Risk communication and the discourses of the sergipe press regarding the transposition of the São Francisco river

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the discourse from the press in Sergipe concerning possible socio-environmental risks caused by the transposition the waters of the River São Francisco/Brazil. To ensure the initial scope, the theoretical argumentation will be structured in three distinct moments: the first one introduces a concept of risk and its socio-environmental dimensions, the second presents risk communication as a fundamental step in the management of socio-environmental risks, according to ISO 31000:2009; the third concerns the results obtained from discourses in the press in Sergipe that deal with the transposition. This work employs discourse analysis in a documental research of the papers Correio de Sergipe, Jornal da Cidade and Cinform, in the period 2004-2007. The journalistic discourses were selected by means of their headlines, in an attempt to effect a "study of meanings" and a "mapping of voices". Afterwards, we identified "discoursive formations" related to socio-environmental risks of the transposition, thereby confirming the idea of a non-neutrality of discourse.