FRAMES AND AGENDAS OF THE COVERAGE OF TRANSGENICS IN THE NEWSPAPERS OF THE STATE OF SAO PAULO: INFORMATION AS A POTENTIAL SUPPORT OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

• Grant number: 07/08217-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2008
• End date: December 31, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Journalism and Publishing
• Principal Investigator: Danilo Rothberg
• Grantee: Danilo Brancalhão Berbel
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas. Universidade do Sagrado Coração (USC). Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Online public consultations are new forms of discussing and generating political decisions, which can provide a significant channel of participation in the formulation of public policies. From July to September 2007, the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (National Agency of Sanitary Control, Anvisa) launched the online public consultation nº 63, with the purpose of getting contributions to the Proposal of Technical Rules to the evaluation of the safety to the human consumption of food having or consisting of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and of food having or consisting of products derived from animals fed by GMO or from their derived products. The participation in consultations demands knowledge and information which sustain the development of perspectives and consistent suggestions, and the scene constructed by journalism still is a relevant source in this context. This project proposes identifying the main frames and agendas built by the newspapers Folha de S. Paulo e O Estado de S. Paulo from March 2005 to September 2007 about subjects connected to the focus of the online public consultation nº 63, in order to evaluate the plurality of informations and interpretations offered by the two main newspapers of the state of São Paulo as a potencial support of political participation in the formulation of the rules in question. As results, we expect: a) a characterization of the symbolic perspectives which could have influenced the frames imposed by the government on the public consultation nº 63, considering that the consultation proposes a potential settlement to intermediate conflicts of interest represented by Ministry of Health, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of the Environment; b) a characterization of the main frames and agendas - and the political and economic interests associated to them - built by the two main newspapers of the State of São Paulo, in a period which was crucial to the conjunction of the sectors involved in the regulation proposed by the public consultation in question.