Since the end of the 1980s, the relevance and visibility of media pundits have increased considerably in Portuguese society, due to the institutionalization of the Portuguese democracy, the increased relevance given to public debate and the development of the media sector. This article presents an empirical study regarding the space given over to pundits in mainstream Portuguese print media between 1980 and 2005, a period of significant change in Portugal. It is argued that, seen as a public space, punditry can be conceived as an indicator of the democratization process in Portugal. This study aims to analyze how the changes that took place in Portuguese media and society affected the pundits' world, their profile and the presence of women in their midst. This study aims to answer several questions: Who are the Portuguese media pundits? Where do they come from? Is this a balanced gender space? What was the impact of structural changes in the media sector and Portuguese society throughout the past 26 years, with regards to the space occupied by pundits? In spite of so many major structural changes in Portuguese society and in the media sector, why is the pundits' profile perpetuating itself through the years?

ResumoAs práticas digitais que decorrem da ubiquidade dos media e da sua utilização possibilitaram a combinação de múltiplas plataformas no consumo de notí-cias. Neste artigo, procurámos identificar repertó-rios mediáticos (padrões de uso dos media noticiosos) em Portugal, de modo a compreender como são construídas as preferências mediáticas das audiên-cias e de que forma o consumo noticioso integra os seus hábitos quotidianos. Neste sentido, desenvolvemos uma análise a padrões de consumo de media noticiosos a partir de uma abordagem mista de mé-todos qualitativos e quantitativos baseada na Metodologia Q (Davis & Michelle, 2011), a partir de uma amostra constituída por 36 participantes. A análise dos padrões de consumo de notícias permitiu identificar e analisar sete repertórios mediáticos em função do uso, relevância e utilidade atribuída pelos sujeitos aos media noticiosos. Os resultados revelam perfis híbridos de consumo mediático e uma tendên-cia para consumos de notícias numa lógica móvel e multiplataforma, embora os media tradicionais continuem a desempenhar um papel determinante nos repertórios mediáticos em Portugal.Palavras-chave: audiências; consumos noticiosos; repertórios mediáticos; Cross-Media; metodologia Q.

The article discusses the negative consequences of globalization in the new international arena that arose following the Great Recession of 2008 that enabled emerging economies such as China, Russia, and Angola to take center stage, reconfiguring power relations between Western and non-Western countries. As new global flows of capital in media industries have been emerging, it is relevant to consider how investors from autocratic political regimes with illiberal views on the media articulate with Western culture’s founding prerogatives of media and journalism. To do this, we singled out the Angola–Portugal relationship. Results show that the clientelistic dynamics in Portugal’s media system, enhanced by the economic crisis, facilitate the entrance of the Angolan capital, which, in turn, may perpetuate clientelism and drive the reversal of media democracy in the country.

Aiming to take part in the debate regarding the mediatization concept, this article analyzes its contributions to communication and media studies. We set off in this path by analyzing the media as an environment in contemporary life, and then discuss core issues in this study field: the relationships among the media and their causality and centrality in the theories that conceptualize their relationship with society, as well as its interdisciplinary relevance.

Disconnection studies tend to put agency at the center. The possibility of opting out tends to be framed as a strategic form of individual agency, associated with self-regulatory practices and acts of self-choice. This essay aims to question this well-established perspective in disconnection literature while contributing to the debate about disconnection fostered by Crosscurrents. The essay explores the role others play in the experience of individual media non-use. Even if indirectly, individual pursuits are not achieved alone or without the involvement of others. Still, the cultural narrative of the West tends to put the self at the center of his narrative, reinforcing the individualized dimension of the self in detriment of the social aspect of it. Framed as such, this led to another level of elaboration by linking the topic of disconnection to the field of disconnection studies itself. As in any scientific discipline, disconnection research is mediated by culture, and thus it tells something about the current moment. Problematizing the limits of connection involves accessing social imaginaries that shape the scope of the field that will offer another layer of arguments to our debate about the place of the other in disconnection studies.