COMMUNICATION AND DESERTS: THE RELATION AMONG SCIENCE, MEDIA, POWER, AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON POPULAR PERSPECTIVE CONCERNING DESERTIFICATION IN BRAZIL.
desertification, scientific press, media, social engagement
Being a serious environmental issue, the addressing of desertification relies on scientific understanding of its complex ecological, social and climatic relations. Affecting Caatinga, a unique biome in the Semi-arid region of Brazil still uncharted by science, and whose soil fertility and biodiversity face serious threat as desertification advances and harms food and water resources for thousands of people, resulting in migration influx. Governmental initiative has not been able to yield substantial actions to tackle the issue and society seems not to sense the urge of such matter. One way to promote social engagement is the propagation of related information, whether scientific or not, in spite of political and economical interests lurking within the narrative of mass media. The focus of this paper is to analyse the narrative of Brazilian press regarding desertification, which also includes a view on science press. A panorama of scientific production was made through scientometrical analysis of scientific papers published between 2005-2014 and content analyses of news and reports printed and published by Folha de São Paulo from 1994 through 2015. It was noticed an increase of scientific production for disciplinary purposes, though eventually discontinued as most papers remain unreachable on major national and international databases. On printed newspaper, approach to the subject is rare and often happens in a decontextualized or catastrophic-toned manner, not allowing space for opposite views, hence offering little voice to scientists and almost none to society. Therefore, there is a need for investment in long term multidisciplinary researches that not only deepen comprehension of subject matter, solution oriented in its entirety, but also able to call society to take part in scientific discussion as well as formulating policies and managing strategies to tackle desertification through the propagation of continuous, critical and contextualized information.