Comparison of corporate and radical media coverage in Bauru: during the protests of 2013 and 2016

Abstract

Brazil experienced a troubled social agitation in June 2013. At that period the Brazilian population started to demand social changes, and the Confederations Cup ended up inciting a scenario of social indignation even more. The internet has become a tool for those people, who criticized stadium infrastructure expenses and legislative changes promoted by FIFA. In partnership with independent news agency "Mídia NINJA", investigative journalism agency "Agência Pública" produced the infographic "Erros da Copa" in May highlighting human rights violations carried out at that time. On April 5, 2013 a group of women protested against FIFA's decision to ban them from selling the traditional Brazilian savory Acarajé near a stadium in Salvador . That was only one out of several protests that were to happen. In that scenario of popular dissatisfaction, a bus fare increase was the last straw that triggered a series of protests across the country. "Movimento Passe Livre" (MPL) organized the first of them on June 6 in São Paulo, which gathered about 4 thousand people who wanted to express their disagreement on the fare increase. In two weeks the protests increased unexpectedly as 1.4 million people went to the streets of approximately 120 Brazilian cities. The media coverage of such events was performed by corporate media, both nationally and regionally, as well as by radical media, which creates content organized by subaltern strata of society and spreads information against the status quo (DOWNING, 2002).In 2016 protests broke out across Brazil, such as occupations carried out by students from public schools. They were mostly against both the Secondary Education Reform and the constitutional amendment called PEC 55, which proposes budget cuts in the Brazilian educational system. Both business and radical media covered it, the latter organized by the students themselves who spread on-line content about the movement. This research will compare and qualitatively analyze the business media's narratives such as "Jornal da Cidade" (Bauru, SP) as well as radical media's narrative such as "Mídia NINJA" and "Coletivo Fora do Eixo" (FDE). It will focus Bauru, a city in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and will compare 2013 and 2016, thus studying the evolution and coverage of the aforementioned events. Coextensively with media organizations and their characteristics, the study of social movements is fundamental to developing and performing journalism. (AU)