Generation Z Journalists

What to Expect from Them in Times of Media Degradation?

Abstract

This article presents the results of a research-creation project undertaken in Brazil during a period of thirty months to assess how journalists of the so-called Generation Z handle emerging technologies and create specific narratives on converging media platforms. The study included 125 university students on a multi-platform journalistic creation project subject to the methods of Paulo Freire’s theory. The results show that Gen Zers establish writing parameters that avoid complex browsing and are based on a virtual newsroom and multitasking. New journalistic models to be led by the students who participated in the study will probably rely on an organizational setting characterized by horizontal decision-making processes and more flexible, democratic production. Immersed in the context of imminent democratic backsliding in Brazil, research participants defined their news agenda as a form of contesting hegemonic discourses.