The use of statistics to evaluate a soccer game, such as Folha is in the habit of doing, undergoes a lot of controversy. But the truth is that numbers are based on facts (dribbles, kicks to the goal, corner kicks, etc.) and clearly express the technical performance of this or that team, independent of the number of goals scored.
The same is not true, however, in evaluating the performance of newspapers during an electoral campaign. For that reason, the research done by the Rio de Janeiro University Research
Institute, shown in a story in Folha last Sunday under the headline Institute maps newspaper coverage, should be made relative.
As the story explained, the mapping divides the stories into positive, negative and neutral. Aside from this, it keeps track of space dedicated to the candidates in each publication.
According to the institute, from Feb. 20 to June 28, Folha had the biggest percentage of neutral stories about the presidential campaign among the three newspapers with the biggest penetration in the nation. At the same time, it was the one that gave the most space to the candidacy of Jos Serra, the nominee of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party and the choice of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
A study like this one, if it is done with caution and precision, can only help in the evaluation of the performance by the press. With its history, the institute has all the conditions to make it useful and necessary, as an objective counterweight to the subjective evaluations in the press.
But its data dont obscure the existence of elements inherent in journalism: the possibility of dubious interpretation, double meanings, the political and/or economic moment in which these news accounts arise, the ambiguities, the subtlety and the subliminal messages, the subconscious force of images.
Folhas editor-in-chief, Otavio Frias Filho, asserted in the story that journalism is not statistics. It also asks Rodolfo Fernandes, the editor-in-chief of the Rio daily O Globo: Is Serra giving the Cardoso government a 7.5 (out of 10) grade a positive or a negative? Is Ciro Gomes saying that he would put off the domestic debt? And did Lula assert that the PT has changed? (Gomes is the presidential nominee of the Peoples Socialist Party, or PPS; Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is the nominee of the Workers Party, or PT.)
Ibope
Last Wednesday, for example, the leading newspapers in Brazil published on their front pages, with prominent-sized headlines, a survey of voter intentions by the Ibope polling institute which showed Gomes firmly in second place, comfortably ahead of Serra.
It was the first national survey to take place since the Globo TV networks evening news broadcast interviews with each candidate, which had a strong impact. It was also the first in which he opened a sizeable lead over the government candidate.
Folha, however, did not have anything about this on its front page and limited itself to putting the main data at the bottom of a story which reported about other matters in the electoral campaign. Inside, the story did not even have the same headline.
Questioned about this by the ombudsman, the managing editor asserted that the newspaper deals with other electoral surveys, as well as those by Datafolha, according to the impact they have on the political-electoral panorama.
She added: We continue to give editorial primacy to Datafolha surveys, not only because the institute is linked to Folha, but also because they are considered to be the most reliable in the country. That confidence is strengthened, its worth pointing out, by the fact that Datafolha does not do polling for political parties or for candidates.
Impact
The credibility of Datafolha is not in doubt, nor is the fact that the newspaper gives it primacy. This, however, begs the question: What were the effects and the impact of this survey by Ibope?
All you need to do is look at the agitation that took place in the leadership of the Serra campaign to verify that the effects were huge even before the survey came out in newspapers.
This, without considering the reduction in interest rates by Brazils Central Bank that not a few analysts attributed to an attempt on Wednesday, came the day after the survey was released on TV, to give some oxygen to the presidents chosen successor.
How could you compute statistically such a position by Folha considering the parameters of a study such as this one by the Rio institute?
In a story in Press Observatory, a media analysis Web site, journalist Alberto Dines, among other thoughts, also points out the importance that columnists and cartoonists provide elements that influence the newspapers behavior. They are welcome, with an element to be taken seriously. Clearly, not even those authors, however, intend their work to substitute for the efforts journalists are obliged to fulfill daily to provide clear observations for readers.
The more that journalism seeks objectivity, in a world in which subjectivity demands many rules, its true benefits will be revealed.
Stumbling on the runway
So Paulo Fashion Week amid a tense and brutal electoral campaign and the tremulous nervousness in international financial markets began on Monday and closed yesterday, providing a rest for the eyes in the newspapers pages.
Folha gave a lot of space to these fashion shows, including daily exposure on its front page. This did not, however, prevent the commission of some blunders which are worth mentioning.
Where beauty counts, and with respect for the whole fashion world, I think that journalistically, the image of Gisele Bndchen has already become pass. For this reason it intrigued me that Folha, imprisoned in an uncomfortable unanimity, put her on the front page once again on Tuesday.
Such a sensation would even be attenuated if the photograph reflected something new in the story: Contrary to what happened in 2001, the top model made a lot of poses with her shoulders and exposed the contours of her rear end when removing the skirt that she used on top of her bikini. More: It showed, among other things, an unusual bikini with a print of Che Guevaras likeness. But Folha, as opposed to O Globo and Jornal da Tarde (see figures 2 and 3 in the box to the side), did not have a photo of her backside nor the Che bikini.
On Friday, the headline of the story was Herchcovitch is emotional about SP Fashion Week. According to the story, the runway show by the So Paulo fashion designer was the most incredible fashion moment of the week. Contrary to what would be expected, however, no newspaper carried a photo of the event.
The negative effect in these cases could have been partially reduced if readers had known that Folhas on-line version had, from the start, galleries with images of all the runway shows. Inexplicably, the printed pages did not have any reference to coverage on the newspapers Web site.
One observation, in a message from a reader, was: Among the girls who were on the front pages of the paper every day, only one, on Friday, did not have her name in the caption under the photo.
I dont know, the reader said. Whether it was coincidental or not, she was black. And she must be a black Brazilian girl.
Its praiseworthy that Folha put a black model on its front page something that, unfortunately, is uncommon (see figure 4 in the box). But it would have been better, if the newspaper wants to do a more complete job, to not have done this.
