It was held last 4th of December 2015 during all day, at the Faculty of Communication and Journalism of the University of Porto, the day of celebration for the 20 years of cyber journalism in Portugal, including conferences, presentations and awards. Among many activities, there was the conference of Professor Fernando Zamith (Universidade do Porto) entitled “Do ObCiber à RIIC: investigar em rede“, in which was presented the work done by the team of researchers of the ObCiber (Observatory of cyber journalism) and the RIIC (International Network of Research about Cyber Journalism).
The ObCiber is a “nucleus of researchers made in 2008 to observe and analyze, on a regular basis, the evolution of cyber journalism in Portugal and in the World“, based at the CETAC.media, Centre for Studies of the technology and science of communication. Coordinators of the entire project, the researchers Fernando Zamith, Helder Bastos and Isabel Reis, accompanied by scholars and collaborators. The project aims to promote the study on cyber journalism, create a virtual library, create a list of portuguese online media , organize conferences, disseminate and reward the best projects.
After the presentation of the ObCiber, the focus has moved to the International Network of Research on Cyber Journalism (RIIC), university network focusing on research groups and conferences that aims to study and analyze the world of cyber journalism in the Iberian-American context.
Therefore it’s clear that the cyber journalism is an area that needs a lot more research than it seems, standing now at the top in the ranking of the interests of scholars of journalism and communication.