Stories das universidades federais nordestinas: jornalismo público e circulação de notícias no Instagram

Abstract

The present work analyzes how the content, language and format are presented in the Instagram Stories of the Press Agents (Ascom) of the federal universities in the Northeast region of Brazil. It starts from the hypothesis that the experiments at Ascom still do not meet standardized criteria on the platform, observing, in general, an underutilization of the tool in this space. How are institutions reacting in terms of changes and convergences in public and institutional journalism? How are they planning their actions regarding content, language and format? To answer these questions, concepts of social networks on the Internet, mediatization and discursive circulation are used, using the methodological approach of multiple case studies, through interviews with journalists responsible for managing social media from five of the 18 federal universities in the Northeast: Federal University of Ceará (UFC); Federal University of Cariri (UFCA); Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG); Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE); and Federal Rural University of the Semiarid Region (UFERSA). The research, of a qualitative nature, was carried out through email interviews with professionals, in November 2020 and November 2021. The idea was to identify the main characteristics that permeate the production of content in the institutions' Instagram Stories. Data analysis showed that there is a tendency to publish institutional content and events; of using an interactive language and image format. The studies also found that Ascom do not work with their own social media team and do not conduct user satisfaction surveys on the content published in the tool. The results also reveal that public management investment in Ascom is fundamental, having journalists as communicators-curators of information and disseminators of knowledge. On the other hand, it is essential that professionals plan their actions on the network, create native digital and innovative content for this space, invest in scientific dissemination and get to know their target audience, in order to better explore the potential of the tool and segment their performance.