O Conciliador e o jornalismo maranhense no início no século XIX

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the communication practices developed by the newspaper O Conciliador do Maranhão in São Luís from April 1821 to July 1823. It was the first printed newspaper of the province, launched by the local administration that was associated to the Portuguese government in a period of political disruption between the former colony and Portugal, a movement that, at first, was not followed by Maranhão. Based on the constructionist theory, we understand that news, as discursive unity, institute a reference for reality, articulating social, cultural, political, technological and historical forces. To apprehend the different relations that were established in that moment, we adopted the concept of power fields, explained by Pierre Bourdieu, and we delimited the political, economic and cultural fields as categories of analysis. We sought theoretical contributions of the cultural history on production, ways of circulation and appropriation of information. We problematized the journalistic discourse in order to understand the representations elaborated by the newspaper from Maranhão. This newspaper, besides disclosing a political discourse supporting the absolute monarchy, also provided references about the city’s everyday life, which show us that the newspaper was a complex space, because it brought elements of the disputes that agitated segments of the population and it established a national project at that historic moment. The existence of O Conciliador also pointed out the existence of the journalistic field in early nineteenth century, engendered by the work of social strata which were able to learn the information, attest meanings for social organization and change or maintain the established order.