Globalization and the Mass Media - Dissertation Example

 Globalization and the Mass Media Abstract The country that has been chosen for the structural profiling of one communication sector is Brazil. Furthermore, the sector “Press” among the five channels of communications has been analyzed. The country currently possesses one of the highest literacy rates in the region. The reading habit among the people, who belong to (15-64) years of age, is higher. The trade relaxations and ease of doing business is higher. Thus, the press industry, including all kinds of newspapers, and magazines is striking for the potential investors. Another important and noticeable fact supporting the proposition is that there are more than 5 languages that are being spoken in Brazil, that too at a large scale. The detailed analysis is attached for the review. Globalization and the Mass Media Country Introduction The location of Brazil on the world map signals its significance. The fact that on the map it is also called South America elucidates that it shares some features with the American Culture as well. Now as the project addresses the communications sector in specific. Press, being the most significant channel due to high literacy rates in the country, has been chosen. Whenever we talk about Newspaper circulation in Brazil, we notice that apart from low circulation (which is blamed upon high production and distribution costs), the overall readership has been low. Some of the country facts are presented in Exhibit I. Brazilian press has been active in bringing about political and economic revolution in 1990’s. Problems like political corruption, environmental dilapidation and homelessness were the major considerations about the country. There was estimation that around 465 newspapers constitute the daily circulation Cycle of newspapers in Brazil. This number is actually higher than that of Germany, Mexico or Russia. Exhibit II explains some of the leading newspapers in the country and their orientation. Currently there is not Brazilian National Newspaper; the prime circulation dailies draw readers that broaden even afar their local, geographically spread markets. The country in consideration has no large chains of newspapers but almost all those operating in the country are old family-owned small or large by businesses. These family-owned businesses have huge shares in their state markets. Some of them govern a range of their own news agencies, TV channels, Radio Stations, publishing agencies and the like. The history puts us into unyielding doubts whenever freedom of press in Brazil is under consideration. Till 1808, Portuguese colonizers restricted the operations of printing presses. Resultantly a sound newspaper culture could not be conventionalized until the mid to late 1800s. By late 1970’s the Brazilian Press had made its marks specifically in the populated urban coastal areas. Portuguese colonization holds a very unique significance which actually determined the future of Brazilian Press system. In the beginning education was strongly dejected by the Portuguese monarchs. University Education, publishing books and newspapers were banned until the Royal family came into the play. By the end of World War II, it was going through an era which signified strong practical democracy and stable economic growth. By the constitution of 1964, the country now has education and literacy support and freedom of the press as well. Now according to a survey, newspaper readership was high and newspapers are now ranked at the top in terms of public reliability, to the lead of government, and other institutions. History of the Press There are studies that indicate Brazil did not know anything about the press until the early nineteenth century. There were many reasons given by the historians for this delay which include basic differences between Spanish, Portuguese and English colonization schemes. Till the late 1700s, any written Portuguese material had to be reviewed by the censor boards. This was necessary because Portuguese saw the printed stuff with real disgust and did not see Brazil as a major threat. Due to these reasons, printing was restricted activity in Portuguese and mostly the printed stuff was religious in nature, so it needed good care. Books were illegally brought to Brazil during the colonial times and this was done by those who were military or intellectual figures who used to visit or study in Europe. A number of books, from them were also used in opposition to the Brazilian men who were fighting for Brazil’s independence against Portugal. French and American constitutions were the only writings that were prohibited. The first legal printing press “Rio de Janerio” that entered Brazil was in 1808. It came with the Portuguese family. The first ever Brazilian newspaper was printed by the same press on September 10th, 1808 and the paper’s name was “the Gazeta do Rio de Janerio”. It published news from Europe and official governments and became a mouth piece for the royal family. It was issued weekly but afterwards became a daily newspaper. Of many of the newspapers, the first influential Brazilian newspaper was not printed in Rio, but in London. Its name was Corrieo Brasiliense. The founder of this newspaper gave his justification of printing this paper abroad because of the strictness of Portuguese and the influence f royal family on the press. June 1st, 1808 was the date when Carrieo was first published, three months before the Gazeta but historians consider the latter as the first local newspaper as the previous was published abroad. Both of them were not informative; Gazeta was influenced by the royal family and Carrieo talked about different themes likes abolition and political instability. Brazil and Portugal people read the Carrieo more than Gazeta because it was considered more dominant by the politicians and the authorities in Brazil. Many newspapers that were printed in Brazil at that time afterwards claimed themselves to be neutral and impartial but they were inclined towards the national and ruling class. The hindrance in trade with other countries was stated to be because of the Portuguese authorities and officials which was the main obstacle in Brazil’s progress. The king wanted the country to trade with the major traders (cities) but this disagreement ended when Brazil got independence. A country has many newspapers being printed at a certain point in time and the same was happening in Brazil. The Brazilian newspapers were performing their jobs in the form of rebellion against the Portuguese authorities and uniting the locals. This was seen more vividly during 1821 and 1822. Even after the independence, the newspapers were seen promoting revolutionary and resisting ideas. After the independence, the newspapers kept on increasing in numbers in their spread. Each of the newspaper was heading towards the same mission; they were uniting the people by instilling the nation with patriotic notions. The Brazilian press experienced a boom during 1st and 2nd empires which were in the years 1822 till 1889. This phase is marked with the development of a sturdy partisan press. A tradition of lively and engaged press was born after the after the abolition of the censorship of the press by the imperial decree in 1827. The Brazilian newspapers of that time were informative and were inclined to military awareness as well. The criticism of the authorities was seen openly in the newspapers after the censorship board was not restricting them on common basis. The mounting political strength in the country also gave strength to Brazilian press and amplified trust among the people of the country. People were starting to subscribe for dailies. French and English dailies were also circulated in Rio de Janerio. This upcoming trend was due to the reason that the people of Brazil should not be left unaware of the international community. They influenced local politics. The migrants from France played an important role not only in developing the press but also in printing and typography. During 1830s and 1840s, political revolution took place and because of that many newspapers started distributing pamphlets relating to partisan activities and political unrest. Many newspapers were circulated without any specific circulation time period. Pasquins were becoming famous at that time which reflected the political disputes; historians also attributed to the popularity of these pasquins at that time. These were thought to better inform the people and helped in increasing literacy rates. That was exceedingly required because Brazilians were in dire need of being informed at the time of intense political battles. By the end of slavery and monarchy, these two national issues which were being discussed more than before during 1850s and onwards. Political cartoons and satires became common at that very time. Also during this time period, arts, literature and sports emerged as new interests among people and the newspapers columns. Following the English trends, some novels of famous writers were also included. Excerpts of the intellects were also part of the newspapers writings. The reason for this accounted is that writers of that time started to write for newspapers as this was the new growing trend in Brazil. The influential Journal do Brazil was printed in 1891. Many journalists were offered posts in the first republican government. The evolution kept on taking place in Brazilian press, and during the end of eighteenth century and beginning of nineteenth century, the same press targeted its efforts towards modernizing the newspapers. Management and ownership models were added as most of the columns were written by many intellectual people. Small and medium enterprises were also becoming common interest of these writings. The press had its own printing press. The beginning of nineteenth century also saw the consolidation and professionalization of many small newspapers. The once-upon-a-time famous pasquins had to give way to this pressure. As Brazilian press moved from agricultural to urban press, it sold the old press to small and rural newspapers. By the time the world war ended there was at least one daily news paper for every single city in Brazil. It was common for such cities to have competing newspapers. There was still an affiliation seen in these newspapers with the political families and with that, need of professionalism also increased. In 1970s, more journalism and mass communication stuff was printed. With the emergence of IT and computers, newspapers also started printing the related material. Economic instability pushed many newspapers to shut down. But as consolidation was the new groove, some markets consolidated to make new newspapers and every major city had more than one dailies. Economic Structure: The export of primary goods and production were the two main factors on which the Brazilian economy relied heavily until 1930s. The primary goods included timber, spices, gold and precious gems, and coffee. A lot of influence was taken from the enforcement of Portugal policies that had restrained the country to only raw material exports. Commercial trade was the only most common source of business activity in those days. The country became industrialized heavily in 1930s and it continued through 1940s and 1950s. A strong working class emerged from the middle class of the society when the government implemented industrial self-sufficiency policy. This increased living standards and improved educational levels and literacy. On the whole, it diversified the economy overall. Media gained power during this era too. Media analysts say that Brazil media went strong not because of newspapers but radio and television. The media related to radio and television benefited from the same sources as newspapers were but the value added benefits of the economy mattered a lot. Brazils. Telecommunication infrastructure was expanded as a result of these policies. The newspaper circulation was increased even in the times of depression in Brazil. According to the analysts that happened because the Brazilian press was really efficient in depicting the conditions of that time clearly in the minds of people and uniting them against all the problems. One more interesting thing about the Brazilian press is that it is protected from foreign ownership. The law ensured the control only local companies over press. However, in April 2002, legislation proposed to give a foreign exposure to the local media market through Brazilian Congress. The bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies. Before all this could be finalized, many of the companies like Warner Bros were already attempting to win Brazilian media market. The largest Latin America market is represented by Brazil. In 1995, the advertising expenditures in Brazil amounted to US $ 6.5 billion, compared to the send and third largest markets. In Brazil, newspaper advertising expenditures were (US $1.8 billion). Culture Brazilian culture is really rich because there has been a huge scale awareness of fashion in the country. The influence has been taken from American and Portuguese cultures because these were the ones who ruled the country for a very long period of time. Brazil has a multi-culture and multi-ethnic society. The melting pot of Brazilian culture is Southeast and the Centre West regions. Ethnic groups include Germans and Italians. Brazilian culture is rich because the literacy rate is very high and the people are tremendously aware of fashion. Everywhere in the country we can see truly affluent class because of their fashion sense. Even in their arts and music, this fashion sense is reflected. Brazil has transformed in the context of diversity and that also changed the literacy rates due to the fact that newspapers were circulated in the country on a wide basis. Not only the newspapers but radio and television were also becoming strong media influencers for the last forty to fifty years. Literature, cinema and sports also first took their launches through Brazilian newspapers. When we see the history of evolution of Brazilian newspapers, we can clearly observe that many arts and entertainment sections were included from time to time that kept the people interested in these areas. As the interest of the nations kept on developing, that brought a change in their thoughts and likings, and that gave rise new Brazil which is more future oriented and no more a slave of anybody with its revitalizing ideas about the fashion industry and worldwide known for it. Summary Brazilian newspapers have developed through the years of 1980 and 1990. This is because literacy rate are very high and people are more aware of the changing trends nowadays. Investing in the Brazilian newspaper press would be profitable because the culture that Brazil inherits is quite rich. Circulation and readership is high and people are more eager to gain new knowledge day by day. There are new hopes and expectations with Brazilian newspapers in the twenty first century. A stable environment is seen in the political and economic situation of Brazil and newspapers in Brazil seem to be taking lead of the political and institutional strength in the country. As the technology is gaining popularity in Brazil and the newspapers are being printed through electronic printing presses, the technology driven media presses are earning huge revenues all over the country. This analysis states that Brazil has wide circulation in the whole of its country. References Business News Americas (2001). Internet Penetration Estimates Vary Widely. Retrieved 25 November 2009, from http://member.bnamericas.com/news/telecommunications/Internet_Penetration_Estimates_Vary_Widely Business News Americas (2001).Ibope: 20% of Metropolitan Residents Have Internet Access. Retrieved 25 November 2009, from http://www.bnamericas.com/news/technology/Ibope:_20*_of_Metropolitan_Residents_Have_Internet_Access Hudson, R. A. (1998). Brazil: A country study. 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Roett, R. (1999). Brazil: Politics in a Patrimonial Society. Westport, CT: Praeger. Tunstall, J. (1977). The Media Are American. New York: Columbia University Press. Wentzel, L. (1998).Rede Globo Dominates Brazil's TV Prime Time, Ad Revenues. Advertising Age. 69(39): Appendix Exhibit I: Country Facts Literacy Rate Male: 88.4% Female: 88.8% Age Structure 0-14 (26.7%) 15-64 (66.8%) 65 Years and Over (6.4%) Median Age 28.6 Years Languages Official: Portuguese Less Common languages: Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, English and a large number of Minor Amerindian Languages Government Type Federal Republic Unemployment Rate 7.90% GPD (Real, Growth Rate) 5.10% Commercial Bank Prime Lending Rate 43.72% Exhibit II ORIENTATION CIRCULATION Rio De Janeiro Globo Conservative 350,000 Jornal o Dia Labor 250,000 Jornal do Brasil Conservative 107,000 Sao Paulo Folha de São Paulo Independent 640,407 Estado de São Paulo Conservative 491,070 Noticias Populaires NA 150,000 Jornal da Tarde Independent 120,000 Popular da Tarde NA 110,000 Diario Popular NA 90,000 Folha da Tarde Conservative 90,000 Belem Jornal o Liberal Liberal 110,000 Belo Horizonte Estado de Minas Independent 65,000 Cuiaba Diario Oficial do Estado de Mato Grosso NA 120,000 Porto Alegre Zero Hora NA 528,000 Ponta Grossa Diario dos Campos NA 725,000 Recife Diário de Pernambuco Independent 31,000 Brasília Correio Brasiliense NA 30,000 Jornal de Brasília NA 25,000 Exhibit III 1992 Newspapers play a very important role in exposing corruption and irregularities that lead to the impeachment of President Fernando Collor. July 1997 Brazil enacts its new Telecommunications Code, which creates a new federal agency responsible for granting telecommunications licenses. August 2001 An estimated 20 percent of Brazilians living in urban areas have access to news and information on the Internet. April 2002 A bill proposing to open Brazilian mass media to foreign ownership is approved by the Chamber of Deputies and expected to be ratified by the Senate and the President. Read More