News and Novela in Brazilian Media

Download or read book News and Novela in Brazilian Media written by Tania Cantrell Rosas-Moreno and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2014-06-25 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.