Presentation
Created in 2015, the LaPIJ (Laboratory of Practices and Identities of Journalism) is an inter-university research center based at the University of Brussels and at the University of Mons, in close partnership with the University of Montreal, the University of Brásilia, and the Federal University of Bahia. In 2021, it brings together nearly thirty researchers working on issues in the sociology of journalism, and more broadly on journalism studies.
The LaPIJ responds to the need to analyze and confront, as researchers and teachers in journalism, the transformations that the profession is currently undergoing, the changes in professions and identities, the arrival of new figures in the news media sector, and the questioning of the profession of journalist.
An interdisciplinary laboratory
The LaPIJ is a space for reflection and exchanges on journalism, especially on the practices and identities of all those who do journalism. The central objective is to produce scientific knowledge rooted in the issues encountered nowadays by the journalistic and media world. This involves building bridges between academic research and the professional world on central questions such as diversity in the profession, precariousness and the economic and social working conditions, organizational violence, the report of journalists to the science, information flow, etc.
Producing targeted knowledge on the transformations of the identities and practices of media workers requires both applied research approaches and fundamental research rooted in history, sociology, linguistics, information, and social sciences. communication and political science.
The LaPIJ is currently developing three main lines of research
- A socio-history of Belgian journalism with CAMILLE, the ULB-KBR media and information archive center. The center intends to offer a digital platform for archives of newspapers, magazines, books, and specific funds and is developing research dedicated to the history of journalism in Belgium (dictionary of Belgian journalists ; history of jurisprudence of the press card ; analysis of critical discourse on journalism) ;
- A critical analysis of the evolution and diversity of identities and working and employment conditions of media workers : gender relations, relations between media workers, the evolution of employment and working conditions, journalism in confinement, diversity in the media, harassment of journalists, representations of ethics, etc. The work on Belgium is notably developed in partnership with the professional journalists’ association (AJP) or the journalistic ethics council (CDJ). On the Brazilian side, the partnership is being built with Labinter ;
- A comprehensive perspective of media practices : media coverage of Islam or the Coronavirus pandemic, news values, etc. The laboratory is not only interested in the disseminated journalistic stories, but also in the production processes and in the issues of the relations between journalists, sources and audiences, and the various actors who participate in journalism as a collective activity.
This website should allow you to explore the news, projects, and profiles of our members.
David Domingo, Florence Le Cam and Manon Libert for the coordination of LaPIJ.
To contact us : lapij@ulb.be
