Os guardiões da informação: a mídia como ator no ambiente de formulação de política externa

Abstract

The velocity of technological advances led to drastic decreases in process and transmission costs of information, but the International Relations Academy did little advance in media and foreign policy studies. The media is an autonomous and powerful actor amid the political game, possessing almost exclusive role as gatekeepers of the information that is transmitted to the public. This study seeks to analyse the place of the media in Brazilian society and its relations with the State, so the present work aims to illustrate the difference in the treatment given by different editorial lines to Brazilian foreign policy during the two mandates of the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010). The first part of this work corresponds to a theoretical analysis on this subfield of studies in the International Relations, the Foreign Policy Analyses, approaching the most varied perspectives, providing similarities and peculiarities. The second briefly describes Brazil's communication structure, focusing on the role of Veja and Carta Capital, chosen because of their important positions within the Brazilian information system and its well-known political ideologies. Finally, a comparison is made of how the two journals deal with foreign policy. Since they have different editorial lines, the hypothesis is the two journals present the foreign policy theme in a different way.