BREAKING THE NEWS FROM HOME: THE VISUAL FEATURES OF BRAZILIAN BROADCAST JOURNALISM DURING THE PANDEMIC

Abstract

The COVID-19 changed television broadcast production, decentralizing production crews due to WHO recommendations, driving interviews and commentary primarily to online video calls. Journalists and interviewees' residential spaces became part of professional performances, using personal objects such as bookshelves, decorative elements, and furniture to help build a public persona and suggest social status. But, which patterns became recurrent in Brazilian news programs from March to October 2020 as they began to include home-based videos? The authors collected stills from four shows (two national, two regional) over eight months, analyzing them with a mix of off-the-shelf and custom-made digital tools. The results suggested the formation of eight broad categories. However, two meta-categories stood out in the collections: aesthetic and unconcerned. This shows the device screen as a feedback mirror that makes the participants aware of their surroundings. However, the news broadcasted from home includes visual discourses that cannot always be fully controlled

Keywords

• elevision
• broadcast journalism
• data visualization
• brazil
• covid-19