A Noticiação de Homicídio Corporativo nos Rompimentos das Barragens da Samarco e da Vale por Sites Brasileiros

Gilmar José dos Santos

doi:10.17231/comsoc.42(2022).3995

Authors

Gilmar José dos Santos Departamento de Ciências Administrativas, Faculdade de Administração e Ciências Contábeis, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6788-8206

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.42(2022).3995

Keywords:

corporate manslaughter, agenda-setting, news framing, newsmaking

Abstract

One of the greatest problems regarding corporate manslaughter is its neutralization and justification by society. The media industry plays an important role in such a process because it can act as a public opinion mobilizer but also favors the suppression of such crimes from the public agenda. However, the advent of digital media brought the expectations that, with a higher number of voices disseminating content about these crimes, people would be more aware of its seriousness. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze how Brazilian news websites have approached the corporate manslaughter concept in the coverage of Samarco’s and Vale’s criminous tragedies. To do so, 318 news reports about these cases published on seven Brazilian websites were studied using the qualitative content analysis method. Five websites, self-classified as alternative-independent, and two mainstream media sites were studied. The study has found a high frequency of news reporting about these cases soon after the tragedies, but nowadays, they are getting lost in a spiral of silence. It was also observed that the sites are reluctant to report the cases as corporate manslaughter, framing the episodes as accidents or tragedies. The alternative-independent media appeared to be more inclined to frame it as a homicide but revealed not to have enough resources to produce their own content. In general, it was observed that the reporting approach neutralized and re-signified the crimes, favoring the companies. No effort to mobilize public opinion was observed to demand that the justice institutions punish the companies.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Gilmar José dos Santos, Departamento de Ciências Administrativas, Faculdade de Administração e Ciências Contábeis, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

Gilmar José dos Santos is a bachelor’s in social communication (1989) and a master’s in business administration from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (1995). He also holds a doctorate in business administration from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2004). He is a professor at the Department of Business Administration Sciences, Faculty of Business Administration and Accounting Sciences of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil. He is the leader of the research group OPUS – Organizations, Public Interest and Sustainable Societies.

References

Almond, P., & Colover, S. (2010). Mediating punitiveness: Understanding public attitudes towards work-related fatality cases. European Journal of Criminology, 7(5), 323–338. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370810373728 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370810373728

Banerjee, S. (2008). Necrocapitalism. Organization Studies, 29(12), 1541–1563. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840607096386 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840607096386

Barak, G. (2015). On the invisibility and neutralization of the crimes of the powerful and their victims. In G. Barak (Ed.), The routledge international handbook of the crimes of the powerful (pp. 1–35). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315815350

Barak, G. (2016). Multinational corporate crime: an undeveloped area of criminological inquiry. Journal of Sociology & Criminology, 4(2), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4172/2375-4435.1000156 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4172/2375-4435.1000156

Baratta, A. (2002). Criminologia crítica e crítica do direito penal: Introdução à sociologia do direito penal. Editora Revan.

Borges, S., Medeiros, C., Biase, N., & Valadão, V., Jr. (2015). A opinião pública sobre crimes corporativos: O que pensam os estudantes de cursos de graduação da área de negócios. Administração: Ensino e Pesquisa, 17(1), 33–72. https://doi.org/10.13058/raep.2016.v17n1.225 DOI: https://doi.org/10.13058/raep.2016.v17n1.225

Budó, M. (2016). Danos silenciados: A banalidade do mal no discurso científico sobre o amianto. Revista Brasileira de Direito, 12(1), 127–140. https://doi.org/10.18256/2238-0604/revistadedireito.v12n1p127-140 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18256/2238-0604/revistadedireito.v12n1p127-140

Carro, R. (2021, 23 de junho). Brazil. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2021/brazil

Castells, M. (2016). A sociedade em rede (C. Coutinho & L. Konder, Trads.). Paz e Terra. (Trabalho original publicado em 1996)

Cavender, G., & Miller, K. (2013). Corporate crime as trouble: Reporting on the corporate scandals of 2002. Deviant Behavior, 34(11), 916–931. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2013.793578 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2013.793578

Davies, M., & Martin, T. (2009). Mining market cycles and tailings dam incidents. In D. Sego, M. Alostaz, & N. Beier (Eds.), Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Tailings and Mine Waste (pp. 3–14). University of Alberta Geotechnical Center. https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/9ddc2471-8c16-482f-ad48-22d69bc3a6dc/view/2966054b-3294-462e-9016-9b3545d8e725/TMW%202009%20Proceedings.pdf

Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral. (2016). Sumário mineral 2016. Ministério de Minas e Energia.

Ferrari, P. (2014). Jornalismo digital (4.ª ed.). Contexto

Hébert, J., Bittle, S., & Tombs, S. (2019). Obscuring corporate violence: Corporate manslaughter in action. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 58(4), 554–579. https://doi.org/doi:10.1111/hojo.12345 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12345

Katiambo, D. (2021). Natural disaster or crime: The struggle between mainstream media and Facebook in discursive deletion of responsibility from environmental crimes. African Journalism Studies, 42(3), 51–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2021.1919727 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2021.1919727

Lei nº 9.605, de 12 de fevereiro de 1998, Diário Oficial § 1 (1998). http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9605.htm

Leighton, P. (2013). Corporate crime and the corporate agenda for crime control: Disappearing awareness of corporate crime and increasing abuses of power. Western Criminology Review, 14(2), 38–51. https://www.westerncriminology.org/documents/WCR/v14n2/v14n2.pdf

Linström, M., & Marais, W. (2012). Qualitative news frame analysis: A methodology. Communitas, 17, 21–37. https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/com/article/view/991

Machin, D., & Mayr, A. (2012). Corporate crime and the discursive deletion of responsibility: A case study of the Paddington rail crash. Crime, Media, Culture, 9(1), 63–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659012450294 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659012450294

Martini, M. (2007). A seletividade punitiva como instrumento de controle das classes perigosas. Revista MPMG Jurídico, 3(11), 45–47. https://www.mpmg.mp.br/data/files/E9/B3/E2/1E/E744A7109CEB34A7760849A8/MPMGJuridico_11.pdf

Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative content analysis. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(2), Artigo 20. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-1.2.1089

McCombs, M. (2004). Setting the agenda: Mass media and public opinion. Blackwell

McCombs, M., & Reynolds, A. (2002). News influence on our pictures of the world. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (pp. 1–18). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers

McManus, J. (1994). Market-driven journalism: Let the citizen beware? Sage

McQuail, D. (2010). McQuail’s mass communication theory (6.ª ed). Sage

Michel, C., Heide, K., & Cochran, J. (2015). Sociodemographic correlates of knowledge about elite deviance. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 40, 639–660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-014-9276-0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-014-9276-0

Ministério Público do Estado de Minas Gerais. (2022, 14 de janeiro). Caso Vale: MPMG recorre ao STF por julgamento em Brumadinho. https://www.mpmg.mp.br/portal/menu/comunicacao/noticias/caso-vale-mpmg-recorre-ao-stf-por-julgamento-em-brumadinho.shtml

Ministério Público Federal. (s.d.). Caso Samarco. Procuradoria-Geral da República. http://www.mpf.mp.br/grandes-casos/caso-samarco

Morck, R. (2010) The riddle of the great pyramids. In A. M. Colpan, T. Hikino, & J. R. Lincoln (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of business groups (pp. 602–628). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199552863.003.0021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199552863.003.0021

Ndzinisa, N., Lunga, C., & Ndlovu, M. (2022). News in the digital age: A case study of CITE as a digital public sphere in Zimbabwe. African Journalism Studies, 42(2), 46–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2022.2028647 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2022.2028647

Noelle-Neumann, E. (1974). The spiral of silence: A theory of public opinion. Journal of Communication, 24(2), 43–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1974.tb00367.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1974.tb00367.x

Oliveira, H. (2014). A atuação de agências de notícias nacionais – Estado, Folhapress e O Globo – como distribuidoras de conteúdos no interior dos conglomerados de mídia brasileiros. Revista Famecos, 21(2), 518–540. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-3729.2014.2.14447 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-3729.2014.2.14447

Quijano, A. (1998). Colonialidad del poder, cultura y conocimiento en América Latina. Ecuador Debate, (44), 227–238. http://hdl.handle.net/10469/6042

Retegui, L. (2017). La construcción de la noticia desde el lugar del emissor: Una revisión del newsmaking. Revista Mexicana de Opinión Pública, 12(23), 103–121. https://doi.org/10.22201/fcpys.24484911e.2017.23.56354 DOI: https://doi.org/10.22201/fcpys.24484911e.2017.23.56354

Ruggiero, V. (2015). Justifying the crimes of the powerful. In G. Barak (Ed.), The Routledge international handbook of the crimes of the powerful (pp. 62–35). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315815350

Shoemaker, P., & Vos, T. (2009). Gatekeeping theory. Routledge DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203931653

Silva, A., Cavalcante, S., Mendes, R., & Vilela, R. (2019). Acidente de trabalho no setor elétrico: Reflexões para ação interinstitucional coordenada e preventiva. Revista do Tribunal Regional do Trabalho 3ª Região, 65(10), 217–260. https://www.trt3.jus.br/publicacoes_ej/revista_100/

Slingerland, W., Copes, H., & Sloan, J., III (2006). Media construction of white-collar violence revisited: An examination of two nightclub tragedies. Deviant Behavior, 27(4), 423–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639620600721403 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01639620600721403

Theiss, V., Portulhak, H., Kuhl, M., & Colauto, R. D. (2019). Big bath accounting e turnover de executivos em empresas listadas na B3. RACE - Revista de Administração, Contabilidade e Economia, 18(1), 137–156. https://doi.org/10.18593/race.18855 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18593/race.18855

Tillman, R. (2013). Too big to jail. Western Criminology Review, 14(2), 31–37. https://www.westerncriminology.org/documents/WCR/v14n2/v14n2.pdf

Vale. (s.d.). Sobre a Vale. Quem somos. http://www.vale.com/brasil/PT/aboutvale/Paginas/default.aspx

Waisbord, S., & Russel, A. (2020). News flashpoints: Networked journalism and waves of coverage of social problems. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 97(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699020917116 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699020917116

Zaitch, D., & Gutiérrez-Gómez, L. (2015). Mining as state-corporate crime: The case of AngloGold Ashanti in Colombia. In G. Barak (Ed.), The Routledge international handbook of the crimes of the powerful (pp. 386–397). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315815350 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315815350