Mapping Cognitive Geographies of Journalism: Professional Imaginaries Across the Local-National Divide in Portugal

This study maps the cognitive geography of Portuguese journalism, exploring how the local-national divide shapes professional imaginaries across platforms, formats, and news cultures. Drawing on Media Geography, Network Society Theory, Deep Mediatization, and Cultural Industries, we conceptualize journalistic self-perceptions as a dynamic system structured by spatial hierarchies, technological infrastructures, and industrial segmentation. Using data from the 2023 Portuguese Worlds of Journalism Study, we employ descriptive analysis, cross-tabulation, and t-tests to map the relational interplay of scale and technology. We find marked asymmetries between local and national actors, showing how technological embeddedness and industrial segmentation crystallize into distinct professional habitus. The study advances mapping as a critical method for diagnosing symbolic boundaries and structural inequalities in journalism's cognitive geography.