The Somatechnic Hermeneutic: “Embodying” the Worlds of Journalism Study

This study introduces a somatechnic hermeneutic to bridge the theoretical insights of the bodily turn in journalism studies with the empirical architecture of large-scale survey research, exemplified by the Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS). We argue that indicators such as safety, autonomy, precarity, and role conceptions are not merely abstract variables but proxies for lived, embodied experience. Applying this hermeneutic to Portugal's paradoxical profile–marked by high physical safety alongside acute economic precarity–we identify a state of somatic dissonance, in which the journalistic body is caught between physical protection and systemic strain. Through comparative analysis, we demonstrate how this dissonance fractures professional self-perception, revealing that professional role commitments are not only cognitive ideals but also corporeal practices. This approach re-frames perceptual survey data into a narrative of embodied experience and provides a framework for addressing empirical paradoxes, offering a transferable methodology for understanding how the pressures of journalism are somatically registered and endured across diverse media systems.