SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE AND JOURNALISTIC DISCOURSE: a discursive analysis of their functioning

Abstract

In this reflection, we shall make use of the theory of analysis of discourse, taking into account our proposal to analyse the imaginary which permeates the expression street kids as transmitted by the media, comparing this with the expression street children used in articles published by social scientists in academic journals. The object of our analyses will be composed of selected articles from the ‘Folha de São Paulo’ newspaper, seen as journalistic discourse and abstracts of articles, included in the data base SOCIOFILE – Sociological Abstracts, seen as scientific discourse. We shall seek to understand the passage from the notion of child to the pre-constructed notion of street kid and what results from this passage. We shall relate the questions linked to discursive structuring as constitutive of a certain social memory, with the discourse of the media and the scientific discourse when it deals with street kids.