Este estudo reflete sobre o modo como diversos aspetos das culturas pre-coloniais, sob o impacto ... more Este estudo reflete sobre o modo como diversos aspetos das culturas pre-coloniais, sob o impacto da expansao portuguesa e espanhola e de quase duzentos anos de experiencia pos-colonial, compartilhada entre colonizadores e colonizados, conformaram um diferente padrao de desenvolvimento das industrias televisivas latino-americanas. Este capitulo centra-se nos contributos das culturas pre-colombianas para a linguagem e a geocultura, que ainda atravessam as fronteiras nacionais na America Latina, enquadrando espacos culturais e mercados. Neste estudo tambem sao analisadas as relacoes da era colonial entre a Igreja Catolica e os imperios, portugues e espanhol, na definicao de fronteiras linguisticas, que continuam a separar o Brasil da restante America Latina, afetando os fluxos televisivos contemporâneos, os processos de hibridismo cultural e os padroes comerciais. Tendo a sua origem no periodo colonial, tais padroes foram-se estabilizando com o tempo, para o que contaram com a experiencia colonial, depois com a experiencia pos-colonial, e ainda, com processos politicos, mais recentes, como e o caso do populismo, que configuram a Peninsula Iberica e a America Latina. Atravessando fronteiras, interagindo com os Estados, assumindo determinadas formas industriais e dando origem a conteudos especificos, os sistemas de televisao latino-americanos sao modelados por estas condicionantes. E nosso intuito, neste estudo, interrogar os atuais espacos e mercados televisivos, que sao, ao mesmo tempo, nao apenas regionais e transnacionais, como tambem, geolinguisticos e linguistico-culturais. O nosso ponto de vista e baseado, parcialmente, num entendimento que remete os media regionais modernos para as origens da expansao europeia, e mesmo para tempos anteriores (Kraidy & Al-Ghazzi, 2013; Straubhaar, 2007).
3 Telecommunications and Global Capitalism Gwen Urey California State Polytechnic University, Pom... more 3 Telecommunications and Global Capitalism Gwen Urey California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Restructuring of telecommunications service has occurred globally for several years, with heterogenous outcomes among both industrialized and developing countries. ...
When examining the decline of the leftist Partido dos Trabalhadores and the ascension of the righ... more When examining the decline of the leftist Partido dos Trabalhadores and the ascension of the right-wing extremist Jair Bolsanaro of the far-right Partido Liberal Social to the 2018 presidency, political scientists David Samuels and Cesar Zucco have argued that this shift is best understood not through positive characteristics of Bolsonaro’s candidacy but through antipetismo [‘anti-PT-ism’], an intensely personal resentment of the Partido dos Trabalhadores. We assert that popular right-wing Facebook groups and networks formed around the communication network WhatsApp-fueled antipetismo by channeling anger originating in the 2013 nationwide protests away from a variety of social, political, and issues and toward a villainous depiction of Partido dos Trabalhadores leaders and valorization of anti-Partido dos Trabalhadores activists like Bolsanaro, as well as some focus on his own conservative, nationalist agenda.To interrogate this assertion, we propose two specific lines of research. The first is a qualitative textual analysis of the social media accounts of two of the most active anti-Partido dos Trabalhadores groups: Vem Pra Rua and O Movimento Brasil Livre. Through close reading of the materials distributed on these sites, we will illustrate how they channeled general unrest into a specifically partisan attack. The next line of research and case will be an examination of the role of mainstream news networks (namely TV Record) and WhatsApp by those campaigning for recently elected president Bolsonaro for a continued negative campaign against left candidates, specifically the Partido dos Trabalhadores, using fake news items like the supposed ‘gay kit’ that was being circulated in schools by the Partido dos Trabalhadores and others on the left to persuade children to become gay. When possible, we will analyze examples of the materials that were circulated that have emerged in the press coverage and will examine the processes that were used to target and persuade people to forward the materials created for the campaign.
In addition to members of our Editorial Board, we are grateful for the expert assistance of the f... more In addition to members of our Editorial Board, we are grateful for the expert assistance of the following persons who have reviewed one or more manuscripts for Volume 44 of the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. We apologize to any reviewers whose names have been inadvertently omitted.
Until now, discussions of theories of media and society or media and the state in the North Ameri... more Until now, discussions of theories of media and society or media and the state in the North American literature have been limited. The four theories of the press advanced by Fred Siebert, Wilbur Schramm, and Theodore Peterson cover the main approaches of Western liberal society, the libertarian and social responsibility models, and some aspects of the Eastern bloc in the “totalitarian” model. Under the heading of “authoritarian,” however, a number of very diverse systems are lumped together. One major variation seen in Brazil is the continued vitality of the corporatist model of state and society, which has distinct implications for the role of mass media. In particular, aspects of corporatism seem to be combining with aspects of democracy and mass mobilization politics in ways that shed light on the role of the media in constructing or undercutting ideological hegemony in the heterogeneous, class-divided societies of Latin America.
Nos ultimos anos verifica-se uma divergencia gradual no discurso sobre a sociedade da informacao ... more Nos ultimos anos verifica-se uma divergencia gradual no discurso sobre a sociedade da informacao adotado pelos Estados Unidos e por outros paises. Essa divergencia esta presente, por exemplo, nos diferentes resultados dos discursos no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos. Os Estados Unidos implementaram discurso, formas de financiamento e programas voltados para o acesso e atrelados as politicas de treinamento focadas na competencia profissional. O Brasil desenvolveu um discurso mais complexo sobre o lugar da inclusao digital no contexto da inclusao social, com debates relativos a competencias profissionais, cidadania e necessidade de investimento na educacao basica. No Brasil e nos Estados Unidos, os discursos e a respostas sao diferentes em varios aspectos centrais, o que inclui o foco sobre raca e saude.
From Telenovelas to Netflix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America, 2021
This chapter explores some of the reasons why upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin Ame... more This chapter explores some of the reasons why upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America have turned increasingly to U.S., European, and other outside television programs and services like Netflix, and pay-TV channels like HBO. This chapter examines several theoretical arguments and tries to empirically examine the evidence for them from the TGI Latina data. One, articulated by Bourdieu (Distinction. 1984), is that elites are driven by an interest in showing their cultural distinction from other classes of society by consuming media and culture that are seen as more sophisticated, which we argue now includes foreign streaming television. Another theory is that upper-middle and upper classes, who possess the various economic, cultural, and social cap itals required, acquire more cosmopolitan attitudes that lead them to have more interest in cultures from beyond the region. Another complementary theory is that cultural elites are driven now not so much to consume only elite media and culture, but to become cultural omnivores, interested in many forms and sources of culture. Interestingly, the TGI data shows that these theories help explain the data about cultural preferences of Latin American elites. Download chapter PDF This chapter explores two theoretical implications that seem promising to explain some of the television preferences of upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America. We discuss how both cultural distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) and cosmopolitanism (Beck, 2004; Szerszynski & Urry, 2006; Hannerz & Ulf Hannerz, 1996) are useful for thinking about streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney spread through the world, in our particular interest here, through Latin America. Bourdieu’s theories of capital help us explain how economic and social advantages can provide access and sufficient cultural knowledge to consume and understand foreign cultural products, specifically television and film. He also discusses in his original work Distinction (1984) how those in upper-middle or upper classes also use their greater store of cultural capital to draw social distinctions between them and those in lesser classes with lower cultural capital. Recently, sociologists have been drawing on Bourdieu to examine the ways cosmopolitanism is related to stratification at a global scale (Igarashi & Saito, 2014). We find both distinctions through cultural capital and its relation to global stratification to be highly useful in understanding why upper-middle and upper classes in Latin America seem to be pursuing high status forms of television and film from the U.S. and Europe, while most Latin Americans, as noted in Chap. 3, are still relatively content with nationally produced television.
In this article, we draw on extensive qualitative data to analyse the specific case of a digital ... more In this article, we draw on extensive qualitative data to analyse the specific case of a digital inclusion program launched by the non-profit organisation River City Youth Foundation, located in Central Texas. The case is particularly interesting because the organisation, which is primarily a youth centre, realised they needed to start including parents in their programs in order to achieve their first and foremost institutional goal: to increase the number of low-income youth in US colleges. For this study, we use Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of capital to analyse how the organisation integrates education in their digital inclusion program—called ¡TechComunidad! — and thus how they instil techno-dispositions and cultural capital about how US education works in parents of children in kindergarten to 12th grade (K-12). This case is also relevant because it is related to a specific community of low-income Latino immigrants, mostly of Mexican descent, who live in a neighbourhood, where m...
From Telenovelas to Netfix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America,, 2021
This chapter explores why most Latin Americans continue to watch
nationally produced television, ... more This chapter explores why most Latin Americans continue to watch nationally produced television, primarily on broadcast channels, but increasingly on some nationally produced pay-TV channels, and in some programs produced for services like Netflix. One of the main theories evolved to examine this preference is cultural proximity, which predicts that audiences will prefer national or regional television. It also empirically examines it in terms of preferences for national and regional programming in Latin America during the period 2004–2014, based on a series of annual surveys conducted in eight Latin American countries. The first major prediction of cultural proximity—that audiences will tend to prefer local or national programming—is confirmed from the strong, fairly stable preference that the overall audience shows for national programming in the years studied. However, counter to the second major prediction of cultural proximity, that Latin American audiences would favor regional programming next, we found instead that U.S. programming was their second choice. We examine why that seems to be the case and has become stronger in the cable TV era.
The Brazilian telenovela Caminho das Indias or India, a Love Story garnered more than 40 million ... more The Brazilian telenovela Caminho das Indias or India, a Love Story garnered more than 40 million viewers in Brazil and went on to win an international Emmy for best telenovela. Set in India and Brazil, Caminho das Indias highlights the challenges to established traditional values such as caste, lifestyles, and norms in emerging economies because of global migration. Through a textual and discursive analysis of the novella, this article hones in on the global migrations among the emerging economies India and Brazil to study the changes migrations bring about in terms of the spatial organization of social relations and familial and cultural ties using the concepts of deterritorialization and hybridity. Framing the novella in the context of BRICS, we interrogate the political economy of the text as a notable South–South international product, one that considerably increased the awareness of one BRICS country in another.
From Telenovelas to Netflix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America , 2021
This chapter explores some of the reasons why upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin Ame... more This chapter explores some of the reasons why upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America have turned increasingly to U.S., European, and other outside television programs and services like Netflix, and pay-TV channels like HBO. This chapter examines several theoretical arguments and tries to empirically examine the evidence for them from the TGI Latina data. One, articulated by Bourdieu (Distinction. 1984), is that elites are driven by an interest in showing their cultural distinction from other classes of society by consuming media and culture that are seen as more sophisticated, which we argue now includes foreign streaming television. Another theory is that upper-middle and upper classes, who possess the various economic, cultural, and social cap
itals required, acquire more cosmopolitan attitudes that lead them to have more interest in cultures from beyond the region. Another complementary theory is that cultural elites are driven now not so much to consume only elite media and culture, but to become cultural omnivores, interested in many forms and sources of culture. Interestingly, the TGI data shows that these theories help explain the data about cultural preferences of Latin American elites.
Download chapter PDF
This chapter explores two theoretical implications that seem promising to explain some of the television preferences of upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America. We discuss how both cultural distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) and cosmopolitanism (Beck, 2004; Szerszynski & Urry, 2006; Hannerz & Ulf Hannerz, 1996) are useful for thinking about streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney spread through the world, in our particular interest here, through Latin America. Bourdieu’s theories of capital help us explain how economic and social advantages can provide access and sufficient cultural knowledge to consume and understand foreign cultural products, specifically television and film. He also discusses in his original work Distinction (1984) how those in upper-middle or upper classes also use their greater store of cultural capital to draw social distinctions between them and those in lesser classes with lower cultural capital. Recently, sociologists have been drawing on Bourdieu to examine the ways cosmopolitanism is related to stratification at a global scale (Igarashi & Saito, 2014). We find both distinctions through cultural capital and its relation to global stratification to be highly useful in understanding why upper-middle and upper classes in Latin America seem to be pursuing high status forms of television and film from the U.S. and Europe, while most Latin Americans, as noted in Chap. 3, are still relatively content with nationally produced television.
From Telenovelas to Netfix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America, New Directions in Latino American Cultures, , 2022
One of our arguments in this book is that Latin America experienced an
increased availability of ... more One of our arguments in this book is that Latin America experienced an increased availability of transnational programming: with increased multichannel and streaming television, and with increased transmission of programming from abroad through both of those technologies. This chapter examines the growth of streaming television services in Latin America, the barriers they face in terms of infrastructure and class structures, the competition between national, regional, and global streaming companies, and their various strategies. In particular, this chapter will focus primarily on Netfix and its novel strategies for a transverse, transnationalism programming strategy, and connection with its audience. We will begin by considering Netfix’ and other global streaming companies, such as Disney+, Prime Video, and HBO Max’ strategy in Latin America in theoretical and policy terms. Are they counting on the appeal of their largely US catalogue of programs, which creates a new wave of unbalanced fow of television from the US? If so, theoretically that might be a new wave of media imperialism, a new unbalancing of television fows in favor of even more dominance by both US companies and US catalogs of programming. Is Netfix in particular also counting on the transverse, transnational appeal of its new television programs out of Europe, East Asia, and elsewhere? That requires some new theorization, hence the introduction of the concept of transverse fows. We will base this in part on Netfix’ own industrial practice of targeting people in taste clusters across national boundaries, cultural boundaries, and what are usually seen as the major markers of individual identity.
For Sonali and Maya, whose own sense of time often leads to the best outcomes. And with grateful ... more For Sonali and Maya, whose own sense of time often leads to the best outcomes. And with grateful acknowledgment of substantial contributions
For Sonali and Maya, whose own sense of time often leads to the best outcomes. And with grateful ... more For Sonali and Maya, whose own sense of time often leads to the best outcomes. And with grateful acknowledgment of substantial contributions
Este estudo reflete sobre o modo como diversos aspetos das culturas pre-coloniais, sob o impacto ... more Este estudo reflete sobre o modo como diversos aspetos das culturas pre-coloniais, sob o impacto da expansao portuguesa e espanhola e de quase duzentos anos de experiencia pos-colonial, compartilhada entre colonizadores e colonizados, conformaram um diferente padrao de desenvolvimento das industrias televisivas latino-americanas. Este capitulo centra-se nos contributos das culturas pre-colombianas para a linguagem e a geocultura, que ainda atravessam as fronteiras nacionais na America Latina, enquadrando espacos culturais e mercados. Neste estudo tambem sao analisadas as relacoes da era colonial entre a Igreja Catolica e os imperios, portugues e espanhol, na definicao de fronteiras linguisticas, que continuam a separar o Brasil da restante America Latina, afetando os fluxos televisivos contemporâneos, os processos de hibridismo cultural e os padroes comerciais. Tendo a sua origem no periodo colonial, tais padroes foram-se estabilizando com o tempo, para o que contaram com a experiencia colonial, depois com a experiencia pos-colonial, e ainda, com processos politicos, mais recentes, como e o caso do populismo, que configuram a Peninsula Iberica e a America Latina. Atravessando fronteiras, interagindo com os Estados, assumindo determinadas formas industriais e dando origem a conteudos especificos, os sistemas de televisao latino-americanos sao modelados por estas condicionantes. E nosso intuito, neste estudo, interrogar os atuais espacos e mercados televisivos, que sao, ao mesmo tempo, nao apenas regionais e transnacionais, como tambem, geolinguisticos e linguistico-culturais. O nosso ponto de vista e baseado, parcialmente, num entendimento que remete os media regionais modernos para as origens da expansao europeia, e mesmo para tempos anteriores (Kraidy & Al-Ghazzi, 2013; Straubhaar, 2007).
3 Telecommunications and Global Capitalism Gwen Urey California State Polytechnic University, Pom... more 3 Telecommunications and Global Capitalism Gwen Urey California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Restructuring of telecommunications service has occurred globally for several years, with heterogenous outcomes among both industrialized and developing countries. ...
When examining the decline of the leftist Partido dos Trabalhadores and the ascension of the righ... more When examining the decline of the leftist Partido dos Trabalhadores and the ascension of the right-wing extremist Jair Bolsanaro of the far-right Partido Liberal Social to the 2018 presidency, political scientists David Samuels and Cesar Zucco have argued that this shift is best understood not through positive characteristics of Bolsonaro’s candidacy but through antipetismo [‘anti-PT-ism’], an intensely personal resentment of the Partido dos Trabalhadores. We assert that popular right-wing Facebook groups and networks formed around the communication network WhatsApp-fueled antipetismo by channeling anger originating in the 2013 nationwide protests away from a variety of social, political, and issues and toward a villainous depiction of Partido dos Trabalhadores leaders and valorization of anti-Partido dos Trabalhadores activists like Bolsanaro, as well as some focus on his own conservative, nationalist agenda.To interrogate this assertion, we propose two specific lines of research. The first is a qualitative textual analysis of the social media accounts of two of the most active anti-Partido dos Trabalhadores groups: Vem Pra Rua and O Movimento Brasil Livre. Through close reading of the materials distributed on these sites, we will illustrate how they channeled general unrest into a specifically partisan attack. The next line of research and case will be an examination of the role of mainstream news networks (namely TV Record) and WhatsApp by those campaigning for recently elected president Bolsonaro for a continued negative campaign against left candidates, specifically the Partido dos Trabalhadores, using fake news items like the supposed ‘gay kit’ that was being circulated in schools by the Partido dos Trabalhadores and others on the left to persuade children to become gay. When possible, we will analyze examples of the materials that were circulated that have emerged in the press coverage and will examine the processes that were used to target and persuade people to forward the materials created for the campaign.
In addition to members of our Editorial Board, we are grateful for the expert assistance of the f... more In addition to members of our Editorial Board, we are grateful for the expert assistance of the following persons who have reviewed one or more manuscripts for Volume 44 of the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. We apologize to any reviewers whose names have been inadvertently omitted.
Until now, discussions of theories of media and society or media and the state in the North Ameri... more Until now, discussions of theories of media and society or media and the state in the North American literature have been limited. The four theories of the press advanced by Fred Siebert, Wilbur Schramm, and Theodore Peterson cover the main approaches of Western liberal society, the libertarian and social responsibility models, and some aspects of the Eastern bloc in the “totalitarian” model. Under the heading of “authoritarian,” however, a number of very diverse systems are lumped together. One major variation seen in Brazil is the continued vitality of the corporatist model of state and society, which has distinct implications for the role of mass media. In particular, aspects of corporatism seem to be combining with aspects of democracy and mass mobilization politics in ways that shed light on the role of the media in constructing or undercutting ideological hegemony in the heterogeneous, class-divided societies of Latin America.
Nos ultimos anos verifica-se uma divergencia gradual no discurso sobre a sociedade da informacao ... more Nos ultimos anos verifica-se uma divergencia gradual no discurso sobre a sociedade da informacao adotado pelos Estados Unidos e por outros paises. Essa divergencia esta presente, por exemplo, nos diferentes resultados dos discursos no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos. Os Estados Unidos implementaram discurso, formas de financiamento e programas voltados para o acesso e atrelados as politicas de treinamento focadas na competencia profissional. O Brasil desenvolveu um discurso mais complexo sobre o lugar da inclusao digital no contexto da inclusao social, com debates relativos a competencias profissionais, cidadania e necessidade de investimento na educacao basica. No Brasil e nos Estados Unidos, os discursos e a respostas sao diferentes em varios aspectos centrais, o que inclui o foco sobre raca e saude.
From Telenovelas to Netflix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America, 2021
This chapter explores some of the reasons why upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin Ame... more This chapter explores some of the reasons why upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America have turned increasingly to U.S., European, and other outside television programs and services like Netflix, and pay-TV channels like HBO. This chapter examines several theoretical arguments and tries to empirically examine the evidence for them from the TGI Latina data. One, articulated by Bourdieu (Distinction. 1984), is that elites are driven by an interest in showing their cultural distinction from other classes of society by consuming media and culture that are seen as more sophisticated, which we argue now includes foreign streaming television. Another theory is that upper-middle and upper classes, who possess the various economic, cultural, and social cap itals required, acquire more cosmopolitan attitudes that lead them to have more interest in cultures from beyond the region. Another complementary theory is that cultural elites are driven now not so much to consume only elite media and culture, but to become cultural omnivores, interested in many forms and sources of culture. Interestingly, the TGI data shows that these theories help explain the data about cultural preferences of Latin American elites. Download chapter PDF This chapter explores two theoretical implications that seem promising to explain some of the television preferences of upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America. We discuss how both cultural distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) and cosmopolitanism (Beck, 2004; Szerszynski & Urry, 2006; Hannerz & Ulf Hannerz, 1996) are useful for thinking about streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney spread through the world, in our particular interest here, through Latin America. Bourdieu’s theories of capital help us explain how economic and social advantages can provide access and sufficient cultural knowledge to consume and understand foreign cultural products, specifically television and film. He also discusses in his original work Distinction (1984) how those in upper-middle or upper classes also use their greater store of cultural capital to draw social distinctions between them and those in lesser classes with lower cultural capital. Recently, sociologists have been drawing on Bourdieu to examine the ways cosmopolitanism is related to stratification at a global scale (Igarashi & Saito, 2014). We find both distinctions through cultural capital and its relation to global stratification to be highly useful in understanding why upper-middle and upper classes in Latin America seem to be pursuing high status forms of television and film from the U.S. and Europe, while most Latin Americans, as noted in Chap. 3, are still relatively content with nationally produced television.
In this article, we draw on extensive qualitative data to analyse the specific case of a digital ... more In this article, we draw on extensive qualitative data to analyse the specific case of a digital inclusion program launched by the non-profit organisation River City Youth Foundation, located in Central Texas. The case is particularly interesting because the organisation, which is primarily a youth centre, realised they needed to start including parents in their programs in order to achieve their first and foremost institutional goal: to increase the number of low-income youth in US colleges. For this study, we use Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of capital to analyse how the organisation integrates education in their digital inclusion program—called ¡TechComunidad! — and thus how they instil techno-dispositions and cultural capital about how US education works in parents of children in kindergarten to 12th grade (K-12). This case is also relevant because it is related to a specific community of low-income Latino immigrants, mostly of Mexican descent, who live in a neighbourhood, where m...
From Telenovelas to Netfix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America,, 2021
This chapter explores why most Latin Americans continue to watch
nationally produced television, ... more This chapter explores why most Latin Americans continue to watch nationally produced television, primarily on broadcast channels, but increasingly on some nationally produced pay-TV channels, and in some programs produced for services like Netflix. One of the main theories evolved to examine this preference is cultural proximity, which predicts that audiences will prefer national or regional television. It also empirically examines it in terms of preferences for national and regional programming in Latin America during the period 2004–2014, based on a series of annual surveys conducted in eight Latin American countries. The first major prediction of cultural proximity—that audiences will tend to prefer local or national programming—is confirmed from the strong, fairly stable preference that the overall audience shows for national programming in the years studied. However, counter to the second major prediction of cultural proximity, that Latin American audiences would favor regional programming next, we found instead that U.S. programming was their second choice. We examine why that seems to be the case and has become stronger in the cable TV era.
The Brazilian telenovela Caminho das Indias or India, a Love Story garnered more than 40 million ... more The Brazilian telenovela Caminho das Indias or India, a Love Story garnered more than 40 million viewers in Brazil and went on to win an international Emmy for best telenovela. Set in India and Brazil, Caminho das Indias highlights the challenges to established traditional values such as caste, lifestyles, and norms in emerging economies because of global migration. Through a textual and discursive analysis of the novella, this article hones in on the global migrations among the emerging economies India and Brazil to study the changes migrations bring about in terms of the spatial organization of social relations and familial and cultural ties using the concepts of deterritorialization and hybridity. Framing the novella in the context of BRICS, we interrogate the political economy of the text as a notable South–South international product, one that considerably increased the awareness of one BRICS country in another.
From Telenovelas to Netflix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America , 2021
This chapter explores some of the reasons why upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin Ame... more This chapter explores some of the reasons why upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America have turned increasingly to U.S., European, and other outside television programs and services like Netflix, and pay-TV channels like HBO. This chapter examines several theoretical arguments and tries to empirically examine the evidence for them from the TGI Latina data. One, articulated by Bourdieu (Distinction. 1984), is that elites are driven by an interest in showing their cultural distinction from other classes of society by consuming media and culture that are seen as more sophisticated, which we argue now includes foreign streaming television. Another theory is that upper-middle and upper classes, who possess the various economic, cultural, and social cap
itals required, acquire more cosmopolitan attitudes that lead them to have more interest in cultures from beyond the region. Another complementary theory is that cultural elites are driven now not so much to consume only elite media and culture, but to become cultural omnivores, interested in many forms and sources of culture. Interestingly, the TGI data shows that these theories help explain the data about cultural preferences of Latin American elites.
Download chapter PDF
This chapter explores two theoretical implications that seem promising to explain some of the television preferences of upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America. We discuss how both cultural distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) and cosmopolitanism (Beck, 2004; Szerszynski & Urry, 2006; Hannerz & Ulf Hannerz, 1996) are useful for thinking about streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney spread through the world, in our particular interest here, through Latin America. Bourdieu’s theories of capital help us explain how economic and social advantages can provide access and sufficient cultural knowledge to consume and understand foreign cultural products, specifically television and film. He also discusses in his original work Distinction (1984) how those in upper-middle or upper classes also use their greater store of cultural capital to draw social distinctions between them and those in lesser classes with lower cultural capital. Recently, sociologists have been drawing on Bourdieu to examine the ways cosmopolitanism is related to stratification at a global scale (Igarashi & Saito, 2014). We find both distinctions through cultural capital and its relation to global stratification to be highly useful in understanding why upper-middle and upper classes in Latin America seem to be pursuing high status forms of television and film from the U.S. and Europe, while most Latin Americans, as noted in Chap. 3, are still relatively content with nationally produced television.
From Telenovelas to Netfix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America, New Directions in Latino American Cultures, , 2022
One of our arguments in this book is that Latin America experienced an
increased availability of ... more One of our arguments in this book is that Latin America experienced an increased availability of transnational programming: with increased multichannel and streaming television, and with increased transmission of programming from abroad through both of those technologies. This chapter examines the growth of streaming television services in Latin America, the barriers they face in terms of infrastructure and class structures, the competition between national, regional, and global streaming companies, and their various strategies. In particular, this chapter will focus primarily on Netfix and its novel strategies for a transverse, transnationalism programming strategy, and connection with its audience. We will begin by considering Netfix’ and other global streaming companies, such as Disney+, Prime Video, and HBO Max’ strategy in Latin America in theoretical and policy terms. Are they counting on the appeal of their largely US catalogue of programs, which creates a new wave of unbalanced fow of television from the US? If so, theoretically that might be a new wave of media imperialism, a new unbalancing of television fows in favor of even more dominance by both US companies and US catalogs of programming. Is Netfix in particular also counting on the transverse, transnational appeal of its new television programs out of Europe, East Asia, and elsewhere? That requires some new theorization, hence the introduction of the concept of transverse fows. We will base this in part on Netfix’ own industrial practice of targeting people in taste clusters across national boundaries, cultural boundaries, and what are usually seen as the major markers of individual identity.
For Sonali and Maya, whose own sense of time often leads to the best outcomes. And with grateful ... more For Sonali and Maya, whose own sense of time often leads to the best outcomes. And with grateful acknowledgment of substantial contributions
For Sonali and Maya, whose own sense of time often leads to the best outcomes. And with grateful ... more For Sonali and Maya, whose own sense of time often leads to the best outcomes. And with grateful acknowledgment of substantial contributions
A study on the challenges and potential of applying participatory communication approaches in dev... more A study on the challenges and potential of applying participatory communication approaches in development projects
A ten-year longitudinal study of the impact of national, state, and local programs that address i... more A ten-year longitudinal study of the impact of national, state, and local programs that address issues of digital divide and digital inclusion in Austin, Texas.
Over the past few decades, Austin, Texas, has made a concerted effort to develop into a “technopo... more Over the past few decades, Austin, Texas, has made a concerted effort to develop into a “technopolis,” becoming home to companies such as Dell and numerous start-ups in the 1990s. It has been a model for other cities across the nation that wish to become high-tech centers while still retaining the livability to attract residents. Nevertheless, this expansion and boom left poorer residents behind, many of them African American or Latino, despite local and federal efforts to increase lower-income and minority access to technology. This book was born of a ten-year longitudinal study of the digital divide in Austin—a study that gradually evolved into a broader inquiry into Austin’s history as a segregated city, its turn toward becoming a technopolis, what the city and various groups did to address the digital divide, and how the most disadvantaged groups and individuals were affected by those programs. The editors examine the impact of national and statewide digital inclusion programs created in the 1990s, as well as what happened when those programs were gradually cut back by conservative administrations after 2000. They also examine how the city of Austin persisted in its own efforts for digital inclusion by working with its public libraries and a number of local nonprofits, and the positive impact those programs had.
This PhD dissertation from 1981 examines the growth of production in the Brazilian television ind... more This PhD dissertation from 1981 examines the growth of production in the Brazilian television industry as it reached the point where it began to displace U.S. programming and transform U.S. influence on the industry, transforming many aspects of cultural dependence in the process. It exams the industry in detail, looking at the growth of early channels, the era of increasing competition in the 1960s, and the emergence of TV Globo as dominant by the early 1970s. It also examines the growth of key genres: the show de auditório, the telenovela, news, children's programming, etc. It examines the competition of U.S. program genres with the Brazilian ones, combining the amount of time each had on screen with their ratings, in a new measure called audience hours, which let us not only what was on screen, as earlier studies like Nordenstreng and Varis had, but also how many people in the city of São Paulo watched them. This showed that the audience for U.S. programming was going down much faster than the amount of screen time it occupied. The combination of industry developments, genre development, and audience trends led to the conclusion that television really had been transformed and U.S. influence lessened.
This article explores how socioeconomic status and level of education relate to the retention or ... more This article explores how socioeconomic status and level of education relate to the retention or change of media habits, such as cable or satellite television viewing, in periods of a stagnant or declining economy. Particularly, we explore two of the most important markets in the Latin American region (i.e., Brazil and Mexico), which went through similar economic downturns, but different social experiences in recent years. Survey data from Kantar Media’s Target Index (TGI) Latina service —the most extensive market study in the region— and qualitative data from a second online survey conducted through eCGlobal online panel have been analyzed. Data reveals that the rush to cancel cable or satellite television services did not occur at the high rates expected and were not remarkably influenced by social class, as they were by education factors.
Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, 2019
In the context of international flows of media products, this article offers an exploration of pa... more In the context of international flows of media products, this article offers an exploration of pay TV and the prospects for streaming television usage in the Latin American region. Based on audience preference data gathered by Kantar Media, the article offers an overview of how the pre-Netflix era looked like in the region. Drawing on the theories of cultural proximity and cultural discount, our results suggest that the international nature of Netflix programming is of particular interest and appeal among the upper middle class and elite, who have the cultural capital to enjoy and appreciate it. The findings also indicate that access to streaming television is hampered by a new digital divide, based in both age or generation, class and geography, which will limit the extent to which services like Netflix will disrupt broadcast and cable/satellite television.
Within the ongoing theorization of active audiences, this article analyzes the concept of a new I... more Within the ongoing theorization of active audiences, this article analyzes the concept of a new Internet-based social audience for TV and online scripted fiction through the social media buzz generated by 72 Spanish scripted fiction programs. The investigation is focused on the comments posted by fans and, partly, community managers after the release of the programs’ finales. Because of the wide range of themes present in the sample (8,103 posts), we focus on those messages that reflect Internet users’ interpretations of historical and social issues broached by the programs. Results suggest that period programs invite a larger number of comments related to social issues than do programs about the present. Moreover, support for TV fiction’s fidelity to historical events is observed to be contingent on the happiness factor of those events; tragedy seems to be unpopular with viewers wanting to disconnect from their concerns. Finally, viewers enjoy programs critical of current social issues (e.g., political corruption).
As the Internet penetration in the United States increases, many digital divide researchers have ... more As the Internet penetration in the United States increases, many digital divide researchers have delved into the parent–child dynamics regarding family digital access and use. However, little attention has been paid to digital parenting in terms of monitoring, guiding, and regulating children's digital lives, especially in the context of disadvantaged communities. As an initial step to fill the critical gaps in related literature, this study casts light on factors that affect the self-efficacy of digital parenting in disadvantaged urban communities. Using a census survey of public housing households in one of the largest public housing authorities in the United States, we found that single motherhood and home Internet access significantly accounted for low–socioeconomic status parents' digital parenting self-efficacy. We also found that parental engagement in children's school activities strongly affected their digital parenting self-efficacy. By contrast, we found that other sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors (i.e., gender, education, race/ethnicity), mobile Internet access, parents' homework help, and educational expectation fail to be contributing factors.
This study will examine how rapidly changing social class structures in Latin America in the last... more This study will examine how rapidly changing social class structures in Latin America in the last ten years have impacted television viewing. Subscription to cable or pay television has increased enormously in Brazil and Mexico in the last 6-7 years as effects of the substantial growth of the middle class in the last 10-15 years has begun to become very visible in media behavior. Cable television growth in Latin America had trailed far behind most other regions of the world (Reis 1999), where cable and satellite television grew explosively in the 1990s (Balio 1998). Latin America was already covered by well-resourced commercial television stations, which provided a great deal of entertainment, which was closely attuned to national interests, gaining a great deal of advantage from cultural proximity (Straubhaar 1991). If Latin Americans are now turning to cable or pay television, what has changed?
This study investigated to what extent sons and daughters influence their parents’ adoption of di... more This study investigated to what extent sons and daughters influence their parents’ adoption of digital media, particularly the internet, compared to other influence sources. It also explored structural factors that play a role in this bottom-up process, such as socio-economic differences and gender. Finally, it examined the relationship between this bottom-up technology transmission process and parents’ levels of internet self-efficacy and online activities. Drawing from socialization and diffusion of innovation research and using a self-administered random mail survey, we found that children play a role in including their parents in the digital environment, particularly among women, people who are older (35 years old and above), and belong to lower socio-economic groups. We also found that this bottom-up technology transmission is somewhat negatively associated with parents’ internet self-efficacy. Implications and possible interpretations of these results are discussed.
This chapter argues Information and Communication Technlogy (ICT) diffusion in Brazil was largely... more This chapter argues Information and Communication Technlogy (ICT) diffusion in Brazil was largely driven by creative innovations in from below by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who sought to create new forms of access to the Internet to fulfill demand by users. However, these efforts were heavily influenced by national policies regarding public access, liberalization of regulations governing the national telecommunications market, as well as attempts by private corporations vying for consumer access. Adopting a social shaping of technology (SSOT) perspective, we attempt to trace how conflicts and collaborations between these different actors defined ICT roll-out.
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nationally produced television, primarily on broadcast channels, but
increasingly on some nationally produced pay-TV channels, and in some
programs produced for services like Netflix. One of the main theories
evolved to examine this preference is cultural proximity, which predicts
that audiences will prefer national or regional television. It also empirically
examines it in terms of preferences for national and regional programming
in Latin America during the period 2004–2014, based on a series of annual
surveys conducted in eight Latin American countries. The first major prediction of cultural proximity—that audiences will tend to prefer local or
national programming—is confirmed from the strong, fairly stable preference that the overall audience shows for national programming in the
years studied. However, counter to the second major prediction of cultural proximity, that Latin American audiences would favor regional
programming next, we found instead that U.S. programming was their
second choice. We examine why that seems to be the case and has become stronger in the cable TV era.
itals required, acquire more cosmopolitan attitudes that lead them to have more interest in cultures from beyond the region. Another complementary theory is that cultural elites are driven now not so much to consume only elite media and culture, but to become cultural omnivores, interested in many forms and sources of culture. Interestingly, the TGI data shows that these theories help explain the data about cultural preferences of Latin American elites.
Download chapter PDF
This chapter explores two theoretical implications that seem promising to explain some of the television preferences of upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America. We discuss how both cultural distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) and cosmopolitanism (Beck, 2004; Szerszynski & Urry, 2006; Hannerz & Ulf Hannerz, 1996) are useful for thinking about streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney spread through the world, in our particular interest here, through Latin America. Bourdieu’s theories of capital help us explain how economic and social advantages can provide access and sufficient cultural knowledge to consume and understand foreign cultural products, specifically television and film. He also discusses in his original work Distinction (1984) how those in upper-middle or upper classes also use their greater store of cultural capital to draw social distinctions between them and those in lesser classes with lower cultural capital. Recently, sociologists have been drawing on Bourdieu to examine the ways cosmopolitanism is related to stratification at a global scale (Igarashi & Saito, 2014). We find both distinctions through cultural capital and its relation to global stratification to be highly useful in understanding why upper-middle and upper classes in Latin America seem to be pursuing high status forms of television and film from the U.S. and Europe, while most Latin Americans, as noted in Chap. 3, are still relatively content with nationally produced television.
increased availability of transnational programming: with increased multichannel and streaming television, and with increased transmission of programming from abroad through both of those technologies. This chapter
examines the growth of streaming television services in Latin America, the
barriers they face in terms of infrastructure and class structures, the competition between national, regional, and global streaming companies, and
their various strategies. In particular, this chapter will focus primarily on
Netfix and its novel strategies for a transverse, transnationalism programming strategy, and connection with its audience.
We will begin by considering Netfix’ and other global streaming companies, such as Disney+, Prime Video, and HBO Max’ strategy in Latin
America in theoretical and policy terms. Are they counting on the appeal
of their largely US catalogue of programs, which creates a new wave of
unbalanced fow of television from the US? If so, theoretically that might
be a new wave of media imperialism, a new unbalancing of television fows
in favor of even more dominance by both US companies and US catalogs
of programming. Is Netfix in particular also counting on the transverse,
transnational appeal of its new television programs out of Europe, East Asia, and elsewhere?
That requires some new theorization, hence the
introduction of the concept of transverse fows. We will base this in part
on Netfix’ own industrial practice of targeting people in taste clusters
across national boundaries, cultural boundaries, and what are usually seen
as the major markers of individual identity.
nationally produced television, primarily on broadcast channels, but
increasingly on some nationally produced pay-TV channels, and in some
programs produced for services like Netflix. One of the main theories
evolved to examine this preference is cultural proximity, which predicts
that audiences will prefer national or regional television. It also empirically
examines it in terms of preferences for national and regional programming
in Latin America during the period 2004–2014, based on a series of annual
surveys conducted in eight Latin American countries. The first major prediction of cultural proximity—that audiences will tend to prefer local or
national programming—is confirmed from the strong, fairly stable preference that the overall audience shows for national programming in the
years studied. However, counter to the second major prediction of cultural proximity, that Latin American audiences would favor regional
programming next, we found instead that U.S. programming was their
second choice. We examine why that seems to be the case and has become stronger in the cable TV era.
itals required, acquire more cosmopolitan attitudes that lead them to have more interest in cultures from beyond the region. Another complementary theory is that cultural elites are driven now not so much to consume only elite media and culture, but to become cultural omnivores, interested in many forms and sources of culture. Interestingly, the TGI data shows that these theories help explain the data about cultural preferences of Latin American elites.
Download chapter PDF
This chapter explores two theoretical implications that seem promising to explain some of the television preferences of upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America. We discuss how both cultural distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) and cosmopolitanism (Beck, 2004; Szerszynski & Urry, 2006; Hannerz & Ulf Hannerz, 1996) are useful for thinking about streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney spread through the world, in our particular interest here, through Latin America. Bourdieu’s theories of capital help us explain how economic and social advantages can provide access and sufficient cultural knowledge to consume and understand foreign cultural products, specifically television and film. He also discusses in his original work Distinction (1984) how those in upper-middle or upper classes also use their greater store of cultural capital to draw social distinctions between them and those in lesser classes with lower cultural capital. Recently, sociologists have been drawing on Bourdieu to examine the ways cosmopolitanism is related to stratification at a global scale (Igarashi & Saito, 2014). We find both distinctions through cultural capital and its relation to global stratification to be highly useful in understanding why upper-middle and upper classes in Latin America seem to be pursuing high status forms of television and film from the U.S. and Europe, while most Latin Americans, as noted in Chap. 3, are still relatively content with nationally produced television.
increased availability of transnational programming: with increased multichannel and streaming television, and with increased transmission of programming from abroad through both of those technologies. This chapter
examines the growth of streaming television services in Latin America, the
barriers they face in terms of infrastructure and class structures, the competition between national, regional, and global streaming companies, and
their various strategies. In particular, this chapter will focus primarily on
Netfix and its novel strategies for a transverse, transnationalism programming strategy, and connection with its audience.
We will begin by considering Netfix’ and other global streaming companies, such as Disney+, Prime Video, and HBO Max’ strategy in Latin
America in theoretical and policy terms. Are they counting on the appeal
of their largely US catalogue of programs, which creates a new wave of
unbalanced fow of television from the US? If so, theoretically that might
be a new wave of media imperialism, a new unbalancing of television fows
in favor of even more dominance by both US companies and US catalogs
of programming. Is Netfix in particular also counting on the transverse,
transnational appeal of its new television programs out of Europe, East Asia, and elsewhere?
That requires some new theorization, hence the
introduction of the concept of transverse fows. We will base this in part
on Netfix’ own industrial practice of targeting people in taste clusters
across national boundaries, cultural boundaries, and what are usually seen
as the major markers of individual identity.
This book was born of a ten-year longitudinal study of the digital divide in Austin—a study that gradually evolved into a broader inquiry into Austin’s history as a segregated city, its turn toward becoming a technopolis, what the city and various groups did to address the digital divide, and how the most disadvantaged groups and individuals were affected by those programs.
The editors examine the impact of national and statewide digital inclusion programs created in the 1990s, as well as what happened when those programs were gradually cut back by conservative administrations after 2000. They also examine how the city of Austin persisted in its own efforts for digital inclusion by working with its public libraries and a number of local nonprofits, and the positive impact those programs had.
1999), where cable and satellite television grew explosively in the 1990s (Balio 1998). Latin America was already covered by well-resourced commercial television stations, which provided a great deal of entertainment, which was closely attuned to national interests, gaining a great deal of advantage from cultural proximity (Straubhaar 1991). If Latin Americans are now turning to cable or pay television, what has changed?