Objectivity marks ‘Bem Paraná’ newsroom in remote work

In teaching that “a reporter’s place is in the street,” social communication professor Nadia Fontana opened the first class of PUCPR’s journalism course in the second semester of 2005. The students who went to work in newsrooms, especially radio ones, soon realized she was right. Not infrequently, the stories were on the way, not noted beforehand.

One of the pleasures of journalistic practice is, however, the return to the station. That is when one can tell, in the simplest and most genuine way, the field experience. Colleagues’ perceptions contribute to choosing what is main.

The Covid-19 pandemic changed things a little for journalists too, since some work from home.

The editor-in-chief of the newspaper Bem Paraná for the print and digital versions, Josianne Ritz, gave an interview to Lab Journalism 2030.

Vinícius Sgarbe: I want to interview a journalist working from home who is not depressed. Do you know any (laughs)?

Josianne Ritz: Look, I miss the hubbub. But I am well adapted. What was bad at the beginning is not anymore. I feel safe. And so I did not set up a special space, to keep the hubbub atmosphere. I stay in the living room, with everyone.

Vinícius: Besides pandemic subjects, is there some kind of story you notice coming in now that did not before?

Josianne: I think that, in general, the demand for health stories has grown. But everything kind of ends up as pandemic, like home office tips, return to school.

Vinícius: Has anything changed in your relationship with the reporters?

Josianne: We moved contact online. I would say engagement and output increased in home office. I do not know exactly why. We usually arrange everything online. Only in some more complicated cases do I call. I feared that the print closing, because of layout, could get complicated. But we are closing even earlier. The rapport is a bit atypical, because we have worked together for a long time. Most for more than 20 years. Rodolfo Kowalski, younger, has been here eight years, between internship and reporting. That makes it much easier. We have objectivity, total rapport.