O jogador-celebridade Neymar: análise do discurso dos Programas Esporte Fantástico e Esporte Espetacular

Abstract

With the advent of television and the consolidation of sports journalism, football players have achieved such media visibility that, in a short period, they have become real players-celebrities. Thus, their personal lives began to be reported by the media as a way to present to the public what their interests are. Therefore, the football "idols" and "heroes" emerge: athletes acclaimed by the media not only for the championships and tournaments, but also for their lives and behavior trajectory, as is the case of Neymar Junior, object of study of the monograph. Then, the objective of the present work is to investigate the construction of Neymar's player-celebrity image from two television programs: one from Esporte Fantástico (Record); another, from Esporte Espetacular (Globo). The discourse analysis is used as a methodology to verify how the athlete is reported through the language and context of the mentioned subjects. The results of the analyzes show that Neymar is the result of a cultural industry, based on commercial values and media visibility. In addition, it is evident the use of praise and adjectives not only associated with his technique, but, above all, the personality and fame of Neymar. When analyzing the subjects, it is noticed that the speeches are not only words, since they present bias and opinions embedded in the speeches. It is concluded, therefore, that the noticeability criteria of the subjects tend more to the interesting than to the important, thus evidencing the process of selection and production of the news through the theory of journalism known as gatekeeping.