Negotiating Race in the Contemporary Brazilian Television Industry: Critical Analyses of Afro-Brazilian Audiences and Producers

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel utilizes a multi-faceted discussion of the contemporary Brazilian television industry to interrogate the paradoxical position of Afro-Brazilians within the nation’s contemporary cultural imaginary. While capoeira, samba, carnival, and other cultural practices historically associated with the country’s Afro-Brazilian population are widely celebrated as markers of national pride and as the most uniquely “Brazilian” attractions within global tourist circuits (recently illustrated vividly in the 2016 Olympics opening ceremonies), the participation of those identified as Afro-Brazilians as content creators, actors, or other creative roles within Brazilian media industries has continued to be minimal (Smith, 2016). In particular, television production has been identified as cultural platform where Afro-Brazilians have been marginalized. While scholars like Araujo (2000) and Stam (1997) have discussed at length the perpetuation of stereotypical representations of Afro-Brazilians within this medium, few empirical projects have been conducted to analyze either at the forms of media produced by individuals of Afro-Brazilian descent or the impacts of marginalization within popular media on Afro-Brazilian audiences. We believe that more empirical work in these two areas can open up new avenues for scholarship and advocacy.

Drawing on case studies from a geographically and culturally diverse cross-section of Brazilian society, we hope to identify some of the areas where these barriers to inclusion have arisen. Addressing the impact of mainstream Brazilian television representations on the attitudes and identities of Afro-Brazilian audiences in Northern Brazil, Straubhaar examines. Pedroso discusses Afro-Brazilian viewers’ reactions to representations in telenovelas by examining a contest designed to encourage Brazilian maids (one of the occupations most historically associated with black Brazilians) to alter their occupational practice to more closely model the behavior of maids depicted on the popular novella Cheias de Charme. Papers by Davis and Gillam turn to issues faced by Afro-Brazilians in the television production process with a particular focus on television news. By combining analyses of audiences with producers we hope to promote a holistic conversation about how television potentially disempowers Afro-Brazilians as consumers and producers.

References:

Araujo, J. Z. (2000). A Negacão do Brasil : O Negro na Telenovela Brasileira. Sao Paulo, SP: Editora SENAC Sao Paulo.

Smith, C. (2016). Afro-Paradise Blackness, Violence, and Performance in Brazil. Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Stam, R. (1997). Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture. Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press.

Sub Unit

• Media Industry Studies

Chair

• Stuart Davis, Texas A&M International U

Individual Presentations

• Reading Television Through Race and Regionality in Northeastern Brazil - Joseph D. Straubhaar, University of Texas

• “The Most Charming Brazilian Maid”: A Case Study of Convergent Induction Strategies as an Apparatus of Access and Ideology in TV Globo’s Cheias de Charme - Daniel Pedroso, U do Vale do Rio dos Sinos

• Black Consciousness At Work: Afro-Brazilian Journalists in Mainstream and Alternative Media - Reighan Gillam, U of Michigan

• Strategy Follows Structure: Investigating Barriers to Employment for Favela-Based Television Journalists in Rio de Janeiro - Stuart Davis, Texas A&M International U

Respondent

• Mauro Porto, Tulane U