How do traditional media incorporate statements from political actors in social media? An analysis of the framing of Jair Bolsonaro's tweets in Brazilian journalism

Abstract

This paper analyzes how three of Brazil's largest national newspapers (Folha de S. Paulo, O Estado de S. Paulo, O Globo) addressed tweets from the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, in the first four months of his government. The methodology consists of a qualitative content analysis of the news motivated by the president's publications on Twitter, as well as the messages themselves, in order to identify the framing adopted by said newspapers and whether that framing fits the approach of Bolsonaro. Moreover, the study uses descriptive statistics (Chi-square test) to identify links between the following pairs of variables: Issues and frames, months and issues, months and frames. The data is composed of 351 news pieces collected from these media's websites. The results show that conflict and moral were the issues that media covered the most concerning Bolsonaro's tweets, and the newspapers used news and interpretive frames equally.