The construction of the image in the Brizola's farewell: notes about the funeral's coverage by the press

Abstract

The article intends to analyze how the newspapers built Leonel Brizola's image during his funeral, in June 2004. Although the Democratic Labour Party had faced severe electoral losses in the years before Brizola's death, he remained active in public life. The extensive coverage of his death all over the media from the most diverse ideological perspectives, as well as the popular commotion - combined with the political effort of Brizola's heirs - boosted his image into the spotlight of national politics. The political crisis that led to the congress coup against Dilma Rousseff, in 2016, consolidated the return of Brizola's image through access to a Brizola from a more distant past: his fight for democracy in 1961. Thereby, despite his death, the memory of the politician remains strong. I found the already traditional interpretations of Maurice Halbwachs (1990) to be more appropriate to the theme. In addition, the analysis started from reflections already presented on the relationship between History and the Press, as well as the relationship between the press and politics. The sources consulted for this reflection were the periodicals Zero Hora, Correio do Povo, O Globo and Jornal do Brasil.