Unequal
urbanization: rivers, media and ecological modernization
Urbanización desigual: ríos, medios y
modernización ecológica
Claudio
Luis de Camargo Penteado. Federal
University of ABC (PCHS). E-mail: claudio.penteado@ufabc.edu.br
Ivan
Fortunato. Federal Institute of São Paulo, Itapetininga, at
the Federal University of ABC (PCHS) and at the Federal University of São
Carlos, Sorocaba (PPGEd-So). E-mail: ivanfrt@yahoo.com.br
Abstract: The paper deals with the media
coverage (between 2006 and 2016) of the rivers and streams of São Paulo,
analyzing the discourse that supports the maintenance or the rupture of the
waterways channeling paradigm, which was established throughout the 20th century.
The hypothesis is that the media coverage gives more prominence to reports
related to the maintenance of the paradigm, but in the areas where the
population of middle and upper income classes lives, especially in the expanded
center, it is emphasized the restoration of urban rivers, which is linked to
the ecological modernization paradigm. The results suggest that the paradigm
shift has in fact been considered more expressively in these areas, mainly due
to non-governmental organizations and environmental movements, while the
results confirmed the maintenance of the channeling paradigm of streams in the
suburbs, especially, when it comes to precarious settlements.
Keywords: urban policies; rivers;
urban inequalities; São Paulo; O Estado de São Paulo newspaper.
Resumen: El artículo trata sobre la cobertura
mediática (entre 2006 y 2016) de los ríos y arroyos de São Paulo, analizando el
discurso que sustenta el mantenimiento o la ruptura del paradigma de
canalización de las vías fluviales, establecido a lo largo del siglo XX. La
hipótesis es que la cobertura mediática da más importancia a los informes
relacionados con el mantenimiento del paradigma, pero en las áreas donde vive
la población de clases medias y altas, especialmente en el centro ampliado, se
destaca la recuperación de ríos urbanos, que está vinculada al paradigma de la
modernización ecológica. Los resultados sugieren que el cambio de paradigma ha
sido considerado de manera más expresiva en estas áreas, principalmente debido
a organizaciones no gubernamentales y movimientos ambientales, mientras que los
resultados confirmaron el mantenimiento del paradigma de canalización de
arroyos en los suburbios, especialmente cuando se trata de asentamientos
precarios.
Palabras-clave:
Canalización;
Centro ampliado de São Paulo; Periódico O Estado de São Paulo.
Introduction
This paper
deals with the media coverage of the rivers of São Paulo, capital of the state
of the same name and the principal city of the largest metropolis in South
America, with approximately 11 million inhabitants (20 million in the region).
This article analyzes the coverage of the media between 2006 and 2016, in order
to verify possible changes on the discourse about the treatment of rivers and
streams and their channeling and recovery, as well as if these discourses are unevenly
distributed across the territory, between central and suburban areas.
In
contemporary societies, media coverage has effects on the formation of the
political agenda (McCombs & Shaw, 1972), as well on the orientation and
evaluation of public policies (Penteado & Fortunato, 2015) and, as an
autonomous device for social power structures maintenance (Van Dijk, 2008). In
this sense, journalistic coverage on the forms of public intervention in the
channeling of rivers and streams, illustrates the political and technopolitical
discourses that seek to legitimize, along with public opinion, the paradigms of
public policies differentiated performance between rich and poor regions.
Thus,
alongside the technical positioning, the role of public opinion stands out in
the decision making about urban rivers and floodplains, which can be observed
by the tone of newspaper news in each era and by the residents requests
highlighted in this news. At the end of the nineteenth century, the State of
São Paulo reported the embellishment of the Carmo floodplain and the need to
channel and cover the Anhangabaú River. In the first quarter of the century, a
series of articles written by the architect Milcíades Porchat (1920), published
in the Jornal do Commercio, required the channeling of Tiete River and the
construction of side lanes to the river, connecting the Lapa borough to Penha
borough. Right after the Prestes Maia’s Avenues Plan, in the 1930s, the mayor
Fábio Prado (1936) gave a long interview to the newspaper, noting that
construction of an avenue over the Itororó Stream “will contribute with the
city of São Paulo, which will be able, in the course of the next 3 years,
perhaps, to offer one of the best tours that a civilized city can have[1]”. Since then, there have
been numerous articles and reports exposing the issue of valley bottom,
requesting and reporting on their channeling and the construction of a road
system, but the streams mentioned were usually the same: Traição, Sapateiro,
Uberaba, Água Preta, Rio Verde – which are all water bodies located in the
areas where the population with the highest income lives. Since the 1980s,
other rivers have begun to appear in the news, such as Pirajussara and
Aricanduva, as the channeling policy of streams reached their basins, and
mainly because of many flooding episodes that the residents of these water bodies
bank suffered.
The São
Paulo rivers, especially those of the Expanded Center, however, have over again
become news in recent years because the paradigm shift represented by linear
parks and initiatives in other countries, which have gained the media
highlights. Now, the discourse is about the recovery of rivers, especially those
that are under avenues in valued areas of the city. The clamor for discovering
or deculverting the rivers of the expanded center may result in new public
investments in the areas with good infrastructure of the city and the
maintenance of the invisibility of the rivers occupied by precarious
settlements in the periphery areas, where the great majority of the population
lives.
Currently,
there are two main paradigms of intervention on urban rivers and streams in São
Paulo: one that represents the continuity of the channeling model and the
construction of valley bottom avenues and, another, that represents rivers recovery
for the landscape, which can be understood as a paradigm of ecological
modernization. Both paradigms seek to legitimize their interventions through
technical speech. While the former advocates a standardized way of acting that
has brought numerous problems to the city, the latter constructs an ecological
discourse to justify its actions, but it only privileges the noble and most
valued areas of the city, silencing the problem in periphery regions. However, these
two paradigms are based on interventions that do not discuss the model of urban
occupation, and they both replicate a logic of exclusion of the most needy
population, which suffers from the lack of adequate treatment of water bodies
and their banks.
The
visibility of the dispute between these two paradigms, which aim to legitimize
their actions before public opinion, is evidenced by journalistic coverage. In
this sense, it is necessary to develop research to study the types of coverage
in relation to social-environmental policies of public intervention, in this
case in relation to the urban rivers and streams of São Paulo. After all, how
are the city's communication channels covering the news related to urban rivers
and streams? What kinds of paradigms are being defended or criticized? Which
actors and approaches are gaining greater visibility?
With the
objective of trying to answer these questions, this study grouped an
interdisciplinary team of researchers, from the urban planning and media
studies areas, to carry out a study on the coverage of the largest newspaper of
São Paulo, The São Paulo State (in Portuguese: OESP), focusing on news related
to the theme of rivers and urban streams.
In this
way, we seek to investigate: what is the coverage of the media, more
specifically the coverage of the newspaper OESP, about the situation of rivers
and streams in São Paulo and the intervention of public power? Does the media
cover the main socio-environmental problems related to the rivers and streams
of São Paulo or does it only reinforce the existing technological paradigms?
What are the main sources that gain space within the journalistic coverage on
the subject?
The
hypothesis that aims to answer these questions is related to a type of public (policy)
intervention that favors a technological paradigm, which uses the media to
legitimize its practices and to influence the governmental actions in relation
to urban river management in the city of São Paulo. Therefore, we believe that
media coverage gives greater emphasis to reports related to the maintenance of
the paradigm but it emphasizes the paradigm of urban river recovery, linking it
to the ecological modernization in water bodies located in noble areas, or
areas in which lives the population of middle and upper income classes,
especially at the expanded center.
In
this paper, we start from a wide historical panorama about the relation of São
Paulo with its rivers, highlighting the two main paradigms of interventions. In
the second section, we present a theoretical discussion about the emergence of
the paradigm of ecological modernization and its form of intervention in urban
rivers. Next, we bring a theoretical discussion about the media power and its
influence on public policies, focusing the coverage of environmental issue. The
methodology used for the study is described in part four, while the research
results are presented in the sequence. In the end, from the data gathered, we
seek to demonstrate how the media can legitimize environmental actions, even if
these are not sustainable per se.
São Paulo: paradigms of intervention over its rivers
Historically,
the city of São Paulo is metaphorically indebted with its rivers, since the
first place of cultural establishment was on a hill (today the place is
referred to as the Historical Triangle) flanked by the Tamanduateí and
Anhangabaú floodplain areas: fishy and navigable rivers, which provided fertile
ground for agriculture (Fortunato, 2015). We can even say that the city and its
rivers lived in harmony until the beginning of the 20th century, when the
national and international conjuncture allowed the urban-industrial development
of the country: the geography of São Paulo played a major role in the intense
growth of São Paulo (Fortunato, 2016). Thus, the rivers of São Paulo were
becoming objects of intervention for urbanization as the city approached their
banks – of course, it do not reach all the urban area, but the part that
legally attended (most of) the rules stipulated for subdivision and edification
(Maricato, 2000). The first actions took place on the Historical Triangle, that
is, the Tamanduateí and Anhangabaú rivers, focused on sanitation actions,
especially to increase the flow of sewage dilution. At that time, the
discussions around Tietê and Pinheiros rivers were mainly focused on the
generation of electric energy.
As the
urbanized area approached and surpassed the floodplains, the debate over the
regularization of the banks and riverbeds became more present, as some episodes
of flooding began to reach homes and built urban infrastructure. Thus, the
issue of sewage and its bad smell, and floods have increasingly became the main
justifications for rivers and streams channeling (Travassos, 2004).
A
discussion on how to occupy the floodplains took place along with the decisions
about rivers and their waters. Therefore, the first three decades of the 20th
century witnessed intense debates about the conception of urbanization of
rivers and floodplains, with projects ranging from the creation of bucolic
landscapes to their total distance from the landscape by constructing
underground galleries and a road system. The model that guided the relation of
the rivers with the city was established in 1930, with the Prestes Maia’s Plan
of Avenues. From that, it was established that the only and best form of
intervention in watercourses and floodplains was the gallery channeling and the
construction of a road system over the channel. This was called the
establishment of a technological paradigm, that is, a model that was implanted beyond
any doubts (Travassos, 2004). Until the 1970’s, such interventions were in line
with city road plans. In that decade, due to the existence of large federal
funds, the channeling of streams and the construction of floodplain avenues
began to integrate improvement programs, that is, wherever there was a stream
to be treated, that was the intervention to be carried out (Travassos, 2004).
At the
first decade of the 21st century, the paradigm began to change, in particular due
the introduction of greenways or parks in the floodplains made by the Plano Diretor
Estratégico (City Strategic Plan) of 2002. Thus, at the end of this decade, a
growing understanding that the works built up to that time had not been
effective in reducing flood episodes generated a significant change in the
urban drainage approach of São Paulo. It was decided to drop the idea of quickly
drain the rainwater for the idea of water storage, which was mainly due to the
implantation of emergency overflow tanks (Travassos, 2010). In spite of what
was showed by Balazina (2005) about a first movement of naturalization of the
Itororó River (under Av. 23 de Maio) and Ipiranga River (by Ricardo Jafet
Avenue), the linear parks began to be built along river banks in the periphery (poorer
areas of the city) that presented little conflict occupation, but their beds
continued to be channeled (Travassos, 2010). However, in the decade of 2010,
this policy did not advance, so the implantation of linear parks in the suburbs
cooled down and the valley bottom avenues, although in smaller amount, remained
in the debate, along with the maintenance of the pipeline and the construction
of emergency overflow tanks.
Thus, the
inequality of São Paulo’s urban development is also expressed in this relation.
The historical service of urban policies did not reache the limits of the urban
area, so the rivers channeled in galleries under the road system are located
mainly in the area known as Expanded Center and its surroundings, which
concentrates the higher income neighborhoods and better urban structure of the
city.
In the
suburbs, most rivers, streams and floodplains have never received any type of
urban treatment and serve as a place of housing for the poorest part of the
population. In a survey taken from the 2017 database of the Municipal Housing
Department, it is possible to observe that out of 1,698 slums in the city of
São Paulo, 848 are totally or partially over riverbanks or on riverbeds,
summing up to almost 274,000 households, out of a total of 386,000. In other
words, the main current environmental issue of the rivers in São Paulo is where
the city is most precarious, and it is a matter of environmental justice (see
Acselrad, 2004). There is also an uneven distribution of environmental impacts,
which accompanies social inequality. Thus, the poorest population suffers both from
social and environmental vulnerability, with fewer chances to organize their
agenda and require public action (see figures 01 and 02, respectively).
Figure 01: Itororó Stream, under Avenida 23 de
Maio in the Expanded Center, and Caburé Stream, on the outskirts of the North
Zone.
Credits: Travassos (2014; 2017).
Figure 02: São Paulo rivers map.
Credits: Map elaborated by the authors
(source of the data: favelas - São Paulo (City), Secretary of Housing, 2017, expanded
center - São Paulo (City), Traffic Engineering Company, 2017; Secretary of
Urban Development, other data - Laboratory of Urbanism of the Metropolis).
Ecological modernization and urban
rivers
According
to Janicke (2008), the term ecological modernization was coined in the early
1980’s as an attempt to integrate ecology and economics, responding to the
demand for a more environmentally friendly form of development, considering the
long term. To do so, it establishes technology and innovation as pillars of
sustainability.
One of its
early proponents, Hubner (1986), establishes as one of the problems of the
contemporary industrial societies the colonization of social and ecological
spheres by the sphere of technology. He points out that a social, scientific,
technological institutions and market economy restructuring can correct
failures of the industrial system. However, this theory proposes a process of
hyperindustrialization, which would require new ecologically based
technologies, created by enlightened entrepreneurs, their main actors, but with
state policies and regulations that support these actions.
Ecological
modernization seeks win-win situations, whose main key is the adoption of
“correct” technology and socioeconomic policies, pleading for a type of
development that happens with nature and not against it (Pow & Neo, 2013).
Once ecological modernization has economic viability, the actors and the
dynamics of the economy play leading roles in achieving the desired changes.
With the extension of the understanding of the environmental issue, from the
1990’s, which associates with the traditional question of the stock of natural
resources and the deposit of waste the actors also expand and become more
complex, with the growth of environmental movements (Olivieri, 2009).
One of the
characteristics of this expanded perception is closely related to cultural
changes in daily activities related to places of living, which will inform some
understandings about urban sustainability, especially those that establish
measures for the quality of life. Although urban sustainability has a strong
ethical character and is intimately rooted in the territory (which leads to the
conclusion that sustainability criteria should vary with context) the idea of
quality of life, as well as ecological modernization, presents a large global
dimension. It evens establishes a global market, without, however, being a
priori committed with specific social purposes, such as social justice
(Olivieri, 2009). Thus, the definition of quality of life of the cities brings
together a package formed by questions of security, education, culture,
political stability, environment and recreation, dimensions that will configure
a specific place for each city in the international arena and at the
competition for investments, with little regard to social differences (Pow
& Neo, 2013).
In
addition, much of the management and governance is give, in accordance with the
ecological modernization, through a business logic, including State actions.
Such logic advocates a series of changes in urban space, designed to foster
local growth and economic development and to improve the city’s place in global
competition. On the other hand, Hall & Hubbard (1996) understand that local
governments have always used corporate strategies in partnership with the private
initiative, to foster local growth and capital accumulation – and this is something
that we observe in the case studied here. They state that:
Researchers who have sought to
understand entrepreneurial governance from this regime perspective have
therefore suggested that such urban coalitions typically consist of loose or
informal partnerships of a multiplicity of interest groups which function
together in order to make and carry out specific governing decisions (Hall
& Hubbard, 1996: 156).
These
authors understand that many of these partnerships aim to achieve concrete
solutions to specific urban problems by attracting investment to a more
prospered city. It is possible to say that many of these urban problems are
also considered problems of life quality in the city – this life quality been
instituted globally and constructed through speech, echoed in city rankings,
elaborated for example by publications as diverse as Monocle or The Economist,
or life quality for city boroughs, as can be observed in Brazilian publications
such as Exame Magazine or the Folha de São Paulo Newspaper.
However,
ecological modernization, and its aspect linked to urban sustainability and
life quality, has been criticized for acting in a social vacuum and for
treating uncritically technology as a universal good, as it was accessible to
all people and places (Pow & Neo, 2013). Especially in developing
countries, inequality of income distribution is accompanied by unequal access
to technology and, it can be said, to ecological modernization.
As per
urban rivers, it is possible to associate the ideas of restoration,
recuperation or naturalization[2] with the ecological modernization, which
constitute a new paradigm for the treatment of water bodies and their banks, since
it aims to recover the river landscape in the cities. In general, these actions
aim to rehabilitate the ecological functions of the system. Although, as per
urban rivers, the transformation of their basins with the soil sealing, the
production of diffuse pollution and even the change in rainfall patterns, it
makes impossible any return to an “original” system (Travassos, 2010). Eden and
Tunstall (2006) even note that the ecological or environmental restoration of
rivers and streams has been widely studied, especially in the natural sciences,
such as ecology, geomorphology and hydrology. Nevertheless, the social and
political aspects of these interventions are very little evaluated, being
limited to those related to the users’ perception about a certain location
after the construction works are done.
Since the
1990’s, ecological actions in urban rivers and streams have been gaining ground
in public institutions that deals with river water management in several
countries (Travassos, 2010). This is due, in parts, to the growth of
sustainability of ecological restoration projects, compared to traditional
flood defense projects, which comes from the expansion of the professional
categories within the public institutions of drainage management (Adams et al.,
2004). The most complex project is known as “daylighting” (Pinkham, 2000), that
is, to deculvert rivers, recovering them in several different gradations. In
2005, a massive South Korean daylighting project, the construction of the urban
park on the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul, got to the world media, giving
strength to this discussion in several countries.
In São
Paulo, in spite of the immense inequalities in urban infrastructure between the
expanded center and the peripheries, this debate gained strength in this
decade, mainly led by urban environmental movements with a strong presence in
the media. Thus, rivers formerly channeled into galleries are once again
subject of debates, now with the idea of its recovery, which is increasingly
incorporated into the public policy debate (although not implemented), in a
clear process of ecological modernization without environmental justice. That
is, the debate for the recovery of these rivers is not contextualized in the
complete understanding about the situation of rivers and streams of the city, because
it ignores that its main environmental question today is not gallery
channeling. The main environmental issue has to do with social and
environmental vulnerabilities combined, i.e. streams occupied by precarious
settlements, without sewage collection, in floodable areas, but which, on the
other hand, represent opportunities for the construction of a new relationship
between the rivers and the city.
Media and power: visibility, scheduling and the
environment
The greater
penetration of the media in people's daily lives has delineated new forms of
sociability that are mediated in and by the media (Thompson, 1995). With the
development of the media and its popularization, it has assumed a central role
in human relations, serving as the main source of information for happenings and
events that occur in other locations, a process that influences the dynamics of
State action and the development of public policies (Penteado & Fortunato,
2015).
This
process produces important transformations in political and social thoughts.
According to Thompson (1995), in democratic societies, the media assumes the
role of a public arena for political actions, in which political practices has greater
visibility in which different social actors seek to manage their public images
and to legitimize their practices. In this sense, the information publicized by
the various media ends up being part of the subjects by which the people take
notice of the events and influence in the formation of the public opinion. This
contributes to the evaluation of the public policies employed.
The greater
presence of the media in people’s daily lives produces important changes in
social life. The media surpasses its instrumental function of information
vehicle, to be present in the most varied human practices – from work to
leisure – revealing the impact of communication within the current stage of
human development. Thus, information assumes the role of raw material
(Castells, 1996) and begins to manage State action (Debray, 1994) and the
State’s own legitimacy (Hurrelmann, 2009).
The
centrality of the media in contemporary social relations reveals the importance
of media not only as a technical apparatus of communication but also as a
device for the construction or transmission of the symbolic forms by which
people interpret and create meaning for the material world in which they are
inserted. This cognitive process is characterized by the mediation of media
coverage of happenings and events, producing important social effects that need
to be studied (Penteado, 2009).
With the
advance of mass communication, especially since the 1970’s, researchers
indicate that media effects are more complex, beginning the formation of a new
theory: the agenda-setting theory of McCombs and Shaw in Chapel Hill, Columbia
University (Scheufele & Tewksbury, 2007). In a recent review and analysis
of the trajectory of agenda-setting theory, McCombs, Shaw, & Weaver (2014)
have identified that it is possible to observe that the field of research in
agenda-setting theory is in constant renewal and updating. This demonstrates
its methodological and explanatory efficiency, consolidating itself as an
important social research tool. The agenda-setting theory approach is based on
the premise that the media selects certain issues and actors and omits others.
Thus, this type of coverage ultimately influences the formation of the public
agenda, and consequently the public debate, by giving greater space and
visibility in its channels to certain specific subjects and actors.
From
the criticisms and improvements of the agenda-setting theory, two approaches
were developed: priming and framing. Such approaches seek to show that the
effects of the media are not only related to the prominence that the media give
to a specific issue, according to agenda-setting. Priming evidences the process
of suggestion (induction) that media coverage does in relation to the reported
issues, generating influence on the formation of public opinion. Framing is
about the way in which an issue is portrayed in media coverage, that is, how an
event gains visibility by the media and/or how news will be framed (Scheufele
& Tewksbury, 2007).
For the purpose of this paper, the framing approach is more appropriate,
since the urban management of rivers and streams involves technical issues of
difficult apprehension for the great majority of the population. The media’s
framework on the subject helps to simplify the discussion and it produces “readings”
by which individuals will produce their understanding of the issue and form the
public opinion about, playing an agency role. Thus, the framing approach allows
us to identify the ways in which events are disclosed by the journalistic
coverage of the media: what discursive elements gain greater prominence? Which
symbolic representations are used? Which interpretations are privileged? Which
social actors are heard?
The frameworks
produced by the media function as general interpretative milestones that made
up from the discursive disputes present in society. These milestones help
people to make sense of events and situations transmitted by the media.
Scheufele & Tewksbury (2007) indicate that framing operates at the macro
and micro levels, serving as a “tool” for the simplification of an often
complex subject – such as in the case of rivers and streams channeling – in
order to make it more understandable to the audience. However, the use of a
framing involves the dispute between political and social interests and stands,
which in the case of this study is related to the maintenance of a
technological paradigm of intervention and the emergence of a new paradigm structured
through the discourse of ecological modernization. Both paradigms seek to
normalize the model of spatial and social exclusion existing in the city of São
Paulo.
In this
sense, the agenda-setting theory identifies that media coverage in relation to
São Paulo’s urban rivers and streams does not operate within the discourse of
journalistic neutrality. Instead, it stands for political disputes, some forms
of state intervention, and a few distinguish standpoints from the actors involved
in the theme, highlighting certain events and framing them within cognitive
(discursive) schemes that represent specific interests and stands, as an
objective to influence public opinion and consequently the public policy
agenda, as we try to demonstrate below.
Materials and methods
In order to
analyze the media coverage of the urban rivers and streams of São Paulo,
specifically on the change or maintenance of the channeling paradigm, and to
analyze difference in treatment between rivers inside and outside the expanded
center area, we gathered data using the search tool from the website of the
newspaper O Estado de São Paulo (OESP)[3]. It was selected because it is the
one with the largest circulation in the city of São Paulo[4].
The period
selected for analysis was from January 1st, 2006 to December 31st,
2016. The initial date was chosen because in 2006 it was created through an
ordinance of the Municipal Green and Environment Department a work group to
promote the implementation of linear parks. This can be understood as the
moment in which an effective change in the intervention practices began to take
place. The year of 2006 was also the year that the South Korean daylighting
project was heavily publicized.
In our
search, the descriptors used were: streams channeling; streams/rivers recovery;
hidden/invisible streams. The newspaper's search tool allowed news containing
words close to those to be found in the same search. A total of 201 newspaper articles
directly related to the research topic were selected. In these articles we
analyzed: (a) date of publication (b) the framing adopted, (c) the geographical
reference and (d) the sources used in the reports. Six rankings were used for
the news framework:
1.
Paradigm critique: news with criticism of the
traditional model of rivers and streams channeling or the proposition of
“recovery of rivers” (paradigm of ecological modernization);
2.
Paradigm maintenance: news presenting discourse that
reinforces model of rivers and streams channeling;
3.
Flooding: news reports of flood occurrences in various
location of the city;
4.
Pollution: news reporting pollution problems in rivers
and streams;
5.
Overall picture of the problem: news that seeks to
make a general assessment of the issue of rivers and streams;
6.
Others: reports that do not fill into the previous categories.
The
articles were also classified as the location of the rivers or streams
portrayed, which could be: (a) inside the expanded center, (b) outside the
expanded center and (c) indifferent – category that was used when the news
dealt with rivers in the both areas, did not specify the water bodies or
reported about those that cross both areas, such as Tietê and Pinheiros Rivers.
In
addition, the following sources were identified: NGOs and related organizations
(including environmental movements), state public authorities, municipal
authorities, specialists (involving technicians, researchers and teachers),
population and other sources.
Results
Results
show that news with the paradigm maintenance framework had a higher occurrence
(50.24%), while critical reports on the channeling paradigm had only 12.93%.
These data show that the coverage (framing) of the newspaper still prevails the
paradigm of rivers and streams channeling, as shown in table 01.
Table 01: News
framings
|
Framing
|
%
|
|
Paradigm critique
|
12,93
|
|
Paradigm maintenance
|
50,24
|
|
Flooding
|
15,92
|
|
Pollution
|
6,96
|
|
Overall
picutre of the problem
|
6,46
|
|
Others
|
7,46
|
Regarding the location of the rivers
and streams portrayed in the reports, the results expressed in table 02 show
that most of the news studied are related to rivers outside the expanded center
(48.25%), that is, regions that concentrate a large part of the city's
periphery.
Table 02: Location of the rivers and streams portrayed in the
articles.
|
Location
|
%
|
|
Inside the expanded center
|
17,91
|
|
Outside the expanded center
|
48,25
|
|
Indifferent
|
33,83
|
The main
sources used in the reports were technicians and managers of the municipal
public power (50.24%). These data reveal that the public agents of the
bureaucracy (upper and middle directors) are still important sources in the
production of speeches and explanations. This, to a certain extent, confirms
the results found on the framing, in which these agents tend to have a
discourse of paradigm maintenance. Table 03 sets out the data regarding the
sources consulted:
|
Sources
|
%
|
|
NGOs and similar
|
12,96
|
|
State public authorities
|
17,91
|
|
Municipal authorities
|
50,24
|
|
Specialists
|
13,93
|
|
People
|
26,86
|
|
Others
|
4,97
|
|
Sourceless
|
19,9
|
By
crossing the framing data with the location (Table 04), it can be seen that the
paradigm maintenance framework occurs mainly when it comes to water bodies
outside the expanded center, with 67% of the news, versus 15% in the expanded
center, following the same news proportion. On the other hand, a deeper reading
of the news shows that, whenever the question of precarious settlements is
considered, the streams channeling paradigm prevails.
Table 04: Paradigm versus location
|
Framing
|
Inside the expanded center (%)
|
Outside the expanded center (%)
|
Indifferent (%)
|
|
Paradigm critique
|
38,46
|
30,76
|
30,76
|
|
Paradigm maintenance
|
14,85
|
67,32
|
17,82
|
|
Flooding
|
0
|
40,62
|
59,37
|
|
Pollution
|
0
|
42,85
|
57,14
|
|
Overall picture of the problem
|
0
|
7,69
|
92,3
|
|
Others
|
73,33
|
6,66
|
20
|
Regarding
the critique of the channeling paradigm of streams, although it appears well
distributed between inside and outside the expanded center, it is important to
note that a part of the news that critique the paradigm and are located outside
the expanded center deal with middle and upper classes boroughs, such as Granja
Julieta and Morumbi. It is also emphasized that among the news items framed as
indifferent, there are maps that show that the questioning leaves the expanded
center, but it does not reach the periphery.
Another
important finding is the lack of news about flooding, pollution, and the
overall picture of the problem at the expanded center, suggesting that such
issues are more relevant outside these areas, which confirms its greater
vulnerability.
Figure 3
shows the crosses between framing and sources data in which the municipal
authorities are the most present source when it comes to channeling maintenance
and flood news, while the criticism of this paradigm has as its main source
NGOs and similar. It is interesting to note that in the greater occurrence of
the “overall picture of the problem” framing, the reports do not mention
sources, so the journalist assumes the role of expert to evaluate this highly
complex issue.
Figure 03: Framing versus sources.
Figure 4
illustrates that the paradigm maintenance framing has the highest number of
occurrences per year. Exception for the year 2010, due to a series of floods
that devastated the city of São Paulo, in which the flooding news were higher.
Figure 04: Framing versus news per year
Finally, the news criticizing the
stream channeling paradigm only began to appear in 2009, with peaks in the
years of 2012 and 2015. By 2015, the number of news of this nature was very
close to the paradigm maintenance, a category that, after 2011, did not present
a greater impact in the media. This was probably because it was a period in
which the main issue related to water in São Paulo became the lack of water to
supply to the population.
Final remarks
From the
analyzed news, the historical background presented and the theoretical
foundation used in this paper, it is possible to conclude that the change of
the technological paradigm, from the streams channeling to the recovery of
rivers (especially the intervention known as daylighting) still does not present great strength over the news about
rivers and streams interventions.
On the
other hand, the high incidence of this kind of news linked to NGOs and
environmental movements indicates that this agenda must last and it will
probably grow in the coming years, mostly due the pressure of these movements
on the public agents and the search for greater visibility of their practices.
Regarding
the location framed, there is a greater (but not very expressive yet) presence
of these critiques in the expanded center and in the regions with good
structure, occupied by the middle and upper income classes. This is something
close to the hypothesis of the paper: an ecological modernization speech is
under construction, which aims to change the presence of water bodies in the
city, but it privileges the noble and more valued areas. When it comes to the
most precarious and deprived areas, the emphasis remains on the streams
channeling of streams and their fallouts.
It is also necessary to emphasize that the small amount of news that
deals with the issue of urban rivers and streams in an overall approach (only
6%) indicates that there is no dialogue between urban contexts and different
forms of intervention that can respond to the challenges and opportunities of
the São Paulo rivers and streams treatments, prevailing a perverse logic that
reproduces the privilege of the most noble areas of the city.
At the end, it is worth emphasizing
the need for a constant monitoring of news production by the mass media, within
an interdisciplinary approach, especially under socio-environmental issues and
the forms of management and territory planning in order to consolidate a new
research agenda and the construction of a database useful for several
researchers of the theme.
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[1] Original text:
“vai contribuir para que S. Paulo dentro de tres annos, talvez, tenha prompto
um dos melhores passeios que uma cidade civilizada pode possuir”.
[2] There are many terms present in the
literature, a list of these terms and their differences can be found in Shields et al. (2003).
[4] Information available at: http://publicidade.estadao.com.br/estadao/estadao-dados-de-mercado/. Source: Ipsos, 2013.
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