The Two Media Framed the News on Brazil - Research Paper Example

The paper sought to determine the overall US media tone towards Brazil. The results indicated that media salience factors identified did not pay a major role in setting the media agenda. No significant differences were found in terms of how the two media framed the news on Brazil and in terms of the two periods – 2002 and 2010. The overall tone of the news was found to be neutral, bordering mainly on the positive side.This study analyzes ‘the portrayal of Brazil in the U.S. news media’.

This section of the research study will focus on the leading print news media in the United States - The New York Times and Washington Post. This is a valuable topic as it attracts foreign affairs, policies, and global issues between the United States and Brazil in the international platform. This is the main reason for choosing this subject matter as a research topic.Brazil has seen two consecutive two-term Presidents: Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995 to 2002) and his successor Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (2003 to 2010).

These two administrations were paramount in strengthening the Brazilian economy and in bringing about consolidation of a strong democracy. They impacted the way this “BRIC country” (grouping acronym that refers to the related economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, coined by Goldman Sachs in 2003) is perceived everywhere in the world, and especially in the U.S.Little is known about how the US news media portrays Brazil’s image (Sotero, 2007, p. 1). There is a lack of research and analysis on how both countries perceive and portray each other.

For instance, as stated by Sotero (2007) in one of his studies, “historically, the United States has been disproportionately more relevant for Brazil than Brazil has been for the United States”. This asymmetry of interests, true for most countries in the world vis-à-vis the United States, lead one to conclude that U.S. scholars and intellectuals have not followed Brazil’s growth over the last two decades.