In the first democratic election after 25 years of military rule, Brazilians elected a young unknown politician who was impeached for corruption before his first term of office was over. Based on Stuart Hall's concept of scenarios of representation in media that play a constitutive role in social life, Venicio de Lima, a professor of political science and communication at the University of Brasilia, proposed that Collor's campaign was built around the dramatic narratives in popular telenovelas in which young heroes successfully challenged authority. Lima contends that scenarios of representation of politics are effective in media-centric consumer cultures that rely on advertising for both products and politics. In this article, New York Times journalist Frank Rich demonstrates that the themes of popular drama can provide counter-hegemonic readings of political events, called for by Lima as part of the democratic process. Rich, a former theatre critic, used his knowledge of popular culture to critique the US war in Iraq.
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