Isaltina Maria de Azevedo Mello Gomes

Construction of the discourse on dengue fever in the media

The aim of this paper was to understand how the media in the state of Pernambuco portrays dengue fever, a disease that is affecting more and more Brazilians. Taking the explosive epidemic of 2002 as the starting point, we tried to understand the effects of meaning produced by the press in a comparative discourse strategy analysis used in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008. We selected 291 articles and notes published in the Jornal do Commercio (Recife-Brazil), on the situation of this viral disease in the state of Pernambuco in the four years. We also analysed dengue fever surveillance reports published by the health department of Pernambuco. To complement discourse analysis, we proposed the construction of a medialogy diagram, a graphic representation that tries to establish a relationship between newspaper texts and number cases of dengue reported. Results indicate that media coverage generally followed the development of dengue fever cases, with more news published during the epidemic periods and showing the appeal of the illness as a mass media phenomenon despite its risk to the Brazilian people.

Categorização de blogs escritos por cientistas: uma proposta

It presents a proposal of categorization of blogs written by scientists from the quantitative analysis of 1,329 posts of 43 blogs. The analysis takes as parameters the following characteristics that conform communicative activity: communication function, role of participants and discursive configuration. It proposes the existence of two enunciation categories present in these discourses: Scientist blogger as a spreader, marked by enunciative strategies of distancing and informative records (subcategories of article of science popularization and notice board) and Scientist blogger as a protagonist, marked by enunciative strategies of involvement and opinion records (subcategories of showcase, critics, diary and personal). The emergence of Scientist protagonist category in 75% of the corpus allows us to classify the blog as a self expression of space through the construction of an opinionated and subjective image of the scientist blogger.

A comunicação pública da ciência por meio dos selos postais: o caso do Brasil no século XX

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.

O Jornal Nacional e a ciência

Entendendo a informacao cientifica como aquela capaz de contribuir para o desenvolvimento de uma cultura cientifica, analisamos neste trabalho aspectos relacionados a presenca da informacao sobre ciencia no Jornal Nacional (JN), da Rede Globo de Televisao. A partir da observacao do noticiario veiculado de 1o de janeiro a 31 de marco de 2007, foi possivel identificar 88 materias que traziam informacoes relacionadas a ciencia. O corpus nos permitiu categorizar os tipos de insercao da ciencia no JN, esbocar o interesse do JN pelos temas cientificos e discutir seu papel na formacao de uma cultura cientifica do povo brasileiro.