Contexto, objetividade e sensacionalismo na cobertura jornalística de direitos de crianças e adolescentes

The actual policies for preserving rights of children and adolescents in Brazil follow the international legal framework and are considered an advancement in several respects. One of the factors which may contribute to their consolidation is the symbolic representations of social rights constructed by the media. This paper describes the results of research which comprised frame analysis of 130 news stories about that subject from the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, which tends to embrace the ideal of journalistic objectivity, and Agora São Paulo, which explores appeals that may be considered sensationalist within the scientific literature, from July 2010 to December 2010. We assessed the presence of a variety of sources and information on public policies, from sources such as the Statute of Children and Adolescents as well as data and perspectives necessary for contextualizing the facts in the news coverage. Based on empirical data, we argue that the appeal of sensationalist news was found more frequently associated with superficial journalistic coverage of rights of children and adolescents. But the differences between newspapers are small, and the lack of information is distributed similarly in respect of certain aspects between them, suggesting the persistence of sensationalism as a concept of moderate validity for explaining differences of editorial profiles.As políticas públicas de preservação dos direitos de crianças e adolescentes em vigor no Brasil seguem o quadro jurídico internacional e são consideradas um avanço em diversos aspectos. Entre os fatores que podem contribuir para sua consolidação, estão as representações simbólicas dos direitos sociais construídas pelos meios de comunicação. Este artigo descreve os resultados de pesquisa que envolveu análise, em corte comparativo, dos enquadramentos de 130 matérias relacionadas a essa temática publicadas pelos jornais Folha de S. Paulo, tido como veículo de referência que tende a adotar o ideal de objetividade jornalística, e Agora São Paulo, que explora apelos que podem ser considerados sensacionalistas pela literatura especializada, no período de julho de 2010 a dezembro de 2010. Verificamos a pluralidade de fontes e a presença de informações sobre políticas públicas do setor, provenientes de fontes como o Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente, além de dados e perspectivas necessários à contextualização do fato na cobertura noticiosa. Com os dados empíricos obtidos, sustentamos que o sensacionalismo aparece com mais frequência associado a uma cobertura descontextualizada dos direitos de crianças e adolescentes. Mas as diferenças entre os jornais são discretas e as insuficiências de apuração se distribuem, sob certos aspectos, de maneira semelhante entre eles, o que sugere a permanência do sensacionalismo como conceito de validade relativa para explicar características de comportamento editorial.Context, objectivity and sensationalism in the journalistic coverage of rights of children and adolescents Abstract: The actual policies for preserving rights of children and adolescents in Brazil follow the international legal framework and are considered an advancement in several respects. One of the factors which may contribute to their consolidation is the symbolic representations of social rights constructed by the media. This paper describes the results of research which comprised frame analysis of 130 news stories about that subject from the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, which tends to embrace the ideal of journalistic objectivity, and Agora São Paulo, which explores appeals that may be considered sensationalist within the scientific literature, from July 2010 to December 2010. We assessed the presence of a variety of sources and information on public policies, from sources such as the Statute of Children and Adolescents as well as data and perspectives necessary for contextualizing the facts in the news coverage. Based on empirical data, we argue that the appeal of sensationalist news was found more frequently associated with superficial journalistic coverage of rights of children and adolescents. But the differences between newspapers are small, and the lack of information is distributed similarly in respect of certain aspects between them, suggesting the persistence of sensationalism as a concept of moderate validity for explaining differences of editorial profiles