O que significa “Opinião Pública”? : Um estudo sobre os diferentes sentidos do termo nos editoriais do jornal O Estado de S. Paulo

Marques, Francisco Paulo Jamil and Mont'Alverne, Camila and Kniess, Andressa Butture and Pupor, Amanda (2017) O que significa “Opinião Pública”? : Um estudo sobre os diferentes sentidos do termo nos editoriais do jornal O Estado de S. Paulo. Estudos em Comunicação, 25 (1). pp. 53-78. ISSN 1646-4974 (https://doi.org/10.20287/ec.n25.v1.a04)

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Abstract

After recognizing different approaches to the term "public opinion" throughout the twentieth century, the article examines how the editorials of the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo (OESP) mobilize the concept at stake. Based on the premise that editorials highlight the role of newspapers as political agents, it is essential to investigate whether, and how, "public opinion" is evoked, for example, to legitimate positions of private agents. We examine quantitatively (verifying the frequency with which the term is used) and qualitatively (Content Analysis dedicated to verify the senses triggered by the pieces when they refer to the term) 95 editorial texts published in OESP that, between January of 2015 and December of 2016, mentioned "public opinion". We propose the following hypotheses: H1) The main issue in the editorials in our sample is politics, once editorials tend to address the political elites. H2) The most recurrent meaning of public opinion in editorials is the use of the term as an active agent presumably able to represent the collective will. The findings point out that the newspaper tends to mobilize the idea of public opinion more often to deal with political issues, often making it an active and autonomous agent.

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