I read the news today, oh boy!

Some of the most wise advices I ever heard about journalism came from a teacher during my second year in the journalism course: "There are only two persons in the world that you can know for sure will read your text line by line until the end: your editor and your mother. But always write having all the other people in mind".

The advice was meant to illustrate the importance of organizing and prioritizing the information in your text. The idea is to present the most important message at the top of the story — the so called "Inverted Pyramid" .

Like all the major written media members in Brazil, the daily newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo, which has the second largest circulation in the city of São Paulo, and the sixth largest overall in Brazil, follows the inverted pyramid rule. This can be observed on an article of 05/30/2010 about the economic progresses of members of lower classes in Brazil:

"Classe emergente festeja progressos" (Emerging class celebrates progress)
Full article available on the link: http://www.estadao.com.br/estadaodehoje/20100530/not_imp558917,0.php

Bellow the headline, the text reads: "With easier access to credit and the growing purchasing power, their life has improved, but there is no need to vote for Dilma". Instead of focusing on the main point of the story - that is, the economic advances of the lower classes during President Lula's administration - the newspaper uses the noblest space of the story, right after the headline, to send their readers a message. And the message is: the economic has advanced, alright, but that's no reason to vote for Dilma Rousseff (or, in other words, not to vote for José Serra).

Talk about impartiality, uh?




Suggested soundtrack: "A day in the life", The Beatles