The choice of Angelina Jolie and the representation of hereditary breast cancer in the media

Authors

  • Marialice Emboava Professora do curso de Jornalismo da PUC Minas e doutoranda em Comunicação Social na UFMG, na linha de Processos Comunicativos e Práticas Sociais.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-6924.2015v12n2p303

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the media representation of Angelina Jolie’s preventive mastectomy in the newspapers Folha de São Paulo and O Globo contributed to the reader understanding on hereditary breast cancer. Coverage of hereditary breast cancer has high value of newsworthiness: involves, for example, fear, relationships between mothers and daughters, sexual and social significance of the breasts and the impact of heredity in young women like Jolie. The content analysis showed that the coverage may have helped lessen the stigma surrounding the disease. And, if on one hand, the coverage may have increased the anxiety of readers to find out whether or not they are carriers of mutated genes, on the other, it may have overestimated the genetic factor in the case of breast cancer - ie, may have led readers to believe that if there is no one in the family with breast cancer, there is no risk of contracting it.

Author Biography

Marialice Emboava, Professora do curso de Jornalismo da PUC Minas e doutoranda em Comunicação Social na UFMG, na linha de Processos Comunicativos e Práticas Sociais.

Possui graduação em Jornalismo e em Biblioteconomia, ambas pela Universidade de São Paulo (USP). É mestre em Relações Internacionais e Comunidade Europeia por Kent University, Inglaterra. Como jornalista, trabalhou a maior parte da sua carreira na Editora Abril. Atualmente, é professora assistente da PUC Minas. É também doutoranda da curso de pós-graduação em Comunicação Social da UFMG, na linha de Processos Comunicativos e Práticas Sociais.

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Published

2015-04-17

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2015): Verdades, Narrativas e Sentidos

Section

Núcleo Temático

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