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Brazil’s economic growth in the first decade of this century was accompanied by greater visibility of the disadvantaged economic classes in films, in television, and in the press. Even the celebrated telenovelas and TV series began to feature a side of Brazil which, previously, had only been presented in a negative light. This chapter proposes a central question: Could media visibility be masking the complexity of economic class for social structure or class structure in Brazilian society, which, despite recent improvements, is still marked by stark social divides?

Our objective is to approach this issue from a cultural perspective focused on analyzing media representations of underprivileged groups, following Douglas Kellner’s (1995) ideas that suggest a contextualizing account of media cultural artifacts.

The analysis encompasses the audiovisual production as its corpus – telenovela and TV series – from Rede Globo produced from 2002 to 2012. However, bringing to bear complementary data, we reference other genres and formats as well. We argue that, while attention has been paid to the recent contesting of some of the negative stereotypes surrounding the underprivileged classes circulating within the media, they do not do justice to the complexities of social inequality in contemporary Brazil. We show that mainstream media treatments of social inequality focus entirely on showing the lifestyle of the underprivileged “working poor,” while overlooking many other aspects of social inequality and deprivation.

This chapter examines the integration between Brazilian migrants in Japan and other Brazilians living in the United States and Europe. It focuses on the role played by some big ethnic Brazilian events as the most visible and palpable facets of the transnational diasporic networks. These diasporic, cross-border events might be creating consistent transnational social spaces among Brazilians throughout the world. The author has done participant observation at four key diasporic events: a media event (Brazilian Day), a political event (Brasileiros no Mundo), a business event (Expo Business), and a cultural event (Focus Brasil). The goal was to map the flow of information, influence, and intersection among these events and their promoters. The study found that these events are deeply interdependent and the synergy among them – along with the role played by diasporic media – has strengthened a diaspora consciousness, a sense of belonging to the same diaspora, despite the peculiarities of Brazilians who live in different countries or regions. The chapter also discusses how do these new diasporic developments affect the integration of Brazilians who live in Japan. The cases shown in this chapter prove that there are vibrant interactions besides the “home country” versus “host country” dichotomy.

This research aimed to verify how the performance measurement system (PMS) and the quality management system (QMS) work in small and medium Brazilian enterprises in the light of the typology proposed by Garengo (2009).

Using a qualitative approach PMS’s and QMS’s managers were interviewed. The data from the first interview were analyzed using the technique of content analysis and have been subsequently triangulated with other data collected. The study was conducted by means of two questionnaires, two semi-structured interviews, and the analysis of the performance measures used by five small/medium manufactures based in the State of São Paulo.

It was found that in four out of five companies, PMS does not function singly, but along with QMS, mainly with respect to performance indicators. In spite of that intrinsic operation, the systems are in different stages of evolution. It was also found that in three out of five companies, quality management area is responsible for coordinating the process of PMS use, without effective participation from the controlling and/or accounting areas in this process.

The typology of Garengo (2009), used to check the stage of the PMS, was validated and can be used by practitioners to diagnose and improve the PMS in their enterprises; companies with QMS certified by ISO, particularly with higher degree of quality management maturity, can be encouraged to implement or improve the PMS in their organizations.

This chapter examines elements of the regulatory framework in effect in the Brazilian Border Region and neighboring countries as they interact with elements of the culture industry. Located in what is referred to as the Southern Arc, the first city we examine, Foz do Iguaçu-PR, lies on the border between Paraguay and Argentina. The second city is Tabatinga-AM, part of the conurbation region made up by a Colombian city and including the Peruvian border, coming to be known as the Northern Arc.

Our research was produced through the triangulation of primary data obtained in two trips into the field, carried out in 2013 and 2014, secondary data (official and semi-official) and academic bibliography.

Although projects relating to border integration, citizenship and economic development do exist, they do not question or challenge a nationalistic and politicized regime of representation portraying border areas primarily as routes for cocaine traffic or home to terrorist cells. The representation regime disseminated by mainstream media thus reduces the rich color and dynamics of the region to impoverished tones of gray recognizable in terms of “the name of the other.”

This chapter provides a relevant contribution to our understanding of communication processes carried out in two different regions of Brazil, both of them located far from the spotlights of mainstream Brazilian media. We employ a theoretical framework that combines geography of communication with perspectives on communication in borderland regions.

This study based on qualitative data aims to highlight emerging journalistic practices. It analyzes entrepreneurship in Brazilian journalism in order to determine to what extent this development can be regarded as a form of organizational innovation. Over 30 case studies of Brazilian journalistic startups are examined.

The method adopted in this analysis consists of four complementary stages. In the first stage we identify Brazilian media’s political and economic standing and the impacts of digitization on journalism. Then we assess journalistic startup experiences in Brazil through innovation and entrepreneurialism and map the cases. Finally, the fourth and final stage involves interviews of journalists responsible for such startups.

In the past, startups were associated with oppositional forms of journalism aimed at producing alternative views. We find that these startups represent a hybrid of innovation and conservation in news production. On the one hand, they create the potential for journalism’s independence, a crucial asset for the democratic societies utilizing various forms of news production. On the other hand, they remain tied to political and economic interests springing from the neoliberalism that characterize the global media industry.

This chapter focuses on journalistic startups in Brazil and identifies five relevant characteristics of these entrepreneurial organizations. These innovative forms of news production open up spaces for a plurality of social actors and productive sectors. They also offer alternative approaches to covering many relevant issues in Brazilian society, such as legal and judicial topics.

The chapter addresses the unique aspects of Brazil’s news agencies and the Brazilian news syndication market. It reveals the pattern of Brazil’s two prevailing business models regarding the wire services industry: that of the State, particularly the federal government, which invested little in a nationwide distributor to peripheral and alternative media; and that of major media conglomerates, which set out their syndication services labeled as “news agencies” in order to multiply profits with no extra labor. In the latter case, an asymmetrical relationship of dependency and circularity ensues between these major conglomerates and regional media groups, who rely on these “news agencies” to perpetuate their dominance in local markets. The chapter also assesses a few causes for this unique model and describes the main players in Brazil’s news agency sector. A concise historical background is presented (Molina, Morais, Saroldi & Moreira) and provides context for the present-day players in the news agency business in Brazil, including the institutional framework they form with their customers, predominantly smaller newspapers. The chapter analyzes attributes of the Brazilian news agency ecology, including the parallel reach of distribution networks belonging to the private and state-owned agencies; the adaptation of conglomerate agencies to challenges entailed by the digital convergence (shrinking newsrooms, multitasking staff); and the prevalence of the interconglomerate model within the Brazilian news syndication industry.

This chapter examines the relationship between news media in Cinema Novo films to underscore the impact of their shared discourse on the history of Brazilian films.

The author discusses the emplotment of news media within representative Cinema Novo films whose narratives speak to an ongoing debate concerning the role of print and televisual journalism in the increasingly repressive political environment of the military dictatorship installed in the 1960s. Interpretations on the level of film narrative, of specific scenes, and of shot and shot-sequencing contribute to the discussion, situated within the broader historical context of the established laws and commissions of 1960s Brazil.

Together, the analyzed films’ various interventions in Brazilian cultural and political history offer a complex representational fabric simultaneously constituting and critiquing national discourse.

The present research is limited to films of the 1960s but has implications for the interpretation of many Brazilian films and for Brazilian film history writ large. The overlap of film and news media is abundantly evident in the films of the Retomada and New Millennial Brazilian Cinema, but they do not fit within the scope of this chapter.

This analysis discusses a major canonical film (Entranced Earth) alongside lesser-known films (Threatened City, Freedom of the Press). When considered together in the light of their shared reflections concerning news media, these films bring up previously underexamined issues within the respective fields of Communication Studies and Brazilian Film Studies.