
Ana Marta M. Flores
//journalist
//researcher
//trend analyst
//professor
/about

Hi, I hope you are on a good day.
Here are some of my work and study background. I have a PhD and a Master in Journalism from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) with a partial completion at the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and a degree in Media & Journalism.
I’ve worked as a lifestyle columnist, curator and fashion editor for newspapers, magazines, TV shows, events and fashion websites. I also worked on digital content production for Brazilian fashion brands. In addition to my career in the job market, I have been teaching postgraduate courses and MBAs since 2014, in areas focused on online journalism (UPF/Brazil), content and management of social platforms and digital media (Estácio de Sá/Brazil), Trend Research (Cesusc/Brazil) and Social Media Analysis (NOVA IMS/Portugal).
I am also a researcher associated with the NOVA Institute of Communication (ICNOVA), iNOVA Media Lab (NOVA University of Lisbon) and Obi.Media – Media Innovation Observatory. I am also a researcher at the Trends and Culture Management Lab, University of Lisbon and Núcleo de Estudos e Produção Hipermídia Aplicados ao Jornalismo – Nephi-Jor (UFSC/Brazil). I am currently a post-doctoral researcher on the project MyGender – Mediated young adults’ practices: advancing gender justice in and across mobile apps, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), based at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra.
/research














I still remember how I liked it when the teacher asked for a task we should do with research in primary school. My house has always had lots of books and I always liked to have a reason to take the heavy ones from the Delta Larousse collection from the bookshelf. Asking questions and researching was something I always loved to do. The journalist’s work, in some way, is eternal research: with more practical objectives and with very short deadlines, but the structures are very similar. During the undergraduate course in journalism, I realized that my interest in scientific research arose. Still, I worked in a newspaper, magazine, website, radio… I tried all the available possibilities, but I ended up having more opportunities in the academic environment. I like analysis, asking questions and trying to answer them, I like method and rigour. Maybe that’s why I always tried to trace a middle path, betting on areas that are not so traditional in the field of communication. In the monograph (UFN) and the master’s dissertation (UFSC), I felt that fashion and its movements deserved studies that understood their perspectives. Then I brought together the context of the boom of social media and plunged into this world: here and here.
I am interested in fashion journalism, and occasionally publish articles on the topic: here, here and here. Then I got to know the academic field of Trend Studies and immediately wanted to think about journalism from and through this perspective. I did a period of studies at the University of Lisbon and developed a methodology aimed at researching trends for innovation journalism. Now I have been venturing into Digital Methods, and once again I have appropriated the wealth of ideas in this field to think about journalism and the uses given to social platforms. I’ve already written a little bit about it here and here. Currently, I’m developing along with other researchers different projects, Stick & Flow: A Critical Framework for Investigating Bot Engagement on Social Media, at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS/Germåany), Attacks on the press in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic – a study of Jair Bolsonaro’s profiles on Social Media, at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) and MyGender – Mediated young adults’ practices: advancing gender justice in and across mobile apps, funded by FCT at The Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Coimbra.
/fashion journalism
Journalism has always been one of my main interests. Not infrequently I heard from friends, family and even teachers that fashion journalism was a “less important” version to dedicate myself to. I had the chance to learn a lot about many different areas while working with coverage of fashion weeks and the creative work of dozens of designers. To consider fashion only as clothes is a huge mistake. It’s like thinking that journalism is just a printed newspaper. And it was precisely on this idea that I built part of my Master’s thesis in which I observed the forms of Journalism and Fashion: both have periodicity, they are necessarily current and need to be disseminated, characteristics delimited by Otto Groth for the science of newspapers.
/trend analysis
Researching trends is one of the most interesting ways to never get bored. More than that, it is a way to make life more interesting because the trend researcher’s main job is to observe. Then, to systematise. Two characteristics I have carried with me since always. During my PhD, I developed a framework to identify specific trends for journalism. Read the thesis here (in Portuguese) and the report here.
/design
As a journalist, I am a reasonable designer. With all due respect to professional designers, I learned a lot from journalism about how to think about information in a clear and aesthetically pleasing way. So I have a lot of varied creations and it’s one of my favourite parts of creating.
/teaching
I have always enjoyed being helpful and having the good feeling of making something more logical, simple and better for someone else. I think that makes me a natural teacher and since 2014 I have been working on different postgraduate courses. The periodic, not constant model has always worked well as it has allowed me to dedicate myself to both research and classroom practices.
Since 2014 I also have had the opportunity to teach as a guest lecturer in postgraduate and master’s courses and, as well as research, the classroom environment is stimulating like no other. I taught subjects such as Social Media Analytics (NOVA IMS/FCSH), Trend Analysis and Consumer Insights (CESUSC), Innovation and Trends (UFSC), Hypermedia, Language and Interactivity (UPF) and Social Networks and Social Media (Estácio de Sá)

/contact
Don’t hesitate to reach out with the contact information below, or send a message using the form.
/content creation
Since 2012 I have been working with social platform management and specific content for online social networks. I’ve worked with fashion, decor and lifestyle content. More recently I’ve been working on science promotion and research-related topics on social media.