Imagem jornalística e desenvolvimento local: as representações dos sertões no Jornal O Globo e Agência Globo

Abstract

The current study analyzes the social representations made by the national press about the hinterlands (Sertão) in northern Brazil. The research focus is centered on photographs published by newspapers, therefore, identifying elements that take place on people’s mind due to the those published stories that introduce the Sertão to the rest of Brazil. The research is based on the Theory of Social Representations, photo images and local development from authors Serge Moscovici, Celso Pereira de Sá, Roland Barthes, Philippe Dubbois, Boris Kossoy, Sandra Jatahy Pesavento, Jacques Aumont, Graziano da Silva, Froehlich, Markus Brose, Mauro Del Grossi, José Eli da Veiga, Durval Albuquerque Junior, Mauro Wolf, Patrick Charaudeau, Augusto de Franco, Tauk Santos and Michael Kunczik. It is a case study to analyze photographs, available from Agência Globo and O Globo newspaper website, related to Sertão between 2003 and 2010. The case study presents evidence that those images led to a representation of Sertão as a place of isolation, dry, poverty, with no access to technology and sanitation, with a very poor structure of transportation and farming.