On May 26, the sports section had a story called Know why you should read Folha during the World Cup. There it summed up what readers could expect from the newspaper during the soccer competition this year.
It was described as a new graphic design, with impact, profound, but at the same time clear and organized so the reader can enjoy getting through the confusion of the competition.
Later on, there was also the following commitment: As is usual, the reader should not expect clear signs of boosterism for the Brazilian team. You should not expect oversized or groundless criticism. You should expect reasoned, critical journalism that is not tied to interests outside our role, which is to inform.
In view of this letter of intentions, its proper to give a partial assessment since the first period of play has already passed in the tournament.
The first challenge was the 12-hour difference in time zones, which made the work of newspapers extremely difficult. It would be a serious error to mix up yesterday with today or tomorrow with the day before yesterday. Keeping the section attractive and useful under these conditions requires a competent team of columnists and other discriminating resources, which are even more important considering competition from TV, radio and the Internet.
The result has been good for Folha, and the small number of complaints from readers reflects this picture of acceptance. Not everything went right, however, and its worth thinking about some of those aspects without also forgetting that, as is natural in prolonged coverage, the paper had some well-executed plays in recent days.
News
I must point out the lack of significant scoops in all the newspapers. If one deserves mention, it is Jornal da Tarde, which reported May 29 that Juninho would be a starter in Brazils opening game on June 3. Folha blundered in the treatment given to descriptions of plays in decisive games. Describing the second goal in Koreas 2-0 win over Poland on June 5, for example, it said only that Sang-chul Yoo kicked it into Dudeks left corner. Those who follow soccer would want to know more: Was the kick outside the area? Was it low to the ground?
Last Wednesday, it reported that Fadiga of Senegal called for a penalty with perfection (What does this mean? Where did the ball enter?). These are details that interest readers, who, because of the time difference, only see the most exciting games.
I also mentioned in my internal critique situations in which the presentation of games carried statistics and historical data about the teams, but almost nothing about soccer, strictly speaking (tactics, options of plays, deficiencies). Still, in the story in question, the newspaper lost the opportunity to set itself apart and effectively give more information, adhering to the unilateral mode of celebrating by the press when a referee made a mistake by calling a penalty that favored Brazil in the first game. It would have been better journalism to show the other side immediately, in other words, arguments that support, at least in theory, the refs decision. I listened to some of them in commentaries on the radio the same day as the game. The newspaper, properly, gave the refs side, but not until June 5.
Along these lines, I thought it was improper for Folha, which makes a priority of being informative, to celebrate outright in a way that is typical for rabid fans regarding the losses of Argentina and France. Its one thing to report the vengeful frolic of fans, but its another for a newspaper to incorporate camouflaged conceit, even if it comes in the form of small, innocent jokes. Page D2 of the World Cup section is the space set aside for this type of editorialization.
The newspaper brought up, then abandoned, a curious situation on Tuesday, June 11: The incident at a nightclub in Seogwipo, South Korea, between a photographer and Brazilian athletes who were irritated by the fact that the journalist had taken pictures of their privacy. Ronaldo took away the camera.
There was talk of an agreement between the Brazilian Soccer Federation and the press to save athletes from being caught in embarrassing situations. On June 12 there was a report about the escape of the journalist, with reticence to spare when mentioning the eventual participation of Folha in this strange, alleged agreement.
Graphic design
Its better to be impatient or daring (with their inherent risks) than this apathy and lethargy, which is too passive. The World Cup 2002 section, like the one during the 1998 World Cup in France, has a particular look that is light and aggressively innovative. The headlines use humor as a distraction. Photographs occupy a generous amount of space.
One feature of the section is the use of hand drawn red lines (like the blue one used on the box for this column). Like all good graphic resources, however, its use requires caution and parsimony, to avoid being banal or harmful to that which is essential (information) in the name of aesthetics.
A reader complained, for example, about the June 4 edition, which had a headline in red Right on, Kim! (Referring to the ref who blew the whistle in Brazils opening game) with the names of the teams and game times in a table. Mistakes of this sort, it must be pointed out, fade away in the editions of the following days.
But the graphic design encountered another, more resistant, obstacle at least in this first period of the tournament: the need for more color on the pages of the newspaper.
As the table shows in the box to the left, of the total number of pages published about the World Cup between June 3 and 14, only 62% were in color, while rival O Estado de So Paulo reached 98%.
Folhas percentage, similar to that during the 1998 World Cup (63%), could signal a structural limitation. The managing editor said: Folhas equipment, according to the technical managers, has an ability to print in color which varies according to the total size of the newspaper. To compare the amount of color in the two newspapers (Folha and Estado, in this case), its necessary to analyze not just one section, but the whole newspaper.
Its unfortunate that the solution for this was not found before now in the coverage that occurs predictably every four years and whose planning began last year. Is there still time?
In another irony, this column dealing with the same topic today, including the box above, is also affected by the lack of color.
Statistics and humor
With the support of Datafolha, the newspaper remains the leader in statistics, an objective element to understand the players and teams that is characteristic of Folha.
It did make some mistakes, however, with the lack of clarity as well as what the numbers mean, a mistake that was corrected later by the newspaper.
As for the sprinkling with humor inherent in a project such as World Cup 2002 they, unfortunately were not limited to the section. The editorial page made its (involuntary) contribution on June 4, with the professorial story Two attempts, about the Brazilian teams performance in its opening game.
Although I disagree that the newspaper as an institution should let itself be a commentator of soccer games (for the inevitable charge of subjectivity that this interpretation involves), I recognize that it is not the ombudsmans job to discuss the merits of Folhas editorials.
But this was exceptional, so here is the quotation of a small, explicit passage that I want to highlight:
Fullback Lcio, after intercepting a pass by an adversary, made a risky pass to Juninho, surrounded by Turkish players. The midfielder lost the ball, which was afterward thrown on the back of the Brazilian fullback, giving the Turkish attacker a finishing touch without scoring…
In the 1940s and 50s, the passage might have been understood. In the 21st Century, however, it is an anthology.
