Press and Radio on the Bicentennial of Independence: The Journalistic Discourse on Radio as an Educational and Cultural Media in a Pandemic Context in Bahia

Abstract

The objective of the article is to develop a descriptive and analytical investigation of cases of use of radio as an educational media in the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, we analyzed the journalistic discourse in articles published by the main newspapers in the state of Bahia: O Correio da Bahia and A Tarde. We believe that it is essential to point out the importance of the written press and the radio in terms of history, memory and identities that these vehicles raise as they cross the Bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil, as a life experience of the Brazilian people, and, especially, of the Bahians. In the pandemic period, printed reports emerged of some experiences of using radio and, in this study, articles extracted from two newspapers in the Bahian capital are analyzed. They aroused relevant discussions about the discourses on the effective participation of the radio, in the cultural and social, political and economic imaginaries and identities of the population. The general objective of this study is to relate imaginaries and identities of the bicentennial of Independence with the emergence of the press in Brazil. Subsequently, discuss how this medium dialogues with the emergence and role of radio in Brazil, observing how the speeches that report educational actions with the use of radio are presented. Methodologically, discursive clippings are analyzed in journalistic articles that deal with the use or reinvention of radio in this pandemic period, from the perspective of a qualitative, descriptive and analytical approach. The research uses the instruments of French Discourse Analysis, based on studies that approach history, memory and citizenship.