Public policies and rights of children and adolescents: the media’s role in the citzenship expansion

Abstract

This paper presents results of an evaluation of the quality of the coverage of issues associated to the preservation of rights of children and adolescents in the eight main newspapers of major cities of Bauru (Sao Paulo State) administrative region, from August 2008 to March 2009. In a total of 389 assessed stories, 66% portrayed acts of legal infraction and violence with children and adolescents as victims or perpetrators, with a fragmented and superficial perspective; 34% are greater approaches about public policies aimed at the preservation of social rights. The results show the existence of a smaller number, yet significant, of stories which presented extended and more contextualized approaches. From a general view, we can point out that the contribution given by the media as a form of vigilance over the execution of public policies has been limited, which justifies the concern of demanding, from the mass media, measures to fulfill the role attributed to them by contemporaneous democracies to the strengthening of citizenship.