Brazilian Telenovelas Research Articles

The Telenovela and the Representation of Black Women: A Study from the Controlling Images Analytical Category

In Brazil, the telenovela has established itself as one of the most important products of television. Thus, it addresses the differences between social groups and disputes between them. The visibility for these groups that is built from this dynamic becomes a chance to promote their representation, when they see themselves as part of the nation. This study aims to understand the representation of Black women in the scenario of contemporary Brazilian telenovelas, focusing on Amor de Mãe (Dias & Villamarim, 2019–2021). The research consisted of analyzing the protagonists of the first part of this narrative, Camila (Jéssica Ellen) and Vitória (Taís Araújo), based on the analytical category of controlling images (Collins, 1990/2019), which unravels the logic that tries to justify the oppression experienced by these women. The results show that these images can be identified isolated and/or combined in the construction of these characters. At times, the telenovela plot questions these images; at others, it reinforces them.

Limantha fandom activism on Twitter: media competence analysis about social issues discussions

This paper intends to discuss the relationship between media competence and fan culture, focusing on content creation shared on Twitter by fans of the Limantha ship, from the Brazilian telenovela Young Hearts (Malhação: Viva a Diferença). In order to reflect on how telenovela social issues were explored in the content shared on Twitter, we adopted Ferrés and Piscitelli’s concept of media competence. We concluded that, in addition to deepening themes dealt within the plot, fans expanded and resignified discussions based on correlations with personal reports.

Human rights, television popular culture and the telenovela

The application of human rights to mass communication television pro gramming gives rise to a search for entertainment that is empowering. One genre that has managed to es cape the restrictions of commercial Ism and resulted in a genuine form of popular culture is the Brazilian telenovela. Any attempt to relate human rights In communication to popular televi sion culture might seem to be a fu tlle endeavour. Such an attempt ap pears to involve two incompatible Ideas: highmindedness and Ideallsm on the one hand, and free choice and commerciallam on the other. However, there could be a way out. Somewhere there might be a way that popular culture as expressed through television might also be em powering, instead of mainly com mercially exploitative and cynically manipulative. The one example that springs to mind is the telenovela of Brazil. This paper proposes to deal with the concept of human rights and broadcasting, especially as it affects the present SABC, then to look briefly at some concepts of popular culture and then to end off by discussing the Brazilian tele novella as a possible reconciliation of the two opposing Ideas, of human rights and entertainment. This article is based on a paper that was read at a RAU Seminar "Com munication Interactions in popular culture", that was held in Johannes burg on October 22, 1993,

Biografia comunicacional e usurpação da autoria na televisão brasileira: um estudo de caso sobre Babilônia, última novela de Gilberto Braga

The Brazilian telenovela, as a work in progress, is built on the articulation of authorship and management of audience fluctuations. It is an important object of study to bethink the dynamics of television in certain historical moments. If Brazilian telenovelas are closely aligned with the contexts in which they are broadcast, to what extent do they mediate the perception of the country’s social, political and economic reality? This article is based on the hypothesis that certain interventions from executives in the plots results in the usurpation of authorship, especially at times when authoritarian postures tend to institutionalize. As these impositions implodes the foundations of a genre marked by authorial signature, our goal is to analyze the impacts on authorship when subtracted from its intertextuality and vision of the world. Our empirical object is the telenovela Babilônia (TV Globo, 2015), the last work by author Gilberto Braga (1945-2021) to be produced by Globo, in partnership with João Ximenes Braga and Ricardo Linhares, and which recorded the lowest 9pm slot audience rating ever. The concept-method to be used is that of communicational biography, which will guide the analysis through the articulation between different types of texts: the synopsis, the 80 chapters originally written compared to the chapters modified by imposition of the company’s management; autobiographical accounts; and the repercussion on specialized criticism.

Next

I draw these brief lines for a simple constructive criticism of the Next theme. The theme of Next interested me right away. Genetic experiments, transgenic animals, gene patents! Themes that are not only fashionable, but that completely match our current situation. It is the nearest future, a concern and also a dream of science. With this interest, I immediately got the book and some articles and put it in front of a line to read. I would have left it before.
 Next is actually a very diverse group of characters. It begins with a lawsuit from a firm that wants to use a man's special cells for cancer treatment. Then he talks about an orangutan who speaks and swears in Dutch. Then comes a parrot that does the math and a boy half chimpanzee, half human. In the midst of all this, many unscrupulous lawyers and researchers.
 There are experiments with gene therapy, with hypotheses about the maturity gene and many others. The lack of ethics in research is expressed in every page, in every subject, in every article and in every book. And it is so expressed that it fills one's patience. All researchers are failed nerds or unscrupulous capitalists. That wouldn't be a bad thing if the manuscripts were well developed. Scientists are almost always great villains like Moreau and even some geniuses who aren't scientists but are cool like Professor Moriarty.
 The problem is that no character has depth. They are all thrown in the middle of the story flying back and forth with no solid connection. Everything has very fragile and forced ties. And there are many, many of them, most of them for no reason to be there.
 The orangutan is a more direct example of this. It appears in the manuscripts, is talked about and commented on, but seems to have appeared for nothing, along with the characters connected to it. And so it goes on and the reader or researcher is waiting for everything to come together in the end. When the end comes, the plot comes together in an ending more pitiful than the end of a Brazilian telenovela season.
 In the end, this Next set seemed to me like a series of short stories whose parts were mixed together. Nothing more. But the cool thing was to see the surnames of some important researchers in the characters. Only. I definitely don't recommend it.1, 2, 3

Creative production of Brazilian telenovela fans on Twitter

Analysis of content creation by fans on Twitter based on the narrative arcs of Lica and Samantha, characters in the Brazilian telenovela Young Hearts (Malhação: Viva a diferença) (TV Globo, 2017–18).

Thriving telenovelas: TV Globo’s strategies for keeping the genre relevant

ABSTRACT Brazilian telenovelas are the number one locally produced and consumed program in the country and the majority of Brazilians still watch their beloved shows “on TV.” In fact Brazilians spend on average a total of 4 hours and 31 daily minutes in front of to the set. Thus, Internet use is not leading to the abandonment of the television screen, but instead, we see a process of transmediation. Technological advances have also changed the way narratives are told, with increased reliance not just on web content but also on high investment on production and post-production. This article examines two recent TV Globo telenovelas that have changed the traditional genre’s production and reception in their use of technology, in order to shed a light on the program’s lingering popularity and their efforts at staying relevant. The telenovelas discussed are: Cheias de Charme (CDC, 2012) and Deus Salve o Rei (DSOR, 2018).

Formas do cronotopo do realismo fantástico nas telenovelas de Dias Gomes e suas zonas de contato com o presente histórico brasileiro

This research aims to analyze, from the study of the forms of ‘chronotope’ undertaken by M. Bakhtin (1993, 2006), the production of meanings of four telenovelas representing the fantastic realism of Dias Gomes (O Bem Amado, Saramandaia, Roque Santeiro, The End of the World). The central concern, like Bakhtin’s, is to realize how the categories of time-space (fictional and historical) are articulated in fiction and the image of the various types of Brazilian citizens represented there, so as to consolidate beyond their time history of production, the narratives and conflicts that emerge from this articulation. We assume the existence of the following chronotopic forms: Chronotope of the AI-5 (Beloved and Saramandaia); Chronotope of the “Diretas Ja” (Roque Santeiro) and Chronotope of the “New World Order” (The End of the World).Keywords: Communication. Brazilian telenovela. Dias Gomes. Dialogism. Chronotope.

Lo nacional y lo global en la telenovela brasileña: identidades culturales, imaginarios contemporáneos y oferta en VoD

Discutimos las tensiones entre lo nacional y lo global en Huérfanos de su Tierra (Órfãos da Terra, Globo, 2019). Telenovela brasileña que aborda el drama de los refugiados y propone una nueva lógica en la oferta de ficciones de TV de larga serialidad en sistemas de Video on Demand. Señalamos que el formato telenovela busca detenerse en la centralidad del escenario audiovisual brasileño por medio de la fusión de relatos melodramáticos con tecnologías e imaginarios contemporáneos compartidos globalmente. Fruto de esa relación dialógica, el Brasil de Huérfanos de su Tierra es el refugio, y la identidad nacional se afirma en la diversidad cultural.

Co-viewing a lesbian kiss between two elderly characters: Unveiling axes of oppression through the Brazilian telenovela Babilônia

This article looks at how digital spaces not initially designed for co-viewing become places for resisting the dominant heteronormative discourses of female sexuality spread by different sectors of Brazilian society and which are reinforced in television and social media. The article is part of a study on co-practices in connected platforms related to Brazilian prime-time viewing. We used a qualitative and multi-method approach with data from participant observation, interviews, and a questionnaire with users who co-viewed the Brazilian telenovela Babilônia in two unofficial Facebook groups. A kiss between two elderly female characters of the telenovela Babilônia caught the attention of religious and conservative politicians, who organized a boycott in accordance with patriarchal values. Therefore, co-viewers discussed the representation of female sexuality and reflected on its intersection with the characters' age, gender and sexuality, as well as the country’s current political situation and its interweaving with religion. The co-viewing practices were examined with a feminist critical discourse analysis, focusing on the practices that emerged inductively during co-viewing in relation to elderly female lesbianism. The findings indicate that, through connected co-viewing, users create alternative public spheres that can challenge the social order in which sexuality is constructed based on heterodeterministic media representations of gender.

Transatlantic connections: reception and production of Nollywood films in Brazil

ABSTRACTThis essay examines South to South connections between Brazil and Nigeria through a situated reception study and content analysis of two Nollywood films. The audiences are located in Salvador da Bahia and in São Paulo, Brazil, and the essay analyses audience reception of Domitilla: The Story of a Prostitute (1996) and extrapolates themes by examining Black Night in South America (2007). The themes of both films and various spectatorial responses reveal the observation of stark contrasts between rich and poor, capitalist desires, and different patriarchies – echoing those themes in Brazilian telenovelas. This thematic coincidence is a site for exploring cross-cultural similarities and intersections between aspects of Nigerian and Brazilian life. It is also an avenue for a further symbolic exploration of cultural and historical contiguities within the Global South, particularly with regard to religious practices, gender relations, and socio-economic hierarchies. This paper combines audience responses with the close film analysis to reveal correlating narratives about ethnicity, class, gender and urban survival, as well as the moral storylines in both Nigerian films and Brazilian telenovelas.

From Renascer to Velho Chico: negotiations between cordiality and modernity in the Brazilian telenovela

ABSTRACTThis article takes as its focus the main Brazilian cultural and media product, the telenovela or soap opera, to discuss the characteristic of the Brazilian personality referred to as the homem cordial (“cordial man”). The article analyses two telenovelas: Renascer (1993) and Velho Chico (2016), which, written by the same author, but in very different historical contexts, sought to recover the trait of cordiality in its essence. In its comparison of the two telenovelas, this study presents and discusses the changes, permanencies and negotiations of a cordial tradition in the face of a particular aspect of modernity represented by both the process of urbanisation and by television itself.

Researching co-viewing on social media and instant messaging applications: ethics and challenges

This article discusses the ethical concerns and challenges that should be considered while studying the practice of co-viewing on social media and instant messaging applications. Co-viewing practices refer to the intertwined activities that happen while viewers sit together in front of a TV set, watching and making meaning from television content. Connected platforms amplify the possibilities for co-viewing, by allowing people to experience a digital co-presence. Users that engaged in connected co-viewing in unofficial Facebook and WhatsApp groups dedicated to the brazilian telenovela Babilônia (airing in 2015) are used to exemplify the need to establish informed consent and avoid harming the participants when carrying out research online. The research reveals that ethical decision-making with respect to users’ data and viewpoints had to be considered, not only at the beginning stages of research, but assessed and considered throughout each step of the study.

Connected Co-viewing on Facebook: A Brazilian Telenovela and the Perception of Media Realism

Co-viewing refers to the practice of sitting together in front of a TV set, watching and making meaning from television content. New media amplifies the possibilities for co-viewing, by allowing people to do it virtually. This study explores the reflexive perception of media realism that emerged when Facebook users engaged in connected co-viewing in two unofficial Facebook groups dedicated to the Brazilian prime-time telenovela Babilônia. The series’ controversial plot led to political discussions and prompted debate where viewers frequently used their perceptions of realism to counter the notion of media effects.

O modelo da “mocinha” em ascensão social: proposta de análise semiótica de personagens na teleficção

The purpose of this article is to approach, briefly, the female character in social mobility in narratives of Brazilian telenovelas, from the example of a specific character, Cristina, of telenovela Imperio (2014/2015), by Globo Network. The aim is to propose the use of the semiotic theorized by Greimas, here applied as a viable method of analysis for telefiction scenes and characters. Through this specific focus, it is believed to be possible to reflect on the female characters in social mobility in the telenovela, consisting of a base that seems to repeat itself. Keywords: telenovela, social mobility, semiotics, female character, narrative.

Representation of homoaffective relationships in Brazilian telenovelas

The presence of homosexual characters in Brazilian telenovelas has been gaining prominence in recent years and arousing intense debates in society. The aim of this study is to analyze the representation of homoaffective relationships in telenovelas from the perspective of their presence, relevance and discussion. This study consisted of the analysis of the scenes of homosexual couple Teresa and Estela in the telenovela Ambitious Women (GLOBO NETWORK, 2015), in comparison with the literature and other same-gender relationships in telenovelas. The analysis evidences an increase in the representativeness of homoaffective relationships in telenovelas, however the representation of these relationships still remains subjected to a heteronormative logic.

Television in Portugal (2000-2016): the curious case of Portuguese fiction

Portuguese television has always struggled with the country’s demography, geography and permeability to foreign contents. Until 2001, Portuguese television was unable to fulfil any of the Directives regarding minimum European production quotas, and one of its key features was the undisputed dominance of Brazilian telenovelas over Portuguese audiences. Today the situation has changed dramatically and the number of Portuguese telenovelas being broadcasted raised exponentially, as well as its ratings and share. In this article we will examine a very specific period, from 2000 to 2016, and study the dramatic fiction produced in Portugal during this timeframe. We will analyse Portuguese telenovela’s hegemony over prime-time, and the impact it is having on other television genres.

BRICS and Mediated Narratives: The Proximity Between Brazilian News and Telenovelas

By analyzing the telenovela Caminho das Indias, broadcasted in 2009 and then again in 2015, this article discusses the concept of BRICS, more specifically of Brazil and India, and the question of soft power as a possibility of communicative and cultural influence which could contribute, through the diversity that is a staple of the block, to propose a counterpoint to the contemporary monoculture of worldviews. The argument used here is that audiovisual transnational narratives such as films (India) and television (Brazil) establish an important bridge between journalism and fiction. This is because they exercise, to some extent, an 'agenda-setting' role, in other words they are transformed newsworthy media, presenting the public with events and reflections on current issues. This paper discusses the relationship between the mediation between information-entertainment specifically in Brazilian telenovelas, analyzing the representation of the two countries through Brazilian author Gloria Perez’s work.

Challenging prime time television

Television (TV) has always been the focus of continuous debate around its shifting social practices, involving and challenging all established main agents, from content producers to brands, corporations, regulators and audiences (Boddy, 2002; Uricchio, 2002). At the same time, the remediations of TV are at the core of broader discussions on media change, particularly since the popularization of media consumption through the Internet. TV retains a position of centrality for understanding what it means to live in a connected environment. This article contributes to this debate through the analysis of the co-viewing practices within the specific context of Brazil’s most popular cultural product, the telenovela. After an overview of the key themes and scope of the research, we will situate the practices of co-viewing in the context of some of the key issues regarding connected viewing. We will deal with the particularities of the Brazilian telenovela as a cultural product and finally we will outline our empirical research on co-viewing practices in unofficial Facebook groups surrounding the controversial prime time telenovela ‘Babilônia’.

Identidades de gênero nos estudos de recepção de telenovela: um olhar sobre a produção stricto sensu da última década

This paper discusses the reception researches panorama having analyzed the thesis and dissertations developed in the Communication Post Graduation Programs in the last decade, taking the corpus already studied by Jacks et al (2014). We analyzed specifically the studies of brazilian telenovela recepction developed from the gender relations and gender identities perspective. Aspect with little emphasis on researches developed on the last decade about the most important Brazilian serial fiction narrative. From the 209 researches analyzed, 24 were dedicated to reception of brazilian telenovelas, in which only four were about the gender perspective, even though women continue being the most focused informants of the problematization in these content reception studies.