News and Novela in Brazilian Media

Fact, Fiction, and National Identity

By (author) Tania Cantrell Rosas-Moreno

Publication date:

25 June 2014

Length of book:

160 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739189788

Citizens everywhere are turning to multiple news sources to inform their daily decisions. In Brazil, an emerging global power and democracy, those sources include the ever-popular telenovelas and, on a rising basis, newspapers. News and Novela in Brazilian Media: Fact, Fiction, and National Identity examines how news issues help frame telenovela plots, comparing key issues across Brazilian media to highlight differing levels of progression associated with press freedom. Scrutiny of concurrent print news stories, print news photos, and telenovela scenes indicate that when a hit telenovela is compared to news, the novela becomes a more progressive storyteller. At least, race, class, gender, and religious news issues seem more progressive: An Afro-Brazilian wins a local election; a favela or shantytown is idealized; a less popular African religion is heralded while Protestantism is marginalized and Catholicism continues as the right religion; and women achieving power leads to a more egalitarian society. In a diversifying media environment, where lines between fact and fiction are increasingly blurred, Brazilian alternative news studies are critical measures of Brazil’s state of media opening that inform national identity formation.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Dynamics of Fact and Fiction and a Rising Power
Chapter 2: News and Novela Media in Brazil
Chapter 3: The Media and the Approach
Chapter 4: Race and Class Representations as Indicators of Brazilian Media Opening
Chapter 5: Media Marginalizations of Peoples and Places
Chapter 6: Versions of Syncretism: Candomblé, Catholicism and Expressions of Belief
Chapter 7: Female Leaders’ Portrayals among Brazilian Media
Chapter 8: Conclusion: News and Novela as a Forecast for Brazilian Media Opening?

Essential reading for Brazilianists--and even for laymen--who seek to revisit the relationship of the Brazilian media with soap operas, as well as a new look at the perspectives offered, related with national identity.