Criminosos, carentes ou doentes? Representações de pessoas em situação de rua nas páginas de um jornal carioca em 2017

Abstract

The homeless population is a heterogeneous group marked by extreme poverty, with broken or weakened family ties, and using public spaces and degraded areas for livelihood. In the national territory, the homeless population is mostly made up of men, black people, aged between 30 and 59 years, with low education. Among the factors that lead these people to the streets are, mainly, family breakdown, the use of alcohol and drugs and unemployment. In 2009, the National Policy for the Homeless Population was published, which regulates the principles, guidelines and objectives for promoting and guaranteeing the rights of this population. During the development of the city of Rio de Janeiro, there were several transformations influenced by internal and external situations and, among them, the preparation for the mega-events, which had a great economic and social impact. During the city's preparation for international events, homeless people were expelled from the central and tourist areas to distant areas or shelters, a situation legitimized by journalism as a measure of readjustment of the urban space, combating disorder and crime. Faced with this scenario. the question was how the homeless population is represented in journalism, more specifically in the newspaper O Globo, especially in this period after the mega-events in Rio de Janeiro. Our hypothesis considers that people living on the streets were mainly represented as troublemakers and potential perpetrators of crimes, with little discussion on issues related to health and social assistance. Using the Content Analysis methodology proposed by Bardin (2016), reports on “morador de rua” in the newspaper O Globo in 2017 were analyzed, through the process of exploration and categorization of the material. Finally, the results found show that this population segment was mostly represented by the perspective of public safety, associated with crime and urban disorder, followed by social assistance, due to the high degree of vulnerability. Few reports discussed issues related to public health, with emphasis on drug use.