Limits in the media:

the representation of the Tri-Border Area in the newspapers Folha de S. Paulo and O Globo (2011-2019)

Abstract

The Tri-Border Area between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay is, for the most part, seen as marginal land, lawless, disregarding its resources as nature, energy resources, commercial, educational, and tourist pole. The focus of this article is to determine whether the representations of the region in the two most widely read newspapers in the country, Folha de S. Paulo and O Globo, tend to reinforce these images, using framing and agenda-setting concepts. For this, we used the NVivo software to measure the frequency of words.  The results indicate a predominance of illegalities in the press coverage, especially terrorism - although there is no evidence of terrorist actions in the region. Of the total texts found with the words Tri-Border Area, 55.5% in O Globo and 47% in Folha included the root terror-. We conclude that the press coverage of the region does not follow specific events (event-driven). Members of the security forces are the preeminent sources of reports, and this absence of dissonant voices tends to reinforce the image of insecurity and support border surveillance and control solutions.