Anchored in capital: A Bourdieusian analysis of journalistic identity and resilience in the Portuguese field

This repeated cross-sectional study (2013-2023) examines the resilience of professional values in Portuguese journalism amid economic precarity and digital disruption. Integrating Bourdieu’s field theory with Raemy’s multi-level identity model, we show how journalists reinforce symbolic capital—intensifying watchdog roles and ethical norms—to preserve field autonomy. Using data from two waves of the Worlds of Journalism Study-Portugal, we analyze how this defensive consolidation operates through capital conversion across macro, meso, and micro levels. The findings reframe value stability not as inertia but as active identity work, offering insights into how peripheral media systems sustain professional coherence under duress.