Representações do Oriente Médio na imprensa: uma análise da editoria internacional nos jornais Folha de S. Paulo e O Globo

Abstract

The Middle East is constantly present in Brazilian journalistic narratives, given its strategic location and geopolitical importance to the world. Often, information about the region shares space with a system of stereotyped and generalist beliefs about the populations and characteristics of the countries that compose it, called by Said (2007) as Orientalism. The mass media are fundamental objects in this relationship, as they constantly provide information about the region. In this context, the present research proposes to identify and compare the representations of the Middle East broadcast by the international editorials of the newspapers Folha de S. Paulo and O Globo, with the central objective of answering the question: how is the Middle East represented by the two printed media? Our theoretical contribution focuses on the concept of Orientalism (SAID, 2007), its overlap with Social Representations (MOSCOVICI, 2007) and how these two phenomena are manifested in journalistic narratives. Our analytical corpus consists of the articles published by the newspapers Folha de S. Paulo and O Globo - in their printed versions, from January 1 to May 31, 2018. We use Content Analysis as methodological support (BARDIN, 2016), in its thematic-categorical modality, based on the categories of Conflicts and Gender and Identity Issues. At the end of the work, the analyzes made it possible to identify that coverage over the region remains anchored in elements of negativity, such as suffering and violence. We have also detected the prominence given to Western assessments of the region. In addition, we verified the existence of an agenda of issues related to female and identity guidelines, present throughout the months of exploration of the corpus.