“Você é a primeira pessoa para quem eu conto isso”: crianças-soldados como fontes testemunhais no jornalismo internacional

The article analyzes reports that deal with the presence of child soldiers in armed conflicts, a crime against humanity. Aiming to investigate which sources are triggered, and how they are, we organized a mapping of the international coverage of O Estado de S. Paulo, during the period of 2007–2016, starting from the registry units “boys-soldiers” and “child soldiers”. For this, we use the Content Analysis methodology (Bardin, 2011; Fonseca Junior, 2012; Herscovitz, 2007), through a Source Analysis Protocol which, in turn, considers journalistic source status (Santos, 1997; Ericson et al ., 1991). We identified 87 sources, of which 14 are child soldiers or sex slaves, testimonials victims of armed conflict. Also, we focus on the analysis of reports about Africa that deal with the topic studied. Keywords: international journalism, conflict, boys-soldier, testimonies, Content Analysis.