The collective imaginary in the media: a sensitive analysis of the telejornal coverage in the transposition of the Velho Chico’s waters

Abstract

This article analyzes or describes how the media, especially television news, share the mythical and symbolic elements present in the collectivity, understanding that behind a utilitarian technique there is a sensible reason that goes beyond a positivist and Cartesian logic. For this purpose, the object of study was the journalistic coverage of a hunger strike by Bishop Flávio Cáppio in 2007 against the transposition of the waters of the São Francisco River.The narrative and the images of two reporters on the transposition of the “Velho Chico” are analyzed in order to verify the dialogue present in the process of mediatization and the construction of these symbolic images. The analysis was based on the theory of the imagination of Gibert Durand (1988), the Social Imaginary proposed by Michel Maffesoli (2001) and the journalistic narrative from the ideas of Motta (2006). It was found that the protest led by the religious aroused a feeling that goes beyond rational and technical discourse and produced new ways of perceiving the real, directly stimulating the social imaginary of scarcity and lack of water, already present in both literature and film productions, and that each year gets stronger with the policies of preservation of rivers and springs.

Keywords: Imaginary. Telejournalism. Mediatization. Transposition.