brazilness symbols

8/6/2019 Brazilness Symbols

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/brazilness-symbols 1/16

Leonardo Boccia

has his doctorate in scenic arts. Dr. Boccia is an instrumentalist, composer and a researchprofessor in the Graduate Program of Scenic Arts. He teaches in the Institute of Humanities,Arts and Science and coordinates the Multidisciplinary Graduate Program in Culture andSociety at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. His research interests includecontemporary sound and screen media; key-measures-visuals; sonorous media manipulations;culture-specific, transnational and global mass-screen media strategies; national images andidentity; and Brazilian cultures.

BRAZILNESS SYMBOLSProjecting a new national brand by key-measures-visuals of Brazil

Abstract

The national image of Brazil is constituted by symbols and peculiarities, making it easily

recognizable in the international community. For decades, Latin American’s largest countryhas been known for its exuberant culture, Atlantic coasts, Amazon rain forests, carnival,music, football, coffee, tropical fruits and cacao. However, in an era of globalization whenexchange agreements with other nations are necessary to guarantee reciprocally assuredadvantages of economic growth, a more favourable national image is needed. The globalmedia corporations impose their own economic and cultural supremacy. The mediacompanies produce content that serves the ethnocentric self-image the industrialized corenations and their elites. Periodically, they disseminate negative news about emergingcountries (like Brazil) that amounts to defamatory campaigns. The results of such campaignsare devastating. Minimally, they produce a generalized distrust toward Brazil. The newsproduced by the elite media companies portrays negative stereotypes that mix together crime,

violence, drug trafficking, corruption, street-level insecurity, impunity and disrespect tohuman rights. In spite of its own strong media, Brazil still depends on a few trans-nationalagencies for its new. Within Latin America, such international news contributes to mostlynegative portrayals, especially of Brazil. U.S. news management raises nearly insuperableobstacles to projecting a more consistently favourable image of Brazil. In this article, I focuson Brazilian symbols and key-measures-visuals as a way to reflect upon the struggles andchallenges to earning and preserving a convincing and renewed Brazilian brand image.

Keywords: Brazil, national image, media dependence, audiovisual cultures, key-measures-visuals, national symbols.



2

1. Brazil, “a giant due its own nature”

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world after Russia, Canada, the United States

of America and China. “A giant due to its own nature” is a lyric in the Brazilian national

anthem. Brazil is divided 26 states and one federal district. Not surprisingly given the size of

its territory, the country has enormous regional and cultural diversity as well as significant

climatic differences. Among the extreme aspects of Brazil is its deep poverty and chronic

social inequality. Another exuberant extreme is its ability to stage cultural spectacles.

The birth of Brazilian nation, so like the most nations in the world, was extreme

painful. According to Darcy Ribeiro, anthropologist and Brazilian’s politician (2003: 447),

“[Brazil] never has had a concept of the Brazilian people, encompassing all workers and

conceding rights to them. The primacy of profit in Brazil has generated an unjust economic

system in which great [international] businesses prosper and generalized local poverty

persists. The two have always coexisted, especially in North and Northeast regions.”

In the imperial period (1822 - 1888), artists and writers produced works inspired on

nationalism, influenced mainly by the idea that the Brazilian government would be the

fundamental agent in the formation of national identity. However, immigration has radically

complicated such simplistic race concepts. Between 1872 and 1949, more then four and half

millions immigrants came to Brazil, pouring into the ports of Santos in the State of São Paulo

and into Rio de Janeiro. They brought in their baggage different native cultures and the need

to create new identities. Despite a mask of multiracial tolerance, according to Jeffrey Lesser,

an historian at Connecticut College, U.S.A. (2001: 21), “‘Whiteness’ remained one important

component for inclusion in the Brazilian ‘race,’ but what it meant to be ‘white’ shifted

markedly between 1850 and 1950.”

Reflecting a Euro-centric preference for culture and costumes, Brazilian political and

cultural elites were looking for “pure” Europeans to reproduce the ideals of the old world in

the new one. During the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th

century, white supreme ideology was translated in huge public investments to bring white

colonists to Brazil to reproduce and “improve the race” (Ribeiro, 2003: 404). At the beginning

of the 20th century, Brazilian elites and political leaders pursued a “strategy” of allowing large

new immigration flows into the country. Motivated by discriminatory beliefs, they don’t

permit Africans and Chinese to come to Brazil. They wanted handcraft workers to immigrate

but put restrictions on even Portuguese immigration. Despite the restrictions, large immigrant

communities were established in Brazil between 1900 and 1939.



3

By the proclamation of the Republic on Nov. 15, 1889, to control of national

immigration, the Brazilian government prohibited the entry of Africans and Asians.

According to Lesser (2001: 45), “In the 1850s and 1860s, there were fewer than one thousand

Chinese in Brazil, yet even this small number caused an outcry.” Nowadays, more than 200

thousand Chinese immigrants live and work in Brazil. According to its embassy1, the People

Republic of China established diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Brazil on

Aug. 15, 1974. Since then, senior political leaders from both countries have realized

reciprocal visits.

This full retrospective of Brazilian nation identity would include evidence of different

immigration flows and their effects in molding a new national identity. However, in modern

Brazil, achieving concordance among the multiplicity of groups, mentalities or ethnicities is

difficult. Social inequality, racism and regional diversity constitute high political and cultural

borders. Since the beginning of Portuguese colonization, Brazilian identity has been officially

based on the Brazilian people who represent the collision of tree races: black Africans, white

Europeans and he indigenous natives. The country experienced a number of waves of

immigration as well as a variety of governmental plans and strategies. The government was

not able to create or preserve an identity with a Europeanized culture and costumes.

2. Hyphenated identity

Although sometimes overt, racial prejudice and discrimination are usually veiled by a

mask of racial tolerance. This element is essential to understand the formation of Brazilian’s

nation identity. The old ideal of “racial democracy” was to provide opportunities and a social

ambient to cultural minorities that differed from that existed in the United States and Europe.

The ideal never erased actual racial prejudice in Brazil. “It was in the 1950s, just as

hyphenated Brazilians established in the middle and upper classes, that new immigrants from

the Middle East and Asia began to enter in significant numbers,” according to Lesser (2001:

168):

Brazilian national image was often represented as fantastic for the immigration. Its

qualities and symbols have inspired artists and writers since colonial era, most of them foreign

visitors. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Japanese travelers and diplomats wrote books

and poems based on Brazil. Emigration companies often paid for media coverage of their

colonies. In 1932, “The bureaucrat-targeted journal Shimin (The People) noted that ‘Brazil

1 See http://www.embchina.org.br/por/zbgx/t150686.htm accessed on 07/07/2008.



4

was still safer and more congenial for Japanese settlers’ than Manchuria”2. However, there

was no unanimity among all immigrant groups. For example, after the 1890s, Italian

anarchists began arriving in Brazil ready to fight for labor rights. They advocated labor union

organization and struggled to improve the living conditions to the workers in Brazil. In 1907,

many leftist militants were deported back to Italy. In 1919, the anarchist and proletarian play

writer Gigi Damiani is deported too and in Italy he wrote the book The countries in which you

must not emigrate: the social matter in Brazil. According to Lesser: “Italians, the largest

single national [minority] group, were first hailed for their help in transforming Brazil from

‘black’ to ‘white.’ Yet an inability to move out of impoverishment, and regular immigrant-led

protests against labor and social conditions, convinced many in the [Brazilian] elite that a

mistake had been made”.3

Despite political turbulence, nowadays Italians are considered to have been the most

influential immigrant group to contribute concretely to industrialization, transforming São

Paulo in the wealthiest metropolis of Latin America. São Paulo also hosts largest contingent

of Italian descendents in Brazil. About 25 million of Brazilians of Italian-descent reside

mostly in the nine states in the southeast and south regions of country.

3. key-sound-visual messages

However, because of the dynamics of international relations and the contemporary media

world connections, Brazil national image has been constantly questioned. The speed with

which new technologies can expose national images, publicize and frequently damage it by

powerful mass media delivery systems imposes reflections and actions. National image of

each country is the distinctive brand which favors or prejudices a fair international exchange

with the community of nations. The fragility of civilization is the main challenge for all

nations. Separatist movements, mass immigration flows, race discrimination, civil wars for

ethnic cleansing, social inequality, digital exclusion and, most of all, the socioeconomic crises

recurrent in the contemporary world have proved it. In a transnational and global context to

support the creativity of the younger generation, the structures, infrastructures and

superstructures of society needed to be reevaluated and renewed.

In part, national images are composed by symbols or synthetic key-sound-visual

messages, which communicate without translation all over the world. An intelligent and

efficient symbols system makes it accessible to most people and cultures. Because the

2 ( Ibid. 97)3 ( Ibid. 82)



5

supremacy of world's largest international multimedia corporations, many countries,

especially in Latin America, are still dependent and subjugated to the hegemonic mass

delivery media system. The global media are powerful instruments of ideological persuasion

and the financial news wires even influence give support to monetary speculation:

“Reuters and other financial agencies facilitate global financial transactions, and markets,

and many commodities (from money markets to oil to advertising space).” (Boyd-Barrett,

2000: 300).

In the midst of the existing system that images, symbols or measures-visuals keys,

disseminate a new and more favorable national brand may be quite difficult. It may require

negotiating intensively with companies in the most influential global markets. For example,

the world’s sport-mega-event is the Olympic Games. It may be possible to stage culturally

specific symbols and characteristics of the national image for a global media market. Such a

spectacular sport-mega-event is an opportunity to improve communication among cultures

and nations.

In order to host the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian government

launches a campaign. President Lula has argued that Brazil is ready to host the Olympiads. To

reinforce the global idol and symbol of Brazil football, Pelé was appointed as the ambassador

of “Rio2016”. Can this enthusiastic effort be frustrated?

To change the international negative opinions about Brazil, new political, economics,

cultural and media investments are needed. To grasp the attention and achieve confidence in

the international community, more social improvements and new Brazilian’s measures-visuals

keys need to be delivered to the worldwide audience. Recent political trends in Brazil have

given the country a new opportunity to change social inequality. President Lula and the

Workers’ Party create affirmative action programs and relieve packages for poor people. In

the past six years, the middle class in Brazil has grown. However, it takes a long time to

achieve social modernization and cultural improvements. Increased international cooperation

between China, India, Russia, Brazil and the South America countries may provide many

opportunities. A comparison of Brazil to the rest of these countries also reveals the huge

social difficulties that have surrounded Brazil since its origins. Globalization and the mass

media delivery system offer other opportunities to promote more intense cultural changes.

Greater involvement of the people and the collective desire to improve the national image are

actually the main challenges for those citizens who have hyphenated identities in large

heterogeneous cultures.



6

In Brazil, the struggles over national identity continue. Brazilians need to expand their

view beyond the limits of social and ethnicity conflicts. The need to see and hear the new

world and be more unified in their will participate in the intense challenges of a globalized

society. New political models have appeared in Brazil and may earn it a more favorable

national image, but to deliver and preserve that image will probably be the most expansive

and difficult thing.

4. Global and national image’s construct

“National reputation truly cannot be constructed; it can only be earned,” wrote Simon

Anholt,4 an independent member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Public Diplomacy

Board of United Kingdom. However, international esteem needs also to be renewed and

preserved. The commercial mass media companies select and distribute key-measures-visuals,

which essentially details what the rest of the world sees and hers. Much just omitted. The

construction of a national identity is the result of transnational news agencies with their junior

national or regional partner. The audiovisual supremacy through film, video clips, Internet

and mobile multimedia devises can seduce the global audience. Many people associate sound-

images and dreams of freedom with those countries that portray an alluring array of lifestyles.

Contemporary audiovisual productions announce the homogenization of global culture.

Given the dominant cultural patterns, it’s quite difficult to avoid prejudices and wrong

impressions about Eastern and Southern cultures. Western cultural background for

international relations seems to be basically inspired by three main philosophical views.

Alexander Wendt, one of the most influent constructivists academic in the field of

international relations, pointed out the relations among the three culture genres. (1) One

relationship is when all nations can be considered as enemies (Hobbes). (2) Another kind of

relationship is the substitute war by competition (Locke). (3) The third relationship defends

the alliance between friends (Kant). Using these models to solve its internal problems, the

European Union was itself inspired Kant but in foreign policy is bases on Locke.

According to those criteria, the foreign policy of the United States is inspired by all three

cultures: For allied English-language countries Kantian concepts are applied. In its the

relations with European Union, Locke’s theories are preferred, and for relations with other

countries which qualify as bankrupt and wicked, Hobbes is the model.

4 See http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/publications/publications/pd-publication/national-reputation,accessed 27/07/2008.



7

In contrast, the fundamental principle behind the Chinese cultural world view is

summarized in the concept of “all-under-heaven,” which implies the possibility of

transforming an enemy into a friend (Tingyang, 2008: 54). This concept is little known in the

West. Limits on knowledge and cultural exclusions create the deepest difference between East

and West. Many interpretations on other nations fail and seem to be strictly related to culture-

specific views and decisions.

Different culture genres cause conflicts, and a global culture is probably far to being a

reality and is probably not a priority for transnational media corporations. Even worldwide

digital telecommunication networks have not been able to disseminate and achieve a global

culture. News agencies can disseminate collective measures-visuals and capture huge

audiences. Their strategy has been to operate on multiple media platforms and to take major

shares in more than one media industry. For instance:, “They contribute to the

homogenization of global culture in their distribution of certain influential kinds of political,

economic, and sport discourse, while greatly multiplying (through their ‘wholesale’ service

for ‘retail’ clients) the quantity of such text that is available within these commodified

discourse” (Boyd-Barrett, 2000: 301).

Considering key-measures-visuals as a game scope – a practice to melt news,

entertainment and advertisement – several media productions can result as the workshop for

arrangements of art fragments, not as an aesthetical compromise in the sense of ‘art units’ or

art Gestalt , but as cultural trend that involves national and global points of audition/views.

Beyond the traditional concepts of art, the attitude to transform art fragments in technological

sound-visual games, serve to transmit, in short terms, and for an “untutored audience”, great

part of world events as spectacle, fictionalized the real reality. National identity depends on

identifying with those symbols, sound-visual games and cultures. The ability of a people to

re-create world media symbols is also a guaranty of cultural diversity. The mainstream media

have a tendency to homogenize cultures, whereas national iconography tends to fix symbolic

boundaries and identities, thereby ensuring a wide range of cultural choices. Media construct

and deliver the national images of countries. The media can also change reality by enhancing

the visibility and audibility of fictional appearances, by producing illusions of stability and

global power, and even by creating sound-visual games that recreate the antagonism and

competition based on actual human struggles and desires. The national images constructed by

the mass media can be dynamic and fluid while the genuine and original symbols of a country

remain buried deep inside.



8

5. Brazil exotics

When Iberian navigators discovered the Americas, Europeans felt the event was a revelation

of heaven on earth. The new territories were seen as lands where time was of an eternal

spring and a long life of pure innocence. An exuberant imagination feeds mythological desires

of abundance, freedom and adventure. The names of Catholic saints were given to places and

regions that were later infused with the myths and animistic myths from an African pantheon.

From the beginning of the 16th century, Brazil was symbolically created, and those exotic and

exuberant symbols have persisted as symbols of a Brazilian essence.

Image 1 - Americo Vespucci waking America upa Tupinambá indigenous girl lying down on the hammock.

Engraving by Theodor Galle (1589).

On May 29, 2008, the world’s new agencies spread images of an isolated indigenous

group in Amazonian forest of Acre, a northwestern state in Brazil. The images show the

village and a few indigenous men trying to hit the plane with arrows. Compared to other

American countries (such as the United States, Canada, Bolivia or Peru), Brazil has the

smallest indigenous population. However, the indigenous tribes in Brazil represent greater

cultural diversity.



9

Image 2 - Isolated Indigenous Group

The images were released by Survival International – a movement of tribal peoples.5

Like the government agency, known as Brazilian National Indian Foundation (Funai), the

indigenous movement seeks to defend isolated tribal enclaves which have never made a

contact with the modern world. The objective is to mark out the natural range of each tribe

and leave it alone to survive as an independent society.

6. Fear of Brazil?

On Oct. 27, 2002, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil with a

decisive victory. Lula – as he is known everywhere – won 61 per cent of the record total of 83 million votes cast.6 One headline seemed to summarize the significance of the event: “Lula

said it best: ‘Hope won over fear’”. Prior to the 2002 elections, however, campaign against

Lula and his Workers' Party (PT) were frequently launched. In 2003, one of the most beloved

musicians in the country was appointed to be the Minister of Culture. Gilberto Gil is a

symbol of Brazil. His long career and his many popular songs gave him instant recognition

and access all over the world. Gil stepped down as the culture minister in August 2008.

5 See also: http://www.survival-international.org/ accessed on 16/09/2008.6 See also: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/11465 accessed on 06/09/2008.



11

Yet the other side of Brazilian reality also affects its image. Drug use, corruption and

impunity have pushed large segments of the population to live in the margins of the biggest

Brazilian cities. Neighborhood are transformed in a dangerous place, out of control and

marked by cruelty of under-employment, homelessness and poverty. Brazilian cities are

characterized by “favelas,” urban agglomerates in which the Brazilian government has lost

control. The big cities interface with the countryside because there is enormous internal

migration to the state capitals. The crude reality of the Brazilian metropolis is more and more

insecure and out of control. Even the Amazon rain forest with its biodiversity is marked by

violent conflict and is far from being a revelation of heaven on earth.

7. Brazilian symbols

Actually, 227 indigenous groups live in Brazil. They speak more than 180 languages.

Most of the indigenous people live in the states of Amazonia and Para where many of them

have been able to preserve their traditions and costumes. For decades at least, however, the

reality of the indigenous people in Brazil has always been an experience of ethnic disrespect

and genocide. In the early 1980s, a gold rush brought more then 40,000 men in the Amazon

regions. The miners polluted the water with mercury. The consequences were catastrophic,

especially for the Yanomami among whom more than 10,000 died.

At the same time in the same region every year for decades, the city of Parintins has

staged one of the greatest cultural manifestations of Brazilian popular culture: the Parintins

Folklore Festival. Parintins is located on a fluvial isle, not far from Manaus, the capital of

Amazon state. At the end of June for three days, people recreate the Boi Bumbá tale. Two

groups dispute the festival: one the Caprichoso dressed dark blue, the other the Garantido

dressed in red. The event is an outdoor arena musical with colorful allegories and dance

performances. It mixes ritual processions and profane celebrations inspired by the tale of Boi

Bumbá. The Parintins Folklore Festival is an expression of Amazonian myths and legends,

and is considered one of the most important popular festivals and symbols of Brazil. A culture

variation, known as Bumba-meu-boi, is put on by the states of Maranhão and Piauí, both in

the North region of Brazil.

Meanwhile, the Northeast state of Pernambuco is the source of Frevo music and dance,

and the folklore manifestations of Maracatu.

Still in the Northeast, the state of Bahia stages the largest street Carnival in the world

with a million or more people dancing behind the Trio Elétricos, which are three-story 16-



12

wheel lorries with a stage for a band on top and 90 to 100 outdoor loudspeakers on each truck.

Each trio elétrico parades with groups of 800 to 5,000 dancers, all dressed in the same

costumes, all parading and dancing behind it. The Trio Elétrico culture is popular all over

Brazil, not only for Carnival, but for political, religious and entertainment events. Each Trio

has a powerful sound system that amplifies voices and musical instruments to high decibels

limits of around 125dB. Without doubt, an extremely loud symbol of Brazil.

Image 4 - Trio Elétrico at the Farol da Barra in Salvador, Bahia

In Salvador, Bahia, carnival begins on Thursday and finish in the morning of next

Wednesday in the middle of the summer in the southern hemisphere. It’s an organized, non-

stop six-day event. It’s considered “secure” but also loud and intense. Tourists arrive from all

over to enjoy the catharsis of the most popular festival in Brazil. Unlike the Carnival in Rio de

Janeiro, it’s not a staged event for spectators. It’s the street carnival in Salvador where

everyone can participate. The city center prepares for people by blocking off the carnival

parade circuit, more than 19 kilometers around, where they can dance and walk. In 2008, the

state government of Bahia expects to invest more than US$ 35 million. However, private

companies benefit the most from the public investment by selling products and advertising

their logos.

At the end of June in the middle of winter in Brazil, he Northeast states stage one

incredible and huge popular fest. The festivals of São João or St John included millions of

people in the countryside and smaller cities. The dance music is Forró. Bonfires and

fireworks are abundant. Many people take advantage of the school holidays to leave the cities.

Participating in the festival of São João is traditionally a regional, not a national, celebration.



13

Popular music is perhaps the greatest intangible patrimony that Brazil has. Brazilian

songs have reached many countries in the world. The Bossa Nova earned great musical

success. Born in Rio de Janeiro in the 1958s, this music genre was created by Tom Jobim and

Vinicius de Moraes although many talented musicians adopted the style. The Garota de

Ipanema by Tom Jobim was for long time the second most played song in the world. (The

most played at the time was Yesterday by the Beatles.) The enchantments of Rio de Janeiro as

a “marvelous city” were sung and heard everywhere. The paradise myth surrounded Rio as

the most beautiful city in the world, and Bossa Nova became a symbol of Brazil.

Symbols of Brazil are constantly renewed or emerge. However, the haphazard

development would not be enough to create a new brand image for Brazil. Many factors

divide the rich countries from the emergent and poor ones. Exposure within the new world

media order is one factor. Even the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup – the two

most popular mega-sports-events in the world – may not be sufficient to spectacularize every

nation.

President Lula said that the Olympic Games may not be a privilege of the rich countries.

Nevertheless, that seems to be the norm. So, which other channel might be open to deliver the

new brand image of Brazilian? How can the country overcome the imaginary or real walls

that divide nations from each other?

Certainly, the speed with which the world has changed in the past 20 years had fractured

the way countries manage international relations and establish reciprocally advantageous

exchanges. In many instances, media propaganda and persuasive campaigns are successful.

The mass media have became the “real time” delivery systems, and mass communications

includes many monetary transactions. Old agreements don’t allow flexibility and reciprocal

advantages. New partners are distrusted or don’t know how to deal with other cultures.

Persuasion is today a commodity like any other. To stage a spectacular and trustful image

requires huge investments, not only monetary ones. So, the sense of value has changed

profoundly. More persuasion means more investment. It also means creating an opportunity to

heal old wounds to a country’s image. Meanwhile, new wounds are being inflicted by the

parallel power of drugs, corruption, impunity, crimes or whatever. Using ‘hard power’ and

military aggression can be the wrong way to counter-act weakness or incompetence in relation

to the new world order. To negate the other nations can be the end of negotiation. To compete

in the globalized world, new strategies need to be developed for a game in which antagonism

is the basic rule and the spirit of competition dignifies the participants. To prepare such a



14

creative new generation, the areas of sports, arts, especially scenic arts and music, can be

influential aids. Workshops of creativity are the basis for artistic languages and a great way to

attract huge audiences. What Brazil might use is a spectacular plot, and the melodies and

rhythms of its cultures.

8. Concluding remarks

A new brand image of Brazil could be cultivated by national media agencies that can

play on that “housework” (task) an extremely influential role. So far, the national private and

governmental media agencies allied to the most influential TV networks in Brazil have not

attempted of renew and ‘measure the keys’ by which the country is widely shown. What we

see and hear every day from the Brazilian national mass media is an awful landscape of bad

news. Part of that news is transmitted to international audiences in countries that are Brazil’s

trading partners. Negative news and scandals about emergent countries are spread by a mass

media delivery system. The themes of countries being bankrupt and wicked are renewed. On

the other hand, corruption and bankrupt scandals in the rich countries are sometimes

portrayed as the opportunities to congratulate presidents and governments to saving the world

from “monetary catastrophes.”

The reality presented by the mass media seems to be more and more a great audiovisual

spectacle. Facts are fictionalizing by praiseworthy ideas of preserving money markets and

regulating monetary speculation. Emergent countries, meanwhile, don’t invest in international

mass media campaigns. When they try to earn trust, they do fair somewhere better. But social

gaps persist, and so, fragile national images are vulnerable to negative exposure.

Since 2002, President Lula has argued that the most acute problem in Brazil is the

cultural one. During the past six years, Gilberto Gil acting through the culture ministry has

implemented new projects and created centres of culture in more regions and in the

countryside. The idea of cultural involvement brings new hope and results. Even after Gil

stepped down, the new culture minister, Juca Ferreira, promised to continue the projects. But

how long will it take to produce effective changes and to create national unity and trust? It is

possible to take a shortcut to solve the urgent need of a new brand image for Brazil?

This question and others need to be answered.

Recently, Brazil government has demonstrated its willingness to undertake long-term

projects to unify the country through social and cultural policies. The desire to earn an image

as a powerful nation of beauty, science and technology is a collective one. The popularity of



15

President Lula has remained high over the past six years. He remains as a renewed hope by

most of the Brazilian population and as a positive symbol of Brazilian nationality.

9. References

Boccia, Leonardo (2007). Music and Sound Strategies on Visual Conventions: Culture-specific, Transcultural and Global - Music, Rhythm and Sounds in the Brazilian Network Globo - Year- end Reviews 2003-2006. In Visual Competence Symposium. JacobsUniversity Bremen: http://www.jacobs-university.de/news/events/11989/

Boccia, Leonardo; Ludes Peter (2007). Key Measures and Key Visuals in Brazilian andGerman TV Annual Reviews. In Digital Tools in Film Studies Analysis & Research.Siegen: Universität Siegen:http://www.digital-tools-in-film-studies.com/en/programme.html

Boccia, Leonardo (2006). Choros da Humanidade - Música e Farsa Cultural. Salvador: CianGráfica e Editora.

Carrol, Noël. (1998) A Philosophy of Mass Art . New York: Oxford University Press.Castells, M. (1996) The rise of the network society (Vol. I). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Cunha, Manuela Carneiro da. (1992) Introdução a uma história indígena. In História dos

Índios no Brasil. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.Davies, John Booth (1978) The Psichology of Music. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Eagleton, Terry (2003). A idéia de Cultura. São Paulo: Editora Unesp.Eagleton, Terry (1990). The Ideology of the Aesthetic. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing.Grau, Oliver; Keil Andreas. (2005) Mediale Emotionen. Frankfurt am Main: Fisher

Taschenbuch Verlag.Guibernau, Montserrat. (2007) The Identity of nations. Cambridge: Polity.Kellison, Cathrine. (2006) Producing for TV and Video – A real-world approach. Burlington,

MA: Elsevier.Lesser, Jeffrey. (1999) Negotiating national identity - Immigrants, Minorities, and the

Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil. U.S.A.: Duke University Press.Ludes, P; Boccia, L.; Kühne, U.; Maguire, J. (2005) Visual Hegemonies – An Outline.

Münster, Lit Verlag.Luhmann, Niklas. (1996) Die Realität der Massenmedien. Opladen: Westdeutsche Verlag

GmbH.Boyd-Barret, Oliver. (2000) Constructing the global, constructing the local: News agencies

re-present the world. In Malek, Abbas & Kavoori, Anandam. The global dynamics of news: Studies in international news coverage and news agenda. Stamford, Connecticut:

Ablex Publishing Corporation.Nye, Joseph S. Jr. (2004) Soft power. The mean to success in world politics. New York:Public Affairs.

Pound, Dick. (2004) Inside the Olympics, a behind-the-scenes look at the politics, thescandals, and the glory of the Games. John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd.

Ribeiro, Darcy. (2003) O Povo Brasileiro, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.Senn, Alfred E. (1999) Power, Politics, and the Olympic Games. Champaign, IL: Human

Kinetics.Tingyang, Zhao. (2008) ‘Tutto-sotto-il-cielo’ così i cinesi vedono il mondo. In Il marchio

giallo. Milano: Gruppo Editorial L’Espresso.Tomlinson, Aln & Young, Christopher. (2006) National identity and global sports events.

New York: State University of New York Press.Werner, Hans-Ulrich; Lankau Ralf (2007). Media Soundscapes II: Didaktik, Design, Dialog.



16

Siegen: MUK 162/163.Wyatt, Hilary; Amyes, Tim. (2005) Audio Post Production for Television and Film.

Burlington, MA: Elsevier.

brazilness symbols

Documents