O Diário do Rio de Janeiro e a imprensa brasileira do início do oitocentos (1808 – 1837)

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze the trajectory of the periodical titled Diário do Rio de Janeiro—the first daily newspaper ever printed in Brazil—between the years of 18211837. Few studies have been dedicated to the initial phase of its printing, while most studies focused on the latter part, with the literary bias that started in the 1840‘s and then later when it took root as a vehicle of propagation of national literature in the 1950‘s, where many important classics such as José de Alencar‘s ―O Guarani‖ were eventually published. Historiography supports the claim that during its initial years, the Diário do Rio de Janeiro was merely informative and did not interfere with the court‘s quotidian life. Contrary to this belief, our objective was to illustrate that as a markedly informative newspaper, it did in fact contribute to the quotidian life of the court in the sense that it brought the idea of life in a society by combining great quantities of various ads, news from the imperial government and from other countries, inventions, novelties in science, medicine and literature, and all that was considered to be most useful to the readership. It was a widespread periodical because of its low price and considerable usefulness in light of its numerous ads. Additionally, it was observed that during the tail end of the 1820‘s and the beginning of the 1830‘s, it would indeed become a newspaper that clearly served to propagate the ideas of a well-defined political group called the Caramurus. It was important for this thesis to pervade the universe of the press of Rio de Janeiro during the First Kingdom, delve into to the beginning of the printing press period and the era in which the first newspapers were published, and to permeate into the Regency period—the period when the Diário dedicated itself more exclusively to political discussion without leaving its information and commercial bias and its clashes with other existing newspapers behind.