Targeting the ‘New’ Middle Class: Public Discourses on Socio-Economic Status in Brazil

• In Event: Media, Representations and Subject Formation I

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of influential public discourses on socio-economic status in contemporary Brazil, specifically, discourses targeting the “new middle class” and encouraging identification with associated class identities. Four broad groups of such discourse have been selected for their pervasiveness in contemporary Brazilian society: (1) Major anti-poverty/social-welfare programs run by the federal government (e.g., Bolsa Família); (2) Advertising and marketing campaigns for major consumer products (e.g., cars, houses, computers, and cell phones); (3) Political discourses (election campaigns and social movements/protests); and (4) popular culture (e.g., music and television). We present the results of a linguistic content analysis of promotional materials for each of these four categories—materials designed for public consumption by an imagined “new middle class”—including print materials (e.g., pamphlets, posters, and manuals), online sources (e.g., social-media sites), and television (e.g., commercial advertisements and campaign ads during the free political hour). A detailed account of influential public discourses targeting the “new” middle class is crucial to scholarly understandings of changing class relations in Brazil.

Author

• Benjamin Junge, State University of New York/New Paltz