Disrupting the Old Periphery: Alternative Media, Inequality and Counter-Mapping in Brazil

Abstract

Media discourse on the periphery in Brazil has historically mirrored the country’s socioeconomic divides. The periphery used to be where precarious dwellings predominate: a way of ‘behaviour’ of the poor, their social class, or an aspect at one’s appearance. Semi-structured interviews conducted with alternative media producers based across the country have produced insights into many attempts to change a derogatory sense of the periphery through counter-mapping initiatives. Producers have geotagged their presence at the city’s centre, contested the neutrality of maps, and appropriated surveillance images in semi-public spaces. While not an exhaustive exercise, this paper sees counter-mapping used to explore four distinct communicative strategies around the ethnic/racial divide, the cultural divide, the discourse of mobility, and the raising of awareness about emerging intersectional issues.