Historias en prensa: recuperación de la memoria histórica sobre prácticas comunicativas con voceadores de prensa en la Bogotá de los años 40’s a los 70’s

Abstract

Studies on the history of the written press in Colombia have focused on two themes, mainly: its relationship with politics and power elites, and secondly, the effects of violence, in any of its expressions (armed, censorship of contents, murders of journalists, among others). For this reason, other voices that enrich that story told from public figures, official voices and not from other social actors in the print media have been unknown. Along these lines, the stories of the spokespersons, who are mentioned in historical texts as ‘newspaper vendors’, have been ignored. But beyond the role they play in the press distribution process, there are micro stories that account for the socio-cultural value of their profession. The approach that will be taken from Social Communication is made interesting by the reconstruction of the communication practices with which the town crier ceases to be classified as a seller, and adopts the role of subject with communication tactics and skills, as this research reviews, resignifying his trade. This is important if one takes into account that many of those who work in this work started as children and, in most cases, had not even attended a school, as some texts on child labor in the country relate, as this It was a second-rate job and poorly paid. In this sense, our research is of a qualitative nature, using the collection of microhistories as a working tool, characteristic of historical research, and which focuses on the communicative practices of the spokesmen. With this, it will be possible to reconstruct micro-stories about his trade, based on his testimonies, which will provide another look at the history of the press in Colombia.

Studies on the history of the written press in Colombia have focused on two themes, mainly: its relationship with politics and power elites, and secondly, the effects of violence, in any of its expressions (armed, censorship of contents, murders of journalists, among others). For this reason, other voices that enrich that story told from public figures, official voices and not from other social actors in the print media have been unknown. Along these lines, the stories of the spokespersons, who are mentioned in historical texts as ‘newspaper vendors’, have been ignored. But beyond the role they play in the press distribution process, there are micro stories that account for the socio-cultural value of their profession. The approach that will be taken from Social Communication is made interesting by the reconstruction of the communication practices with which the town crier ceases to be classified as a seller, and adopts the role of subject with communication tactics and skills, as this research reviews, resignifying his trade. This is important if one takes into account that many of those who work in this work started as children and, in most cases, had not even attended a school, as some texts on child labor in the country relate, as this It was a second-rate job and poorly paid. In this sense, our research is of a qualitative nature, using the collection of microhistories as a working tool, characteristic of historical research, and which focuses on the communicative practices of the spokesmen. With this, it will be possible to reconstruct micro-stories about his trade, based on his testimonies, which will provide another look at the history of the press in Colombia.