Papers by Antonio C La Pastina
Comunicação & Sociedade, Sep 1, 2017
Page 284. 14 Social Merchandizing in Brazilian Telenovelas Antonio C. La Pastina Texas A&... more Page 284. 14 Social Merchandizing in Brazilian Telenovelas Antonio C. La Pastina Texas A&M University Dhaval S. Patel UNICEF, New York Marcio Schiavo Communicarte and Gama Filho University When God created the ...
World Entertainment Media, 2019
This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the ‘Jesus phone’ in order to demonstrate how... more This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the ‘Jesus phone’ in order to demonstrate how religious metaphors and myth can be appropriated into popular discourse and shape the reception of a technology. We consider the intertextual nature of the relationship between religious language, imagery and technology and demonstrate how this creates a unique interaction between technology fans and bloggers, news media and even corporate advertising. Our analysis of the ‘Jesus phone’ clarifies how different groups may appropriate the language and imagery of another to communicate very different meanings and intentions. Intertextuality serves as a framework to unpack the deployment of religion to frame technology and meanings communicated. We also reflect on how religious language may communicate both positive and negative aspects of a technology and instigate an unintentional trajectory in popular discourse as it is employed by different audiences, both online and offline.
Apresentamos uma revisao de vinte e seis estudos sobre audiencias de telenovelas realizados no Br... more Apresentamos uma revisao de vinte e seis estudos sobre audiencias de telenovelas realizados no Brasil e nos paises de lingua espanhola da America Latina e propomos uma critica as metodologias empregadas. Um sumario final com os resultados mostra que comecamos a ter uma nocao dos contornos da audiencia de telenovelas, mas muito ainda precisa ser feito.
Revista FAMECOS, 2017
Neste artigo, apresentamos uma análise da mídia étnica enfocada aos mais de dois milhões de imigr... more Neste artigo, apresentamos uma análise da mídia étnica enfocada aos mais de dois milhões de imigrantes de países de língua portuguesa (principalmente Portugal, Brasil, Cabo Verde e Açores) vivendo nos Estados Unidos. Esses grupos formam parte do que chamamos da diáspora lusofônica. O objetivo é compreender como a mídia focada nessa diáspora negocia a diversidade de origens e padrões de assimilação. Observamos uma distinção geográfica que cria duas áreas de acesso à mídia em português. A primeira atende o nordeste dos Estados Unidos, com uma população de vários países de língua portuguesa e uma segunda área, localizada na Flórida, atende principalmente a migração mais recente de brasileiros. Novas tecnologias de media, principalmente a Internet, tem um papel importante nas duas regiões. Rádios e jornais continuam exercendo funções como a disseminação de informação e auxiliando no processo de integração e assimilação de imigrantes, funções importantes da mídia étnica.
The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy, 2016
http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/stichwort/100117
International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2002
This article explores the representation of sexual others in prime-time Brazilian telenovelas. It... more This article explores the representation of sexual others in prime-time Brazilian telenovelas. It investigates how gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) individuals have been portrayed in those media texts. It presents an account of the few images of gay males on telenovelas, with the even fewer ones of lesbian, bisexual and transgendered characters, and attempts to discuss these images in a particular historical moment in Brazil. It also looks at the impact that official censorship, audience ratings, pressure from conservative groups, such as the Catholic Church, and advertisers have on the fate and range of those images. This article ends with two case studies of recent telenovelas that included the most progressive representations in the history of the genre in Brazil.
Ação Midiática – Estudos em Comunicação, Sociedade e Cultura., 2014
This paper examines how the HBO series Sex and the City (SATC) portrayed "Brazilianess" during it... more This paper examines how the HBO series Sex and the City (SATC) portrayed "Brazilianess" during its six-season run. Although the program was recognized for its positive portrayal of female friendship and was usually praised for its association with female empowerment through story line, sexually explicit dialogue, and their successful careers we demonstrate how when it comes to Brazilianess and Brazilians, the program relied on stereotypical non-empowering and somewhat unrealistic portrayals. As Brazilian scholars and feminists we hope to question and explore the ways that Brazilianess, is portrayed in United States media more broadly and television specifi cally. We are focusing on Brazilianess in an attempt to move away from character specifi c analysis to question how Brazil as a nation and a culture, but also as a space where practices are performed, is produced in U.S. television shows such as SATC. Although research on the representation of Brazilians on Brazilian media is ample the same is not true when it comes to U.S. media. This essay seeks to begin to fi ll this gap.
The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, 2012
Telenovelas in Brazil are, undisputedly, still the most popular form of entertainment. Even after... more Telenovelas in Brazil are, undisputedly, still the most popular form of entertainment. Even after almost 50 years of daily broadcasting and radical changes in media technologies that challenged the dominant media producers, a Globo network telenovela can still gather over 30% of the audience on a daily basis. Why have telenovelas managed to capture and hold the imagination of so many viewers in that country? On the basis of a range of qualitative reception and ethnographic studies that began to be produced both in Brazil and abroad in the early 1980s, and on the basis of my own ethnographic work, it seems that Brazilians have relied on telenovelas to maintain a sense of connection to the nation, to grasp and understand new urban middle-class trends, and to question normative ideas and structures in their day-to-day lives. On a less optimistic note, this chapter also argues that telenovelas, unintentionally, have reinforced a rural–urban divide in Brazil. Keywords: rural audiences; Brazil; telenovelas; product placement; women's genre; intertextuality; cultural proximity
Media Anthropology
In this paper I argue that audience ethnography needs to be repositioned as a fieldwork-based, lo... more In this paper I argue that audience ethnography needs to be repositioned as a fieldwork-based, long-term practice of data collection and analysis. This practice allows researchers to attain a greater level of understanding of the community studied while maintaining self-reflexivity and respect towards those one is attempting to understand within the everyday life of the community. Relying on my work in rural communities in Brazil over the last decade I discuss some of the ways in which ethnography, as a longterm, in-depth practice, can benefit our understanding of the reception dynamic as well as provide insights otherwise impossible to attain. I will propose a model for audience ethnography, which I term media engagement, to discuss how the process of ethnography functions to apprehend the complex dynamic that evolves between consumers and cultural products.
Matrizes, 2014
pensei que fosse trabalhar com novela, mas aquele livro me marcou muito, por uma razão ou outra, ... more pensei que fosse trabalhar com novela, mas aquele livro me marcou muito, por uma razão ou outra, e acabou tendo um impacto importante na minha carreira no futuro. Estudei com pessoas muito interessantes naquele período, mas o plano era de trabalhar como jornalista. Por questões da vida, me mudei para os Estados Unidos, depois de terminar a faculdade. Trabalhei na Folha de S.Paulo por um período curto. Acabei indo estudar na Universidade de Illinois, na época, um programa de Comunicação recente, de mestrado. Estava morando em Chicago, e trabalhei com um professor que era venezuelano, que estudava temas principalmente de mídia e representação política no México. Ele estava muito interessado em questões de raça, minorias, a comunidade hispânica nos Estados Unidos. Honestamente, naquele ponto, não sabia o que queria fazer, era jovem, estava achando meu caminho, mudando do Jornalismo para o começo de uma carreira acadêmica. Trabalhando com ele, realizando leituras, resolvi que o que realmente me interessavam eram as questões de audiência, saber por que as pessoas consomem o que elas consomem e o que acontece com as pessoas quando elas consomem. Isso ocorria no começo dos anos 1990, as questões de raça, racismo, questões de minorias, eram muito fortes nos Estados Unidos, ainda são, nunca deixaram de ser. Eu, na condição de estrangeiro, de um imigrante, trabalhando também como garçom em um restaurante, tinha também esta preocupação. Então, meu primeiro estudo, minha dissertação de mestrado, era olhando como os latinos-entrevistei mexicanos e porto-riquenhos-entendiam a questão de racismo num programa de televisão, True Colors, em que o casal principal era formado por um homem negro e uma mulher branca, e que falava em racismo contrário. Era uma entrevista mais ou menos longa, em que eu mostrava o programa, um sitcom de 23 minutos. Estava interessado em saber como os latinos viam a questão do racismo entre brancos e negros, porque os Estados Unidos têm sempre essa dicotomia, você é branco ou você é negro, e os latinos são uma coisa meio à parte, assim como os asiáticos. A questão de racismo é sempre vista entre preto e branco. Nesse estudo, as questões com que eu estava preocupado eram sementes daquilo com que eu iria me inquietar para o resto da minha carreira, até hoje. Primeiro, questões de representações de minorias, questões de identidades minoritárias, de grupos que estão na periferia, que estão fora do centro de produção, que estão fora da representação e do consumo. E, segundo, como as pessoas se relacionam com os programas que elas consomem. Naquele 1. LEAL, Ondina Fachel. A leitura social da novela das oito.
Gazette (Leiden, Netherlands), 2005
How can a Mexican telenovela be more attractive to viewers in Brazil than a nationally produced t... more How can a Mexican telenovela be more attractive to viewers in Brazil than a nationally produced telenovela? This seems to be the question posed by the increasing transnational flow of cultural products. Most of the data indicate that viewers prefer locally produced programs. Nevertheless, some of the transnational success of Latin American telenovelas abroad seems to question this truism. This article argues that audience preferences are formed within the overall trend toward cultural proximity within both national and cultural-linguistic boundaries. However, within this logic of cultural proximity, other forces also apply. It is important to understand cultural proximity working not only at the national and supranational levels but also at the subnational and regional spheres. With this in mind, the authors first examine the attraction or proximity of genres, from the virtually global attraction of melodrama, as a macro genre, to subgenres within the telenovela. Second, they discus...
Qualitative Inquiry, 2006
This article discusses the implications of an ethnographer’s sexuality with regard to his fieldwo... more This article discusses the implications of an ethnographer’s sexuality with regard to his fieldwork. Adopting a self-reflexive stance, the author discusses how his queer identity and the fear of repercussions against his intellectual and physical body affected his fieldwork. As a native Brazilian, he was still an outsider in the rural community in which he did his fieldwork. But more than his outsider status, his memories of growing up in the closet in Brazil informed some of his research choices and shaped his reactions to the experience of returning to the closet to conduct research in a community where machista attitudes, notions of queerness, and his own internalized homophobia positioned his queer self as an outsider.
Popular Communication, 2014
ABSTRACT Telenovelas have been considered the predominant popular genre on television, the most w... more ABSTRACT Telenovelas have been considered the predominant popular genre on television, the most widely available and popular national medium, in Brazil, for more than 30 years (Straubhaar, 1982). However, we argue in this article that although telenovelas do indeed have this remarkable penetration and popularity in Brazil, their reception is mediated by audience class, geographical location, race, and issues with media content. Many in the audience feel disenfranchised from the dominant telenovela representations, particularly on the primary network, TV Globo, because of their rural, Northeastern status and identity, or their Afro-Brazilian identity. They question their sense of belonging, not because they do not feel Brazilian, but because the “Brazil” they see on TV does not include them.
New Media & Society, 2010
This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the ‘Jesus phone’ in order to demonstrate how... more This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the ‘Jesus phone’ in order to demonstrate how religious metaphors and myth can be appropriated into popular discourse and shape the reception of a technology. We consider the intertextual nature of the relationship between religious language, imagery and technology and demonstrate how this creates a unique interaction between technology fans and bloggers, news media and even corporate advertising. Our analysis of the ‘Jesus phone’ clarifies how different groups may appropriate the language and imagery of another to communicate very different meanings and intentions. Intertextuality serves as a framework to unpack the deployment of religion to frame technology and meanings communicated. We also reflect on how religious language may communicate both positive and negative aspects of a technology and instigate an unintentional trajectory in popular discourse as it is employed by different audiences, both online and offline.
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 2001
... I don't really like it (January 18, 1997). For Everton, these products muddied ... more ... I don't really like it (January 18, 1997). For Everton, these products muddied the scene, diverting his attention from the narratives. ... She was "chic," as Marta said. "Her clothes were so beautiful and elegant, not like Luana who always dressed with rags, even after she got rich ...
Uploads
Papers by Antonio C La Pastina