Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:54:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LuizFDPN_DISSERT.pdf: 2209793 bytes, checksum: abf28b0dea288454043f2a92ced47d86 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-17 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Environmental issues are becoming increasingly habitual to the media, particularly when calamities are involved. A feature of environmental disasters is that they disclose both environmental crises and the media limitation in reporting them. The research tried to contribute to the subject through the study of press media coverage of a large fish kill along an estuary in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, in 2007. Thematic content analysis of newspaper reports identified the predominance of a superficial and denunciative coverage, lacking an educational perspective, and with little contribution to formation of a critical sense in readers. It also has identified the precarious treatment of those scientific concepts that could substantiate the actual causes of mortality of tons of aquatic fauna / A m?dia tem evidenciado de forma crescente a quest?o ambiental, principalmente em situa??es de desastres. Nessas ocasi?es, a imprensa, al?m de expor a degrada??o do meio ambiente, revela suas pr?prias limita??es para abordar o tema. A pesquisa buscou dar uma contribui??o ao assunto, por meio do estudo da cobertura jornal?stica realizada pela m?dia impressa de um evento que envolveu a mortandade de peixes no estu?rio do rio Potengi, em Natal-RN, no ano de 2007. A an?lise de conte?do jornal?stico identificou a predomin?ncia de uma cobertura superficial, denunciativa e com raras abordagens educativas, contribuindo pouco para a forma??o do senso cr?tico dos leitores. Identificou tamb?m o tratamento prec?rio dos conceitos cient?ficos capazes de fundamentar os reais motivos relacionados ? mortandade de toneladas de fauna aqu?tica