Brazil - A Country Analysis

Today let us talk about South America’s largest nation- Brazil. We are going to discuss some questions, such as – How is social media influencing Brazil? What is the status of Brazilian journalists? What problems is Brazil facing at the moment? And perhaps, what’s going to be Brazil’s future?

Looking back in the history, Freedom of Speech in Brazil was most restricted during the military regime in 1967, when Article 151 was added to the constitution, limiting citizen’s liberty. It was until when Brazil became democratic and all this came to an end. It is a democratic country and has been democratic ever since 1985. There are three types of governments – Presidential, Federal Judiciary and Congress. Since the end of military rule in 1985, unionization, collective bargaining, and frequent strikes have become commonplace among federal employees in all the three branches of government.The current president of Brazil is Dilma Rousseff.

Investigating journalism in Brazil, we can see how it is facing crisis at the moment. This is because of two main reasons – one being the growing competition with new technologies and internet, which means how Brazilians have started believing online comments and broadcasted news. The second reason being, economic pressures to cut costs and do more with less of journalists and other costly reporting.

According to the World Press Freedom Index, Brazil is a country which exposes journalists to physical danger. In 2013, there were five journalists murdered and this made Brazil one of the deadliest countries for media personnel in western hemisphere. Now, due to all these cases journalists find it risky to cover subjects like – corruption, drugs and illegal trafficking.

A major problem faced by Brazil this year was when Brazilians in São Paulo protested against the massive amount of money spent on 2014 Football World Cup and 2016 Olympics. They said that all that money could have been used in hospitals and education. Another thing which was quite astonishing was when state military police was still using the methods it used during the time of dictatorship. Around 100 journalists were victims of violence and two-third of the blame went on the police.

Looking at these scores stated by the Freedom House this year, we can say that Brazil is neither the best nor the worst in context with press freedom.

Moving on to media, Brazil has South America's largest media market – thousands of broadcasting radios, TV channels and a strong press. Social media has influenced Brazilians in many ways like in purchase decisions, brands interacting directly with social networks and job recruitment.

Now let’s go to the vital part – Future of Brazil. Due to the growth of social media, people have started doubting what is being told to them by politicians and journalists. 

Instead , they have started drifting towards other sources like – online broadcasted news, posted comments by people on face book, articles and even blogs. They find it trustworthy, and unbiased. Old newspapers have now taken a backseat.

Journalism in Brazil won’t improve if media reforms are not taken seriously and discussed in a mature manner.This cannot be achieved by journalists’ good intentions and individual commitment alone.It is important to recognize that more structural and long lasting improvements in the media will necessarily depend upon- deepening of the Democratization Project and  Economic force. 

After reading all this the questions that come to our mind are-How will the media industry protect their institution? How will they retain positive public perception of their journalistic integrity and regain the trust of their readers?

(Can also refer to Power point presentation on this topic)

  

Why should we care about the contempt problem?

As we all know that contempt is type of a criminal offence, in other words, journalist will go to the jail if they make this criminal offence , and lost their job.so that journalist need realize the contempt is a extremely problem when they join tom work in court or any other place, that mean journalist should not interrupt , for instance, if anyone who is giving a phone call in the court room, it could be contempt.


In my viewpoint , journalist need help to protect the fair in court, in consequent, they have responsibility to protect suspect’s private information regardless of how horrible the crime. In addition, aim to avoid jurors have prejudice. Journalist should not publish any sensitive information before the trial . Because Jurors may be affected by journalist who publish some information before the trial, it will influence the who proceeding, and it is obviously unfair in court. The reason is that the publication of material that can influence the fair, as we all know that every trial is based on evidence rather than personal viewpoint, so that Jury always respect for the evidence because it can lead then to make conclusion in the end. Basically, the Jury  believe that defendant is guiltless before finding evidence constantly. It widely assumed that journalist can also be in contempt by conduct different from with publication, for example, if they disclose some gossip or any other information for Jury, it should be contempt offence. 

General law about contempt as a criminal offence of strict responsibility until 1981. It is obviously that the publication bring amount of risks of serious prejudice or any other impediment for the whole proceeding. According to contempt act in 1981, it said that the criminal proceeding become pervasive in UK . When summon or permission of arrest are issued, there have contempt phenomenon.


For previous conviction, it said to be unfair and illegal issue in revealing. This illegal behaviour can make defendant get conviction previously.


Apart from this, journalist can publish the background when mews organization feel reasonable.


The “Soham murders case”, this news story happened contempt offence. Two English girls were killed in Soham. The victim is Holly Marie , another victim is Jessica Aimee, they are both ten years old when they murdered . Lan Kevin was convicted in December 2003, his girl friend had provided wrong alibi so that she went to the jail as well.

Media's effect on moral development

A person with bad morals is likely to have a tough life; this is when moral development plays a role of being extremely important in a life of a human being. Morality is the key of  human mind that enables an individual to take moral decisions and actions between those that are right or wrong.

 Criticism often levelled against the media is that they are contributing to the decay of morality, which refers to the way people choose to live their lives according to a set of guidelines or principles that govern their decisions about right versus wrong. 

Media’s creation of moral panics has caused our society towards a big concern for the youth. Now-a-days as soon as we turn on the news, we are never short of a shocking scandal involving gangs of youths, kidnapping and assault. With these headlines popping up here, there and everywhere, stereotypes are gradually formed. However, every single youth of today really that dangerous, or are the media creating a moral panic. This is used to control the way in which the public behaves. The dangers of creating these moral panics are that they are continuously exaggerated in the media, which results in public concern constantly heightening. For example, the media frequently reports on criminal activity as it has a right to do. However, some believe that the media sensationalises crime so as to create moral panic and that this is used as a way of controlling how the public behaves.

Media usually has been portraying incidents and the happenings around to the society in such a way that they want the public to react to it in a panicky manner.

In recent years moral panic and media presentation have covered a wide-range of topics from HIV/AIDS in the 1980’s to asylum seekers into the UK in the 2000’s. This goes back as far as World War 1 when the wartime government used the media to portray the Germans in a certain manner in the hope of provoking a response. The same happened in World War 2. In this case, the media did not have to portray Hitler in a certain manner as the public already had its view on him. 

There is a deep connection between media and morality which has always been taken for granted, a movie Zero Dark Thirty, which tells the story of the tracking and eventual killing of Osama Bin Laden, has received several Oscar nominations but its attracting another kind of attention where it has been accused of influencing the point of view of right or wrong.

The media's act in launching certain perceptions of deviance, and have the power to create and instill particular thoughts towards certain groups within society.

There are journals, blogs and articles on the youth/teenagers or the future in terms of media, moral development, the working of internet by Ulises A. Mejias. Newspapers often point towards the debility of our society in regard to their reporting of moral panics, and repetitively refer back to the ‘good old days’.

This leads us to an on going concern that media is influencing the mind and working of the people, harming their moralities but also on the other hand media has got its good sights which has made it become the source of knowledge which enables us to get information of the activities around the world and creating a big impact on an individual's moral's.

Should Scotland Be An Independent Country

There was just one question – should Scotland be an independent country? The answer was as simple as a yes or a no, but it decided the future of the UK.  September the 18^th of this year was an important date, on this day the final decision according to the votes came out to be a no.

Let us first have a look at the reason behind Scotland wanting independence. The proponents of the Yes Campaign believed that Scotland would be richer if it separates from England. They wanted Scotland to make its own decisions about how resources are controlled and money is invested. They opposed investing billions of pounds in nuclear weapons and wanted to focus on social issues such as; childcare and programs to retain talent and encourage young Scots to stay.

Investigating the opposition and throwing some light on the Better Together Campaign we get to know about the arguments it placed against the yes campaign. They said that by being a part of the UK, Scotland can easily trade across other parts of the UK and therefore have access to more jobs. It also mentioned that Scotland has the protection of the UK armed forces and influence on the UN Security Council.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Salmond said he accepted the defeat and called for National Unity. He told supporters: “The unionist parties made vows late in the campaign to devolve more powers to Scotland. Scotland will expect these to be honoured in rapid course – as a reminder; we have been promised a second reading of a Scotland Bill by March 27th next year.” Mr Salmond urged the Yes voters to reflect on how far they had come."I don't think any of us, whenever we entered politics, would have thought such a thing to be either credible or possible", he said. He also claimed the campaign had put "a scare and a fear of enormous proportions" at the heart of the Westminster establishment."Today of all days as we bring Scotland together, let us not dwell on the distance we have fallen short, let us dwell on the distance we have travelled and have confidence the movement is abroad in Scotland that will take this Nation forward."

BBC’s Nick Robinson said: “This referendum may have ended one debate in Scotland – for now. It has however, lit the touch paper on the explosive question of where power lies in the UK.” David Cameron also committed himself to be offering Scotland new powers, but it made clear that this would depend on the next general election and a settlement that would exclude Scottish MPs from voting on many issues confined to England. Robinson suggests that this would create two classes of MP with the possibility of a government having a majority to pass certain laws but not others.

Hence for now, Scotland and the UK will carry on as they have for the past 300 years; but there will be some changes and they will not be the same as it was before.

Vice: An Organisation Shaped By The Worlds History

In Montreal, 1994, three young journalists started a magazine to appeal to people like themselves. Their idea of people like themselves was a youth generation who wanted an alternate style of news highlighting issues that may be important to a more detached portion of society. Twenty years later Vice magazine has a circulation of 90,000. Aside from the monthly magazine publication, Vice have over 5 million subscribers on YouTube, a record label, a yearly series on HBO and a recently launched global news channel.  But what happened over twenty years for Vice to get to this point and how has the events of this period shaped how the company evolved?

Vice Magazine - Issue 1

The magazine initially was launched as the Voice of Montreal. They received government funding to cover trends and cultures which were at the time not being covered in print. The magazine changed their name to Vice in 1996 and shortly after moved base to Brooklyn, New York. 

The magazine's edgy content made noises in the Journalism world, and many from the alternative scene lent their hands to Vice to write articles they may not have ever been able to, or to portray art in styles previously ever imagined. Terry Richardson, a notable fashion photographer was one of the first huge names to produce content for Vice, with it being received fantastically by the readership.

Over the next ten years Vice expanded into every continent making sure there was a voice for the alternative view all over the world. Spike Jonze, a friend of Vice and an academy award winning director gave Vice the idea of producing digital content for online and home entertainment purposes. Vice set up vbs.tv producing short documentaries about similar issues raised in the magazine but on a more global scale. This was all during the heart of the Iraq & Afghanistan wars. Vice produced alternate content compared to news organisations around the U.S. for online use at the viewers pleasure. This ultimately led to Vice's rise to the top in terms of Alternate media.

Vice's ground coverage of the Iraq war

Vice's popularity kept growing over the years after, allowing the company to grow into a multinational and multiplatform company. Vice now tries to cater to all forms of opinion and tastes which creates a fantastic environment for good informative news. Vice operate their own country websites and YouTube channels, but have also got sister productions such at Motherboard and Noisy. Noisy concentrates on alternative music, whilst Motherboard explores the worlds ever changing nature and the environment that it will create for us to live in. Vice's willingness to evolve and eagerness to embrace what lies ahead is what has made the company such a success. The company is set to surpass a revenue of $1 billion in 2016 according to CEO Shane Smith. 

Vice is at the peak of it's powers right now and the future looks nothing but big things for the company. Vice continue to produce quality news whether it be breaking or otherwise on a daily basis to the world, whether it be in the form of an hour long look into the real North Korea or exploring the harsh realities of Texas' drought. Vice is being shaped by the world we live in, something which a lot of media companies have struggled with in the internet age. Twenty years ago in Montreal, no one would have imagined this.

The Sociological Factors Affecting Your News

Modern day published news is often considered the result of tailored factors that affect the process of writing news stories. These environmental factors are in effect because media organisations operate within society’s regulated rules. This means that the rules of society, whether they are codified or not, have direct influence on the way in which the news is written and displayed [1].

Impacting on today’s news production are the political, economical, social and technological factors. Essentially, these factors constitute what news organisations consider during the process of news making- between the actual event and the final published story. The influence these factors can have is evident within the published media of many news organisations. Focusing on the political factor as an example, then enables an analysis of the sociological approach to journalism.

The nature of a political system often dictates the function of the news media in society, meaning in a liberal environment the role of the media would be to act as a watchdog [2]. A prime example of the political system causing the media to act in this way is apparent in the ‘Watergate Scandal’ of 1972 in the USA, in which two journalists acting in the interest of the public revealed the illegal behaviour of a President and his re-election committee.

In contrast, an authoritarian government would not allow many harsh or harmful depictions to be published against them. An example of this is the recent Chinese riots, of which very few journalists reported, due to the restrictions and regulations of the government. Videos and social media comments were posted on various platforms, only to be shortly prohibited by the Chinese government/regulatory body.

The political culture of society is also said to play a part in the news orientation. It’s a belief that the social norms and shaping of regions can create a culture that influences the focus of the media. For instance, one of the largest target audiences for newspapers in the UK would be the working-class, who are predominantly associated with Labour party votes. Therefore some newspapers, such as the ‘Daily Mirror’ feel obliged or influenced to support the views of their target audience with similar stories.

Labour Party-Lower Class Vote Link

Political pressure is one of the final factors within political systems that McNair draws up upon. The most radical form of political pressure can be presented in the form of informal lobbying, which has essentially corrupted many politicians in the eyes of the public. Lobbying is the notion that a government official can be influenced by other forces/individuals, discarding the obligation they have to the public. This kind of behaviour has led to close relationships between massive media corporations and politicians. Most notably the Thatcher-Murdoch liaison, seemed to be the most effective, as Rupert Murdoch (who owned the most influential newspapers in the country) secured Margaret Thatcher three general election wins in UK parliament.

Other political pressures present themselves in the form of legislation, physical disruption and censorship.

Overall, political systems have a huge effect on the final work of published news organisations. The sub-factors previously mentioned within this news effecting concept are prime examples of "media ecology"[4]. These elements fit with Harrison’s description, that the sociology of journalism is the “ecology of news”.

Journalism - is it dying, dead or very much alive?

In the last four hundred years, few industries have undergone the massive amount of change that journalism has. From the distribution of flyers during the political campaigns of the early seventeenth century, to modern day by-the-minute live updates, it has evolved to become a completely different beast. What does this mean for the future of journalism? Is it dead, dying or alive? Does it have a place in today's society?

For us to assess the mortality of journalism, we must first define what it is. According its page on Wikipedia [1], journalism is the "gathering, processing and dissemination of news and information." From this, we can infer that a journalist is somebody whose job it is to do such things.

With the newspaper industry - perhaps journalism's most iconic avatar - in seemingly terminal decline, many people have declared that journalism is either dying or dead. Jon Stewart, speaking on his program 'The Daily Show' [2], remarked that "the internet has killed journalism". Indeed, the rise of the internet has coincided with an alarming reduction in newspaper sales.

In September, The Daily Record recorded a drop in circulation of 15.15% on the previous year, with the Financial Times and the Independent following at -13.12% and -12.74% respectively. Only one national newspaper reported an increase, with The Times seeing gains of +0.39% [3]. These losses can be attributed to the ease with which users can access news on the internet. Why go outside and spend money on a paper when it is freely available in the palm of your hand?

Journalism, however, is not only limited to the newspaper industry. Even with said industry falling into oblivion, new and innovative demonstrations of journalism are emerging. Previously, you had to work for a news agency in order to reach the masses - this is no longer the case. Now, anybody can set up a blog and project their views and opinions to millions of people instantly, all from the comfort of their own home.

Despite the simplicity of these virtual newspapers, their power is not to be underestimated. In the recent Scottish referendum, nationalist blogs such as Wings Over Scotland and Bella Caledonia attracted daily readership figures of 2-300,000. With the majority of Scottish newspapers favoring a 'No' vote, they provided the much needed counter-argument that pushed Scotland to the brink. The ordinary people who founded these blogs had stood toe-to-toe with the partisan press magnates and, although ultimately unsuccessful, the potency of neo-journalism was cleared demonstrated.

Other forms of journalism are thriving in this new environment, too. You now no longer need to own a radio to listen to one, with most of the popular stations providing free downloadable apps for smartphones and computers. Recently, BBC Radio 6 Music reported average listener figures of 1,990,000 over the last few months [4] - setting a new record. Historically one of the biggest forms of journalism outside of the written press, the radio is now more accessible than ever.

With the increased visibility, more people are being educated, informed and entertained by journalism on a daily basis. Dying? Far from it - journalism is thriving.

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[1] Wikipedia, Journalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism

[2] Salon, 'John Stewart declares that traditional journalism is dead'
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/31/must_see_morning_clip_jon_stewart_declares_that_traditional_journalism_is_dead/

[3] The Guardian, newspaper circulation figures for September 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/media/table/2014/oct/10/abcs-national-newspapers

[4] The Guardian Media, BBC Radio 6 Music latest figures
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/23/bbc-radio-6-music-lauren-laverne-nick-grimshaw?CMP=share_btn_tw