Pesticides in the press: analysis of some Brazilian magazines and newspapers The objective of this study was to verify the representation of pesticides in materials contained in some newspapers and magazines in the Brazilian press. Thus the content and discourse of journalistic materials in a sample consisting of nine vehicles, including those of general information and those specialized in animal husbandry, was analyzed. The presence of announcements concerning pesticides in the specialized magazines "Globo Rural", "A Granja" and "Balde Branco" allowed for classification of the materials into four categories: journalistic materials about pesticides, publicity about the same, journalistic materials about other agricultural subjects and announcements about other agricultural products. In the category "journalistic materials about pesticides", a further four categories were established, ranking them as articles favorable and unfavorable with respect to these compounds, factual articles and those related to techniques for alternative productions, giving a total of eight categories. Since the other vehicles included in this study did not present commercial announcements for pesticides, in these cases only journalistic materials concerning these products and their subdivisions were analyzed. The types of article were also evaluated, classifying them as letters, notes, news, news reports, publicity information from SEBRAE and headline reports, being measured according to content analysis techniques. The sources of information of the journalistic materials about pesticides were also investigated, and also the communication resources used by the press, with the objective of attracting readers to the subject matter. A predominance of materials aimed at encouraging the use of pesticides was observed, with the exception of the publicity information from SEBRAE published by the magazine "Globo Rural". These articles emphasized materials concerning alternative techniques, mainly those about the organic production of food. Articles concerning pesticides were more frequent in agricultural vehicles, which defined the agenda of the newspapers and magazines of general information. The governmental sources of information from the research institutes and public universities showed that they participated in policies favoring the use and permanence of these product corporations in Brazil. In the corpus of this study, consisting of 20,723 pages, only one report appeared denouncing the hospitalization of at least six rural workers due to poisoning caused by pesticides. The representation of pesticides in the universe sampled did not mention any social movements or groups aimed at combating these compounds.