Disseminating information for citizenship development in Brazil: an analysis of the printed media news coverage on social indicators

Abstract

The Brazilian social policy agenda has been the subject of an increasing and systematic coverage by the media, noticeable by the frequency, depth and diversity in which certain social themes are presented in newspapers, Internet sites, and radio and television broadcasting. This paper aims to register part of
this process, presenting a quantitative-qualitative exploratory analysis of the coverage on Social Indicators in the printed media. About 515 articles from five Sao Paulo state’s newspapers were collected, and classified according to social topics and journalistic criteria (like informative/investigative nature, existence of graphical elements, etc.). The analysis of the material showed that the coverage of Social Indicators in the media is predominantly informative; however, the amount of interpretative matters was also found significant. Besides, it is not rare that they appear in the newspapers’ editorials and privileged pages. The graphs, photos and charts are frequently used as informative complement to the articles on Indicators. As far as apprehended by this analysis, it seems accurate to state that the Brazilian press is accomplishing its duties towards one of the aspects of Citizenship development: to bring to the citizens valuable and instrumental information, concerning their city and country’s social panorama.