«No mission more sublime». The press and Portuguese journalism in United States: a sociocultural overview (1920-1940)

Abstract

Following the en masse arrival of Portuguese immigrants to the United States between 1900 and 1929, the Portuguese press became an interesting professional niche for whoever had the training and the technical capabilities to publish a newspaper that could attract enough subscribers and advertisers to make it economically viable. Although the Portuguese diaspora in its majority originated from the Azores archipelago, with very particular personal profiles associated with a poor rural world, they managed to develop their own media ecosystem. The process of consolidation of this model of ethnic press and journalism developed with enormous limitations and some unique situations, not only in the way of producing content, but also in the type of advertising. Some of the sociocultural traits that characterized the Portuguese press within the USA are covered in this investigation of the period between 1920 and 1940, perhaps its most productive and significative historic period. This cycle, however, coincided with the arrival of the radio, competition with which caused a significant reduction in advertising, forcing the closure of some newspapers. Through a methodology that uses a documentary research, the work focuses mainly on analyzing the political economy of this type of phenomenon, some of its most representative sociocultural dynamics and its relationship with the Portuguese authorities.