Online Coverage of the 2010 Brazilian Presidential Elections

A framing analysis of mainstream on-line organizations and their bloggers and columnists on the 2010 Brazilian Presidential Elections revealed that framing do have the potential to expose ideological elements on how the media position themselves in the public sphere.Thematic and episodic frames dominated the news with a special focus on press freedom, social and economic problems, corruption and abortion. The main-stream media focused their coverage on the Workers’ Party employing primarily a critical/ adversarial tone as opposed to an interpretive analysis tone. Professional ideology mixed with political preferences both by journalists and mediaowners marked the Brazilian online coverage blurring the lines between the private and the public, exactly in the same way that outgoing President Lula da Silva acted during the presidential campaign. Journalism status quo emerged as a main topic in the coverage as a free press under attack quickly reacted with rage causing a rift between news organizations that criticized the outgoing president and those that supported him. Furthermore, a popular president apparently unaffected by corruption scandals and the country’s most powerful media groups confronted each other in an exhaustive and unfinished battle.