August 23, 2021
07:08
Déborah Arruda – from Cenarium
MANAUS (AM) – Considered “the heart of the Earth”, the Amazon and its extensive social, cultural and biological diversity is the subject of news all over the world. However, journalists living in the region are not always able to get deeper into the topic, leaving a gap of information to be explored by vehicles and reporters from other regions of Brazil. This is the theme of the book “Journalism in the Amazon: an analysis of the priority of reporting for newsmakers”, a work by Pará journalist Rômulo D’Castro.
The book was published this month and is on pre-sale. The book, which came out of the author’s End of Course Work (TCC), when he was still studying Journalism, analyzes reports on the Amazon theme from two morning news programs in Manaus. Rômulo says that he selected the reports for five days and then started his analysis. “The objective [of the book] is to verify how the Amazonian context is approached in these newspapers, based on a five day analysis. In what way the agenda is approached, how the Amazonian character was placed in the agendas”, he said.
The author explains that the choice of reports and programs was determined based on the subjects within the theme and the similarity between the two programs. “The choice of programs was based on the fact that they have similar themes and are broadcast in the same time slot. And the reporters of the stories explored in the book were chosen because they were within the thematic, Amazonian editorial area.
Rio-Sao Paulo route
Among the several topics found, there were the açaí harvest, the Tururi festival, and the rural worker’s party. To support his discussion, Rômulo says that he talked to historians, heads of the chosen programs, heads of the journalistic sector of the networks, and thinkers who explain the reason for the submission to a pre-existing pattern, originated in the Southeast region, between the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
“It is very easy to see a ‘Record Camera’, a ‘Globo Reporter’, or a CNN from the Rio-São Paulo hub entering our region to talk about what they understand to be Amazon, when we, who are part of it, talk superficially. We could have a much better explored production on the theme”, he explained.
The objective of the work is far from trying to dictate rules about what and how reporting on the region should be done. The proposal is to show that there is still a lot to be improved in the way the Amazon is journalistically approached at a regional level, through the analyses and concerns that Rômulo says he has had since before he started college.
“I make it clear in the book itself that the objective is not to outline what journalism would be or should be, a standard approach to journalism in the Amazon. I put my restlessness, my observations based on research and analysis, and because I have been inserted in this area for a long time, this has always bothered me. We do journalism about the Amazon in a very superficial way, and in many cases we don’t go deeper into the subject, since we are news makers within the Amazon”, he concludes.
About the author
Rômulo D’Castro was born in Santarém, Pará, and has an extensive curriculum in the area. A journalism graduate from the Centro Universitário do Norte (UniNorte), he is editor-in-chief and presenter of Cidade Alerta Altamira, Brasil Novo and Medicilândia – Record TV. He also acts as producer and presenter of the project “Brumadinho – how much is a life worth?”, the program “Massacre of Altamira – one year later” and the “Altamira Folk Festival 2019”. He was executive producer and presenter of the program Amazônia Rural in five states: Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Rondônia and Roraima, for Globo Amazônia.
Rômulo is responsible for the implementation project and generation of content for Record News Altamira. He was one of the winners of the Mirante Group Journalism Award, in 2018, with the report “The Highway of Abandonment: the characters of the Transamazonica”. He has participated in other important coverage in the areas of regional culture and history, as well as university research and works of impact in the Xingu, such as the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Plant, the installation of the Belo Sun mining project, and the struggle of indigenous people for the survival of their peoples.