Os programas de informação no segundo canal da RTP: de 1968 a 1991

This article is the result of a part of an investigation that seeks to characterize the evolution of prime time in-formation programs (which exclude newscasts) of the current RTP2. As the second television channel to appear in Portugal, RTP2 has known different designations since its origin, in 1968, to the present day. In 2020, at the II Conference for the History of Journalism in Portugal, we presented RTP2’s information programs from 1992 to 2001. We now seek to continue this work by focusing on the period from 1968 to 1991. This time frame includes important moments in the history of RTP2, from the first years of broadcast — when the channel mostly complemented RTP1 -, until the moment when the channel starts transmitting varied and original programs. This happens essentially in the post-25th of April and throughout the 1980s, until the beginning of the 1990s, with RTP2 broadcasting several important information programs in the national scene. To investigate and characterize the prime time information programs from RTP2, the main coordinates were duration, format, the journalist who conducts the program and the theme. We also sought to characterize the evolution of RTP2 by assessing the investment made in the different spaces dedicated to journalistic information during prime time.