The newspaper as a source of historical and anthropological research: between monologue and polyphony

Abstract

Post-modernity has brought changes to a number of academic disciplines. Those changes have also had an influence in the field of journalism, and in a critical retrospective may be said to have guided a reflection on the ways in which media products are constituted. This critical review contributes the constitution of a polyphonic journalistic text. The newspaper, formerly dismissed by historians is now recognized as an important resource for historical research. After analysis and deconstruction the journalistic text permits a range of academic approaches, such as representation and social construction. This article discusses these approaches and the theoretical assumptions underpinning them, and applies the results in a case study of a conflict in Serra da Bodoquena, Mato Grosso do Sul (Brasil), in the 1980s.