Coverage of the World Cup in Russia by Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. How the Brazilian newspaper presented the 2018 sports mega-event on its covers

Abstract

The present work studies the journalistic coverage of the 2018 World Cup, held in Russia, through the analysis of 33 covers of the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, Brazil's main periodical, in its printed version. The covers analyzed were published between June 14 and July 16, 2018, in order to cover all the content related to the tournament. Through the Content Analysis methodology, which allows a qualitative and quantitative study to be carried out, the aim of this work is to find out if Folha, on its main page, gave priority to football competition in comparison to the other subjects. In addition, it seeks to understand whether the newspaper showed any type of positioning in the texts relating to the Brazilian team and rival teams: Germany, Argentina and Uruguay. The amount of content, headlines, forms of illustration and space occupied by Mundial and the other editorials of the journal are analyzed, as well as the content of textual productions that specifically address the team from Brazil and its rivals.