Leitura e interatividade feminina nos jornais impressos: a postura da leitora do Estado de Minas

Abstract

The present paper looks into female reading and interaction in the main newspapers, in the approach of Information Science, research line Information, Culture and Society within the Information Science Graduation Studies Program of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Upon considering the communication media as information mediators, besides producers and reproducers of social and cultural patterns, it identifies the necessary elements to include women as newspaper reference readers as well as the way they report themselves and interact with those that "build up" and divulge the news. The study talks about information production through a male language, how women are included in that context and the possible impacts of journalistic information onto the female gender. For that, it was built a conceptual basis of ideas that are backed up by theorists of Information Science as well as Communication and Linguistics/ discourse and gender analysis. It also develops an in depth interview with eight female readers of the newspaper Estado de Minas, which served the purpose of pre-test to the survey carried out over the phone with other 172 women; discourse analysis was carried over 30 newspaper front pages as well as internal page articles that had women as characters and to which photos and texts referred; and also records how many letters to the editor were sent to seven Brazilian newspapers, among which is the Estado de Minas, which were signed by women compared to how many were signed by men, both over the period of 30 days. The data allow one to conclude that women, almost half of the readers of the main Brazilian newspapers, read them mainly in search for information on various topics especially politics, local events, culture and the so considered female specific such as fashion and family. It was also concluded that information interferes in the readers` opinion as well as it helps them socialize. Nevertheless women prefer to "silence" when it comes to publishing their opinion, probably moved by the female status quo that many times only allows women a supporting role compared to mens, including, and particularly, in the pages of newspapers.