Belief and prejudice: Brazilian midia and religious issues - 2007/2008

Abstract

This research is a contribution to the critical analysis of Brazilian media. We intend to survey the way the main media are dealing, nowadays, with the explosion of religious issues in political, cultural, and daily life scenes. Our hypothesis is that the particular choices of the material to be published, the themes to be addressed and the languages devices may disclose some prejudices and partisanship that influence the public opinion in a subtle manner. The four most prestigious Brazilian publications are going to be scrutinized, on a daily and weekly basis - the newspapers O Globo, O Estado de São Paulo, Folha de S. Paulo and Veja magazine - during a period of seven months, and then this data will be gathered and processed according to the following axis: a) to verify if some religions or faiths are favored in spite of others (Catholic, Protestant, Islamic and Jewish) If so, what is the bias? ; b) what criteria and preconceptions preside over the selection and editing of the material; c) the handling applied to some up-to-date and very recurrent topics, like new-fundamentalism, religion and world strife, religion and the sense of social belonging ; d) how these messages on religion and faith, concealed or openly shown, turn out to be a sort of alignment, pro or against, whose effect is a sort of evangelization, casual but none the less persuasive. (AU)