“The role of commercial broadcasting and journalism in Brazil”University of Helsinki, Finland

Dr. Carolina MatosGovernment DepartmentUniversity of EssexE-mail: cmatos@essex.ac.uk

Core readings• Canizalez, Andres and Lugo-Ocando, Jairo (2008) “Beyond National

Media Systems: A Media for Latin America and the Struggle for Integration” in The Media in Latin America, Berkshire: Open University Press, 209-223

• Matos, C. (2012) Media and politics in Latin America: globalization, democracy and identity, London: I.B. Tauris

• …….., C. (2008) “Media and Democracy in Brazil: towards a “realistic” settlement” in Journalism and political democracy in Brazil, Maryland: Lexington

• Guedes-Bailey, Olga and Jambeiro Barbosa, Othon F. (2008) “The media in Brazil: a historical overview of Brazilian broadcasting politics” in The Media in Latin America, Open University Press, 46-61

• Sinclair, John (1999) Latin America Television: a global view, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Key points•Brazilian media: from the dictatorship to the

contemporary years• Journalism and political democracy in Brazil•Latin American broadcasting has adopted

US model•Commercial television and national identity•The case of TV Globo•The objectivity and professionalism debate•Political journalism and patterns of reporting•The role of the Brazilian journalist in the re-

democratization process

Daily newspapers and weekly magazines

Newspapers (500)

Folha de Sao Paulo (413.000 in 2001)

Estado de Sao Paulo (364.000)

Extra (307.500)O Dia (249.900)Jornal do Brasil (120.000)

Magazines (1.485)

* Veja (1,1 million) * Playboy (442.200) * Claudia (439.200) * Superinteressante

(380.700) * Isto E (372.700) * Exame (181.300)

Broadcasters and online media

Television(281 stations in 2001)

TV GloboSBTRecordRede TV!CNT

Online media(14 million Internet users)

Uol, AOL, IG, Globo.com

Cable televisionNet Brasil & TVASatellite Sky 7 DirecTV

Journalism and Political Democracy in Brazil

• Historical and political context of Brazil: military dictatorship (1964-1985) imposed censorship and control on the press; fascist-inclined regime

• Media were divided in regards to the opening of the regime• Certain sectors pressured for advancement (i.e. Folha in

Direct Elections Campaign in 1984 versus resistance of TV Globo)

• Four case studies of political and presidential elections campaigns since 1984, with the 2002 presidential elections consolidating political democracy

• Conclusions pointed out to complex role of the markets in re-democratization and to the transformation of the role of the state since the dictatorship period (from authoritarianism to social-democracy)

The media and the state, the market, civil society and journalism (Matos,2008)

• A “free” market press - the market functioned as a liberating and oppressive force at the same time – Limits where placed on the increase of public debate due to media concentration and excessive commercialization

• The state – oppressive or vehicle for social and economic inclusion?

• Civil society – negotiation with the market forces, the state and the media

• Journalism – shaped by various forces (state, market and public opinion)

• Problems to tackle:• - Strengthening of a complex media system with

multiple journalism identities

The Brazilian media system during the dictatorship

•Authoritarian regimes in Latin America•Brazilian media (1964-1985):

a) Militant journalism and resistance in the alternative media

b) Era of “enlightened” debate? c) Alignments of the mainstream media versus resistance of certain journalists and newspapers during specific periods

Brazilian media today• Journalism of the 1990’s – Blurring of the

boundaries between newsrooms and commercial departments

• The expansion of professionalism and objectivity

• The decline of partisanship and militant journalism - romantic journalism of the 1970’s versus pragmatism of the 1990’s.

• Decade of the 90’s - multiple journalism identities proliferated in the newsrooms

• Period saw an increase of public debate as well as a decline of a more intellectual public sphere

• Rise of watchdog journalism and investigative reporting as a contemporary genre of the 1990’s (Waisbord, 2000)

Latin American broadcasting has adopted US model

• TV in many Latin American countries has developed following the US commercial model

• I.e. Development of Brazilian television by military planners in the 60’s onwards contributed for the formation of what Straubhaar (2001; 138) has defined as the “nationalizing vocation”

• It also contributed for the creation of a consumer culture and for the engagement of Brazilians in the market economy.

• Television has taken on a central role in political life, in the country’s democratisation process and in the construction of various identities.

• It is possible to say that in this sense TV Globo carries some resemblance with the role played by the BBC in the UK.

Commercial Brazilian television in an international perspective

• Global media organisations outside North America and Europe, like TVB from Hong Kong, TV Globo (Brazil), Televisa (Mexico) and All-Arab Television (Egypt), who target mainly a national market, can first dominate the local or national domain, then they can export programs and technology as well as shape satellite channels in larger global markets.

• These patterns of reverse flows between the First and Third World countries have been defined by various scholars (i.e. Giddens in Curran, 2000) as being a reverse type of colonization or reverse cultural imperialism. Examples include the export of Brazilian telenovelas to Portugal.

• Although Brazil’s Globo TV has managed to reverse some of the flows from ‘Third’ to ‘First’ World countries through the exportation of successful soap-opera programmes, the fact of the matter is that the station is a large media company that has been heavily influenced by American commercial formats.

Commercial television and national identity

• The power that TV Globo has had in shaping national identity and the political agenda of Brazil stands as one of the key reasons for the governmental initiatives and civil society pressures for investments in the fortification of the public media.

• 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’.

• As Voltmer and Schmitt-Beck (2006, 231) have asserted, the excessive commercialisation of the media in Latin America’s new democracies, which has also been influenced by the heavy entertainment diet provided by commercial broadcasting, can be seen as having constituted an obstacle in the process of institution-building and successful democratic consolidation in the continent (Skidmore, 1993; Waisbord, 1995 in Voltmer and Schmitt-Beck, 2006).

Commercial television and national identity

• 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.

• 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.

• TV Globo and Televisa have managed to emerge as the two largest broadcasters located outside of the developed world which offer global competition to the Northern players. Both Globo, with annual revenue of US$ 1.9 billion, and 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).

Television and national identity in Brazil• 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.

• 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).

• Television has had the power in setting standards of conduct, influencing lifestyles, selling products and ideas and shaping behaviours and identities.

• 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’.

• 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.

TV Globo and its role in democratization

• 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).

• Brazilian commercial television has thus 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.

•

The role of soap-operas in democratization

• 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).

• Straubhaar (1988) has argued for instance that Brazilian soaps contributed to delay support for political opening, whereas Porto (2008, 10) points to the ambiguity of the telenovelas’ texts.

• Porto (2008) correctly believes that there is (and has been) a role for television fiction in the process of nation-building

• 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.

The case of TV Globo• 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 post-dictatorship phase (i.e. Bucci, 2000; Skidmore, 1993; Fox, 1997).

• From the mid-1990s onwards, it started to be pressured to improve its journalism and balance criterias, at the same time that it began to suffer from competition posed by other television stations, cable TV and the Internet.

• 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.

• 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.

TV Globo’s popular programmes• 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 reasons including the type of programming, growth of the Internet, access to DVDs as well as competition from other leisure activities.

Quotes from interviews

“Open television has been incapable of developing relevant themes or even to use national values, like music, to assist in constructing a national identity. The ways in which we can improve the quality of Brazilian television is to oblige them to include a quota for local production..... The issue is mainly to make room for wider competition, allowing the entry of new players. It is a market in which the only real competitors are Globo and Record, with the latter trying to imitate Globo’s model. The only way to break this mediocrity pact is to open spaces for new players...”

(Journalist Luis Nassif, former FSP columnist

and presenter of the TV Brasil debating programme Brasilianas.org)

The debate on objectivity and balance in journalism: historical perspectives (in Matos,

2008)

• According to US historians, journalists and academics (Waisbord, 2002; Tumber, 1999; Schudson, 1978), a more sophisticated reading of the ideal of objectivity gained strengthen amongst American journalists because of their..questioning of their own subjectivity.

• Objectivity was also seen as vital for publishers and their needs to move away from highly politicized publications.... It also began to be considered a necessity by journalists who wanted their work to be taken seriously... Tumber, 1999; Merritt, 1995; Schudson, 1978; Tuchman, 1972)

• Model of “information” and factual journalism...was mainly represented by the success of the New York Times since the 1890’s.

The objectivity dilemma (in Matos, 2008)

• Critics have argued how objectivity serves as a defense system for journalists and news organizations to repudiate charges of bias (Tuchman, 1972, 1999).

• Tuchman (1972) has stated that professional norms produce stories that support the existing order. She has examined the newsman’s notion of objectivity by focusing on some standard journalism practices, such as the presentation of all sides of a story during a period of time (the balance criteria)

• As Hackett and Zhao (1998, 88) state, the objectivity regime persists precisely because “it does offer openings, however unequal, to different social and cultural groups”.

• Critiques blame decline of public life on journalism• - Decrease in interest runs deeper (I.e. decline of modernism,

growth of cynicism, relativism, individualism, etc).

Political journalism as an avenue for debate: from the direct elections to 2002

• Due to the shift from the powers of the state to those of the market in the late 1980’s, there was a transition from forms of political constraints to economic motives.

• FSP columnist Janio de Freitas has argued that political power in Brazil has learned to live better with press liberty than business has:

• “Journalism is an exercise which is badly tolerated by the economic and social power.., including the political power. I think also that the political power has been more affected by press liberty, but it is the one which has learned to live with journalism better. The economic power does not tolerate this…”.

• I.e. Concerns of the business world regarding how ‘the market’ would react to the possibility of the PT being sworn into power in 1994 and in 2002, and the type of political decisions which could be made because of this, such as an abandonment of the privatisation programme, the rise of the minimum wage or the reluctance in signing a deal with the IMF imposed constraints on the coverage

Political journalism as an avenue for debate: from the direct elections to 2002

• Similarly to Janio, Nassif is critical of the economic orthodoxy that marked the decade of the 1990’s:

• “After 94/95, you see how financial journalism has been subordinated to the clichés of the market in a scandalous form. Who are the winners of this model, which was in place mainly from 1994 and 1998, but which continues? It is a model of globalisation with social exclusion…When some journalists went to ask questions to Gustavo Franco (former president of the Central Bank) in a seminar in Rio, the answer was that the market does not allow it…how do you construct such a model of subordination of the country to the market?”

• If on one hand the market functioned as a liberating force in the post-dictatorship period, guaranteeing wider press freedom and exercising the watchdog role, on the other hand it also imposed limits on the consolidation of political democracy and on the wider democratisation of Brazilian society

Patterns of political reporting post-1994• The early 1990’s were years of struggle for both political and economic

stability. This decade saw a strengthening of the role of the presidency, with high expectations being placed by the population on individual politicians and presidents regarding the chances that they could actually reduce social inequality levels and boost economic growth.

• The result was the formation of a pattern of political reporting which favoured direct tug-of-wars between candidates, reflecting aspects of Brazilian culture with its cult of personalism and authority figures (Da Matta, 1979).

• The content and critical textual analysis conducted in my first research (Matos, 2008) showed that, similar to 1989, the 1994 elections were “individualized” around the personalities, personal ambitions and qualities of the main candidates. This was the case in relation to the two main political players of the 1990’s (Lula and Cardoso), who sometimes had their personalities more subjected to debate by the media than their political and economic programmes.

Role of the Brazilian journalist in the re-democratization process

• The Brazilian journalist has played a contradictory role in the whole re-democratization process, from the direct elections campaigns of 1985 until the 2002 elections of Lula

• Multiple journalism identities have proliferated in the newsrooms, from a social responsibility ethos to professionalism and militancy

• Brazilian political journalism has also been marked by ambiguity, having reinforced professional journalistic standards as well as maintained partisan practices

• Period has not seen a linear progress – there were some media improvements in the aftermath of the dictatorship, but genuine media democratization has not been achieved

• This is why there are still main pressures placed by civil society players, academics and journalists for the advancement of media reforms and regulation policies