Seria o Jornalismo adversário da política? Os editoriais de O Estado de S. Paulo sobre o Congresso Nacional brasileiro

The article investigates if, and to what extent, editorials pieces of O Estado de S. Paulo (OESP), one of the main Brazilian newspapers, express an adversarial position towards the Brazilian Congress. Our hypothesis is: the editorial text is a space in which the newspaper expresses its role as an adversary to the political field. By applying a Frame Analyses, we identified the main frames in 124 texts published by OESP between 2011 and 2013. We found that “Conflicts between government and its allies and between government and Congress” and “Measures to improve Brazilian economy” were the most recurrent frames. Half of the editorials in our sample presented an adversary position against the House of Representatives or Senate. However, there are distinct degrees of adversarial behavior. Therefore, our hypothesis was partially confirmed. Finally, we argue that such adversarial approach is part of OESP’s strategy to legitimate itself as a political representative of its readers.