A representação da doação de sangue em Juiz de Fora: interfaces entre assessoria de imprensa, jornalismo local e cidadãos

Abstract

The mobilization of citizens for blood donation was a determining factor that started in the 1980s, when it emerged, under federal laws and various civil society movements, the imperative for voluntary and altruistic practice. In this thesis, we attempted to verify a specific aspect of the broad spectrum of ways in which communication contributes to this area of public health: information disclosure through journalism. Three instances were then considered in this process: organizational, as represented by Fundação Hemominas and its press advisory activities, with suggestions for the Juiz de Fora Blood Center agenda; journalistic, with news published over more than two decades in the local newspaper Tribuna de Minas (Juiz de Fora / MG); and receptive, identifying how citizens perceived the subject. As the initial study theme was too broad (knowing what happens in this important relationship between blood centers, media and citizens when it comes to blood donation), we chose to apply the Grounded Theory as a research strategy for the initial exploration of published news. After the first results, we combined it with the Discourse Analysis method through formulas. The Content Analysis method was also used, but only in exploring the agenda suggestions issued by the Blood Center and interviews with press workers and citizens. Thus, data collection techniques involved the selection of documents and news, as well as semistructured individual interviews. Based on the data we observed the existence of a pattern in the content that repeats over the years both in the news and the agenda suggestions as produced in the hemotherapy institution. Information comprising this content resonate in the knowledge of citizens, albeit not absolutely. These results reveal information gaps - that may still be fulfilled – as well as a certain contrast with the dynamics of a constantly changing society and transitory and ephemeral identities. Under the theoretical premise that sees journalism as an activity of (re)construction of reality, and the production of meaning as a result of a symbolic negotiation, the interaction between these subjects and their environment, we could relate the production of media to the construction of meaning by subjects regarding the blood donation theme.