Tracking a conflict in the printed pages of Paraná: journalistic discourse and the 1957 Leaseholders’ Revolt

Abstract

This article presents a brief analysis of the journalistic discourse expressed by two newspapers of Paraná, a state of the south region of Brazil, on one of the main agrarian uprisings that took place in the 1950s, the Leaseholders’ Revolt of 1957. The textual discourses, including images, that circulate through the media construct and corroborate the perceptions, concepts and values of an epoch, as they are reflective of the actions by agents inserted in a particular historical context. In contemporary societies, it is mainly through these operations that the meaning of social transformation is produced. It is evident that the voices of settlers and leaseholders could not be heard, that is, they did not have a right to the freedom of expressing themselves in the above-mentioned newspapers. They were left aside as secondary players in a plot in which political quarrels were more suitable to the interests of the press. Such entanglements of interests and ideological positions are intrinsic to the development of regional media, and inevitably interfere in the structuring of historical narratives about conflicts mediated by the journalistic discourse.Keywords: Journalistic discourse, Memory, Agrarian Movement.Submission date: December 21st 2010Acceptance date: March 14th 2011