LIMA, D. F.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/0496860960556978; LIMA, Diogo Florêncio de.
Abstract:
With the advent of digital journalism, information democratization has become a reality. Nowadays news articles are published as soon as the facts occur and can be accessed
from any device connected to the internet. The reach of journalism grows as digital media
disseminates news among the readers. However, at the same time that it connects, the
internet has potential to create bubbles and stir up polarizations that already exist in society.
Considering that people’s opinions may change depending on how information is presented
to them, we approach the context of Brazilian digital media with the aim of characterizing
the influence of news on the opinion and behavior of media outlets’ readers. Thereunto, we
resort to the literary definition of news that elects objectivity and impartiality as the main characteristics of the journalistic genre and; under the premise that news with high levels of
subjectivity may indicate some kind of divergence or deviation from these characteristics,
we use an indicator of subjectivity based on textual content to capture them. Thereafter,
we investigate how the different levels of subjectivity can influence readers’ comments in
terms of their linguistic qualities (eglegibility, classification of words used, frequency of
characters, among others), writing patterns, engagement and alignment with the news (
related and unrelated comments to the news content). In computing, analyzes concerning
this type of influence are still scarce, especially when we consider the specificities of each
language. The proposed methods present a new approach not yet observed in the reviewed
literature. We believe that the methods, together with the findings obtained in this research,
may contribute to a better understanding of the readers’ relation with journalistic news.
