Danilo Rothberg

Scientific knowledge and digital democracy in Brazil: how to assess public health policy debate with applied Scientometrics

We proposed an original research design based on applied Scientometrics and frame analysis to assess how a citation was made to sustain arguments in documents on public health policies subjected to online public consultation from 2003 to 2008 in Brazil. So we built on citation studies to create a new scale to estimate why a scientific work was mentioned in our sample of 278 citations. We found that government branches make citations mainly to value their arguments, not to explain them, and that contributors mainly make citations in such a way that could discourage others from engaging in digital democracy.

Enquadramentos de transgênicos nos jornais paulistas: informação como potencial subsídio à participação política

In 2007, Brazils National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) conducted an online public consultation to obtain input on its Proposed Technical Regulations for assessing the safety of transgenic food products. The article describes the context and results of a research study that identified the main ways in which the newspapers Folha de S.Paulo and O Estado de S.Paulo framed and addressed topics related to the subject matter of this consultation. Our goal was to evaluate the gamut of information available that could contribute to this form of political participation. The journalistic coverage in question was generally fragmented; 70% of articles offered incomplete views on the topics in question.

La educación en medios y las políticas educativas brasileñas para la mejora del aprendizaje

As media education concepts and practices have been disseminated and strengthened in European countries and Americas, the policies responsible for that expansion remain little known, particularly in countries where the achievements have been recently noted. That is the case for Brazil, where there have been new opportunities for media education, considered as a valuable resource to help accomplish goals of the educational system. This paper looks into the contribution of media education to the enhance ment of teaching and learning in the context of innovations brought by recent policies of the Brazilian Ministry of Education. After educational reform programmes which brought the opportunity for emerging fields such as media education, we produced teaching material and conducted a series of workshops with students and teachers from state secondary schools. By reading and producing multimedia information about local public services available to young people, pupils learned about democracy, citizenship, civic engagement, media language, and identity. Lessons from our experiment are discussed against the backdrop of education policies being implemented to ameliorate harsh conditions resulting from the recent economic crisis. We suggest that media education can help by creating a learning environment in which the students become aware of the value of educational attainments. RESUMEN Los conceptos y practicas de educacion en medios se han diseminado cada vez mas en paises europeos y americanos. Las politicas responsables de su expansion son aun poco conocidas, en particular en paises donde sus realizaciones solo han sido percibidas recientemente. Asi es el caso de Brasil, donde han surgido nuevas oportunidades de educacion en medios. Este trabajo examina la contribucion de la educacion en medios para la mejora de la ensenanza y del aprendizaje en el marco de las innovaciones aportadas por las recientes politicas del Ministerio de Educacion de Brasil. Tras los programas de reforma educativa, se tuvo la oportunidad de introducir campos emergentes como la alfabetizacion mediatica, con la produccion de materiales para la ensenanza y la realizacion de una serie de talleres con alumnos y profesores de las escuelas secundarias publicas. Mediante la lectura y produccion de informacion multimedia, sobre los servicios publicos locales disponibles para los jovenes, los estudiantes reflexionaron de forma sistematica sobre democracia, ciudadania, participacion civica, comunicacion e identidad. Estas innovaciones tienen cabida en el contexto de las politicas educativas que se estan implementando para mejorar las duras condiciones establecidas en un pasado reciente por la crisis economica. En esta propuesta, abogamos por que la educacion en medios ayude a la creacion de ambientes de aprendizaje favorecedores para que los alumnos tomen conciencia del valor de los logros educativos.

Experimenting with Media Education, Civic Engagement, and Sustainability in Brazilian Schools

Abstract Purpose This paper presents the results of research carried out by the Media Education for Sustainability Project, based at the Federal University of Triangulo Mineiro (UFTM). The project investigated the potential for engaging marginalized communities with educational centers to generate and utilize media and networks, which can be used to promote healthier and resilient lifestyles in the community. Methodology/approach The project’s activities used the “Design of Meaning” theoretical framework to design collaborative group work in order to foster key skills for promoting agency and awareness of local problems affecting the environment. Underpinned by Action Research methodology, a series of workshops were piloted with the participation of 20 secondary school students. Findings Results suggested that such a creative learning environment can help students develop the skills needed to be active citizens, such as the ability to access, evaluate, use, and contribute to public information addressing issues of democratic participation and accountability. Nevertheless, challenges centered around student motivation and difficulties in engaging with their communities’ contexts will need to be dealt with in future Action Research cycles. Originality/value Based on our observations during the workshops, and subsequent feedback from participants, we suggest that Media Education tools show potential for improving school learning, encouraging the community in the search for answers based on local knowledge, and engaging students in a debate about critical issues and challenges at the local level. We believe that this outcome was achieved in part due to the deployment of multimodal languages and creative use of technologies.

Enquadramentos midiáticos e sua influência sobre a consolidação de direitos de crianças e adolescentes

This article brings a contribution to the comprehension of the path of recognizing the rights of children and adolescents in Brazil, in which there have been seen symbolic representations that often are created, modified or popularized by the media. Newspapers with the largest circulation in the state of Sao Paulo in a period after almost 20 year of the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA) coming into force were investigated with framing analysis. Results suggest that the ECA faces obstacles to its consolidation, in the form of superficial and fragmented media coverage of events that should be contextualized in relation to public policies and their specific understanding of causes and possible solutions applicable.

Comunicação pública para cidadania no avanço das redes sociais oficiais

O avanco da exploracao das redes sociais por governos pode gerar iniciativas de comunicacao publica capazes de contribuir para o aprofundamento da cidadania, pensada como exercicio do direito a informacao sobre gestao publica. Este artigo descreve resultados de pesquisa que avaliou, atraves de analise de conteudo, a abrangencia e a profundidade da informacao oferecida pelo governo do Estado de Sao Paulo em textos noticiosos acessados atraves das redes sociais Twitter, YouTube, Facebook e Orkut para divulgar propositos, linhas de acao e limites de politicas publicas de impacto imediato para a cidadania, das areas de assistencia social, saude, educacao e meio ambiente. Os resultados indicam que a amostra analisada contem, em media, entre 28% e 40% do total de informacoes consideradas como necessarias para a caracterizacao abrangente e plural das politicas publicas enfocadas, segundo o contexto teorico-metodologico da pesquisa.

Comunicação da ciência e cidadania: os critérios da produção jornalística

This article, from a study of Regis Debray’s work, discusses mediology in its role as a tool for analyzing ideas and symbolic transmission. It first poses questions regarding the definition of this line of thought and its real contributions in the field of communication. As such, the principal theories proposed by Mediology have been discussed in order to trace the material conditions for its approach to communicational knowledge, having Regis Debray’s four works on mediology as the main focus.Non-fiction discourses in both cinema and TV have mostly been determined by what we canterm as ‘the logic of reality representation’ whereby factuality resides to an extent in the valueof the image as index. In opposition to this, the present article advocates the importance ofknowledge as an open-ended process as illustrated by a number of examples in film history.Here, the clash of discourses lays the foundations of a truly dialogic conception of knowledge.As a result, axiomatic values are openly questioned and philosophical reflection is putforward as a valid model for non-fictional cinematic practice in spite of its uncertainty andlack of resolution. Following this, the text focuses on films and examples which consciouslyundermine a documentary logic, defending the need to assess the latter in constant tensionwith the discursive parameters inherent to any audiovisual exercise.Scientific images are used as a discursive resource to informs, communicate and challengeus. They are also objects that provide the most diverse and different forms of public communicationof science. Thus, this work reveals the diffusion of science through the braziliancommemorative postage stamps issued in twentieth century. In this research, 2354 postagestamps were identified, using both RHM and Scott Catalogs. From this universe, 104 stampsformed our amplified sample, from a proposed categorization of its textual-pictorial elements.Finally, 4 stamps were used as our restricted sample, on which we deepen an interpretativereading. The research enabled us to consider that postages stamps participates, as well asother media, in the diffusion of science, contributes to build scientific cultures and indicatestheoretical and technical criteria towards the statute of postages stamps.Communication and science, in public policy, should allow society to develop their democraticsystems. In limiting the increasingly democratic systems located in various corners of theworld, science seems to be a matter of strange or gifted beings and some of itss findings havebecome an absolute mystery. The academy (represented in public and private universities)and state institutes and/or private research highly complex subjects and has become a kindof ivory tower to which the ordinary citizen has no access and where scientific results areconsidered as issues uniquely destined for the discussion of an empowered elite. This article,which is a product of research on “Public Communication: a space for the construction ofdemocracy” made by a collective group of researchers in Communication, Organization andPolicy-COP-, attempts to address the importance of public communication, disclosure andsocial appropriation of science as a factor in the consolidation of democracy.Public Understanding of Science and Technology includes debates and actions towards informationsrights, digital inclusion and citizen participation in public policies. This paper analyzesa group of news about public consultations published in the governmental website of thebrazilian Ministry of Science and Technology. In this way, the study discusses the relationshipbetween Communication and online mechanisms that promote citizen engagement inPublic Administration in order to foster and legitimate joint deliberations made possible bytechnological resources applied to journalistic practices. We argue that this practices are stillunderrated, despite the possibilities presented by technological advancement.

Contexto, objetividade e sensacionalismo na cobertura jornalística de direitos de crianças e adolescentes

As politicas publicas de preservacao dos direitos de criancas e adolescentes em vigor no Brasil seguem o quadro juridico internacional e sao consideradas um avanco em diversos aspectos. Entre os fatores que podem contribuir para sua consolidacao, estao as representacoes simbolicas dos direitos sociais construidas pelos meios de comunicacao. Este artigo descreve os resultados de pesquisa que envolveu analise, em corte comparativo, dos enquadramentos de 130 materias relacionadas a essa tematica publicadas pelos jornais Folha de S. Paulo, tido como veiculo de referencia que tende a adotar o ideal de objetividade jornalistica, e Agora Sao Paulo, que explora apelos que podem ser considerados sensacionalistas pela literatura especializada, no periodo de julho de 2010 a dezembro de 2010. Verificamos a pluralidade de fontes e a presenca de informacoes sobre politicas publicas do setor, provenientes de fontes como o Estatuto da Crianca e do Adolescente, alem de dados e perspectivas necessarios a contextualizacao do fato na cobertura noticiosa. Com os dados empiricos obtidos, sustentamos que o sensacionalismo aparece com mais frequencia associado a uma cobertura descontextualizada dos direitos de criancas e adolescentes. Mas as diferencas entre os jornais sao discretas e as insuficiencias de apuracao se distribuem, sob certos aspectos, de maneira semelhante entre eles, o que sugere a permanencia do sensacionalismo como conceito de validade relativa para explicar caracteristicas de comportamento editorial.Context, objectivity and sensationalism in the journalistic coverage of rights of children and adolescents Abstract: The actual policies for preserving rights of children and adolescents in Brazil follow the international legal framework and are considered an advancement in several respects. One of the factors which may contribute to their consolidation is the symbolic representations of social rights constructed by the media. This paper describes the results of research which comprised frame analysis of 130 news stories about that subject from the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, which tends to embrace the ideal of journalistic objectivity, and Agora Sao Paulo, which explores appeals that may be considered sensationalist within the scientific literature, from July 2010 to December 2010. We assessed the presence of a variety of sources and information on public policies, from sources such as the Statute of Children and Adolescents as well as data and perspectives necessary for contextualizing the facts in the news coverage. Based on empirical data, we argue that the appeal of sensationalist news was found more frequently associated with superficial journalistic coverage of rights of children and adolescents. But the differences between newspapers are small, and the lack of information is distributed similarly in respect of certain aspects between them, suggesting the persistence of sensationalism as a concept of moderate validity for explaining differences of editorial profiles.

Mídias comunitárias e democracia

Este texto articula indicacoes em tres esferas para a pesquisaacao realizada com o objetivo de qualificar liderancas para a emissao de mensagens em midias comunitarias compativeis com as exigencias democraticas atuais. Assim, sao contextualizadas e informadas teoricamente tres direcoes especificas, sugeridas ao pesquisador da area: a) e preciso verificar as relacoes que os individuos mantem, como receptores, com os meios de comunicacao e os conceitos de noticia estabelecidos, em um contexto de negociacao de sentido influenciado pela logica economica da producao industrial de cultura, informacao e entretenimento; b) as caracteristicas dos emissores-receptores podem ser compreendidas como habitus — tracos da personalidade formados diante de circunstâncias sociais objetivas; c) o estimulo ao engajamento politico atraves da comunicacao comunitaria deve considerar uma das especificidades mais relevantes da democracia brasileira hoje, dada pelo crescimento dos mecanismos institucionalizados de participacao politica constituidos pelos conselhos municipais.