Browsing by Author "Etelämäki, Jenni"

This thesis examines news broadcast videos on a legal decision known as the rol taxativo. It became a debated topic in the Brazilian media in mid-2022. The decision was made by the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice in June 2022 concerning supplementary healthcare provision in Brazil. People with disabilities and chronic conditions, their family members, and other advocates joined the front of resistance against the decision, as it was considered to disregard the universal right to health by restricting access to adequate and specialized health services. This thesis takes a regionally focused approach to health journalism about this national event. The geographic focus area of the thesis is the North Region of Brazil. The region was selected because previous research in the context of disability and health suggested that there was a knowledge gap regarding the North of Brazil. The thesis builds on a case study research design and the research method is content analysis. The research material comprises 19 news broadcast videos. They were collected on Brazil’s most visited news website, Globo.com. The site is part of the Globo brand, which is also Brazil’s largest television broadcaster. The first research objective of the case study was to clarify in which ways geographic contextualization is present in Globo’s health journalism. The second one was to generate new knowledge about the representation of locals’ life contexts in media texts about disability in the North Region of Brazil. These objectives were pursued by applying Mike Gasher’s (2015 and 2021) theoretical approach to examining geographies of the news and by determining the presence of geographic, cultural, emotional, and temporal proximity in the broadcast material. The study is interdisciplinary and combines geography of media and communication, Latin American studies, and disability studies. The results point out that Globo’s contextualization of the rol taxativo relies on a few geographic foci to convey information on the national health event to North Brazilians. The health news builds on the national decision-making centers and Northern state capitals. Implications of the decision for inhabitants of non-capital cities or rural areas do not make the news. The assertion of the proximity of this event to North Brazilians has a significant role in the broadcasting. Geographic distance also appears as a notable element. The results underline the significance of the geographic context in health journalism in Brazil.