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Brazil in the Twenty-First Century Popular Media: Culture, Politics and Nationalism on the World Stage - by Pueo Wood, Naomi

2015; Wiley; Volume: 35; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/blar.12383

1470-9856

Philip Kitzberger,

Media Studies and Communication

Naomi Pueo Wood (ed) (2014) Brazil in the Twenty-First Century Popular Media: Culture, Politics and Nationalism on the World Stage, Lexington Books ( Lanham, MA), x + 203 pp. £51.95 hbk. Bossa nova, carnaval, soccer, exotic beaches and other stereotypes once conveyed Brazil's worldwide image. These, however, no longer contain the outside and self-representations of a country undergoing enormous social, political and economic changes. The new regional power, and host to coming and past global sports events, is also the site of social conflicts and complexities that have an impact in the output of media industries and arts. Therefore, this book's purpose is to explore media representations of Brazil at the beginning of the new century. Among its chapters it discusses cultural controversies and national myths and analyses the constructions of social topics such as favelas, violence or ethnicity in mainstream cinema, documentary film and telenovela. Considered as a whole, the volume offers a competent and nuanced description of media representations of Brazilian society across different formats and genres. Chapter 2 shows how the incorporation of images of favelas, danger and violence complement the classic landmarks and sensualised portraits of Brazil in recent American blockbuster films. These new commonplaces are rooted in the international success of films such as City of God. Chapter 4 analyses the main representatives of this ‘New Brazilian Cinema’, stressing that the aesthetic of violence characterising these movies repeats the form of visibility given to marginalised people by the news media's sensationalistic coverage. This results in a reductionist focus on violence and a depiction of street children and the poor as victims of their own violence, thereby omitting the responsibility of elites and institutions for social exclusion. Chapter 7 adds some insight to the understanding of the mutual influencing of such cinematic narratives by describing the interconnectedness of Brazilian film and Hollywood industries. It shows how the global logics of competition permeate not only marketing strategies but also project design and pre-production phases so as to explain convergent stereotyped narratives and ideological contents. In contrast to the alienating representations of the spaces of urban poverty, Chapter 6 shows the trend in recent telenovelas aired by the largest Brazilian networks to construct positive depictions of favelas as the spaces inhabited by the emerging middle classes, offering interesting insights into production mechanisms and constraints, such as the influence of advertising and the dynamics of competition between TV Globo and TV Record, that explain the divergent representations of favelas. The focus is placed on the efforts of networks and marketers to appeal to the growing middle classes and the usage of product placement of consumer goods that so efficiently plays on the promises of incorporation to modernity that shape these new social formations. The notable success of telenovelas, such as Avenida Brasil that placed the rising middle class centre stage, reaching an average of 46 million viewers and reporting one billion US dollar earnings for TV Globo, represents a shift with the past where the lives of the super-wealthy dominated the genre. To grasp the cultural significance of this shift, the historical function of telenovela in Brazil as a cultural forum where social issues are publicly discussed has to be kept in mind. Alternatively, Chapters 3 and 5 concentrate on how certain cultural productions promote new narratives and myths that, in times of neoliberal individualism, are replacing the challenged foundational myth of racial democracy. Chapter 3 stresses the presence of a new myth of Brazil as a land of opportunity and upward social mobility in some recent successful fictional movies. Chapter 5 criticises the patronising narratives in two arts-focused documentary films where the presence of ‘generous and caring’ outsiders that impose discipline and hard work make escape from favela life and its chaos possible. Beneath these contributions the volume shows some weaknesses. The two remaining chapters, one on the preconditions to account for the uses of the internet by human-rights activists in the favelas and the other concerned with the resistance strategies of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) through the institutionalisation of an educational programme, do not match the book's subject and focus. Though interesting in themselves, their presence is not properly justified. However, still more important, the competently described variation, complexity and dynamic character of the media representations of and in the country deserve a more consistent articulation with theoretical issues than the introduction and the conclusions offer. The same holds for the context. Fewer rhetorical references to the World Cup and more informed reconstructions of social and political developments would have enhanced the historical perspective of the described transformations. In conclusion, what readers will find in the book is a valuable update about the ways that Brazil, its society and its people have been represented in recent media productions.