On Tuesday, the monthly supplement Sinapse, which was created by Folha in July 2002 with the idea of “dealing with various dimensions of knowledge” and “to orient readers to build a cultural repertoire that will help with personal and professional life,” stopped circulating.
It was not a section dedicated exclusively to education, but this ended up being the main focus of the 41 editions in its short history.
When Sinapse was launched, its first story was about university diplomas (“More than a diploma, it is necessary to be educated”). In his presentation, then-editor Oscar Pilgallo wrote that the central concern of the project was to highlight the importance of continuing education.
It was an advance in terms of coverage about education, traditionally focused on university entrance exams, labor issues and structural defects in the area.
When it was launched, the section was announced for two days on the front page.
Now it has ended, there was only a small funeral notice inside the section itself, so well hidden that few readers noticed it: “This is the last edition of the Sinapse section, published since July 2002. The topics of the supplement – education, social responsibility and intellectual development – will continue to be covered by the newspaper. The column by educator Rubem Alves, which was monthly, will become twice monthly, published in the daily news section.”
Readers
Few readers wrote to complain, but all of those were very disappointed. Through Friday I received four messages, the same number that were sent to Letters to the Editor. Subscriber Wilson Sforza Diniz Jr., of Iturama, Minas Gerais state, said he was “indignant and unwilling to accept the premature end to one of the best projects the newspaper has launched in recent times.” He also complained about the justification published by the newspaper as “very vague and superficial” and asked for “more sensible explanations.”
On Wednesday, Letters to the Editor published a letter by Celso Vasconcellos, an Ed.D. from So Paulo University, saying: “This attitude does not seem coherent with the editorials in Folha, those which always defend the role of education in the development of the nation.” Besides pointing out the incoherence of the measure, he labels as “sufferable” the newspaper’s coverage of education: “I hope that the decision will be revised and that Folha does a better job fulfilling its social role in terms of what it says about education.” For Patricia Ricardo of So Paulo “we all lose: Folha, because it is leaving behind a good publication, and mainly us, readers, who aside from this are not informed about the reasons why this decision was made. It is lamentable.”
Readers, therefore, had two questions: why did the newspaper end the section and why did it not inform readers earlier? I sent the request for an explanation to the editors with some hypotheses about the end of the supplement. Was nobody reading it? Did it not have enough advertising? Was the editorial project mistaken? Was this a cut in personnel because of difficult financial times?
I received the following response from Suzana Singer, Folha’s managing editor, “In the opinion of the newspaper’s management, the Sinapse section fulfilled an important role, but the coverage of education and social policy can – and should – be done in various sections instead of being restricted to a monthly supplement. A survey carried out in August with Folha readers showed that the rate of readership of the section was high (56%) and that periodicity, once more, was a problem. In a scenario of economic, newsprint and personnel limitations, the newspaper opted to interrupt the section and utilize the resources in other sections.”
The promise
In quantitative terms, the end of Sinapse will have little impact. To have an idea, a survey carried out by the news archives shows that last year the newspaper published 2,466 stories about education, and only 76 came out in Sinapse.
The same survey indicates that education is not the social topic covered most by Folha. Health, for example, is followed more intensely. Last year, there were 3,139 stories. In the first half of this year, the newspaper published 2,007 stories about health and 887 about educational topics.
The end of the section does not mean that Folha will abandon coverage of education, but the section had a well-conceived beat and gave deeper treatment to the chosen topics. It showed enough concern to question the educational model in effect and to discuss alternative models. The last edition carried extensive reporting about a small public school in Portugal that is innovative in education and has inspired various schools in Brazil: “The secret is Portugal.”
According to Guilherme Canela, coordinator of polling and academic relations at the Children’s Rights News Agency (Andi), if the newspaper fulfills what it promised in the announcement about the end of the section and transfers coverage of education, social responsibility and intellectual development to “the newspaper’s team,” the reader will be even better served because the differentiated approach will be spread to various sections and won’t be restricted to a specialized section. “The fear that exists is that this is not going to happen.”
MONITORING
Lack of quality remains
The Children’s Rights News Agency (Andi), specialized in following coverage by the press in topics about youth and adolescence, published the survey “Education in the Brazilian Press” in May.
It analyzed 5,362 stories published in 57 daily newspapers. According to the study, coverage improved a lot in recent years, but the press still has numerous serious problems. Coverage focuses on official sources and announcements, with more space for higher education (graduate and post-graduate) than basic and secondary levels, and lacks context and sophistication.
The study shows impressive growth in the number of stories dedicated to the education of children and adolescents. In 1998, the 51 newspapers surveyed published 4,906 stories. Last year, they published 35,987 stories in 60 newspapers.
A passage from the conclusion of the survey follows.
“The data … together construct a general scenario of coverage marked by the influence of public power, centered on localized problems and topics, which, to aggravate the situation, are accustomed to being treated in a discontinuous way, fragmented and lacking context in the most advanced concepts of education and public policy in place in Brazil.
“Giving priority to topics such as access to higher education and this level of education, the press ends up diverting attention to readers about structural questions, which demand mobilization and a public debate because they create a climate of pressure in terms of changes and adjustments which are necessary in order to guarantee all Brazilians a quality education.
“It deals with coverage which, despite the undeniable merits – among them the constant increase in number of stories published and diversification of focus and sources (thanks to the incorporation of other parties in the area of education, besides the government) – still requires effort in the sense of building and transmitting quality information, which allows readers to place and position themselves in the middle of the complexity that characterizes education.”
Translation by John Wright
