The risks of letting Jair Bolsonaro hijack the news in Brazil

Since Jair Bolsonaro took office as president, it seems as if Brazil is living in a never-ending crisis loop. The press barely has time to analyze one controversy before another is launched from the presidential palace. However, it appears there is method to the government’s madness.

Mr. Bolsonaro has put outrage at the center of his political platform—meaning he is the ideal figure for the social media age. Whether it be adoration or disgust, everyone who’s talking politics on Facebook or Twitter is talking about Jair Bolsonaro.

And the same goes for the press, too.

We did an exclusive scan of over 500,000 headlines published by Brazil’s leading news outlets between July 2017 and February 2020. And the data shows just how much Mr. Bolsonaro has been able to hijack the news cycle in Brazil.

More than one-third of political stories published by newspapers Folha de S.Paulo and Valor mention President Jair Bolsonaro by name in their headlines. On daily newspaper O Globo, the rate is slightly lower: one in four stories mention the president in their title. However, O Globo is the outlet that has published the most Bolsonaro-centric stories in February 2020 alone: 329, an average of ten every day.

Much more than Folha‘s 244 and Valor‘s 105.

In the entire analyzed span, O Globo, Folha, Valor, and the country’s leading...