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Brazilian Propaganda: Legitimizing an Authoritarian Regime

2016; Duke University Press; Volume: 96; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-3678105

1527-1900

Rebecca J. Atencio,

Brazilian cultural history and politics

In the wake of the National Truth Commission (2012–2014) and the 50th anniversary of the April 1964 coup that ushered in 21 years of authoritarian rule, academic books on Brazil's civilian-military dictatorship have proliferated. Among those published in English, one of the most revealing and timely is Nina Schneider's Brazilian Propaganda. Revealing because Schneider demonstrates that the Brazilian case differs markedly from the Nazi and Soviet experiences with propaganda, thereby challenging long-held assumptions arising from those examples. Timely because the subject matter seems uncannily familiar in the present moment of Brazil's political crisis. The allegation from some quarters that the legally questionable impeachment process amounts to a coup is but one manifestation of the feeling that history is repeating itself. Schneider's findings on dictatorship-era propaganda, including that produced by the commercial media (controlled, then and now, by a tiny elite), offer a cautionary tale of particular relevance.Brazilian Propaganda asks questions largely overlooked during the nation's recent truth-seeking process: What role did propaganda play in the dictatorship? Who produced it and why? And how was it received by the public? Schneider seeks answers through archival research, interviews with propagandists, and close analysis of representative samples. As her examples bear out, the Brazilian civilian-military regime was unique in launching campaigns designed to create the illusion of popular participation, without actually making such participation a reality—a stark contrast to the Nazis' and Soviets' use of propaganda to mobilize people. Brazil's experience with propaganda is unusual, moreover, in that the campaigns—referred to as comunicação social, or “social communication”—were part of a larger effort to portray the regime as democratic (p. 9).The first three chapters suggest that the defining characteristic of this propaganda was its heterogeneity; it evolved over time and took on a range of tones. The slogans from the dictatorship era that most stand out in popular memory today (and that are most frequently cited in history books as emblematic of the dictatorship) either expressed fervent support for the regime's modernizing project (e.g., “Este é um país que vai pra frente,” or “This is a country moving forward”) or directed veiled threats to would-be critics of the regime (e.g., “Brasil: Ame-o ou deixe-o,” or “Brazil: love it or leave it”). Surprisingly, however, Schneider demonstrates that the vast majority of campaigns launched during the years of peak repression (1968–1974) were much subtler than these examples; indeed, they tended to consist of indirect expressions of pro-government sentiment that she calls “subliminal propaganda.” Explicit celebrations of the regime and its accomplishments—“blunt propaganda,” in Schneider's parlance—actually became more common during the so-called distensão, or liberalization, period of the late seventies, when public dissatisfaction with the dictatorship was quickly rising. As for the notorious “Brasil: Ame-o ou deixe-o” campaign, this type of “aggressive propaganda,” as Schneider calls it, originated in the private sector—a reminder of the role that civilian actors played in the dictatorship.Chapter 2 analyzes the short films, or filmetes, produced by government-sponsored propagandists. Schneider was able to locate roughly 100 of these filmetes—presumably all that have survived—the vast majority (over 70 percent) of which, she finds, exemplify subliminal propaganda, dealing with topics like public safety and exhibiting a high degree of formal sophistication. Chapter 3 widens the scope to investigate other vehicles of propaganda, both official (the newsreels of Agência Brasil and the programming of Radiobrás) and commercial (the programs of government mouthpieces like Globo, the private media empire born several months after the civilian coup); much of the material analyzed in this chapter falls under the category of blunt propaganda. Schneider also considers how the regime attempted to control cultural production through censorship and co-optation.The final two chapters look at propaganda from the perspective of its producers and its audience. In chapter 4, Schneider draws on several interviews with propagandists as well as government reports to substantiate the existence of deep divisions behind the regime's unified facade. Contrary to what one might expect, the working relationship between government propagandists and their colleagues in the intelligence and security agencies was far from smooth. Those in charge of the campaigns tended to be moderates who favored subliminal propaganda, a stance that brought them into constant conflict with officials and private financiers of the repression, who demanded a more heavy-handed approach. Chapter 5 tackles the difficult yet intriguing question of public reception: What did the average Brazilian think about the propaganda produced during this period? Answering this question is tricky because the regime made little effort to track how its messages were received; however, Schneider uses the limited evidence available in the form of press coverage and government reports to show that the filmetes in particular enjoyed a modest degree of success, if only in the form of accolades received and the spawning of imitations.Smartly organized and written, Brazilian Propaganda is likely to appeal to serious scholars of Brazilian and Latin American history, although it is accessible and engaging enough for undergraduate students as well. Of course, some of these readers may wish for a more comparative approach that considers Brazil alongside Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Nevertheless, Schneider's book stands on its own as a thoughtful and provocative case study of a topic of increasing timeliness in Brazil and beyond.