ZH’s Silences: Public Journalism (un)covered

Abstract

The search for the diversification of products, formats and journalistic guidelines, challenges journalism and at times causes silences in its daily life. Nonetheless, we believe that its social role, its responsibility as articulator, and mediator of social discourses, and its role of mobilizer of public opinion persists. This article deals with the practice of public journalism prioritizing citizenship as news value, audience participation, and public debate, and thus the constitution of the vehicle in an effective public sphere. We analyze an empirical object from the systematic non-participant observation, interviews, document analysis, and the analysis of published news reports. Thus, we observe that the hyper appreciation of the local, the role of watchdog, and the publication’s routine relationship with readers represent silences in this journal’s social role.