Television, popular culture and the Latin American and Brazilian identity

Transcription

1 Television, popular culture and the Latin American and Brazilian identity This chapter has been taken from Media and Politics in Latin America: globalization, democracy and identity (I.B. Tauris, 2012), and consists in assessing a core question that I have posed in the book, which is how can the public media differs from commercial TV and the relationship it has established with democratization. One of the key purposes of Media and politics in Latin America has been to examine the state and the challenges posed to public service broadcasting (PSB) and the public media worldwide, and mainly in Brazil and Latin America more generally in a comparative perspective to the UK and Europe. Notably, a core concern of the public service broadcasting ethos has been the ways in which ideas, information and debate can contribute to promote progress, assisting in national development and improving the health of democracies. This chapter engages with the public versus private dichotomy debates, providing a critical examination of the role of telenovelas and Brazilian commercial TV and its relationship to national identity as well as discussing the nature of commercial TV in Brazil in a current context of lack of a genuine public service broadcasting tradition truly committed to the public interest. This chapter also includes some key findings of my research presented in full in the book Media and politics in Latin America concerning a section of Brazilian audiences responses to commercial and public TV, their understanding of what constitutes public media and their approach to quality programming and TV texts. It kick starts the debate with an examination of the concept of hybridity in Brazilian and Latin American culture, moving on to look at the relationship that Brazilian commercial TV has established with the national identity of Brazil and its role in the construction of what I call an aesthetic of consumerism. This is later contrasted with an analysis of some of the challenges facing the public media in Brazil, some of the programs shown on TV Cultura and TV Brasil and the attempts of building a more professional PSB tradition. It also presents key findings of the survey which I conducted with students from UFRJ university regarding their responses to the public media. This chapter also problematizes the whole formation of the Brazilian national and cultural identity by attempting to analyse its roots in colonialism and in the racial order that has been established in the country, developed largely within an Eurocentric framework (i.e. Lesser, 1999; DaMatta, 1995). This is later juxtaposed to the idiosyncrasies of commercial Brazilian broadcasting, and the ways it has shaped particular Brazilian identities by excluding largely the country s multiple cultural, regional and ethnic compositions. I have strived to examine here until what extent the programmes broadcast on the public television station can be considered more demanding for the viewer. Taking into consideration the programming that is offered during peak time on TV Globo, including the soap operas and news broadcast Jornal Nacional, I have contrasted this to the themes and topics explored by the public television station. I thus search here for 1

2 an equation between the type of television aesthetic that has been constructed in Brazil throughout the years with the problems for social advancement of multiple groups, wider economic inclusion and enhancement of the democratization project. Brazilian and Latin American culture as hybridity: cultural globalization and the national identity controversy The Latin American continent has changed significantly since the fall of dictatorship regimes, with democracy flourishing in the continent amid the rise to power of centre to centre-left wing governments in recent years. This culminated in new approaches to foreign policy, new efforts of restructuring the state, expansion of internal and global markets and the deepening of welfare and income distribution programmes. Other innovations have included the adoption of initiatives aimed at empowering public communications to assist in the democratization process. Since its origins, Brazil has been multiracial and has been supported on the interplay of cultures and on racial miscegenation. It has been classified by Lauerhass Jr. (2006, 6) as a Creole variant of a European (Portuguese) culture. Thus cultural mixing and mestizaje, which refers to the racial mixture of African, European and indigenous peoples throughout Latin America, has characterised the whole formation of the continent s multiple identities. In spite of the diversity of Brazil s racial composition, there is still a perception amongst Western politicians and academics that Latin America is a single region with a common culture (Roncagliolo, 2003 in Canizalez and Lugo-Ocando, 2008). Writing in the 1960s, Schramm (1964, 101) had underscored how the fact that Spanish and Portuguese were the main languages of the continent permitted the faster development of the press in contrast to other regions such as Africa or Asia. There are however common characteristics shared by many of the countries when it comes to the media and political systems (i.e. Hallin and Mancini, 2004). Hallin and Papathanassopoulos (2002; 3) have underscored the similarities that exist between the Latin American media and Southern European systems. They have compared and contrasted Brazil, Colombia and Mexico with Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Newspapers in Southern Europe have traditionally addressed a small-elite mainly urban, well-educated and politically active public, a similar situation that also exists in Latin America. They are politicised and can be sophisticated in their content. The Latin American newspapers address a mainly low and elite readership, although there are variations between countries. Nonetheless, the US liberal model has gained considerable influence in Latin America and in Brazilian media systems since the post-war period (i.e. Lins da Silva, 1990; Straubhaar, 2001). There has been a growth for instance of professionalism in newsrooms followed by the expansion of various media outlets, including niche magazines and community cable channels (Matos, 2008). Before examining though commercial TV in Brazil in contrast to the tradition of lack of use of public communications for the public interest, it is important to define better what is understood by the Brazilian and Latin American identity, and how this has been traditionally articulated in the media. 2

3 Cultural globalization and hybridity in Latin America There are two main camps with respect to the question of the existence of a unified global culture: one is the cultural homogenization camp and the other is cultural hybridization. The former equates globalization with the homogenizing of culture, the dismissal of local cultures and the Westernization of the globe (Schirato and Webb, 2003, 155). Cultural globalization theorists have highlighted the need to recognise the blending of local cultures with global foreign influences, seeing global culture as being grounded in a process of hybridization, and not simply cultural diffusion of American values or homogenization. This perspective on hybridity has encountered criticism on the grounds that it reflects reluctance in looking at economic power and the impact of giant media corporations in directing cultural preferences (Curran, 2002). Considered a key theorist of hybridization, Nederveen Pieterse (2004, 111) has argued that the critical take on the notion of hybridity involves a new awareness of and new take on dynamics of group formation and social inequality. Nederveen Pieterse (2004) further points out how cultures should be acknowledged as being hybrid, with all nations sharing a plural heritage. As Straubhaar (2007) stresses in his discussion of world television audiences, new multiple layers of cultural identity form as new ideas are incorporated. Hoogvelt (1997, 158) also asserts that hybridity is a concept that occupies central stage in postcolonial discourse. It was transformed from a term of abuse during the colonial days to being celebrated as a kind of superior cultural intelligence owning to the capacity of the individual of being able to negotiate his/her own difference. The concept of hybridity can thus help us break the rigidity of a false and outdated binary opposition between pure and non-pure national identities, facilitating dialogue and interaction between cultures whilst making people more conscious of their multi-layered identities. Hybridity can be a key intellectual framework which can help us examine the roots of Latin American identities, which traditionally have been largely constructed as well in opposition to the European, their former colonizers. As Tomlinson (1997, 184) states, the central perspective of the old colonial order was established in some ways on the basis of unquestioned cultural assumptions, identities and self-images which could only be maintained in binary oppositions preserved by a process of physical as well as geographical distance. So long as the colonised Other stayed firmly in their place, both literally and metaphorically, the imaginary geographies (Said, 1979) generated in the West could, by mapping cultural and racial stereotypes on to a place, maintain a sense of confidence in a universal order which justified colonialism and confirmed Western (superior) identities. As Buckman (1996) stated in his discussion of Latin American media systems, the US dominant stereotype of the region is still one in which all of Latin America seems to be inserted within a particular unified identity, with little distinction being made between countries. Most Latin Americans also as a whole still suffer from neglect and contempt from the US and Europe. If we discuss the Hispanic/Latino identity 3

4 within a global context, it is clearly evident that as an ethnic group it is still little acknowledged by Western elites, remaining largely at the margins in mainstream society and even globally. With exceptions here and there, the fact of the matter that Latinos, or Brazilians, as a group are still largely oppressed. Brazilians also are largely conscious of their (static) inferior status in the global context. Many suffer from feelings of low self-esteem because of this, being ashamed of their Brazilian identity and seeing in the famous jeitinho brasileiro 1 a marker of their backward status (Barbosa, 1995; DaMatta, 1995). As Marques de Melo (1981: 28-30; 2003) has highlighted, one of the classic features of the Latin American identity has been the fact that it has been composed of silent citizens. As he points out, Paulo Freire (1967: 69), although writing in the 1970s, a different historical and political context, identified the mark of silence in the behaviour of the Brazilian people. The typical Latin American citizen was traditionally an inhibited and repressed individual, both by the colonisers as well as by mestizo Latin American elites who took control of these national states from the 19 th century onwards. He had the necessity of using artificial rhetoric in an attempt to break the block installed by colonial masters and by modern bosses, thus creating a dissimulated politics of resistance. (2003, 92-93) The fact of the matter is that the authoritarian Latin American legacy consisted in reproducing the Iberian traditions, including the exercise of political coup and media censorship (Ribeiro, 1986, 40 in Marques de Melo, 2003). Moreover, the Brazilian racial order has since the Portuguese colonial days replicated on Brazilian soil the Eurocentric hierarchical classification of races (Daniel, 2006, 27). In his discussion of immigrants, minorities and the struggle for ethnicity in Brazil, Lesser (1999, 1) has included a quote from an advertisement for the Brazilian soap opera broadcast by TV Bandeirantes, Os Imigrantes (1981). Here was an attempt to summarise the spirit of this particular telenovela, equating it with a notion of Brazilianess, or with what the national Brazilian character is all about: Portuguese, Japanese, Spanish, Italians, Arabs Don t Miss the Most Brazilian Soap Opera on Television!, read the ad. Lesser (1999) further argued how different ethnic groups in Brazil, such as the Syrians, Lebanese and Japanese, have succeeded in challenging previous elite notions of Brazilianness, equated with Europeanness and whiteness, thus permitting a more fluid identity. As Lesser (1999, 5) notes, mesticagem became to be understood as a joining rather than mixing of identities, thus emphasising the creation of a multiplicity of hyphenated Brazilians rather than a single...one. One could perhaps sustain that such a citizen only has just began to acquire confidence, to slowly have his/her voice heard at a local, national and international level in the last years. This also very much due to the rise of centre to centre-left wing governments in the region following from the collapse of the various dictatorships in the continent since the mid-1980s. These new players and groups have rejected, and ceased to reinforce, the traditional passive and subordinated Latin American/Brazilian identity that has been 1 Barbosa (1995, 36) explains how the jeitinho brasileiro is a way of identifying Brazil by using as the main reference point this particular mechanism for by-passing rules and getting things done. It can be translated into English as cutting through the red tape. It can carry either a negative or positive connotation depending on one s point of view, although in general the negative perspective prevails. 4

5 historically encouraged by the Western powers in their dealings with the region. There is thus need to construct a new and modern relationship with Latin America, something which has already been acknowledged by sectors of the British establishment. 2 Is it thus possible then to speak of a Brazilian character or national identity? As we have seen, Brazil s cultural identity has been evolving and is in constant need of reappraisal (Lauerhass Jr., 2006, 2). In order to fully understand though the importance that public service media is acquiring in the region, and its relationship to the deepening of political democracy as well as its role in the construction of a particular kind of Latin American, or rather Brazilian identity, one must assess first the strong tradition of commercial broadcasting in the main country of the continent, Brazil. Television and popular Brazilian culture: the aesthetic of consumerism TV Globo and the history of Brazilian commercial television Brazil s authoritarian legacy has resulted among others in the marginalization of politics from the mainstream media, which has tended to privilege entertainment and a consumerist aesthetic to the detriment of more accurate and in depth (political) debate. Television broadcasting for one has been allowed to operate largely unregulated, providing audiences with a heavy entertainment-diet and not a balanced one of information and (quality) entertainment. Television in many Latin American countries has thus developed following the US model of commercial broadcasting. The years after the end of the dictatorship in Brazil in 1985 saw politics gradually return back to the domestic living room, and to be articulated through irony and sub-texts in Brazilian telenovelas (Porto, 2008). To start with, the development of Brazilian television by military planners in the 1960s onwards contributed to the formation of what Straubhaar (2001; 138) has defined as a nationalizing vocation. In other words, it paved the way for the creation of a consumer culture and for the wider engagement of Brazilians in the market economy. Various studies have dissected the close ties for instance established between TV Globo in its early years with the dictatorship (i.e. Straubhaar, 2001; Fox, 1997). The military government was seen as having been interventionist in the media during the dictatorship years, financing microwave, satellite and other aspects of TV infra-structure, and favouring in particular TV Globo. Since the investments in the country s infrastructure conducted by the military dictatorship, a national consumer market was created and further expanded after the 1970s (Guedes-Bailey and Jambeiro, 2008). Writing about the evolution of commercial broadcasting in Mexico and Brazil during the dictatorship, Straubhaar (2001, 134) has highlighted the important role played by the then strong state in shaping national TV systems. 2 See William Hague turns to Brazil and India for new foreign links (The Telegraph, 06/26/10). 5

6 Television has without a doubt always had a growing importance in political campaigns in Latin America and in Brazil. TV Globo from Brazil is considered one of the most powerful and dynamic actors in today s global connections (Waisbord, 1995) alongside Mexico s Televisa. Both Globo, with annual revenue of US$ 1.9 billion, and its Mexican counterpart, Televisa, with US$ 1.4 billion, could fall within the range of the Top 25 Media Groups of 1997, as they were ranked by the trade journal Broadcasting and Cable (Higgins and McClellan, 1997, quoted in Sinclair, 1999, 74). TV Globo and Televisa have managed to emerge nonetheless as the two largest broadcasters located outside of the developed world which offer global competition to the established North players. Sinclair (1999, 77) has underlined how Globo and Televisa combine both horizontal and vertical integration and that, in conjunction with the traditional family style of ownership, they have conformed to the ideal type of what can be understood as the Latin American model of a media corporation. The history of the Brazilian media nonetheless is in overall a quite recent one (Matos, 2008). Television to start with has occupied a central role in political life, in the country s democratization process and in the construction of various identities. As Straubhaar (2001) reminds us, the development of the telecommunication system, radio and TV was part of the Brazilian government s agenda on national security, with broadcasting being perceived as reinforcing a sense of national identity (Mattos, 1982, 84). Considered to be one of the fourth largest in the world according to common knowledge (Straubhaar, 2001), significant research has been done on TV Globo and its role in assisting in identity construction (Porto, 2007; Straubhaar, 2001; Sinclair; 1999). Most certainly, the power of the medium of television in setting standards of conduct, influencing lifestyles, selling products and ideas and shaping behaviours and identities should not be underestimated. Television became a national medium in the country in With the development of Brazilian capitalism, a market for cultural products slowly began to emerge. As Guedes-Bailey and Jambeiro Barbosa (2008, 50) have pointed out, it was radio broadcasting, through the success of stations such as Radio Nacional, the most important radio station in Latin America for about 15 years, that established crucial patterns for the TV industry in Brazil. This included current characteristics associated to the Brazilian commercial television industry, such as the pursuit of a mass audience, the predominance of entertainment over educational or cultural programming and of private over public ownership, as well as advertising support over government, public over non-commercial financing (Guedes-Bailey and Jambeiro Barbosa, 2008; 50). The Brazilian military also invested heavily in telecommunication infra-structure, which was among the fastest sector in the economy. As Straubhaar (2001) asserts, the military government supported Globo as a quasi-monopoly until the late 1970s. It was only in 1981 that the government issued license packages to create competitors SBT and TV Manchete (Straubhaar, 2001, ). From mainly that year onwards, the Brazilian importation of American programming began to fall. Prime time began to be filled with Brazilian productions. Nonetheless, the aesthetic of entertainment and the privileging of American programming had already began to prevail. 6

7 There have been problems nonetheless with the importation of television channels in Latin America. As Straubhaar (2005, 227) has highlighted, in most houses the capacity to buy satellite dishes and to subscribe to cable TV is limited by income. Fifty US media companies managed to enter the Latin American market since the 1990s, however competing with other four Latin American multimedia groups and six local players (Straubhaar, 2005, 227). As Possebon (2006) further affirms, according to the Pesquisa Nacional de Amostragem de Domicilios of the 2005 IBGE census, 91.4% of Brazilian homes have television. The channels TV Globo and SBT reach more than 95% of the homes, although the former station has lost audiences, whilst channels like TV Record have seen a rise. 3 The numbers are quite disproportionate in regards to the dominance that TV Globo still exercises over the home market in terms of advertising revenue and audience share in contrast to its competitors. Globo has also more than half of the television stations of the country transmitting its programming (Possebon, 2007, 289). Mainstream commercial television therefore has been the main mass medium in Brazil, and has been seen as the vehicle more widely associated with the construction of a common national identity. It has also maintained a dubious and complex relationship with public opinion and political democratization, issues explored next in my examination of Brazilian television s relationship to national identities and audiences. Brazilian television, national identity and the telenovela Commercial television in Brazil has had a major role in selling not only cultural goods and ideas, but in shaping lifestyle and consumerism habits and behaviours of large sectors of the population independently of class, ethnicity and race. It has also played a significant role in defining national politics and in obstructing, as well as contradictorily assisting, in the construction of the democratization project following the end of the dictatorship in 1985 (Matos, 2008; Bucci, 2001; Conti, 1999). TV Globo has the largest percentage of national content production in comparison to its competitors, including an average of 70% and 100% during peak time (Possebon, 2007, 289). According to the study Os Donos da Midia (Owners of the Media) done by the Instituto de Estudos e Pesquisa em Comunicacao (Epcom) of 2002, Globo Organisations has 32 concessions of commercial TV, 11 in Sao Paulo and 113 affiliated stations in the country. It obtains 54% of audience numbers and of national advertising resources (R$ 1.59 billion in 2002), whereas SBT has 10 stations and 100 affiliates. Both commercial television organisations thus detain 75% of the national audience. 4 Competition for audience share has also been the characteristic behaviour of television stations in Brazil, many of which are constantly adjusting their programming in accordance with the Ibope ratings 3 The audience viewing numbers from the Ibope Institute for the year 2004 are as follows: 1) SBT, 18% (1993) and 21% (2004); 2) Band, 6% (1993) and 4.9% (2004); 3) Record, - (1993), 7.6% (2004). 4 In the article Historia da Televisao Publica Educativa, by Alexandre Fradkin of Rio s TVE. For more details on the country s media owner s, see Os donos da midia: quadro das bases do poder economico e politico constitutido a partir das redes privadas de televisao no Brasil ( 7

8 (Mattelart and Mattelart, 1990, quoted in Sinclair, 1999). Brazilian commercial television has managed to be at the same time wholly praised due to the quality of is telenovelas, mini-series, professionalism of actors and visual imagery whilst also having being much criticised for its coverage of politics and its history of lack of balance in the reporting of election campaigns and treatment of left-wing politics (i.e. Matos, 2008). TV Globo s wider commitment to representing balanced political debate has grown as a response to the critiques that it received in relation to its coverage of the key presidential elections of the postdictatorship phase (i.e. Bucci, 2000; Skidmore, 1993; Fox, 1997). From the mid-1990s onwards, it started to be pressured to improve its balance criteria, beginning to suffer from competition posed by other television stations, cable TV and the Internet. The station TV Record emerged as a strong competitor, contributing to undermine Globo s monopoly over the largest number of television audiences. Former director of journalism of TV Cultura, Gabriel Priolli, president of the Brazilian Association of University TVs (ABTV), has argued that Brazilian commercial television has played a powerful role in the diffusion of the national Brazilian sentiment, largely identified with the white Rio and Sao Paulo elites. Priolli (1996, 19) argues that all Brazil started to see a particular image of itself since 1985 due to the system of transmission of programmes through the satellite Brasilsat. The regional affiliated stations broadcasted programming acquired from the central stations, with few firms, Tupi, Globo, Bandeirantes and Record, providing the material. Thus the lack of representations of the rest of the country contributed to reinforce social inequalities. Priolli (1996) also added that various public channels emerged as a result of the cable law 8.877/1995, including community, university, educational and legislative channels, which have permitted the gradual construction of other group identities, boosting diversity. TV Globo s telenovelas have undoubtedly also had a large role in the building of this unifying national identity. Many have argued that a highly commercial entertainment and advertising diet has encouraged the development of a particular individualistic and consumerist personality, at the expense of a more knowledgeable and socially sensitive individual more associated with the type of viewers of European public service broadcasting for instance. Many sectors of the Brazilian audience continue to rate soaps highly, including them among their favourite programming, alongside Jornal Nacional. TV Globo on the other hand has also tried to respond better to criticism, and has began also to market itself as producing culture. This is evident in its more recent slogan, Cultura, a gente se ve por ai (Culture: we will see each other around). With an average of 40 points daily nonetheless, Globo s Jornal Nacional is still the highest audience rating in Brazilian TV (Meditsch, Moreira and Machado, 2005). TV Globo s popularity has however been in decline. In April 2010, the station registered the lowest average audience rating in a decade, of 16.8 points per day. Ibope also detected a decline of interest in open television in general, attributing this to various 8

9 reasons including the type of programming, growth of the Internet, access to DVDs as well as competition from other leisure activities. 5 Watching television in Brazil has traditionally been a social experience which is very much inserted in the whole cultural practices of everyday life of Brazilians. There has also been much debate for instance on the role that telenovelas have had in the formation of the Brazilian identity. Due to TV Globo s relationship with the dictatorship regime in its early years, there has been controversies in regards to the role that the station s soap-operas have played in providing avenues for political liberalisation during the 1980s (Porto, 2008; Straubhaar, 1988). Various studies (i.e. Hamburger, 2005; Mattelart and Mattelart, 1990; Porto, 2008, 3) have also shown how telenovelas have been able to generate a unified national public space, providing audiences with texts that cut across regional, class and other social boundaries. Straubhaar (1988) has argued that Brazilian soaps contributed to delay support for political opening, whereas Porto (2008, 10) points to the ambiguity of the telenovelas texts. Porto (2008) argues that they helped to give meaning and to shape the political process by incorporating new demands coming from a more organised civil society. He underlined the work of authors such as Dias Gomes, and soaps like O Bem Amado (The Well Loved, 1973) and Roque Santeiro (1985), as being emblematic of such actions. Applying the concepts of hegemony and mediation developed by Martin-Barbero (1993), Porto (2008,5) sees television as having played a part in the building of representations about the nation in Brazil. It has offered a complex space...where meaning is negotiated and cultural hegemony created and re-created in the play of mediations (Mattelart & Mattelart, 1990, 149 in Porto). Porto (2008) correctly believes that there is (and has been) a role for television fiction in the process of nation-building. Television undoubtedly created the means for citizens of different social backgrounds to engage in attempts to solve their social and political problems (Carvalho et al, 1980, 56 in Porto, 2008). Not surprisingly then, the notion of addressing multiple Brazilian identities has been captured as a core motive by insiders worried about the strengthening of the public media. Academic and journalist Bucci 6 stressed that during the era of the former president Getulio Vargas ( and ), through radio, and during the military dictatorship, through television, the Brazilian identity was constructed in the singular, functioning to reinforce authoritarianism. Although commercial television is still the main source of information for most of the population, many journalists, academics, civil society players and others from the cultural elites have become highly dissatisfied with it since the mid-1990s. The current contemporary reality for instance is much more grounded on the need to serve the country s multiple public spheres and identities, which is something that both public television as well as commercial television is slowly beginning to do more. This is 5 See TV Globo amarga sua pior audiencia da decada (TV Globo has its worse audience in a decade, in Portal Vermelho, 29/04/2010). 6 Interviewed in July,

10 undoubtedly a consequence as well as a reflection of political democratization and expanding educational levels of the population. Television in Brazil has remained largely national nonetheless, although it has managed to offer some degree of globalization to most Brazilians. Making reference to Kottak s (1990) study, Straubhaar (2007, 240) stressed how most of the continental rural and poor people in the country have obtained a general sense of what Brazilians had in common through television and radio. It is through television that rural Brazilians have gained a layer of national awareness. As working-class Brazilians are mainly focused on local and regional affairs, less on the national and little familiar with global issues, I believe that a better funded public media has the potential of boosting regional diversity, as well as contributing to insert these fragmented publics within both the national and global order. Thus it is to the ways in which the public media can assist in reflecting the multiplicity of Brazilian identities that is examined next. Brazilian TV and the private versus public dichotomy The contemporary debate in Brazil has very much moved towards the ways to put into practice a project of media reform that can better serve national development as well as promote more robust, equal and meaningful international dialogue between countries in an age of increasing intolerance, (aversive) or subtle new forms of racism and rise of nationalistic sentiment, issues which I explore more in the book. Notably, many challenges remain regarding the need to improve the public media in order to make it genuinely committed to the public interest or rather, to Brazil s multiple publics and their needs, political interests and diverse cultural identities. A realistic question to ask is whether the public media in Brazil, or any other Latin American country which has built itself on a strong entertainment and commercial aesthetic, has a good chance of being successful. Influenced by Marxism or a Frankfurt School perspective, a cynic might point out that the harsh reality of a country like Brazil for many of its citizens obliges television to offer diversion and entertainment in order to help them get out of their monotonous daily reality and difficult future. It thus fulfills its function of providing the audience with (light) programming that they want in order to escape from their daily chaos. This is a strong point that can certainly be said of the role that telenovelas have had in everyday Brazilian life, which also explains their high popularity in the country and amongst a vast and diverse public that cuts across class, race and gender. In regards to the categories of the public and private, it can be said that television has contributed to blur those boundaries in contrast to the print media, as it is a vehicle that tends to demand one s adaptation to a certain aesthetic and style. Thompson (1990) has depicted the public/private distinction by stating how the first is anchored in liberal political philosophy, and which equates the public with the state, whereas the second is derived from both the legal and political field. The latter is put in practice by the media, and is mainly associated with publicness, or what is accessible to a larger citizenry (in Dahlgren, 1995, 60). The 10

11 opposition between public and commercial media is grounded, as Livingstone and Lunt (1994, 22-23) further stress, on elitist and participatory forms of democracy. According to the authors, it wrongly equates commercialization with an emancipatory rhetoric and the illusion of involvement. As the authors (1994, 22-23) add, neither model permits the full realization of a critical public sphere. Thus the realistic stance is to defend the co-existence of both models, for both can have complementary objectives (i.e. Curran, 2000). Television can thus transmit knowledge and information only within the limits of its own essence as a medium built on the fleeting image. It can thus summarise complex debates and popularise expert knowledge and target a mass audience (Livingstone and Lunt, 1994). It can make complex information be accessible to a wider public, and it can also serve as a space for dialogue between nations. Thus television, with its emphasis on informality, conversational style and stress on a friendly talking approach to discuss hard news and current affairs, is opposed to the more in depth and impersonal nature of the print media. It can also mingle both the public with the private, enhancing accessibility and modifying the boundary between these two categories (Livingstone and Lunt, 1994; Dahlgren, 1995). Thus the ways in which television can contribute to either foster international dialogue, national development or mediate different conceptions and forms of global citizenship, and function as a vehicle for cultural and educational emancipation, is subject to, and limited also, by its very nature. Audiences media consumption habits and responses to the public media in Brazil Various sectors of the audiences in Brazil do envision a more robust role for public television stations like TV Cultura and TV Brasil in nation-building, functioning as a counter-weight to the market and posing quality and positive competition to commercial stations like TV Globo. My main concern when I thought about applying the UFRJ audience survey was with attempting to discover how segments of the Brazilian audience make use of the media, what they understand about the public media as well as their opinions in relation to both entertainment genres as well as factual programming, from both private and public broadcasting. In regards to the UFRJ online survey 7, most students who answered the questionnaire claimed that they watched television on a daily basis (76 respondents or 51%) or on average 3 to 4 times a week 7 The online questionnaire was applied at the Journalism Department of UFRJ and was answered by 149 students from various socio-economic backgrounds. The questionnaire was put online during the holiday and initial start of term period, from mid-july to the beginning of September Practically all respondents are university students or young journalists between 18 and 25 years of age (92% of 149), are members of the low, middle and upper classes of Brazilian society and live in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Seventy-five see themselves as communication students. Most (32% or 47) considered themselves to be on the monthly income of reais (approximately pounds), the average middle class income, with 27% (40) choosing the option between reais, with 13% (20) saying above reais and 26% (39) below

12 (17% to 6% respectively). Many respondents said that they seek television for both entertainment and information purposes. A dominant pattern that emerged from the answers was that the penetration of public television is still very small, given the little amount of attention that it receives from the respondents, who mainly watch Globo TV and cable and satellite television. Although there is still lack of knowledge and understanding of the purposes of the public media, a significant 71% are defenders of it and recognise its importance. Among other reasons stated for watching television included to be up to date with information (12% or 18); professional reasons (10% or 15) as well as to know about the situation of the country (1%). Most of the respondents revealed that their preferred programming consisted of news, soap operas, films and series, both national and American. In the question on the preferred television genre, most chose TV Series (56 respondents or 38%) and the general option, Arts and Entertainment (43 or 29%), with smaller numbers for Documentaries (12 or 8%), Soap-opera (9 or 6%) and Comedy (5 or 3%). Curiously enough, the option soap opera did not score highly as one would think at first. This can be largely due to the fact that TV Globo s audience viewing is in decline due to the competition from other channels, the Internet and also the saturation of some of its programmes with especially more demanding viewers. It also might be the case that many in fact do watch soaps, but given other options of entertainment programming, they chose series and documentaries. However, the results showed how most like both entertainment and news and documentaries, with 52% (or 77) saying that they liked both. The balance is tipped slightly more towards entertainment, which received 32% (or 48), whereas news got 13% (or 20). Commercial television appeared as the main source of information for 87% (129 respondents). Only 13% claimed that it was not their prime source. Most students also like to read newspapers (104 or 70%) and online news sites (129 or 87%), with only 11 respondents, or 7%, saying that they also obtain their information from both the public and commercial media. In terms of which television station they watch, and if they prefer public to commercial TV, most respondents said that they watched TV Globo (97 respondents or 65%) and cable and satellite (99 or 66%). Only 3% (4) chose the public media option and a slightly higher number opted for the Brazilian public station options, TV Brasil (8 or 5%) and TV Cultura (8 or 5%). These received similar percentages to the small open commercial television stations, TV Record (7 or 5%) and Rede TV! (4 or 3%). Channels Bandeirantes and SBT appeared in a middle position, with 25 or 17% for the former and 18 or 18% for the latter. The responses for favourite TV programmes were however quite varied. A popular TV choice was TV Globo s Jornal Nacional (38 or 25%). The option of the 8 o clock soap opera appeared with 13% (20), although in the previous question concerning television genres, only 6% chose soaps. Forty-seven per cent (47%) chose other programmes which were not included in the list. The journalistic programmes which appeared here as options were Roda Viva and Observatorio da Imprensa, which received respectively 1% each (1), as did the programmes Reporter Brasil, which is the main news broadcast from TV Brasil, and Sem Censura, the popular debate programme previously broadcast on TVE, whereas Big Brother scored 3% (or 4 answers). 12

13 Among the preferred programmes freely listed by the respondents were films, popular national programmes or American series. Seven per cent wrote films whilst others chose the TV Bandeirantes programme CQC (4%) i ; Football (3%); Friends (2%) and House (2%). Other Brazilian programmes selected included Jornal das 10 (2%, TV Globo news programme); Jornal da Globo (1%) and the popular long-time running talk-show, Programa do Jo (1%). An interesting issue to observe was that the viewing of American series and programming has not transcended that of the national ones. Programmes such as Jornal Nacional, films, news, soaps and football appeared alongside or above American series. The UFRJ survey also highlighted how audiences give importance to quality programming. In regards to the question on what attracted their attention to TV, the predominant answer was the quality of a programme (58% or 86) and in second place was information (22% or 33). Such answers endorse the fact that television, be it in the UK or in Brazil, is expected by viewers to be both entertaining and informative, whilst at the same time also offering quality programming. In regards to issues concerning the quality of television, many showed a similar understanding to the general outline discussed above. Most chose the options the script and the in depth information provided (53%, or 79) as well as the creativity and originality of the programme (27% or 40). The professionalism of the journalists and actors, and the type of language used, received 8%, or 12, and 7%, or 10 answers, respectively. Most also recognised the importance of the role of the public media (71%). Although a majority of the respondents of the survey did show a lack of interest in watching the public television stations, a significant 71% of 149 people defended its necessity. Another 26% however preferred the option it depends. This seems to signal to the fact that many do in fact not understand what the public media is actually for, and would like to have more information about it. This interpretation is confirmed by the answers in another question asked afterwards, which is why are you in favour of it. Here the main option selected was I would like to know more about it in order to make a better judgement (33% or 49). Most nonetheless do assign a role for the public media, seeing it as being a compliment to the commercial media (38%, or 57) and/or a correction of market failure (20% or 30). Contradicting what one would at first expect, not everyone automatically saw the public media as necessarily more capable of being impartial. There was little consensus here. The responses varied significantly in this category from the ones who choose newspapers, to those who opted for the foreign media, the Internet and the public media. Forty-eight (48%) saw the Internet as having the capacity of being more impartial, with the public media coming in second with 15%. Newspapers received 6% (9), commercial TV 5% (8) and foreign media 2% (3). Many chose to include comments in the space provided. Another wrote that it is not the media vehicle, but the integrity of the journalist ; whilst another affirmed that the public media only engages in spectacles. Another student claimed that television and radio as mediums had the potential of being more impartial due to their wider reach. The respondents were divided in the question concerning the functions and purposes of the public media. Most chose answers which can be interpreted as seeing civic communications as having a role in democratization. Many chose the options stimulating cultural diversity (21%); providing cultural and 13

14 educational programming (21%), integrating groups in the national debate (18%) and contributing to national development (17%). The space that is thus envisioned for the public media in its attempt to provide a more in depth and detailed coverage of politics can be compared to the enthusiasm and expectations placed on the Internet in regards to its capacity to stimulate debate. Public media formats: from TV Cultura to TV Brasil Immersed in media hype and frowned upon by sectors of the market and the opposition, which accused it of being a new TV Lula, TV Brasil, which is part of the public media platform Empresa Brasileira de Comunicacao (EBC), was launched by the Ministry of Culture and the Brazilian government in December The total funding for EBC includes money from the federal government as well as donations. According to the former minister of Communications, Franklin Martins 8, the new channel received a budget of R$ 350 million. The main programming is provided by Rio s educational television (TVE), with two programmes from Radiobras. The morning slot is largely dedicated to children s shows as well as distant learning programming. The latter is also broadcast on TV Globo s cable channel, Canal Futura. TV Brasil s programming also consists of hourly independent and regional programmes, including the famous highbrow talk show Roda Viva and the journalism programme Jornal da Cultura. The latter is the main jewel of the crown of the TV Cultura station, which is being retransmitted by TV Brasil. The current Brazilian TV market, which is funded with public resources, includes the television stations TV Cultura, which has an annual budget of R$ 160 million; Radiobras, with R$ 100 million; TVE, which had R$ 35 million in 2004, and which has been incorporated into TV Brasil. There are also other resources which go to the television stations of the Legislative federal, state and municipal powers, plus TV Justica and university channels (Possebon, 2007, 290), all of which have a low audience rating. Nonetheless, according to Abepec (Brazilian Association of Public Educational and Cultural Stations), with less than two years of its existence, TV Brasil is watched regularly by 10% of the population and has 80% of the audiences approval. Twenty-two per cent considered the programming excellent, and 58% classified it as good. The research was conducted during the 18 th and 22 nd of August 2009, with people being interviewed throughout Brazil. One of the most popular programmes of the station is Nova Africa (New Africa). TV Brasil for instance has been criticised due to its links with the federal government, responsible also for the indications to EBC s council. Veteran journalist Alberto Dines underlined the lack of a proper partnership between Sao Paulo s cultural station, TV Cultura, influenced by the tucanos of the PSDB, with TV Brasil. As he notes, this would have assisted in creating a stronger public non-commercial media platform, impeding also the attacks from the right and the opposition who, as Dines highlighted, have never 8 Interviewed by telephone on August the 5 th,

15 complained about TV Cultura. 9 However, according to various critics, the idea of TV Cultura as a strong public media platform is slowly being undermined by the Sao Paulo administration. According to Gabriel Priolli, 10 former director of journalism for TV Cultura, the notion of a public television in Brazil is still far away from being fully implemented: The government of Sao Paulo was worried about expanding audience numbers at TV Cultura. There is an elitist view of culture.. and there was also a sense of having to satisfy the government for the liberation of funds. There are different visions in regards to the public media, in Sao Paulo, in relation to the federal view. TV Brasil has a wider preoccupation with independent programming, but TV Cultura has gone in the opposite direction.the fact of the matter is that the public media does not exist in Brazil. Public TV is more an idea What exists in Brazil is educational TVs controlled by the state. The administration of Joao Sayad in TV Cultura is turning the TV more into a state media than anything else, contrary to the previous administration of Paulo Markun. All the dependent resources were cut. It consumes 260 million per year, of which 80 million from the State, the rest is obtained in the selling of publicity. All contracts with independent resources have not been renewed, and TV Cultura has become more dependent on the State. Part of the problem is ideological. Why have a public media, they ask themselves? Commercial TV exists and performs that function. According to journalist and academic Eugenio Bucci, the former president of Fundacao Padre Anchieta, Paulo Markun, which is responsible for TV Cultura, stated that the station has a modest daily audience of 1.4% in Sao Paulo, ten times less than TV Globo, which also has 36 times more income. 11 Given the culture of interference of politicians and pressure placed on the media in the country, academics like Antonio Brasil 12 have made pessimistic claims, affirming that there is no room in Latin America for a public communication system inspired on the UK s BBC. Another problem is the historical tradition of misuse of public communication resources for personal and political interests, as we have seen in Part I. This is what makes journalists and scholars like Brasil and Priolli affirm that the public media actually does not exist in Brazil. As Brasil states: All the channels are stations dressed up as public media stations. We cannot even guarantee education and quality public health. This public media is nothing more than a vanity affair which consumes millions of reais and guarantees good jobs for the friend of the friend. The public ignores its programming and continues to watch soap operas and football. Television should not be a priority of government. The 9 Rede Publica de TV O PSDB inapetente, o governo parece esfaimado (Public television platform the PSDB has no appetite, the government looks like it is very hungry, Observatorio da Imprensa, 04/12/2007). 10 Interviewed by phone on the 16/12/ See A audiencia na TV publica (The audience of public TV, Eugenio Bucci in ESP, 26/03/2009). 12 Interviewed via on the 10/08/