Journalism ethos: Mídia Ninja and a contested field

Abstract

The wave of mass protests that swept over Brazil’s major cities in June 2013 gave rise to a citizen journalist collective known as Mídia Ninja whose coverage of the protests attracted enormous attention and challenged established hegemonic media practices. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this study compares Midia Ninja‘s production processes to those of the mainstream media, aiming to reflect on contemporary journalistic ethos. In so doing, Midia Ninja’s attempts at deconstructing hegemonic media discourses and practices are explored through an analysis of five categories that emerged from the data - mobilisation, Ninja’s brand identity, deconstruction, mockery and opinion. The investigation of the collective’s discursive production processes suggests that its media activist logic contributes to widening the deontological codes of the journalistic profession while rejecting traditional journalistic news values, such as neutrality and impartiality.