Ethics, communication and education in the Federal District

Abstract: 

The paper presents research results on ethics and communication carried out by an academic group composed of professors, graduate students and undergraduates from the University of Brasília and the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications (Brazil) with teachers and students from elementary schools in the District Federal. Following the techniques systematized by John Thompson (2011), the first methodological step to verify which tools of communication and social mobilization (Toro, 1997) are developed in schools was given by contact with managers, teachers and students in in-depth interviews conducted in institutions located in Sobradinho, Sobradinho 2, Planaltina and Fercal, locations that together have approximately 1 million inhabitants and were chosen because they have socioeconomic characteristics representative of the Federal District as a whole. After 20 qualitative interviews, quantitative indicators were built that supported the elaboration and application of 120 questionnaires. The qualitative and quantitative results showed that social media (mainly Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook, in that order) became the main communication channels inside and outside the school, overlapping the use of TV, radio, newspapers and other forms printed and / or analog communication. The intensive use of social media occurs not only with the receipt of information. In each of the four schools analyzed, there are institutional and non-institutional profiles on Facebook and Instagram and students and teachers have created groups with information exchange via Whatsapp. Based on this observation, the research group analyzed a sample with 200 posts from eight profiles on Facebook and Instagram and verified a quantity of 85 posts with content for bullying and / or displaying images of children and adolescents without prior formal authorization. Through these results, the research group organized workshops with teachers, managers and students offering debates and training related to media literacy, ethics, legislation and communication through dialogues about video, audio, photography and text tools directly linked to creation communication products. As a consequence of the work carried out, a greater effectiveness was realized in the conceptual understanding of ethics and communication when the reflections were linked to the production of content. Thus, the need to maintain activities on a continuous basis was concluded, instructing teachers, managers and students in relation to ethics and communication, and the importance of including such themes in the training of undergraduate and graduate students was also realized. Another relevant conclusion was to realize the need, in future actions, to contact parents and guardians to establish dialogue and training on ethics and communication, not restricting such debates to the processes of production, distribution and access to media content.