Ciência e risco : as controvérsias como procedimento da comunicação pública num contexto democrático

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

This work investigates the consolidation of the scientific controversy as a subject of news in the democratic context, under the point of view of a public research organization. Based on the existing concepts of risk communication and organizational communication, this research defends that the traditional models of communication with society - focused primordially in the dissemination of the benefits of science and in the promotion of the corporate image - are being substituted, yet in afragile way, for a model of public communication of science in which, alongside the professional competence and authority, the institutions are legitimated for their capacity to establish relations and maintain institutionalized spaces of debate with the sectors interested in what they produce. This research focuses on the dissemination of transgenics to society, from the perspective of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), observing how the controversy on the matter influenced the process. The analysis initiates in 23 of April of 1997, when Embrapa and Monsanto signed the first agreement for the development of the soybean tolerant to the herbicide Roundup Ready, and finishes in 20 of April of 2005, when Embrapa launched its first cultivars of transgenic soy, after the approval of the Biosafety Law by the Brazilian National Congress. The methodology combined examination of articles mentioning Embrapa published by the press; appreciation of the institutional rules; analysis of press releases available in the company news database; accomplishment of semi-structured interviews with journalists from Embrapa; and participant observation. The analyzed data indicated that there was a predominance of the technical perspective over the social one on the treatment given to the risks by Embrapa, during the controversy over transgenics. The results also indicated the prevalence of the dissemination of information that sought to convince lay people about the importance of OGM for society, for the country and the national science, characterizing the prevalence of autocratic vision of scientific legitimacy over a more democratic one. It was also observed that the delay in providing information to the public on the transgenics was associated, primarily, to the lack of regulation of the issue and to the double dependence between Embrapa and its sponsors that, to the eyes of the interviewees, defended opposite points of view: government (public interest) and Monsanto (private interest). The mapping of networks of actor-network made visible alliances between Embrapa and other organizations and the influence of the political scenario in the different positions on the subject defended by the company. It was understood, moreover, that the press was the great ally of Embrapa in the defense of its institutional positions.However, there were occasions when the two organizations were guided by antagonic visibility logics (secrecy and publicity), from which is possible to identify the existence of four different phases in the analyzed period in which, at one point, one logic prevailed, at another point, the other one did, and moments when they both entered in symbiosis. Finally, the conclusion is that, today, the public research organizations depend on a range of entities and interest groups whose conflicts and alliances make the dissemination of technological innovations much more complex than foresees the existing models of risk communication and organizational communication.

ASSUNTO(S)

transgênicos comunicação organizacional comunicacao risk communication scientific controversy comunicação pública public communication controvérsia científica comunicação de risco transgenics organizational communication

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