Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines Brazil’s ever-popular telenovelas—a televised mini-series that use recent news issues to help frame its plots. This work increases in importance as more audiences in Brazil rely on diversifying news sources for key decision-making information; and media systems tussle with information presentation and democratic behaviors.
Trade ReviewEssential reading for Brazilianists--and even for laymen--who seek to revisit the relationship of the Brazilian media with soap operas, as well as a new look at the perspectives offered, related with national identity. * Luso-Brazilian Review *
Both news and telenovelas are considered central to a nation’s ongoing self-definition and the construction of imagined community. Dr. Rosas-Moreno has innovated in both her conceptual framework and her methods to compare news and novelas in how they construct images that are central to the media representation of daily life and national identity across Latin America. Her work is of great importance to those studying news, melodrama in all its forms, racial and gender issues, discourses about poverty, and portrayals of the hybridity of cultures, particularly in religion. -- Joseph Straubhaar, University of Texas at Austin
Rosas-Moreno’s detailed analysis of the intersection of news and fictional telenovela narratives substantially expands our understanding of the complex ways Brazilian media—through intertextual relations—co-produce and frame national discourse. This book presents an important contribution to the under-studied, but very influential Brazilian media industrial complex. -- Antonio C. La Pastina, Texas A&M University
In a solid and vast case study, Rosas-Moreno breaks new ground in situating the role of telenovelas as a prime storyteller in Brazilian society. Telenovelas take on contemporary topics of class, religion, and race, offering a forum where popular culture, public debate, and democratic opening converge in surprising ways. This book adds an important new dimension to telenovela studies. -- Thomas Tufte, Roskilde University
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction: Dynamics of Fact and Fiction and a Rising Power Chapter 2: News and Novela Media in Brazil Chapter 3: The Media and the Approach Chapter 4: Race and Class Representations as Indicators of Brazilian Media Opening Chapter 5: Media Marginalizations of Peoples and Places Chapter 6: Versions of Syncretism: Candomblé, Catholicism and Expressions of Belief Chapter 7: Female Leaders’ Portrayals among Brazilian Media Chapter 8: Conclusion: News and Novela as a Forecast for Brazilian Media Opening?
