Narrativas e política econômica: a construção da agenda fiscal na mídia jornalística pós-2015

Abstract

This work aimed to research the ethical nature of media coverage regarding the Brazilian fiscal policy over 2010-2015. It worked with the hypothesis that the agenda of fiscal consolidation may have been one of the results of the orthodox economic discourse, to whom the main cause of the 2014-2016 economic crisis was excessive government spending. In addition to the literature review, the methodology relied on a thematic analysis to check how some of the country’s major newspapers, namely Valor Econômico, Folha de São Paulo and O Estado de São Paulo reported the Brazilian economic policy, especially the fiscal one. The thematic analysis was carried out by a survey in the newspapers’ websites, between 2010 and 2015, limited to online news that covered predetermined keywords, also called filters. The selected words were austerity, fiscal adjustment, new economic matrix, fiscal policy, and fiscal problem. The survey formed a database that was later categorized as “Positive” when the filters suited the orthodox analysis, and “Negative” when they corresponded to another economic view or some problem resulting from the fiscal policy focused on spending cuts. In all, 1,707 reports were analyzed. The results of the thematic analysis show how orthodox economic thinking was better represented in the country's main newspapers, with values above 60% coverage for all the filters used. There was not in any of the analyzed filters a match between different economic thoughts, reinforcing the hypothesis that the media coverage dedicated to build the idea of unsustainability of the public accounts, which could only be corrected with quick and permanent fiscal balance.