Mulheres jornalistas na TV aberta brasileira: em busca da subversão dos "padrões" durante a pandemia de Covid-19

Abstract

Considering that reporting stories and news is expected to be the guiding principle in any TV newscast, it is safe to assume that said news must be accurately gathered and presented so that viewers can fully comprehend the facts at hand. That is especially true in history-defining moments, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. However, throughout the decades, the physical appearance of female newscasters and reporters has garnered as much attention as the content they presented – if not more so. This sociocultural issue affects all Brazilian female journalists, who constantly need to prove their professional skills while meeting certain beauty standards when seeking to be in front of the cameras in broadcast TV newscasts. Therefore, this research paper aims to examine the relation between women, television, TV newscasting, and the news coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Brazilian press, while also delving into the challenges female journalists face in the fragile sociopolitical moment Brazil is going through. To that end, we base our analysis on authors who discuss women, such as Michelle Perrot and Naomi Wolf, as well as historical and contemporary aspects of television news broadcasting, such as the works of Arlindo Machado, Sérgio Mattos, and Veronica Paternostro. Using Robert Yin's case study research design, we analyze six broadcasts of Jornal Nacional and observe the aforementioned aspects of news coverage during the pandemic. Our main focus is to examine how female journalists employed by broadcast television channels were presented and represented in said period of time. We conclude that the standards of discretion and invisibility historically associated with female newscasters and reporters are gradually changing. As a result, that means these women are becoming increasingly more capable of proving their skills, regardless of their bodies and any obstacles they may come across in their careers.