Portuguese International Correspondents: how Covid-19 affected their work

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected every activity sector, including journalism. As the pandemic has spread globally, we turn our attention to the corresponding journalists that work as each country’s anchor. The role of a correspondent implies that the international information is produced to the specifications of the corresponding country and social communication organ, in which the journalists view themselves as members of an interpretative community (Zelizer,1993). The present communication intends to understand how the productive routines of Portuguese journalists with international corresponding functions were changed during the pandemic. To that effect, we inquired 15 Portuguese correspondents with television, press, radio or news agency functions to try to understand how their function was affected by Covid-19. We identified that most of the questioned journalists altered their work methodology, stopping the coverage of usual themes, and even contact with sources stopped being in person. And 40% of journalists felt that they ceased to be close to the news, something essential to the proper journalistic profession performance.