they comment and share news produced by five newspapers from the countryside of Rio Grande do Sul: Diário de Santa Maria (Santa Maria), Pioneiro (Caxias do Sul), Gazeta do Sul (Santa Cruz do Sul), O Nacional (Passo Fundo) e Diário Popular (Pelotas). Methodologically, it was chosen to see the logic of circulation through the social systems theory (Luhmann, 2010) and the discourse by the semiological analysis (Verón, 2004). It is observed the existence of a “transitory” reader, who pinpoints his next stays in order to be always aiming to find new interactive experiences.

Keywords: circulation, discourse, readers.