









































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 6, No. 2, 2023 
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1 
 

Original Paper 

Mapping Communicative Relations in the News 
Ricardo Uhry1* & Kati Caetano1 

1 University Tuiuti of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil 
* Ricardo Uhry, University Tuiuti of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil 

 

Received: March 22, 2023        Accepted: March 30, 2023       Online Published: April 10, 2023 

doi:10.22158/csm.v6n2p1                         URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v6n2p1 

 

Abstract 

The article proposes a conception that starts from interactive communication, presents a contextual 

view, considers the mediations and the semiotic regimes of interaction, formulating an overview of the 

communication process from which we arrive at the Map of communicative relations. The 

methodological approach is essayistic and uses, as a source of evidence of the applications, 

documentations available on the web and bibliographical references. The results highlight the 

relationships that are established and that can be visually formalized and located on the Map of 

communicative relations, and it is suggested that the empirically: Agency Lupa, The Learning Network, 

Art dreams us and Pantanal besieged may be related to education, information, experimentation, and 

art and contribute to the revitalization of the news discourse. It is possible to make use of different 

possibilities and locate them visually on the Map, which can contribute to face the news challenges 

related to de journalist crisis. 

Keywords 

communication theory, mapping, relations, communicative, news, Map of communicative relations 

 

1. Introduction 

In the context of communicative relations, we can address news, which has faced the new technological 

times, which trigger changes, such as the crisis of journalism, which, in Christofoletti’s (2019, pp. 

79-91) review, involves challenges that have triggered a disruptive crisis, mainly due to: (i) free 

information on the web; (ii) arrival of new non-journalist competitors (youtuber, digital influencer and 

other amateurs) who post information on the Internet more quickly; (iii) arrival of technological 

platforms that became middlemen and broke the domain of news distribution; (iv) “laxing of the 

quality” of information because there is no verification of “content, relevance and authenticity” and 

because there is a waiver of “responsibility for what becomes public”; (v) “deviation from the civil 

service and renunciation of the social role in the communities”. And there are other issues such as 



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“democratic culture, professional codes, digital future”, which are related to the news crisis 

reconsidered by Alexander, Breese, and Luengo (2016), and Doctor’s (2010) twelve news-economic 

“trends that will shape the news”, among others. 

Related to this question, in the present paper we propose a mapping of communicative relations in the 

news from four empirical media experiments, which will be done from a conception of the Map of 

communicative relations proposed in a preliminary way seeks to pass a contextual view of 

communication relations, presenting the theoretical references that are based on the Latin American 

cultural matrices and the sociosemiotic from which a map of communicative relations is proposed, 

which allows visualization under four perspectives of analysis: (i) Social, the sociocultural trajectory in 

which the media have developed, focusing on what is communicated and why, and presents the issue of 

public space and a path of media. (ii) Mercadological: the integration and strategic management of 

communication and how it is highlighted. (iii) Communicators: the question becomes who mediates, 

the logics of production and social control. (iv) Publics: the emphasis is on who (consumers, citizens, 

etc.) and involves questions of reception and appropriation of communication actions (Uhry, 2020).  

The Map of communicative relations can visually highlight problems associated with the crisis of 

journalism and for which alternative solutions can be proposed. However, the crisis also brings 

opportunities and imaginative possibilities that can allow for the reinvention of the news discourse, to 

which the Map can contribute by allowing for the visual formalization of findings. Such a visualization 

can make communicational problems clear and visually indicate possibilities in the face of issues 

involving the future of news communication. Our hypotheses are that the Map of communicative 

relations can contribute to face the news challenges related to de journalist crisis. 

 

2. Method 

The methodological approach to the problem of the journalistic crisis is qualitative with two stages: in 

one of which the Relational Map was formulated and the previous problems were identified; in the 

other, hybrid, with illustrative case studies, indicative research, analysis of the news discourse and 

visual formalization in the dimensions from the Relational Map, which is mainly inspired by 

Martín-Barbero (2003), Verón (1997) and Landowski (2014). It is used, as sources of the empirical 

evidence, documentation available on the Web.  

The challenge of the research consists in developing analytical capacities to critically evaluate the 

context of communicative relations in which the traditional hegemonic journalistic discourse is 

developed, in seeking to understand how and why news problems were formed, in glimpsing some 

counter-hegemonic news practices.  

 

 



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3. Possibilities for a Theory 

The starting point is the transdisciplinary approach to interactive communication, proposed by Uhry 

(2010), which can be useful to analyze specific communication actions. On reflection, one can say that 

it is the proposition of an explanatory model of communication built from different perspectives and 

areas of knowledge. It is something that incorporates “the different models already created” (Meunier 

& Peraya, 2008, p. 25), from different areas of knowledge. These authors define this kind of theoretical 

conception as unifying, for “defining a simple and universal model capable of explaining all empirical 

forms of communication, as well as their concrete manifestations”. However, they warn that “this 

approach tends to circumvent the relativity and complexity of scientific theories”.  

An alternative would be “to insist on their great diversity, explaining the causes”. The interest of this 

“is to link theoretical models to human activities, describing the practical, economic, political, 

scientific and ideological circumstances” that led to their “elaboration and determined their problematic 

horizon”, which brings a drawback of “letting the relative subsist letting appear only a diversity of 

particular questions and circumstantial answers” that we do not know if they are relevant. Which 

suggests that “we cannot reject one approach in favor of the other, but rather consider them 

simultaneously” (Meunier & Peraya, 2008, p. 25).  

On the other hand, also the report of the “International Commission for the study of communication 

problems”, chaired by Sean MacBride, records that communication is a social process that must be 

studied in relation to each angle, not in isolation, but in an extremely wide context, because it is aware 

that the interrelationships are very widespread (UNESCO, 1980, p. 16). 

Thus, the transdisciplinary approach to interactive communication (Uhry, 2010, pp. 57-62) seems to be 

a valid proposal for the analysis of a particular communication situation. However, because the 

communication phenomenon is “vast” and has many “interrelationships”, it requires one to also seek to 

examine it from different angles and even from a meta position, which suggests that it could be 

enriched by considering “simultaneously” another form of investigation and access.  

Another theoretical option starts from Verón (1997), who proposes a scheme that allows to identify and 

analyze “mediatization” from four zones of relations that are established between: (i) Media and 

non-media Institutions that are related to the political system, school system and scientific institutions; 

(ii) Media and Individual Actors that are related to media consumption; (iii) Institutions and Individual 

Actors that relate to internal media in organizations; (iv) Non-media Institutions and Individual Actors, 

which is exemplified with bribes given by the company to politicians. 

The idea of analyzing the media from relationships that are established is interesting, but it seems that 

the zones chosen would not be the most appropriate, as it restricts the analysis to media, non-media 

institutions of society, and individual actors. What about the other actors in society? 

 



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It is also not enough to “isolate” a specific sector of communication, but rather to consider the 

“interdependencies” and relationships between disciplines, within a transdisciplinary approach that 

considers complexity, which also involves examining the “ideological character” from the connections 

between “symbolic forms” and their signification in a “specific context”.  

The challenge of the transdisciplinary approach lies in “discovering what connects” communication, 

marketing, and other disciplines, to each other, and trying to understand communication even more 

comprehensively, from a meta position, considering ideological aspects from the analysis of fields. The 

model of interactive communication can thus be complemented by an analysis in an expanded 

perspective, which encompasses other aspects, among which are communicative relations with society. 

Among the possibilities, we can initially highlight Martín-Barbero’s Map of mediations (2003, pp. 

11-21), in which a reflection on the communicational hegemony of the market in society is proposed, in 

the sense that “we need to think about the strategic place that communication has come to occupy in the 

configuration of new models of society”, situating it so as to not only encompass technological aspects, 

but mainly issues related to culture and politics. 

The Map of mediations proposed by Martín-Barbero (2003, pp. 11-21) has two axes: One horizontal, 

diachronic, historical of long duration, between Cultural Matrices and Industrial Formats; Another 

vertical, synchronic, between Logics of Production and Competences of Reception (Consumption). 

According to Martín-Barbero (2003, pp. 16-21), the relations between Cultural Matrices and Logics of 

Production are mediated by different regimes of institutionality, while the relations between Cultural 

Matrices and Competences of Reception (Consumption) are mediated by different forms of sociality. 

Between Production Logics and Industrial Formats, technicities mediate, and between Industrial 

Formats and Reception Competences (Consumption), rituality’s mediate. 

For Martín-Barbero (2003, pp. 16-17), regarding Cultural Matrices and Industrial Formats: the relation 

refers to the history of changes in the articulation between social movements and public discourses. For 

example, the melodrama genre will become theater, then a chapter-length serial, from there it moves to 

radio theater and telenovela in Latin America, and to cinema in the United States. 

In Martín-Barbero’s (2003, pp. 17-18) perspective, Cultural Matrices and Reception Competencies 

(Consumption) are mediated by diverse forms of sociality: it reveals itself as a question of ends, of 

constitution of meaning. Generated in the weave of everyday relations that bring men together, it 

results in the collective modes and uses of communication, the interpellation and constitution of actors 

and their hegemonic or counter-hegemonic relations with power. It involves, on the part of the 

spectators, reading skills. 

Martín-Barbero (2003, p. 18) states that Cultural Matrixes and Logics of Production are mediated by 

institutionality: it becomes a question of means, production of public discourses whose hegemony is on 

the side of private interests. Mediation of opposing interests and powers that affect the regulation of 



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discourses that, on the part of the State, seek to maintain the status quo and, on the part of citizens 

(majorities and minorities), involve the defense of rights and recognition. It involves, on the part of the 

producers, strategies of anticipation. 

For Martín-Barbero (2003, pp. 18-19), Production Logics and Industrial Formats mediate technicities: 

it involves (i) business structure in its economic dimensions, professional ideology, and production 

routines; (ii) communicative competence to build publics, audiences, and consumers; (iii) technological 

competitiveness.  

And, in Martín-Barbero’s (2003, pp. 18-19) conception, Industrial Formats and Reception 

Competences (Consumption) are mediated by rituals: it refers to the symbolic nexus that sustains 

communication, its anchoring in memory, in rhythms and forms, its scenarios of interactivity and 

repetition. In relation to Industrial Formats, they constitute grammars of action: of looking, listening, 

reading, which implies, on the part of the media, a certain capacity to impose rules to the games 

between signification and situation. Seen from the perspective of Reception Competencies, they refer 

to the different social uses of the media and the multiple paths of reading.  

Thus, the scope of the analysis can be broadened by encompassing and localizing issues such as those 

mentioned. Martín-Barbero (2010, pp. XIII-XIX) registers that technological changes give rise to a new 

configuration, which he calls “a new communicative ecosystem” that is exposed in a new map of 

mediations, which he calls “communicative and cultural mutations”, also with four axes: one horizontal, 

migrations - flows; another vertical, temporalities - spatiality. The mediations between temporality and 

flows are given by technicity; flows and spatiality are equally mediated by rituality; while between 

migrations and spatiality the mediations are given by cognitiveness; and migrations and temporalities 

are mediated by identity.  

For Martín-Barbero (2010), temporalities highlight the experience of time, the cult of the present and 

the confusion of times with the issue of current simultaneity; spatiality refers to the spaces related to 

proximity and belonging, the communicational space woven by digital networks; mobility is related to 

migrations and virtual navigations and new forms of sensitivity; flows are those of information, images 

and digital writings that destabilize the literate and school culture (Martín-Barbero, 2010, pp. VII-XX). 

 

4. Discussion 

Lopes (2014, pp. 72-73) opines that this last writing by Martín-Barbero (2010) is “a remarkable effort 

in offering clues to elucidate” the relations between media and mediations, but his map of mediations 

(Martín-Barbero, 2003) is quite rich and comprehensive, to the point that Lopes (2014, p. 71) pointed 

out that it makes it possible to “operationalize the analysis of any social phenomenon that relates 

communication, culture, and politics” by articulating “producers, media, messages, receivers, and 

culture”. Martin-Barbero’s initial conception is interesting, but theoretical without empirical indications. 



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The last formulation, on the other hand, seems to focus on relevant themes such as “mobility and 

flows”, related to the present time, an option to be considered, alongside issues such as “temporality 

and spatiality”. 

There is also a theorization in macro sociosemiotic perspective, proposed Landowski (2014), which 

consists of four regimes of interaction and respective logics: (i) Accident (risk), founded in the logic of 

randomness, in mythical or mathematical probability, related to discontinuity and to “making it 

happen”. (ii) Manipulation (strategy), founded in the logic of intentionality, in consensual or decisional 

motivation, related to non-discontinuity and to “making want”. (iii) Programming (regularity), founded 

on the logic of causal or symbolic regularity, related to continuity and to “making things happen”. (iv) 

Adjustment (sensitivity), founded on the logic of perceptual or reactive sensitivity, related to 

non-continuity and “making feel” (Adapted from Landwski, 2014, p. 80). The perspective of 

Landowski’s model refers, for example, to adjustment as the best way in which one and the other can 

realize each other (accomplissement, in the original), creating a rewarding interactive relationship 

(Landowski, 2014, pp. 52-54). 

 

5. The Map of Communicative Relations 

Considering all the above, in our conception (Uhry, 2020), communication in society can be considered 

a form of social performance, in which a person acts (or not) on behalf of an organization, which is 

carried out through forms (and use of vehicles) of communication, with the purpose of reaching an 

individual, or even a large and heterogeneous extension of the population. And, in a complementary 

way, commercial communication develops, besides mass strategies of action, personalized forms. Thus, 

in summary, one can draw an overview of communication relations in society that can involve the 

following basic aspects and relate the actors and roles: 

(i) Who takes on the role of communicator and... (a) acts on behalf of an organization: Advertiser; 

Public relations; Audiovisual television or stage producer; Journalist, radio and television professional; 

Writer or editorial producer; Marketing communication professional; Digital communicator, 

multimedia producer; Institutional or organizational communicator; or (b) does not belong to an 

organization: Alternative communicator; Interlocutor, which can be any of the audiences to whom in 

principle the communication is directed, forming a circle of communicative relations with society, by 

also covering “to whom”, and others.  

(ii) What is communicated: the content and one or more strategies or discursive forms of establishing 

communication relations or social action: advertising, public relations, radio and television news 

communication (soap operas, movies, news, reports, music), digital via web or print, editorial and 

journalistic communication (books, newspapers, magazines, brochures and other printed matter), direct 

marketing, relationship marketing, personal selling, sales promotion, digital communication (social 



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networks, applications, platforms, etc.), institutional and/or organizational communication, etc. ), 

institutional and/or organizational communication (internal and external), alternative communication 

and others (dialogue, conversation, interlocution, etc.); others. 

(iii) Why: the objective of the action and the intended social effect: positioning and image, awakened 

attention, personalized contact, loyalty, consumption, flexibility, speed and low cost, information, 

values, entertainment, influence, seduction, persuasion, enchantment, sale, digital participation, 

two-way communication (feedback) and others. 

(iv) How: mediated, conveyed or disseminated through marketing performance (technology): radio, 

television, cinema, vehicles for dissemination: newspaper, magazine, book, brochures, posters, manuals, 

service catalogs and Point of Sale, mail, digital: Internet, e-mail, website, blog, relationship 

sites/communities, smartphone, tablet, computer, external media: outdoor, busdoor, billboards, 

customer service channels and perception of the receiver, conversation, telephone, cell phone, meetings, 

interaction, interlocution, and others. 

(v) To whom: the focus audience of the communication action, which can be: citizen, consumer or 

customer who assumes himself as spectator, listener, reader, internet user, interlocutor, prescriber; 

intermediaries (distributor, wholesaler, retailer) or interest groups (press, governments, NGOs, 

associations, shareholders, students and others), and channel monitors who follow the perception of 

receivers, interlocutors and others who can also assume themselves as communicators; and others who 

integrate society, with which a circle is formed with “whom” to communicate with; and others. 

Note that at the end of each of the following enumerations there are “others”, indicating a set open to 

other communicators, other forms of communication, other communicative objectives, other media, 

other publics, other conceptions of society, other values. For example, the group of communicators 

mentioned above is one of the most usual references, but it is well known that the practice of 

communication requires versatility, multiple competencies, and it is also desirable to have a more 

global, panoramic, and critical vision that allows us to face the challenges that the complexity of 

communicative relations with society present today. 

Reflecting on the “communication in society”, we have the conception of the “structure and function of 

communication”, published in 1948: 1) who? Communicators focuses on what Lasswell (1975) called 

“control analysis” in the sense of controlling communicators as to the factors that initiate and guide the 

communicative act; 2) what? Forms of social action have some correlation with what was called 

“content analysis”; 3) why? Social purpose is related to what was called “effect analysis”, the impact 

on the audience; 4) how? Marketing media can be associated to “media analysis”; 5) to whom? 

Audiences can be associated with audience analysis (Lasswell, 1975). The five areas are traditionally 

referred to in communication studies related to the “mass communication research” perspective of 

functionalist bias (“function and influence”).  



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By the way, the panoramic view “communication in society” (Uhry, 2020) seeks to go well beyond 

encompassing “structure and function” and expands to a cross-cutting relational conception of 

communication that goes beyond watertight areas of study. In relation to the theory of communicative 

relations, it is understood that, because it is a conception of complex perspective, such theorization 

cannot, in principle, be given as definitive. It is perceived that there are modifications in the way 

communicators are formed and in the way they end up acting in practice. There are migrations, 

contaminations of several orders such as advertising in journalistic productions, and vice-versa, which 

breaks the logic of exclusive professions, bringing the transversal, almost circular, concept of a 

polyvalent communicator. And even the consumer public can assume itself as a communicator and 

collaborate with organizations, which is called pro consumer. From all possible movements, arises the 

search for attention and participation of the public, focused on data that would be the new gold of today, 

the convergence of media, so many are the aspects that problematize any boundaries. Thus, we will 

continue to critically reflect on their suitability for the explanatory purpose of this work and open to all 

possibilities in all aspects of the model.  

This suggests that it is possible to rearrange the elements involved in the process so that they are not 

separated in specific categorizations and delimited. This is what is intended to be outlined in this article, 

by launching a more comprehensive look at communication to highlight the relationships of both social 

actors and the social performance itself and the elements involved. To this end, considering 

Martín-Barbero’s map (2003, pp. 11-21) and mainly from our overview of communication in society, 

which indicates the actors, forms of action and relationships, the following proposes the Map of 

communicative relations of the different territories of communication, with two relational axes:  

(i) Integration in a mediated way: which allows relating the Social aspect (what and why?) with the 

changes undergone towards the predominance of the Mercadological (how?), this more from the 

perspective of communication managers, which involves integrated communication management and 

the adaptation of cultural and industrial formats to market conveniences.  

(ii) Mediation in order to integrate: it relates social actors and analyzes the production logics of 

Communicators (who?) and the reception competencies of Publics (to whom?). 

The relational axes refer to the mediation systems being models of integration in the meeting of the 

axes “Integration in order to mediate” and “Mediation in order to integrate” and that, with the four 

perspectives, make up the Map of communicative relations. So exactly in the central quadrant of the 

Map of communicative relations, where the relational axes, which indicate the actions of integrating 

and mediating intersect, is where we locate the macro environmental forces “political-legal, economic 

(and technological), cultural” (Wright, Kroll, Parnel, 2000, pp. 47-59), concepts of Administration, to 

which we add the Symbolic dimension, related to tacit knowledge (Polany, 1997) and tékhné (art); and 

that has some similarity—and is complemented—with Parsons’ social system (Sociology), synthesized 



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and adapted from Habermas (2003, pp. 334-442): political (norms, purposes), economic (resources), 

culture (values), and personality (symbolic); which we can further propose to relate to Landowski’s 

(2014) logics and regimes of semiotic interaction: regularity (programming), intentionality 

(manipulation), randomness (accident), and sensibility (adjustment), as follows:  

Political and legal (norms, purposes), which involves the subsystem of integration (norms) and 

achievement of ends (purposes) and can be related to the logic of regularity and the interaction regime 

of programming. 

Economic, which encompasses the adaptation (technological means) and behavior (resources) 

subsystems and can be related to the randomness logic and the risk interaction regime. 

Cultural, which encompasses the system of maintaining cultural patterns and structures (values) and 

can be related to the logic of intentionality and the interaction regime of manipulation. 

Symbolic, which involves “a subsystem of personality”, life symbolically structured to achieve ends, 

perform roles, which is related to tacit knowledge (Polanyi, 1997) and technique (art) and which can be 

related to the logic of sensibility and the interaction regime of adjustment. 

In such a way, seeking to locate the communicative relations, we dare to propose theorization from the 

perspectives of analysis synthesized in Figure 1, in which the arrows indicate communicative relations 

in all directions (and suggest feedback) and compose the mapping of communicative relations that are 

established in communication in society, in the form of a Map indicating the two relational axes 

(mediate and integrate) with counterflows in the opposite direction (counter hegemonic), the 

connections, interfaces, articulations and confrontations between social actors, sociological categories, 

macro-environmental forces, disciplines, specialties, ways of communicating, and other possible 

connections that suggest complexity.  

It is a complex thing that happens through the communicational transversality among dimensions, 

perspectives, logics, and social actors, suggesting that rigid boundaries are eliminated and there is 

continuous communicational communication and feedback in all directions. The relational model is not 

intended to be fixed, immutable, but, on the contrary, each perspective or sector or term may be 

communicating with others, as in a flow in which there is intermingling and, at times, perspectives may 

get confused.  

Regarding transversality, the model indicates the flow integrating the Social to the Mercadological, but 

there may be a communicational counterflow, that is, a counter-hegemonic flow, in the opposite 

direction of the Mercadological, to reaffirm socio-cultural values, instead of Mercadological 

consumerism. Also, from the publics there can be a counterflow against mediate in order to integrate, 

inverting the direction, with the public assuming itself as an alternative communicator and inverting the 

sense of integrating to assume a responsible citizen posture. 

 



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With this preliminary theorization, which is intended to be flexible, we will now examine 

communication in society from the following perspectives of analysis: 

 

 

Figure 1. Map of Communicative Relations 

Source: Uhry (2020, p. 93). 

 

(i) Social: focus on what is acted in the social (strategy or form) and why, objective, or social effect to 

be communicated, in which, in its axis in the direction of the Mercadological perspective (cultural 

types and products), is related to the adequacy of cultural formats to commercial conveniences, that is, 

the industrialization of culture for the purposes of consumption of the Publics and the path of 

communication. And, from the Social to the Publics, it involves the cultural macro-environmental 

aspects and values, which are connected to maintaining cultural structures and patterns and is related to 

intentional logic and manipulative interactive relationships. And from Social to Communicators 

involves the political-legal aspects and the integrative subsystem, of norms and purpose, and is related 

to the logic of regularity and interactive programming relations. 

(ii) Communicators: who produces the communication, the communicative competencies, the social 

control, the professional ideologies, and productive routines, and is related to the Publics, which are 

citizens, consumers, and others. And, from Communicators in its axis in the Social sense, it considers 

political-legal macro-environmental forces and the norms (laws) and purposes that have a connection 

with integration and involves the logic of regularity and programming relations. From Communicators 

to Market involves the economic dimension and resources and can be related to the logic of 



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randomness and interactive risk relations. 

(iii) Publics: for whom? Consumers and/or citizens and others and involves reception issues and, in the 

direction to the Mercadological perspective, involves technological macro-environmental aspects, 

which are related to the function of obtaining ends and to the personality, symbolic, imaginary 

subsystem, and involves the logic of sensibility and the interactive relations of adjustment. And from 

the Publics towards the Social, it involves cultural aspects and values and can be related to the logic of 

intentionality and the interaction regime of manipulation. 

(iv) Mercadological: as, which involves the strategic management of integrated communication, the 

economic macro-environmental forces and, towards the Communicators axis, it is related to the 

economic forces, the resources and involves the logic of randomness and the interactive relations of 

risk. And the Mercadological has connection with the perspective of the Publics and the technologies of 

the imaginary and can be related to the logic of sensitivity and the interactive relations of adjustment. 

 

6. Mapping Communicative Relations in the News 

From the above, summarizing, the starting point of this conception was the transdisciplinary approach 

of interactive communication (Uhry, 2010), the map of mediations (Martín-Barbero, 2003), the 

mediatization scheme (Verón, 1997), the semiotic regimes of interaction (Landowski’s, 2014) and the 

overview of communication in society from which we propose the Map of communicative relations. 

This Map permit to formalize visual, to analyze, locate and go through the different territories of 

communication, proposing to examine the Social, Mercadological, Communicators and Publics 

perspectives and other issues involved, in a critical way, conceptualization that continues to be 

improved. 

Thinking of advancing with respect to this conception, we seek some empirical examples that can be 

considered possibilities of application. In such a way, if, on one hand, we can locate problematic issues 

on the Map of communicative relations, and propose alternatives, on the other hand, seeking to go 

beyond the simple location of problems, there are experimental possibilities of application of 

theorization and that make it possible to establish correlation with education, information, 

experimentation and art, for example, and can contribute to a future construction for communication, 

by the formation of critical readers and by educational and artistic experimentation. 

The empirical examples of communicational possibilities related to educational, informative, 

experimental, and artistic actions are the following, indicating communicative relations:  

(i) The Agency Lupa (2021), which was awarded in The Sigma Awards 2021 and has a technological 

application called “At the epicenter”, which informs about what would happen if Covid was located in 

its neighborhood, in number of dead or infected, which is available on the Web and was inserted in 

several Brazilian media, including in a North American one: “The Washington Post”, with the 



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denomination “At the epicenter”. Here the recognition of the “Sigma” award was given for the use of 

technologies called “data journalism”, with informative purpose, which can be considered as a 

counter-hegemonic posture for being against the data exploitation that has been done by the giant 

platforms (Big Five). Besides that, Lupa acts as a counter informative communicational agency by 

teaching about how to avoid false news through the newsletter “Lens—Extending the fight against 

misinformation”, sent by e-mail, which also characterizes informative communicational relationship 

that contributes to the formation of conscious and critical citizens. Analyzing the project “At the 

epicenter”, we can see that it is a news practice aimed at clarifying facts related to misinformation 

about the Covid-19 pandemic coming mainly from the presidency of the Brazilian government, which 

provides a public service of great relevance, which is why it deserved two more news awards ICFJ 

Knight Awards 2021 and WAN-IFRA Digital Media World 2021. 

As for the possible complex relationships that are established, the individuals who make up the 

collective of social actors “Communicators” of Lupa Agency may establish an educational relationship 

with the individuals who make up the collective of social actors “Public” by spreading through the web 

services and applications that are available in the “Social” and also in the consumer market 

“Mercadological” of certain societies (Brazilian and United States of America). The individuals that 

make up the collective of “Communicators” social actors have legal support, fruit of the social 

relationship that they maintain with the governments and that authorize them to unleash a mediated 

relationship of communication aiming to reach the Individuals who make up the collective of social 

actors “Public” to spread new values (informative, clarifying and educational), trying to persuade them, 

under the “Social” perspective, so that we become aware of the precautions in the pandemic, and be 

careful with the false news, seeking that individuals who make up the collective of social actors 

“Social”, even integrating the “Mercadological”, are aware of possible manipulations and the need for 

responsibilities, as to health practices, characterizing the “regime of interaction manipulation”, based 

on regularity, in “making people want” (Landowski, 2014, p. 80).  

(ii) The Learning Network of The New York Times (2021) created Mentor Texts, with the goal of 

teaching the writing that is practiced in the Times, demystifying for students the creative techniques 

that journalists used to delight, offering exercises to encourage students to try these same techniques in 

their own productions, which involves, for example, learning how to reflect on a personal experience, 

how to paraphrase an investigation, how to explain the importance of a theme, and how to include 

sensitive details when creating an argument. There is evidence of educational action and, at the same 

time, the practice of experimentation, which involves the Times’ social responsibility. Analyzing “The 

Learning Network” project, we can see that it is an educational practice focused on the production of 

news texts, which we suggest can be related to the development of writing skills, a practice that 

constitutes a relevant public service. 



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As for the possible complex relationships that are established, the individuals who make up the 

collective of social actors “Communicators” of the Times maintain a commercial relationship with 

individuals who make up the collective of social actors “Public”, specifically young reader consumers, 

and advertise “The Learning Network” services, made available to the young consumer market of the 

Times in a particular society (United States of America), since the “Communicators” have legal support, 

as a result of the social relationship they have with governments and that authorize them to trigger a 

mediated communication relationship aiming to reach the “Public” to disseminate writing lessons under 

mentoring, trying to persuade them to participate in the experience situated in the “Social” perspective, 

so that we may experience and develop writing skills, which, in essence, involves a commercial 

purpose proposed by the individuals that make up the collective of social actors of the “Marketing” of 

the Times, and which, in essence, is an implicit form of commercial relationship, so that young readers 

come to integrate (commercial relationship) with the readers of the newspaper, and the young 

individuals who make up the collective of social actors “Social” can integrate into the collective of 

social actors of the “Mercadological” as consumers of the Times, which can be related to the “regime 

of interaction adjustment” because it is based on sensitivity, on “making feel” (Landowski, 2014, p. 

80). 

(iii) “Art dreams us” consists of a website and a book by Carlos Netto (2021), in which is proposed the 

“music as revelation and inspiration of the being” and can be considered a relationship between large 

format journalism and art, artistic communication, by having an intentional educational function of 

formation of listeners and readers, from the hearing of classical music and reading texts made available 

both on the website and in printed book, in addition to the indication on the website of concerts and the 

possibility of interaction with readers and listeners. Here there is something of the spirituality value, 

related to art, that can underlie the communication relations, besides being able to be related to the 

“regime of interaction manipulation“ based on intentionality, on “making it happen” (Landowski, 2014, 

p. 8). Analyzing the “Art dreams us” project, we can see that it is an educational practice and the 

development of artistic perceptions focused on the development of artistic values, which we suggest 

can be related to the development of artistic competence, a practice that constitutes a relevant public 

service. 

As for the possible complex relationships that are established in this empirical example, the individual 

Carlos Netto who makes up the collective of social actors “Social” can establish a commercial 

relationship with individuals who make up the collective of social actors “Communicators” and request 

the publication of a book and the creation of a website, which are intentionally made available to the 

consumer market of a particular (Brazilian) society. The “Communicators” have legal support, the fruit 

of the social relationship that they maintain with the government, and that authorizes them to unleash a 

mediated relation of communication aiming to reach the individuals that compose the collective of 



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social actors “Public” to divulge “art dreams us” in print and on the web, from the initial request to the 

“Mercadological”, trying to persuade the individuals that compose the collective of social actors 

“Public” situated in the “Social” perspective so that we may participate in a commercial relation with 

the “Mercadological” and that we relate artistically and intellectually. That happens in a mediated way 

in the consumer market, becoming the “Citizens” integrated to the “Mercadological” via web or 

through the acquisition of the book.  

(iv) “Pantanal besieged” by shallow water labyrinth, from the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, is a 

photographic report (Maisonnave & Almeida, 2021) about the “agony of the Taquari River [that] 

transforms the Pantanal into a labyrinth of shallow waters”, which combines texts by Fabiano 

Maisonnave with color photos by Lalo de Almeida, which give an artistic tone to the story, besides 

infographics that have an educational function and are based on several scientific sources. It is a 

chapter of a Folha series focusing on the environment, related to the value ecology, which has an 

educational and awareness-raising function, for the formation of readers and clarification about ecology. 

By analyzing the “Pantanal besieged” project we can see that it is an educational practice and the 

development of perceptions about the environment, which we suggest can be related to the 

development of ecological competence, a practice that constitutes a relevant public service. 

As for the possible complex relationships that are established, the individuals who make up the 

collective of social actors “Communicators” of Folha maintain a commercial relationship with 

individuals who make up the collective of social actors “Public”, and disseminate the series with an 

ecological environmentalist bias, made available to the consumer market in a given society (Brazilian), 

since the “Communicators” have legal support, the result of the social relationship they have with the 

governments and that authorize them to trigger a mediated relationship of communication aiming at 

reaching the “Public” to disclose the “mathematical probability” of an ecological accident due to the 

neglect of the Pantanal wetlands, trying to persuade them to become aware of the situation, from the 

“Social” perspective, so that we can “make happen” actions of attention to nature. Which, in essence, 

involves commercial purpose, proposed by the individuals that make up the collective of social actors 

of the “Mercadological” of Folha’s. Which, in essence, is an implicit form of commercial relationship, 

so that readers aware or conscious of the possible environmental accident come to integrate 

(commercial relationship) to the newspaper’s readers, and the individuals that make up the “Social” 

social actor collective may integrate to the “Mercadological” social actor collective as Folha’s 

consumers, which can be related to the “risk interaction regime” (Landowski, 2014, p. 8) based on 

randomness, which has ecology as a value and is related to the possible discontinuity of nature 

preservation actions, a typical issue of Brazilian society. 

Thus, in a synthetic way, Figure 2 presents some relations that can be located the Map of 

communicative relations: (i) At the epicenter (Agency Lupa) with informative standards; (ii) the 



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learning network (The New York Times) with experimental technologies; (iii) Art dreams us with 

artistic values; (iv) Pantanal besieged (Folha de S. Paulo) with educational resources, which will be 

further explained below. 

From the exposed, synthetically the empirical examples allow relation between: (i) communication and 

information, in the case of At the epicenter (Agency Lupa), with humanist values, with use of 

informative standards; (ii) communication and experimentation, in the case of the learning network, of 

The New York Times, with spiritualist values with use of experimental technologies; (iii) 

communication and art, in the case of Art drems us (Carlos Netto), with spiritualist values, with use of 

artistic-cultural values; (iv) communication and education, in the case of Pantanal besieged (Folha de S. 

Paulo), with ecological values, using educational resources. 

 

 

Figure 2. Map of the Communicative Relations in News 

Source: The authors (2023). 

 

All the empirical cases can be considered experimental possibilities of communicative relations, which 

were presented in the context of the media, and which suggest possibilities of going beyond 

enumerating communication problems and proposing solutions. Thus, it was possible to visually apply 

the Map of communicative relations and suggest complex relations between journalism and education, 

information, experimentation, and art, which can be considered possibilities to go beyond, constituting 

alternatives for the construction of the communication and news of the future. 

 



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7. Final Considerations 

Finally, at the same time that there is a crisis in communication and the news, it is clear that there are 

opportunities for reinvention: to innovate journalistically in the digital medium so that the web 

becomes a public space that allows citizen communication; to contribute to improving the experience 

of both communicators and the enjoyment of interlocutors, among other journalistic experiences 

referred to, such as those involving education, information, experimentation, and the arts. From what is 

suggested that the visual mapping of communication relations can allow visualizing different 

possibilities of communicational actions with different ways to face the challenges in the construction 

of the news and the communication of the future. 

In a contextual perspective, we proposes a preliminary Map of communicative relations in the form of 

axes to envision communicative relationships: mediation that goes from communicators to audiences 

and integration of the social to the market, which involve aspects and dimensions indicate problems 

such as: norms and purposes (Political-legal) which are related to the problem of misinformation; 

resources (Economic) that can be associated with sensationalism; values (Cultural) related to 

consumerism; and imaginary (Symbolic) associated to negativism, for example.  

The results highlight the communicational relationships that are established and that can be visually 

formalized and located on the Map of communicative relationships, and it is suggested that the 

empirically: Agency Lupa, The Learning Network, Art dreams us and Pantanal besieged may be related 

to education, information, experimentation, and art and contribute to the revitalization of the news 

discourse. It is possible to make use of different possibilities and locate them visually on the Map of 

communicative relations, which can contribute to face the news challenges related to de journalist 

crisis. 

 

Acknowledgement 

The Ph.D. candidate Ricardo Uhry has a scholarship from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de 

Pessoal de Nìvel Superior (CAPES) and is supervised by Professor Ph.D. Kati Caetano, whom he 

thanks. Both authors are grateful for the comments of professors of the Work Group (GT in Portuguese) 

Theories of Communication of the 45th Brazilian Congress of Communication Sciences in João Pessoa 

(Brazil) in that was presented this research orally for the first time in 2022. 

 

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	Figure 2. Map of the Communicative Relations in News

