Fontes de notícias na era das redes: o X (Twitter) como gerador de pautas sobre o Big Brother Brasil

Abstract

The reality show Big Brother Brasil (BBB), broadcast by TV Globo, fosters the phenomenon of second screen, also called Social TV and backchannel, by building a parallel program on social media, especially on X (Twitter), which has a strong affinity with the concept due to its characteristics and tools. Based on reflections on what this scenario proposes for the press, this dissertation focuses on the journalistic coverage of BBB by Folha de S.Paulo in the years 2022, 2023, and 2024. The hypothesis established is that X sets the agenda for journalistic production, being institutionalized in the news creation process. To test this hypothesis, answer the question about the role of X in this coverage, and achieve the overall objective of understanding how discourses created on X about the reality show influence Folha de S.Paulo, three pillars were established. First, a bibliographic research was conducted to study X, digital journalism, and what becomes news, with an emphasis on the transformations in the concept of agenda-setting and the impacts of metrics analysis. Second, 296 articles from Folha de S.Paulo covering BBB 22, 23, and 24, that included the word “Twitter,” were analyzed to construct a table. Third, interviews were conducted with three reporters and two editors from Folha de S.Paulo. Through this methodological triangulation, the research confirmed the hypothesis and concluded that X shares protagonism with the pay-per-view in the journalistic coverage of BBB, not only being used for generating the agenda but also for collecting information, photos, and videos during the reporting stage. Similarly, it is also used as a source provider (users who publish comments about the show), incorporated into articles through the transfer of excerpts and/or embedded posts. In this context, the research highlights the importance of trending topics in the agenda-setting process, which indicates a strong newsworthiness potential for topics and events that go viral, and simulates platformized editorial meetings that signal the weakening of traditional editorial meetings. As an observer of the second screen phenomenon and producer of articles based on this repertoire, the journalism analyzed in this research, therefore, provokes new understandings about the term third screen. Based on BBB and Folha de S.Paulo, the research aims not only to capture a picture of the current moment but also to reflect on the past, present, and future of journalists' use of X in the news production process.