Cinema in the Front Page: a look through the journalistic coverage of cinema by the main Portuguese newspapers

Abstract

One of the conclusions of the “Culture in the Front Page” (Baptista, 2014; 2017a) project, that outlined the main tendencies and the evolution of Portuguese cultural journalism in the first decade of the 21st century, is that cinema, besides music and literature, was one of the three main artistic manifestations present in the pages of the main Portuguese newspapers between 2000 and 2010. Having this project as an example, we look through the journalistic coverage of cinema that earned the highlight of first page in Portuguese newspapers over 2019. The current article seeks to, from the content analysis of the printed pages of the main Portuguese newspaper (Correio da Manhã, Diário de Notícias, Expresso, Jornal de Notícias e Público) and respective supplements, identify the main characteristics and tendencies of what we refer to as film journalism in Portugal over the year 2019. We identified that in Portugal, there is only one newspaper, Público, with a strong emphasis in the coverage of cinema in the first page. Generally, it’s the current affair of international cinema festivals and deaths of cinema personalities that make an appearance in the first pages of Portuguese newspapers, while in the case of cultural supplements, it is movie premieres, namely Portuguese production and co-productions.