Editorial

OBSERVE, COMMUNICATE, PARTICIPATE, INTERVENE

The septenary of the Public Communication Observatory is a conquest of theory and practice. We celebrate this arrival at seven years old remembering the cultural and mythological knowledge, and the scientific coincidences that chose seven as the odd number for descriptions of life and the universe. Especially on that day, we remember that it is a symbol of conclusions, cycles and renewal, because this is how we are in 2022.

After seven years, we can say that the Public Communication Observatory has succeeded and has gone beyond its daring initial objective of operationalizing processes for “monitoring the repercussion of policies and issues of public interest”. Approved by the CNPq, it was then constituted as a public space at the public university (UFRGS) and operated by the Nucleus for Research and Public and Political Communication (NUCOP). Capturing, classifying, analyzing, making visible issues and products that synthesize communication and public interest are the hallmarks of this trajectory.

The experience of OBCOMP allowed the concepts of public communication, public event, public diffusion – which identify the communication of public institutions, organized society, the press and the public debate between state, media and public opinion around themes of public interest –, acquire concreteness. In addition to the development of research, theses, dissertations and articles originating from NUCOP, the site allowed an exercise of citizenship, through the visibility of topics of public interest identified in situations and products generated by public and private organizations, as well as related scientific production. to political, governmental, state communication and public events.

The importance of this work has generated important partnerships and associations with institutional networks such as INCT.DD – National Institute of Science and Technology in Digital Democracy; Latin American Network of Chairs and Observatories on Communication and Information, Culture and Social Development; RNCD - National Network to Combat Misinformation; RENOI - National Network of Press Observatories, in addition to partnerships with Objethos - Observatory of Journalistic Ethics and with the research group GCCOP - Research Group on Organizational Communication, Culture and Power Relations.

In addition to the digital space, OBCOMP's headquarters is room 208 at PPGCOM/UFRGS, which in these seven years has housed undergraduate students, scientific initiation scholarship holders and master's students, with dedication around the Observatory. It is worth mentioning and thanking Angelo Neckel, Brenda da Cruz, Jean Felipe Rossatto, Flahane da Roza, Lisiane Perfect, Luciana Leite and Yago Nascimento. The master's and doctoral students, under the guidance of Professor Maria Helena Weber, are responsible for the operation and quality of the Observatory, which, in these seven years, also had the technical and critical coordination of Dr. Ana Javes Luz, who managed the Observatory.

The impact of the pandemic, since 2020, imposed disagreements and valued work and virtual meetings, and OBCOMP became quieter but soon returned to the fore, built by an enthusiastic team and proposals for restructuring. We arrived, then, in 2022, when researchers and professors, formerly students, from different institutions, decided to link the project to other Brazilian universities (UFPel, UFRGS, UFSM-FW and UFSC) and to Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3). As a result, we also celebrate the transformation of OBCOMP into a space and extension activity at UFRGS, UFSC and UFSM-FW. In this new cycle, the structure of the site starts to value the autonomy and expansion of the sections, as well as a new aesthetic configuration that allows for greater access and visibility. Coordination is in the hands of Maria Helena Weber (UFRGS), Fiorenza Zandonade Carnielli (UFRGS), Ana Javes Luz (NUCOP), Basilio Alberto Sartor (UFRGS), Camila César (Sorbonne), Carlos Locatelli (UFSC), Caroline Casali (UFPel ), Janaina Gomes (UFSM/FW); Maria Berenice Machado (UFRGS) and Marlise Viegas Brenol (NUCOP).

We ratify here the objectives for this new stage of OBCOMP, determined by five normative axes: (a) Public Communication: promoting the understanding that public communication is immanent to the democratic state and public institutions; (b) Public Interest and citizenship: giving visibility to topics of public interest in the media, public and private campaigns, communication products, opinions, manifestations and deliberations; (c) Public Debate: promote debate on controversial, sensitive topics promoted by scientific production, articles, interviews, information and others; (d) Research and scientific dissemination: carry out the monitoring, capture, classification and dissemination of information on scientific production and social knowledge and (e) Educational Practice and Extension: develop interinstitutional work aimed at learning and extension processes that expand the responsibility of universities.

Finally, we reiterate that the activities carried out by OBCOMP reinforce its importance as a public communication space, capable of making visible and debating speeches and communication products that value Brazilian democracy and combat those who threaten it through disinformation, restricting access to information of public interest, intimidating free opinion and, consequently, reducing public debate. This is what makes it possible to expand the public function of the university and the exercise of citizenship by those who keep the Public Communication Observatory alive, to whom we owe many thanks.

Porto Alegre, August 26, 2022.