This article discusses the Brazilian telenovela Terra Nostra, a prime-time production of TV Globo. The telenovela presented a complex picture of nineteenth-century Brazilian politics and of the saga of Italian immigrants, with a plurality of perspectives about these themes. A series of focus group discussions with viewers of different social backgrounds, concentrating on the political messages of the telenovela, reveals the complexity of audience responses. The author finds that the telenovela played an “orientation role,” providing interpretive frames that were often applied by viewers to current political issues. Even though they are frequently looked at with disdain, telenovelas have become key to understanding the dilemmas and perspectives of democratic politics in Brazil.
Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics. 1999. Relatório AIP: AudiênciaIndividual por Programa. São Paulo, Brazil: Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics.
2.
Campello de Souza, M. 1989. The Brazilian “New Republic”: Under the “Sword of Damocles.” In Democratizing Brazil, edited by A. Stepan, 351-94. New York: Oxford University Press.
3.
Curran, J. 1992. Mass Media and Democracy Revisited. In Mass Media and Society, edited by J. Curran and M. Gurevitch, 81-119. New York: Arnold.
4.
de Barros e Silva, Fernando. 1999. Síndrome de “Amore Mio. Folha de São Paulo. November 14, p. 12.
5.
de Lima, V. A. 1993. Brazilian Television in the 1989 Presidential Campaign: Constructing a President. In Television, Politics, and the Transition to Democracy in Latin America, edited by T. Skidmore, 97-117. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
6.
de Sant’Anna, Afonso Romano. 1999. Nossa Formação, Nossas Deformações. OGlobo, October 13, p. 8.
7.
Guazina, L. 1997. Ficção Televisiva e Política: Um Estudo sobre a Telenovela Explode Coração. Comunição & Política, 4 (2): 151-75.
8.
Hallin, D. 1994. We Keep America on Top of the World: Television Journalism and the Public Sphere. New York: Routledge.
9.
Hamburger, E. 1999. Politics and Intimacy in Brazilian Telenovelas. Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago.
10.
La Pastina, A. 1999. The Telenovela Way of Knowledge: An Ethnographic Reception Study Among Rural Viewers in Brazil. Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin.
11.
Lins da Silva, C. E. 1993. The Brazilian Case: Manipulation by the Media? In Television, Politics, and the Transition to Democracy in Latin America, edited by T. Skidmore, 137-144. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
12.
Marcondes Filho, C. 1986. A Telenovela e a Lógica do Capital. Comunicação &Sociedade 14:5-18.
13.
Miragaya, Fernando. 1999. Épico à Moda Brasileira. Correio Braziliense. September 19, pp. 8-9.
14.
Morley, D. 1986. Family Television: Cultural Power and Domestic Leisure. London: Comedia.
15.
Ortiz, R., S. Borelli, and J. Ramos. 1989. Telenovela: História e Produção. São Paulo, Brazil: Brasiliense.
16.
Porto, M. 1998. Telenovelas and Politics in the 1994 Brazilian Presidential Election. The Communication Review2 (4): 433-459.
17.
Porto, M. 2000. Televonelas, Politica e Identidad National en Brasil. Ecuador Debate, no. 49:205-34.
18.
Porto, M. 2003. Mass Media and Politics in Democratic Brazil. In Brazil Since 1985: Economy, Polity and Society, edited by M. D. Kinzo and J. Dunkerley, 288-313. London: Institute of Latin American Studies.
19.
Radway, J. 1991. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
20.
Ricupero, Rubens.1999.Entrevista: Rubens Ricupero. O Globo, September 26, p.16.
21.
Rubim, A. A. 1989. “Comunicação, Espaço Público e Eleições Presidenciais. Comunicação & Política 9:7-21.
22.
Straubhaar, J. 1988. The Reflection of the Brazilian Political Opening in the Telenovela [soap opera], 1974-1985. Studies in Latin American Popular Culture7:59-76.
23.
Tufte, T. 2000. Living with the Rubbish Queen: Telenovelas, Culture and Modernity in Brazil. Luton, UK: University of Luton Press.
24.
Vink, N. 1988. The Telenovela and Emancipation: A Study on Television and Social Change in Brazil. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Royal Tropical Institute.
25.
Weber, M. H. 1990. “Pedagogias de Despolitização e Desqualificação da Política Brasileira: As Telenovelas da Globo nas Eleições Presidenciais de 1989. Comunicação & Política 11:67-83.
