Information sources in legislative media: pro-government bias and diversity in news making regarding Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

Resumo

The article analyzes the relationships between the journalistsand the sources of legislative media maintained by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies - TV Câmara, Rádio Câmara, Agência Câmara and Jornal da Câmara. From interviews and participant-observation of the production routines in all four media, one can notice the advantage given to official sources, especially to the congressmenthemselves. The dual role of the deputies - sources and publishers of these media - is a complicating factor for the journalist’s autonomy.The arguments between the two instances of news making point to the diversity of sources and scopes necessary for media that covetthe “public” title.