The informative function of photographic captions: the Realengo massacre A fun o informativa da legenda fotográfica: o massacre de Realengo

This article aims to investigate the informative purpose of photographic captions and the relationship of visual and written languages in Brazilian daily newspapers. The front pages of 36 newspapers from every region of Brazil on April 8 2011, regarding the Realengo massacre were analyzed. With theoretical support from Roland Barthes, Martine Joly, Milton Guran, Jorge Santos and Ivan Lima the captions from two images that were repeated in nearly half the material analyzed, were selected. In the majority of cases the photographic captions do not fulfill their informative purpose, instead providing descriptions and opinions. O artigo visa investigar a fun o informativa da legenda fotográfica e como as linguagens visual e escrita se relacionam nos jornais diários brasileiros. As edi es de 36 capas de jornais de todas as regi es do país do dia 8 de abril de 2011 sobre o massacre do Realengo foram analisadas. Com o suporte teórico de Roland Barthes, Martine Joly, Milton Guran, Jorge Santos e Ivan Lima foram selecionadas as legendas de duas imagens que se repetiram em mais da metade do corpus. Na maioria dos casos, as legendas fotográficas n o cumpriram a fun o informativa, mas sim a descritiva e a opinativa.