1. ON GLOBALISATION
MEDIA AND CULTURAL
STUDIES STREAM
Media democratization in Brazil: a look at
achievements and future challenges
Dr. Carolina Matos
Email: caromate@hotmail.com

2. Key points
2
 Introduction: a brief look at the Brazilian media
 Media democratization revisited
 Four lines of inquiry of current research
 Some results of survey and empirical work
 Public broadcasting and regulation in the UK
 Misuse of public communication structures in
Brazil
 Challenges regarding media reform and public
communications
01/02/13

3. Brazilian media today
• Journalism of the 1990’s – Blurring of the boundaries
between newsrooms and commercial departments – rise
of infotainment and marketing news practices
 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
 Rise of watchdog journalism and investigative reporting
as a contemporary genre of the 1990’s (Waisbord, 2000)

4. Media democratisation revisited
 A freer and more independent media and balanced press can
only operate if they are not subject to either political or economic
constraints (i.e. Hallin and Mancini, 2004) ...
• Literature on media democratization (i.e. Voltmer and Schmitt-
Beck, 2006; Curran and Myung-Jin, 2000; Sparks, 2007) has
stressed how countries as different as South Africa, Chile and
China encountered various problems when it came to the
democratization of political communications.
 As Voltmer and Schmitt-Beck (2006) state, some countries in
Eastern Europe however did manage to implement PSBs with
some degree of independence from both the State and from
market competition

5. Comparing media systems: Southern
Europe and Latin America
 Historical perspectives: State intervention in South America has
reinforced governmental power (Waisbord, 2000)
 Market liberalisation and political democratisation have assigned
new roles for state (more democratic participatory) and market
(liberating versus oppressive of debate)
 Similarities between Latin American media systems and Southern
European (Hallin and Papathanassopoulos (2002, 3):
 1) the low circulation of newspapers;
2) tradition of advocacy reporting;
3) instrumentalization (political use) of privately-owned media;
4) politicization of broadcasting and regulation;
5) limited development of journalism autonomy.

6. Future role for PSB in old and new
democracies
 In the UK, PSB has emerged as vehicle for
strengthening debate.
 Talk became more spontaneous and less constrained
(Scannell, 1995)
 As a vehicle for cultural and educational emancipation;
boost of political diversity as well as both regional and
national integration
 Functioning as a counterweight to the market – the
necessity of multiple public spheres and media to attend to
both citizen and consumer demands
 Is a truly independent public media possible?

7. Broadcasting in the UK and
regulation
* The state’s participation in the ownership or regulation of the
broadcast media in liberal European democracies has been based
upon the need to guarantee standards of ‘neutrality’, minimising
political bias....
• Set up under the 2003 Communications bill, the UK’s broadcasting
regulator, Ofcom, has been an example of reference in media
regulation in Europe;
• British newspapers operate on a system of self-regulation (i.e.
Press Complaints Commission is an independent self-regulatory
body)
• Government in Brazil debates creation of new communication
agency, similar to Ofcom.

8. Broadcasting in the UK and
regulation continued
According to Forgan and Tambini (2000, 03,
in Santos e Silveira, 2007, 73), PSB
regulation in the UK improved through time;
• Dunleavy (1987) has argued how public
service broadcasting regulation in the UK has
managed to act as a counter-weight to the
press, neutralising or balancing the biases of
the partisan British tabloids ;
• Regulation in the UK has also been
supported by various regulation bodies who
have established different codes of conduct.

9. PSB tradition versus citizens’
knowledge of politics
 BBC is pointed out by researchers as being able
to deliver more elections news, produce longer
stories of greater substance and give more
attention to minority parties
 Studies (i.e. Curran, 2007; Scammell and
Semetko, 2005) have shown how certain
countries with a strong PSB tradition, like Britain
with its dual system and the Scandinavian
nations, where the state subsides minority media
outlets, citizens have more knowledge of politics
and international affairs than countries where the
commercial media system predominates (in
Matos, 2008)

10. Four lines of research inquiry in Media
and politics in Latin America (IB Tauris,
2011)
 An evaluation of the historical evolution and the public
broadcasting tradition in the UK and Brazil;
 The relationship between the public media with the
state, public sphere and the public interest;
 The debates on what constitutes ‘quality’ programming
and information in both the private and public media;
 An examination of the ‘crisis’ of civic forms of
communication, and how they can still be relevant.
 Media and politics in Latin America: (http://www.whsmith.co.u
)

11. Empirical work and survey: multi-
triangulation method
 Online survey applied to 149 communication students at
UFRJ
 Conduction of in depth interviews with 12 journalists and
policy-makers
 Discussion of programmes from the public media,
mainly TV Brasil
 Analyse of the uses of the Internet in political
campaigning and blogging in the 2010 elections:
 a) new media as a counter-public sphere;
 b) gender politics and representation

12. Some survey results
 Survey revealed a lack of knowledge of the public media
 Most watch TV Globo and cable and satellite TV
 That said, 71% of students defended the public media,
stating that it could have a role in correcting market
failure and contributing to democratization
 Most however saw little difference in regards to the type
of information broadcast in commercial and public TV
stations
 Differences however are subtle, regarding style and
choice of programmes, such as emphasis on “serious”
programmes over heavy entertainment

13. Public communications in Brazil:
achievements and future challenges
 Achievements of the last years include the realization of
the Confecom debates; the implementation of TV Brasil
and commitments towards media regulation
 Ministry of Communications of former government has
identified five areas to tackle:
 1) creation of a new regulatory framework;
 2) regulation of article 221 of the Brazilian Constitution;
 3) author’s copy rights;
 4) Internet regulation
 5) public TV regulation.

14. Public communications in Brazil:
achievements and future challenges
Genuine public media does not exist in Brazil, but educational
stations controlled by the state or others which represent the
Legislative, Executive or Judicial powers (i.e. TV Senado);
 Scholars believe that only a new regulatory framework for the
media can be capable of contemplating differences between the
state and public TVs in relation to commercial sector
 Programme for the communication sector of the Lula candidature in
2006 underscored that democratization of communications was
necessary to deepen democracy
 Auto-regulation of newspapers is being proposed by National
Association of Newspapers (ANJ), praised by Unesco

15. Facts and figures on PSB platform in
Brazil
 Legislation on broadcasting dates to 1962, the Codigo
Brasileiro de Telecomunicacoes, combining the
authoritarianism of the Vargas regime, such as power to
distribute licences, with economic liberalism
 Weak public media sector, with the respected but
funded-starved TV Cultura (SP) and TVE (RJ)
 Ministry of Communications in May 2011 revealed a map
stating that 56 MPs are owners or have relatives in radio
and TV stations
 50% of more than 2.000 community stations are linked to
politicians (Lima, 2007)

16. Quotes from interviews
 ‘ ...always when a government destined resources to
the public TV, it wanted to be compensated by a positive
representation..... We have not yet fully incorporated the
notion that the public television attends to citizenship
rights..... If we really have a strengthening of the public
media – we will have advanced historically....In Brazil
the idea that the government should interfere in social
communications is like a multi-party consensus. We can
see that no public television has total autonomy.....’
(Eugenio Bucci)

17. Quotes from interviews
‘In 2005, when the mensalao scandals emerged, that was when they
‘sold’ the idea to Lula to have TV Brasil, of having a strong public
network capable of competing with the private, as the government
wanted a media which could be more favourable...The government
wanted an instrument to defend itself, and it convinced itself that it
was important. This is a contradiction with the real role that public
TV should have....There is actually a lot of idealism and hypocrisy
in this whole discussion... People say that all you need is another
option to TV Globo for people to change channels, but the reality is
that they do not, they do not change to TV Brasil. I believe that this
issue has a direct relation to education as well, for a better quality
education produces audiences of better quality.....’
(Gabriel Priolli, vice-director of journalism of TV Cultura)

18. Tentative conclusions
 1) Building of a broadcasting regulatory framework
committed to the public interest and independent;
 2) reinforcement of balance and professionalism in
newsrooms, including regulation of the journalism
profession and auto-regulation of the press;
 3) Fortifying of the public media platform, TV, radio and
the Internet, followed by an engagement with the debate
over “quality”
 4) Strengthening of regional, local and alternative media
 5) Wider access to less privileged sectors of the
population to the Internet throughout Latin America

19. Selected Bibliography
 Banerjee, Indrajit and Seneviratne, Kalinga (2006) (eds.) Public
Service Broadcasting in the Age of Globalization, Singapore: Asian
Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC)
 Bolano, Cesar Ricardo Siqueira (2007) Qual a logica das politicas
de comunicacao no Brasil?, Sao Paulo: Editora Paulus
 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
 Curran, James, Iyengar, Shanto, Brink Lund, Anker, Salovaara-
Moring, Inka (2009) “Media System, Public Knowledge and
Democracy” in European Journal of Communications, vol.24, no. 1,
5-26
 Fox, Elizabeth and Waisbord, Silvio (eds.) (2002) Latin Politics,
Global Media, Austin: University of Texas Press