Which political reform does Brazilian journalism discuss? A study about the coverage of Folha de S. Paulo’s website between 1994 and 2016

Authors

  • Camila Mont'Alverne Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba (Brasil)
  • Victor Hausen Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba (Brasil)
  • Pedro Henrique Leite Universidade Federal do Paraná (Brasil)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.43.1289

Keywords:

political journalism, political reform, journalistic agenda, portal da folha de S. Paulo, content analysis

Abstract

This article analyzes the coverage of the Brazilian political reforms made by Folha de S. Paulo’s website between 1994 and 2016 by merging the literature in Political Science on this subject and studies in Political Journalism. To do so, we conducted an automated content analysis of 6,038 texts. The results indicate that political reforms are constantly in the journalistic agenda; that some concerns remain during the period, such as discussions about proportional representation, rules related to the party system, and the norms that regulate electoral campaigns, and that although the information and opinion sections have similar agendas, the latter speculates about the party system and the systems of government

Author Biographies

Camila Mont'Alverne, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba (Brasil)

Ph.D. in Political Science from the Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil, and member of the Research Group on Communication, Policy and Technology (PONTE). She holds a master in Communications from the Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC). Capes fellow. Her research interests are Political Journalism, Media and Elections, and Internet and Politics. She has recently published on these subjects in the following journals: Brazilian Political Science Review, Revista Brasileira de Ciência Política, Brazilian Journalism Research and The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies (Wiley-Blackwell, in press, 2018)

Victor Hausen, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba (Brasil)

Holds a degree in Social Sciences, with focus on Political Science (Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR)) and programmer. He has an interest in Political Behavior, and in how applying Network Science, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computer Vision (CV) and Machine Learning can help us understand social phenomena

Pedro Henrique Leite, Universidade Federal do Paraná (Brasil)

Graduated from the bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences with focus on Political Science (Universidade Federal do Paraná). He belongs to the Group of Research in Communication, Politics and Technology – PONTE (http://www.ponte.ufpr.br). His research areas are politics and technology, political communication and digital democracy.

References

Abranches, S. H. (1988). Presidencialismo de Coalizão: O Dilema Institucional Brasileiro [Coalitional presidentialism: Brazil’s institutional dilemma]. Dados, 31(1), 5–34.
Almeida, A. C. (2006). Amnésia eleitoral: em quem você votou para deputado em 2002? E em 1998? [Electoral amnesia: who did you vote for congressmen in 2002? And in 1998?] In G. A. D. Soares & L. Rennó (Eds.), Reforma política: lições da história recente [Political reform: lessons from recent past] (pp. 34-46). Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Ames, B. (2001). The Deadlock of Democracy in Brazil. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press.
Amorim Neto, O. (2006). A reforma do sistema de governo: rumo ao parlamentarismo ou ao semipresidencialismo? [The reform of government system: towards parliamentarism or semipresidentialism?] In G. A. D. Soares & L. Rennó (Eds.), Reforma política: lições da história recente [Political reform: lessons from recent past] (pp. 316-344). Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Arnold, R. D. (2004). Congress, the Press, and Political Accountability. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Avritzer, L. (2016). Impasses da democracia no Brasil [Standoffs of democracy in Brazil]. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira.
Avritzer, L. & Anastasia, F. (2006). Reforma política no Brasil. Reforma Política no Brasil [Political Reform in Brazil]. Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG.
Azevedo, F. A. (2005). Imprensa e Legislativo: os editoriais da Folha de S. Paulo sobre o Senado (2003-2004) [Press and Legislative: Folha de S. Paulo editorials on the Senate]. XIV Encontro da Compós, Niterói. Retrieved from http://www.compos.org.br/data/biblioteca_793.pdf
Azevedo, F. A. & Chaia, V. L. M. (2008). O Senado nos editoriais dos jornais paulistas (2003-2004) [The Senate in editorials of São Paulo’s newspapers]. Opinião Pública, 14(1), 173-204. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-62762008000100007
Bresser-Pereira, L. C. (2015). A construção política do Brasil [The political construction of Brazil]. São Paulo: Editora 34.
Bucci, E. (2000). Sobre ética e imprensa [About ethics and the press]. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Burscher, B., Vliegenthart, R., & de Vreese, C. H. (2016). Frames Beyond Words: Applying Cluster and Sentiment Analysis to News Coverage of the Nuclear Power Issue. Social Science Computer Review, 34(5), 530-545. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439315596385
Cervi, E. U. & Massuchin, M. G. (2013a). Metodologia quantitativa em pesquisas sobre cobertura jornalística: análise da eleição municipal de 2012 na Folha de S. Paulo [Quantitative methodology in researches on journalist coverage: analysis of the 2012 municipal election in Folha de S. Paulo]. Famecos: Mídia, Cultura e Tecnologia, 20(3), 840-865. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-3729.2013.3.13324
Cervi, E. U. & Massuchin, M. G. (2013b). O que interessa ao público nos portais informativos? – as notícias ‘mais lidas do dia’ e o papel da internet como fonte de informação política durante o período eleitoral [What interest for the public in the informational websites? – the ‘most read news of the day’ and the role of internet as a source of information political on electoral period]. Revista Compolítica, 3(2), 123-154. https://doi.org/10.21878/compolitica.2013.3.2.47
Cook, T. E. (1989). Making laws and making news. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.
Cook, T. E. (2005). Governing with the news. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Correia, J. C. (2011). O admirável mundo das notícias: Teorias e Métodos [The wonderful world of news: Theory and Method]. Covilhã: LabCom Books.
Couto, C. G. & Arantes, R. B. (2006). Constituição, Governo e Democracia no Brasil [Constitution, Government and Democracy in Brazil]. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, 21(61), 41-62. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-69092006000200003
Eilders, C. (1999). Synchronization of Issue Agendas in News and Editorials of the Prestige Press in Germany. The International Journal of Communications Research, 24(3), 301-328. https://doi.org/10.1515/comm.1999.24.3.301
Entman, R. M. (2004). Projections of power: framing news, public opinion, and U.S. foreign policy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Espinosa, P. M. (2003). Géneros para la persuasión en prensa: los editoriales del diario El País [Persuasion genres in the press: El País’ newspaper editorials]. Ámbitos, (9-10), 225-238. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11441/12698
Figueiredo, A. C. & Limongi, F. (2001). Executivo e Legislativo na nova ordem constitucional [Executive and Legislative in the new constitutional order]. Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Figueiredo, A. C. & Limongi, F. (2006). Poder de agenda na democracia brasileira: desempenho do governo no presidencialismo pluripartidário [Agenda-setting power in Brazilian democracy: government performance in multiparty presidentialism]. In G. A. D. Soares & L. Rennó (Eds.), Reforma política: lições da história recente [Political reform: lessons from recent past] (pp. 249-280). Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Flaounas, I., Ali, O., Lansdall-Welfare, T., De Bie, T., Mosdell, N., Lewis, J., & Cristianini, N. (2013). Research methods in the age of digital journalism: Massive-scale automated analysis of newscontent—topics, style and gender. Digital Journalism, 1(1), 102-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2012.714928
Galtung, J. & Ruge, M. (1965). The structure of foreign news: The Presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus Crises in four Norwegian Newspapers. Journal of Peace Research, 2(1), 64-90. https://doi.org/10.1177/002234336500200104
Gomes, W. & Almada, M. P. (2014, May). ONDAS DE NOTÍCIAS POLÍTICAS: as dinâmicas da atenção pública no noticiário político de TV [POLITICAL NEWS WAVES: Dynamics of the news media public attention in TV News]. Paper presented at the XXIII Encontro Anual da Compós, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém. Retrieved from http://www.compos.org.br/biblioteca/gomes_almada_vers%C3%A3o_enviada_comp%C3%B3s_2014_2178.pdf
Grimmer, J. & Stewart, B. M. (2013). Text as data: The promise and pitfalls of automatic content analysis methods for political texts. Political Analysis, 21(3), 267-297. https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/mps028
Günther, E. & Quandt, T. (2016). Word Counts and Topic Models. Digital Journalism, 4(1), 75–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2015.1093270
Harcup, T. & O’Neill, D. (2001). What Is News? Galtung and Ruge revisited. Journalism Studies, 2(2), 261-280. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616700118449
Hopkins, D. & King, G. (2010). A Method of Automated Nonparametric Content Analysis for Social Science. American Journal of Political Science, 54(1), 229-247. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2009.00428.x
Limongi, F. (2006). Presidencialismo e governo de coalizão [Presidentialism and coalition government]. In L. Avritzer & F. Anastasia (Eds.), Reforma Política no Brasil [Political Reform in Brazil] (pp. 237–257). Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG.
Maia, R. (2008). Deliberação e mídia [Deliberation and Media]. In R. C. M. Maia (Ed.), Mídia e Deliberação [Media and Deliberation] (pp. 93-122). Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Masip, P. (2005). Rutinas periodísticas e internet en la información diaria [News production routines and the internet in daily information]. Paper presented at the III Congrés Internacional Comunicació I Realitat (pp. 561-576). Barcelona: Universitat Ramon Llull.
McCombs, M. & Shaw, D. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(2), 176-187. https://doi.org/10.1086/267990
Melo, C. R. (2006). Sistema partidário, presidencialismo e reforma política no Brasil [Party system, presidentialism and political reform in Brazil]. In G. A. D. Soares & L. R. Rennó (Eds.), Reforma política: lições da história recente [Political reform: lessons from recent past] (pp. 155-175). Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Menke, M., Kinnebrock, S., Kretzschmar, S., Aichberger, I., Broersma, M., Hummel, R., … Salaverría, R. (2018). Convergence Culture in European Newsrooms: Comparing editorial strategies for cross-media news production in six countries. Journalism Studies, 19(6), 881-904. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1232175
Miguel, L. F. (2002). Os meios de comunicação e a prática política [The media and political practice]. Lua Nova: Revista de Cultura e Política, (55–56), 155-184. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-64452002000100007
Mont’Alverne, C. (2017). A quem se dirigem os editoriais? Um estudo acerca de personagens e instituições mencionadas pelos jornais O Estado de S. Paulo e Folha de S. Paulo [Who are the targets of journalistic editorials? A study concerning agents and institutions mentioned by two Brazilian newspapers]. Revista Brasileira de Ciência Política, (23), 7-34. Retrieved from http://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/rbcp/article/view/30145
Mont’Alverne, C. & Marques, F. P. J. A. (2015). A opinião da empresa no Jornalismo brasileiro: Um estudo sobre a função e a influência política dos editoriais [The company’s opinion in Brazilian journalism: A study on the role and political influence of editorials]. Estudos Em Jornalismo e Mídia, 12(1), 121-137. https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-6924.2015v12n1p121
Nicolau, J. (2008). Cinco opções, uma escolha: o debate sobre a reforma do sistema eleitoral no Brasil [Five options, one choice: the debate about reforms of the electoral system in Brazil]. In T. Mulholland & L. R. Rennó (Eds.), Reforma política em questão [Political reform under discussion] (pp. 129–141). Brasília: Editora UnB.
Nicolau, J. (2017). Representantes de quem? [Representatives of whom?]. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar.
Nicolau, J. & Power, T. J. (2007). Instituições representativas no Brasil: balanço e reforma [Brazilian representative institutions: evaluation and reform]. Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG.
Noleto Filho, P. (2009). A imagem pública do Congresso: Uma análise político-midiática [Congress public image: A political-mediatic analysis]. Universidade de Brasília. Retrieved from http://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/7605
Pang, B. & Lee, L. (2008). Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis. Foundations and Trends® in Information Retrieval, 2(1-2), 1-135. Retrieved from https://www.nowpublishers.com/article/Details/INR-011
Power, T. J. & Zucco Jr., C. (2011). O Congresso por ele mesmo: autopercepções da classe política brasileira [The Congress by itself: selfperceptions of Brazilian politicians]. Belo Horizonte: Editoria UFMG.
Preston, P. (2015). News Values. In G. Mazzoleni (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication (pp. 1-6). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc062
Rennó, L. R. (2006). O dilema do rico: número de candidatos, identificação partidária e accountability nas eleições de 2002 para a Câmara dos Deputados [The rich’s dilemma: candidates supply, partisan identification and accountability in 2002 elections to the House of Representatives]. In G. A. D. Soares & L. Rennó (Eds.), Reforma política: lições da história recente [Political reform: lessons from recent past] (pp. 47-69). Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Rennó, L. R. (2008). Reformas políticas no Brasil: realizadas e prováveis [Political reforms in Brasil: accomplishments and prospectives]. In T. Mulholland & L. R. Rennó (Eds.), Reforma política em questão [Political reform in under discussion] (pp. 13-42). Brasília: Editora UFMG.
Salaverría, R. & Negredo, S. (2008). Periodismo integrado–convergencia de medios y reorganización de redacciones [Integrated journalism - media convergence and newsrooms’ reorganization]. Barcelona: Sol90Media.
Salgado, E. & Silva, D. (2017, May). O avanço do retrocesso: Alterações legislativas e restrições à comunicação política [Legislative changes and restrictions on political communication in municipal elections]. Paper presented at the VI Congresso da Compolítica. Retrieved from http://www.compolitica.org/home/?page_id=1838
Santos, F. (2006). Em defesa do presidencialismo de coalizão [Defending Coalitional presidentialism]. In G. A. D. Soares & L. Rennó (Eds.), Reforma política: lições da história recente [Political reform: lessons from recent past] (pp. 281-295). Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Sevenans, J. (2017). The Media’s Informational Function in Political Agenda-Setting Processes. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 22(2), 223-243. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161217695142
Sjøvaag, H. & Stavelin, E. (2012). Web media and the quantitative content analysis: Methodological challenges in measuring online news content. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 18(2), 215-229. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856511429641
Soares, G. A. D. & Rennó, L. (2006). Reforma política: lições da história recente [Political reform: lessons from recent past]. Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Sudhahar, S., Franzosi, R., & Cristianini, N. (2011, October). Automating Quantitative Narrative Analysis of News Data. In T. Diethe, J. Balcazar, J. Shawe-Taylor, & C. Tirnauca, JMLR: Workshop and Conference Proceedings 17, 17 (pp. 63-71). Retrieved from http://proceedings.mlr.press/v17/sudhahar11a/sudhahar11a.pdf
Tavares, C. & Massuchin, M. (2017). Informação política na internet em tempo de campanha no Brasil: as escolhas dos produtores nos portais informativos Folha, G1 e UOL [Political information on the Internet during campaign in Brazil: producer’s choices in Folha, G1 e UOL information portals]. In A. Moreira, E. Araújo, & H. Sousa (Eds.), Comunicação e Política: tempos, contextos e desafios [Communication and politics: periods, contexts and challenges] (pp. 169-193). Braga: CECS.
Tavares, J. A. G. (1998). Reforma política e retrocesso democrático: agenda para reformas pontuais no sistema eleitoral e partidário brasileiro [Political reform and democratic setback: an agenda to specfic reforms in Brazilian electoral and party systems]. Porto Alegre: Mercado Aberto.
Tuchman, G. (1978). Making news: A study in the Construction of Reality. Free Press.
van Dalen, A. (2015). Journalism, Political. In G. Mazzoleni (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication (pp. 1-10). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc058
Weaver, D. H., McCombs, M. E., & Spellman, C. (2000). O Caso Watergate e os media [The Watergate case in the media]. In N. Traquina (Ed.), O poder do Jornalismo. Análise e textos da Teoria do Agendamento [The power of journalism. Analysis and texts of the agenda-setting theory] (pp. 77-95). Coimbra: Minerva Editora

Published

2018-12-30

How to Cite

Mont’Alverne, C. ., Hausen, V. ., & Henrique Leite, P. (2018). Which political reform does Brazilian journalism discuss? A study about the coverage of Folha de S. Paulo’s website between 1994 and 2016. Cuadernos.Info, (43), 201–219. https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.43.1289