Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Rita Figueiras 126 III – Methodology As in other Western countries, television remains the most important source of information in Portugal (Reuters Digi- tal News Report, 2017). For this reason, the analysis focuses on commentary on generalist and cable television. The country has a dual system of public and commercial service: two state chan- nels, RTP1 and RTP2, and two private television stations: SIC and TVI. The study has as its contextual unit the analysis of prime- time newscasts on the generalist channels RTP1 2 , SIC and TVI (broadcast at 8 pm) and on cable channels RTP3 3 , SIC Notícias and TVI24 (broadcast at 9 pm). The analysis covers the period between 2000 and 2015. The choice of this period is because it was in the year 2000 that the fixed comment, and of weekly regularity, was instituted in the prime-time newscasts on Portuguese television. Also, it was in this decade that cable channels began to operate, increasing competi- tiveness in the media market. It was also during this period that the professionalization of political communication in Portugal was witnessed, visible in an active adaptation of political actors and institutions to the media logics, hiring specialists, and accommo- dating departments with the centralizing task of defining, imple - menting, and managing a political strategy guided by media logics. The systematic and longitudinal approach followed by this study aims to investigate how the profile of commentators has evolved over the years and to apprehend the relationship be- tween the media and politics. To this end, we use the concept of the mediatization of politics to guide empirical research. Based on what we exposed in the previous section of the text, this con- cept may be summarized in two main premises: (1) the relation- ship of forces between the media and politics is structured in the predominance of one field over the other, and (2) the growing in - terdependence between different areas of life and technological 2 As RTP2 was designed to meet the expectations of specific niches and does not follow the same type of generalist strategy as other open access channels, RTP2 was excluded from this analysis. 3 RTP bought the news channel in 2004, and since then the channel has changed its name three times: RTP Notícias (2004-2011), RTP Informação (2011-2015) and has been called RTP3 since 2015.