A COBERTURA ACERCA DA SELEÇÃO BRASILEIRA DE FUTEBOL FEMININO REALIZADA PELO CADERNO DE ESPORTE DA FOLHA DE S.PAULO (1991-2011)

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to verify and analyze quantitatively and qualitatively the coverage news about Brazil women's national football team made in the sports section of Folha de S. Paulo newspaper between 1991 and 2011, in an attempt to unravel if underneath the publications made in this temporality existed an intention to criticize the women's game and its players. To that end, was opted for the adoption of procedures of the so called content analysis methodology, as for it provides instruments to the researchers on analysis of several types of discourses, among those, the ones found in newspapers. Through the above mentioned delimitations, it was found that over the twenty (20) years investigated, Folha de S. Paulo published six hundred and twenty-two (622) features, addressing or somehow referring to the women's team. From the analysis of these figures, it was found that the frequency of files related to the Brazilian team on the newspaper sports pages was low, with an average of 31.1 publications per year. However, when analyzing the discursive content of the reports, it was found that despite not providing great visibility, Folha de S.Paulo did not treat the women's team and its players with prejudice, lowering them in status in relation to the men's team and its players. On the contrary, its coverage was characterized by explicit and implicit exaltation of national teams and players, exerting positive influence in the structuring of an individual and social habitus, free of prejudices related to the possibilities of women in football. This aspect refutes the fourth hypothesis (4th) of this study, which conveyed the idea that concealed under the discursive content of the publications; there had been the intention of Folha de S.Paulo in criticizing women's football and its players, in so far as this sport form was socially structured as a male and masculinizing realm.