International studies show the presence of a historical tendency to an asymmetrical flow of information about different countries, and some of those studies consider this treatment as an extension of imperialism to the communication arena. On the other hand, strucutural studies explain the intenational flow of information based firstly on the concept of distance and, on the second place, on the concept of linkage, understood as the link between what one publishes about one country and the interest on it of the population of the country that publishes the information. This article deals with these dimensions based on the evaluation of the news about Latin America in three important Brazilian newspapers: Correio Braziliense, Jornal do Brasil e Folha de São Paulo from 1990 to 1994. The results indicated a high stability of issues and countries in the different newspapers, due to the a stable hierarchy among countries.
press; information; Latin America; MERCOSUL
