Volume (19): Issue (1)

Port cities constituted dynamic axes of national territories and stood out for their opening to the outside world for the transaction of goods, the reception of the new and the exchange of ideas. They were also free spaces for new technological experiences and the foundation of modern economic, scientific, social and political projects. They stood out as privileged territories for the establishment of networks of knowledge and through these networks maintained the contact with distant lands. Intellectual production in them is remarkable and the periodical press, providing general or specialized information, as an information industry at the service of new political, scientific and economic projects, finds space for its development within the port cities. This Special Section brings together researchers working on these subjects, allowing a multidisciplinary approach involving scholars from such scientific areas as communication, information, history, literature and international relations. The objective is to analyse the relationship between the periodic press and port cities and how these urban spaces fostered public opinion and debate projects, as well as new specialized information.

O Comércio do Porto, <i>O Primeiro de Janeiro</i> and <i>Jornal de Notícias</i> were the main newspapers launched in Porto during the nineteenth century. They were founded at a time the city was of central importance for its trade and international relations, but also because it was the epicentre of the main political movements that led to great changes in the country’s governance. They evolved according to the city developments and gradually gained prestige and national reach. Ideological models of press gave way to news editorial projects, and Porto newspapers also followed that path. Each editorial profile was built from the initial matrix, but also by gradually adapting to reader preferences and enhancing identification processes within the novelty of news formats. These daily newspapers were, at some point, led by charismatic owners and directors who became key factors in their evolution. The aim of this study is to identify these specific editorial lines and how they gained the loyalty of readers, taking into consideration the role of these newspapers in building common identity.

The Mozambique-born journalist João dos Santos Albasini (1876–1922) is one of the most well-known names of the colonial periodical press of the Portuguese Empire. Furthermore, he is often mentioned in historiographical accounts on the birth and development of literary culture in colonial Mozambique. Albasini lived during the period of development of the port facilities in Lourenço Marques and as it underwent deep transformations in its social relations. As a main project of the capital city’s growth, the development of the port and the railways dominated urban life and the landscape, which is reflected peculiarly in Albasini’s life and writing. This article is a case study of the relationship between the colonial periodical press and port cities through analyses of a selection of his chronicles published in the newspapers <i>O Africano</i> (The African) (1908–18) and <i>O Brado Africano</i> (The African Cry) (1918–75).

This article deals with the contribution of Macao Portuguese newspapers to the dissemination of sources, themes and works of a historical nature, often called <i>antiguidades</i> (‘relics’) and <i>memorias historicas</i> (‘historical memories’) and the politicization of historiographical text – a vast but practically unexplored topic that deserves an independent study. The approach is exploratory and descriptive, being first a non-detailed inventory of the theme, proposing a transversal reading of the press, the study of which is often focused on a chronological/thematic description of the various newspapers and magazines. A cross analysis was also carried out of the serials’ historical contents highlighting the writer/editor’s influence in selection, appropriation and dissemination of this same memories, compared with their individual historiographical writings and political and cultural intervention. Space constraints limit the present article – the first of a series under the general heading ‘relics’ and ‘historical memories’ – to the first half of the nineteenth century and to the newspaper <i>O Macaista Imparcial</i> (‘The impartial Macanese’) published between 1836 and 1838. Diversified historic news were found in the serial compiled by José Baptista de Miranda e Lima (1782–1848), a Portuguese and Latin grammar teacher as well as prominent and controversial figure of early liberalism in Macao. Being one of the first known authors to write in the Macanese creole, or patoá (‘patois’), he also used ethnic arguments in political reasoning, which deserves to be better explored. The present article concludes that the historical recurrence brought into the pages of <i>O Macaista Imparcial</i> is a traditional and foundational narrative of Macao’s exceptional and atypical characteristics, built and maintained under the Portuguese banner and, thanks to the perseverance, ability and skills of those in the terrain, deserving of recognition and of reward.

This article intends to contribute towards the study of harbour cities, reflecting on the circulation of things and people, matters associated with national borders and multiple identities that cross paths there. Considering the history of Macao, its relationship with the Portuguese colonial empire and the challenges posed to the Macanese identity, this article intends to analyse representations of Macao and the Macanese produced in Portugal during the colonial period, considering some of them may still have repercussions today. Representations in generally accessed documents, such as the periodical press, will be analysed, as will events, such as great exhibitions, that were directed to a broader audience and which were frequently incorporated into colonial propaganda. By realizing that even today the movement towards the internationalization of Macao and China itself also involves Portugal, one concludes this is an interesting place for reflecting on power strategies, the circulation of individuals and the formation of identities.

In 1924, two well-known Portuguese servicemen made the first flight between Lisbon and Macau. The press of the time not only followed this adventure but also supported it, playing an active role as it unfolded. This article presents a comparison of the content of news published in two Portuguese newspapers, the <i>Diário de Lisboa</i> and <i>Comércio do Porto</i>, one based in Lisbon and the other in Porto, between 1 April and 30 June that year, the period during which the trip took place. The aim is to analyse the involvement of these periodicals in this project, which assumes journalistic characteristics, but also their commitment to raise funds and their role in the mobilization of the public and as intermediaries between the pilots and public authorities.

Under the assumption that economic competitiveness has a significant impact on the overall level of corruption in a given country, the present study evaluates the influence that a wide array of national reforms related to the pillars of structural competitiveness has on corruption in the case of Greece. In order to inform national and regional policies against corruption, three indices were calculated that express: (1) the impact of each specific reform on corruption; (2) the required reform effort and (3) the efficiency of the reform index, taking into consideration the competitiveness gap between Greece and Switzerland – the country with the best performance worldwide in terms of competitiveness. These indicators may indicate which reforms have the highest payoff in terms of corruption abatement, which are less costly to undertake and which deliver the greatest reduction in corruption per required effort, respectively. The empirical results of this study suggest that in a number of areas the associated reforms may translate into lower levels of corruption. Under this conceptual framework, institutions seem to be of high importance as they have a substantial impact as far as the reduction of corruption is concerned, with relatively low reform effort. Therefore, a comprehensive policy reform referring to the pillars of structural competitiveness is expected to deliver lower levels of corruption in Greece, allowing the substantial increase of its competitiveness and hence its faster convergence with the more advanced economies in the European Union.