EYES THAT FRAME, IMAGES THAT CONSTRUCT: THE IMAGETIC CONSTRUCTION OF AGRARIAN REFORM IN THE NEWSPAPER O ESTADO DE S. PAULO (1984–2014)

Abstract

This article analyzes the visual representation of the agrarian question in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo (OESP) between 1984 and 2014, focusing on how photographs, illustrations, and cartoons contributed to the symbolic construction of agrarian issues. The research was based on a corpus of about 500 images, examined through framing analysis and content analysis. The study identified four predominant frames: moral, economic, legal, and political. The moral frame associated landless workers with disorder, idleness, and threats to traditional values, presenting images that ridiculed or dehumanized the struggle for land. The economic frame contrasted agrarian reform with agribusiness, portraying the latter as a driver of modernization and progress, while the MST appeared as an unproductive and irrational obstacle. The legal frame highlighted the illegality of occupations and the centrality of private property, criminalizing the movement through images of evictions and police confrontations. The political frame linked the MST to radical and subversive ideologies, depicting it as a manipulated mass or a threat to democracy. The analysis shows that OESP did not act as an impartial mediator, but as a political actor aligned with agrarian elites. By mobilizing images loaded with stigma and visual metaphors of threat, the newspaper constructed the landless as a dangerous, grotesque, or militarized “other,” reinforcing social fear and legitimizing repression. Thus, journalistic coverage consolidated itself as part of a symbolic crusade against agrarian reform, demonstrating that the land issue is also a struggle over narratives.