From the media of the periphery to peripheral media: The changing priorities of Brazil’s alternative ecology

ABSTRACT

This article proposes a new appraisal of Brazil’s alternative media. By investing in the concept of the periphery, this study draws on past literature, semistructured interviews, and data collected from across the country (n = 50) to propose a repertoire analysis of media producers’ views of the country’s popular notion of the periphery. Evidence shows that they have shown nuanced views of the periphery as a site of purpose, pluralism, and authorship. Despite crisis and turmoil, this study presents some paths that could help reorientate the priorities of alternative media research toward a closer consideration of the periphery as entity that appears much more in line with local realities and expectations than previous international debates.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative media
• Brazil
• digital media
• inequality
• media democracy
• periphery

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ I have initially selected 50 producers from different parts of Brazil (10 per administrative region), sourced from the list of applicants to the Pontos de Mídia Livre scheme, a public program that offered financial support to media producers. After first selection, or the “selected interviewees,” I have refined the selection to include profiles that were already present in past studies, such as activists, academics, and nonprofessional media producers (Festa & Silva, 1986; Woitowicz, 2009), as well as other profiles, such as ex-mainstream media journalists, publicists, and young people, who appear less frequently in past research. My sample finally contemplated producers who could be representative of different platforms (Internet, radio, and print). The ethical committee of the author’s university has approved the interview script with no restrictions.

² On the interpretation, I allowed the producer’s vocabulary to shape the presentation of the results in the extent to which it follows or differs from other studies on the alternative media (Castells, 1997; Rodriguez, 2001; Woitowicz, 2009).

³ The research took place from April to December 2016, a period that saw the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and consequent political uncertainties.