Between fact and narrative: the construction of political reality in the media coverage of the 1989 elections

Abstract

This article critically analyzes the media coverage of the 1989 Brazilian presidential elections, focusing on televised debates and a sample of newspapers from that period. The main objective is to understand how the press and television acted not merely as information vehicles, but as active agents in the construction of political reality and the formation of public opinion. The research adopts a qualitative and documentary approach, centered on content analysis of 39 reports published between October 28 and December 20, 1989, in the newspapers Correio Braziliense, Correio de Notícias, Jornal do Brasil, and O Estado de S. Paulo, as well as audiovisual records of televised debates. The results show that media coverage was not neutral: the editing of the debate between Lula and Collor broadcast by Jornal Nacional on December 15, 1989, granted disproportionate speaking time to Collor and suppressed Lula's right of reply, configuring manipulation that favored the PRN candidate. The analysis of the critical review that Rede Globo itself made of the episode decades later reveals discursive strategies of silencing and euphemization, which shift responsibility away from the broadcaster. It is concluded that the media acted as an active agent in the production of political reality, creating the discursive conditions in which the electoral dispute unfolded. The study contributes to the debate on the role of media in democratic transition processes and to the historiographical critique of journalistic and audiovisual sources