Document(s) 7 de 11

In recent decades, using a variety of media it has been possible to call on an endless series of devices that have transformed the world into one vast network. At the same time as this network gives expression to a plethora of processes driving globalization, it also contributes to their establishment. Without a doubt, this communications apparatus facilitates diverse forms of encounters and dialogue, which are deployed according to what is to be communicated, to whom, when and for what purpose. In this setting, it is evident that young people are fundamentally important players, because they generally learn, access and respond quicker to the ways in which we are communicating. Listening to them therefore appears to be a good way to try and understand the complex processes that are circulating through the field of communications.

^* About the authors:

Eliane Ribeiro is a member of the overall Juventude Brasileira e Democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas study team. She has a Ph.D. in Education and postgraduate studies in Social and Educational Programme Evaluation (IDRC/IICA). Professor at Rio de Janeiro State University (Uerj) and with the postgraduate programme in Education at Rio de Janeiro State Federal University (Unirio).

Patrícia Lânes is a member of the overall Juventude Brasileira e Democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas study team. She is a journalist, specialist in Urban Sociology (Uerj), M.A. in Sociology, major in Anthropology (PPGSA/IFCS/UFRJ) and Ibase researcher.

At present in countries like Brazil, it is fundamentally important to have an in depth understanding of the role of the media – especially television – since it intersects with all kinds of young people. Television is a strong presence that, directly or indirectly, influences various dimensions of social life through subtle symbolic means. This fact alerts us to consider the set of ways that cultural goods are produced and broadcast to young Brazilians.

As Champagne warned (1999: 63), ‘from now on the media is an integral part of reality or, if you prefer, produces effects on reality by creating a media view of reality that contributes to creating the reality it purports to describe’. Considering this series of concerns, it is only proper to look more carefully at whether information which discusses public affairs issues is accompanied by any kind of education that contributes to young people’s civic participation.

The study Brazilian Youth and Democracy: Participation, Spheres and Public Policies, produced a striking set of data pointing to tensions in the relationship between information, education and media. The thinking offered here focuses on television, because 84.5 per cent of the 8,000 young people interviewed responded that they obtain information on things that happen in the world from television.

In that light, the challenge is to try to understand how far television reaches and what function it performs for various kinds of young people, supposing that ‘the information and communication media construct meanings and act decisively in forming social subjects’ (Fisher 1997: 60).

From among the various data and correlations available to us, we sought to relate what the young people declared to be their source of information on ‘things that happen in the world’, to their definition of acronyms and expressions reflecting various public debates. Some examples include: FTAA, ECA (Brazil’s Statute on Children), World Social Forum, Greenpeace, NGOs, UN and quota policies.¹

The data also permitted some assessment to be made of the relationship between television, information and education, in order to understand how far television has contributed to opening up young Brazilians’ worldview, as well as their cultural and political universe.

Considering the enormous number of people who access television and the astonishing amount of time they spend watching and listening to it, we are required to think about television and its formative role. Still, it remains a challenge to answer Adorno’s classic question: what effects does television have on people after all?

Far from yielding definitive answers, the data examined here raise new questions, especially because they entail thinking about how young people use television. Children, young people and adults, whose lives are packed, day after day with images, weave new experiences and new ways of seeing the world and themselves through these images (Salgado, Ribes & Jobim e Souza 2005). Contemporary culture may perhaps find its most intense form of expression in images. Their uses, however, are various and can permeate information, entertainment and education, depending on the conditions that young people are subject to, such as social class, sex, race/ethnicity, schooling, place of residence and so on.

In this regard, public opinion cannot be indifferent to what happens on TV in terms of entertainment, information and education. The question that arises is: how can we manage to expand television’s enlightening effects so as to help build a better world? In this way, thinking about youth means also thinking about the media.

How they obtain information

In order to advance our understanding of how young people in Brazil’s metropolitan regions construct their cultural habits, we asked whether they try to stay informed about what is happening in the world. The answer was affirmative from 85.8 per cent of the interviewees. The most significant differences appeared according to class: while 91.9 per cent of young people in classes A/B responded that they try to stay informed, the percentage falls to 80.9 per cent in classes D/E.

A similar difference emerges in relation to schooling. Of those youth who had completed middle schooling or more, 93 per cent responded that they try to stay informed about what is happening in the world. Of those with less schooling (youth who had not completed fundamental schooling), the percentage fell to 75.2 per cent.

This inequality was repeated with similar emphasis between young people who attended private schools and those at public schools with 94 per cent of the former responding that they were informed about what happens in the world, while among the latter group, the number fell to 84.6 per cent. From this data it is possible to conclude that there is a tendency for young people in classes A/B with more schooling and at private schools to consider themselves informed.

Those who answered in the affirmative were then asked what media they used most to stay informed. The majority said they used television (84.5 per cent), followed by newspapers and print magazines (57.1 per cent), radio (49 per cent), then friends, ‘the gang’ and colleagues at work (28 per cent), Internet (27 per cent), families (18 per cent), school friends (18 per cent) and teachers (14.4 per cent).

Table 1 – Sources and media used by young people to stay informed (percentage –multiple responses)

Source: Ibase/Pólis, Juventude Brasileira e Democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas, 2005.

Television thus predominates as the medium through which young people, regardless of class, colour, sex, schooling or any other attribute, gain access to information. However, there are differences between the other media considered. Among young people in classes A/B, for example, the Internet appears in third place among the ways they stay informed, outranked by only television and newspapers and print magazines. Meanwhile, among classes D/E, the Internet ranks eighth which is evidence of a lack of digital inclusion affecting poor youth. Among young people who had completed middle school or higher, the Internet ranks fourth at around 39 per cent. Finally, among those who completed no more than fundamental schooling, the Internet ranks eighth, informing only 10.2 per cent.

There is a need to think about the role of schools as information sources, bearing in mind how school friends and teachers ranked in this overall picture. This is especially important when we consider the evident differences in the media that young people from different classes and with differing degrees of schooling use to access information. It is also significant when we consider the television’s unchallenged predominance as a way of staying informed.

Although a little more than half the young people (52.9 per cent) were not studying at the time of the survey, all had been to school and, nonetheless, classmates and, particularly, teachers hardly figure as sources of information. Therefore it is possible to ask: what role is school, represented in the question by teachers and colleagues, fulfilling in the lives of young Brazilians? More specifically, how are teachers building their relationship with the young people who are at school? Is it possible that school, which should be the key formative institution, is not recognized as a way to access information?

The media therefore appears to be the main source of information for metropolitan youth in Brazil. Although we need to think about what information is being given, we also need to take account of the mediating role that young people are playing in accessing the information provided. We must also think about how friends, colleagues, families and teachers can play a central role in this mediation – and how capable young people feel accessing different media not only as spectators, but also as producers of information.

When asked whether they collaborated with any communication medium, the majority said no. That is to say, 78 per cent of the young people had never collaborated on a school newspaper, fanzines, radio show, community TVs or newspapers or even in making videos. The other side of the story, however, is that 13.8 per cent (1,104 interviewees) collaborate or had at some point collaborated on a school newspaper; 3.2 per cent, with a community newspaper; 2.5 per cent, with community radio; 2.4 per cent, with fanzines, 1.9 per cent, in producing videos; and 1.1 per cent, with community TV.

This shows that, although teachers and school friends are possible interlocutors, they are not valued as sources of or channels to access information. However, it is through school and one of its media, the newspaper, that most of the young people who report collaborating or having collaborated manage to produce or share information, thereby moving from the role of recipient to producer.

Once again, this engagement does not occur homogeneously among young people when differentiated by class, age, sex, colour, schooling and place of residence. The youngest collaborate or have collaborated slightly more with school newspapers (16.5 per cent) than the other age groups. Participation in community newspapers, however, increases with age (15 to 17 years old – 2.6 per cent; 18 to 20 years old – 3.1 per cent; 21 to 24 years old – 3.6 per cent). Class differences continue to hold, regardless of the medium in question, as can be seen below in Table 2.

Table 2 – Young people’s participation in media, by social class (percentage)

Source: Ibase/Pólis, Juventude Brasileira e Democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas, 2005.

In order to better understand the relationship between information reception and production, other aspects of the process must be considered, albeit in general terms. As regards both information received and information produced, opportunities arise very unequally for young people from different social classes, levels of schooling and type of school.

A public policy designed for young people must provide not only alternative ways to access and communicate with young people, but also differentiated opportunities for youth to voice their opinions and demands. Serious consideration must be given to mass and alternative media, particularly television, when formulating a cultural policy to broadly contemplate Brazilian youth.

How they understand reality

In order to discover the quality of the information received by the young people, keeping in mind that 85.8 per cent claimed to be informed about what happens in the world, they were asked the meanings of seven acronyms and expressions of very different kinds. These were FTAA, ECA (Brazil’s Statute on Children), World Social Forum, Greenpeace, NGOs, UN and quota policies.

The choice of acronyms and expressions makes it possible to gauge the quality of information on international politics (FTAA and UN), social rights (ECA and quota policy) and about organized civil society (World Social Forum, NGOs and Greenpeace). For the same purpose, but focussing on Brazilian politics, they were asked to name the mayor of the city where they lived, the governor of their state and the President of Brazil.

Knowledge of the acronyms and expressions in the first block of questions was extremely poor. In order of correct answers, 30.4 per cent were able to give the meaning of UN; 21.5 per cent of NGOs; 15.8 per cent of FTAA; 9 per cent of Greenpeace; 3 per cent of quota policies; 2.8 per cent of ECA; and only 2 per cent of World Social Forum.

Table 3 – Young people who correctly answered the meaning of selected acronyms and expressions (percentage)

Source: Ibase/Pólis, Juventude Brasileira e Democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas, 2005.

The exposure given to the issues to which these expressions relate in the mass media, the quality of information the young people have access to and/or how interested they are in that information may explain why most of the young people could not define the acronyms and expressions.

When young people, and most people, watch television, read newspapers and magazines, listen to the radio or talk to friends and family, they do not grasp everything which is said, shown or talked about. There is a constant selection process that has to do with the life history of the individual involved in the communication process, the social context they find themselves in and what – consciously or not – they believe makes a difference in their lives. This, however, does not exempt the media from producing responsible, quality information that shares different points of view on the issue addressed, thereby giving the public more opportunity to form its opinion on the issues covered in an autonomous and democratic way.

However, it is important to draw attention to the fact that there are complexities to the communication process. Among these is the fact that the subject, in this case the young person, does not receive information passively, but rather grasps some information better, after mediation and elaboration at various levels. The acronyms UN and FTAA, which ranked, respectively first and third, have had a firm presence in the media for some time (particularly UN). In a period relatively close to the interview, the FTAA was the subject of a referendum throughout Brazil, which may have improve its score among those surveyed.

The acronym NGOs, which ranked second, has been very widespread in the last decade not just in information circulating in the mass media, but also in poor neighbourhoods, favelas and peripheral areas. Since the 1990s, NGOs have come to form part of many young people’s daily lives. Even if they do not directly take part in their activities, they have at least heard of them.

According to Sergio Haddad, chairman of the Brazilian Association of NGOs from 2000 to 2003, ‘NGOs are numerous, hard to count. (…) Since the Rio-92 Environment Conference, NGOs have become a presence in the media and in public debate’ (Caros Amigos magazine, November 2002). Greenpeace, which is also an NGO and ranked fourth, carries out spectacular actions which are featured in the media, and has spent several decades engaged in exploits of this kind. In addition, for the last few years, environment-related issues have formed part of the school curriculum (LDB – Law No. 9394/96), which may contribute to drawing young people’s attention to this subject.

Quota policies (3 per cent), the ECA (2,8 per cent) and the World Social Forum (2 per cent) ranked lowest. Despite the very recent, prominent national controversy over whether quota policies are workable and necessary, particularly at public universities, the meaning of these policies may still be abstract and unclear to most people. Although poor, black youth may be the main beneficiaries of quota policies, understanding of the term on the part of young people follows the same trend as described above. It was the younger, single, childless, white youth from classes A/B, with most schooling who attended private schools, who were most able to define the term.

It was after the survey ended, and particularly in 2006, that the media began to cover the debate over social and racial quotas as a mechanism for reserving places at public universities. Arguments for and against quotas appear recurrently, even though – especially racial – quotas were given most prominence when the issue first arose.

Government policies on ethnic and racial issues have been institutionalized in Brazil through the Special Secretariat for Racial Equality Policies (Secretaria Especial de Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial, Seppir), which has also helped make this debate more visible. It can be inferred that if the survey were carried out now, more young people would recognize the expression and be able to give its meaning correctly.²

The Statute on Children (ECA) represents a victory on the part of social movements from the early 1990s. Although it is an important legal mechanism guaranteeing the rights of young people up to 18 years of age, it continues to be unknown to most of these beneficiaries. This is very likely because the media did not cover it widely at the time of the survey, nor has it been widely publicized, particularly among the young people who could most benefit from it, such as the poor. The data indicate that young people in classes D/E are those who least knew what it meant (1.2 per cent), as well as those who attended public schools (2.3 per cent), with the percentage rising to 6.1 per cent among those who attended private schools.

Lastly, the least-known expression was the World Social Forum, which may still be considered a recent phenomenon. Although the Forum’s participants were largely young people, with 37.7 per cent of registered attendees between 14 and 24 years old in 2003, it remains a localized event. It appears annually in the media since 2001 when it was first held as a world event in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul.

In addition, participant profiling (2003) showed that it continued to be an elite gathering (36.2 per cent of the participants had been to university and 27.5 per cent had graduated) of social movement militants and organized civil society more generally (64.9 per cent of participants in 2003 belonged to a social movement or organization). Its impact and visibility continue to be restricted to those people in or close to the social movements universe.

When asked to name the President of Brazil, the governor of the state and the mayor of the city where they lived, most respondents (92.6 per cent) answered the first correctly; while 75.3 per cent were able to name the governor of their state and 85.8 per cent, the mayor of their city. It should be noted that the survey was conducted during an electoral year (2004) and period (October-November), which may have influenced the high number of correct answers.

Some trends, nonetheless, may be identified. One is that the young people have more information about what, in their view, may affect their lives most directly. Since Brazil is a country where politics is highly personalized -with much of the population voting for the person rather than the party, for instance – young people may recognize their representatives in the Executive Branch of Government (which is more highly valued than other powers) as the cause of their problems and look to them for possible solutions.

Beyond television

Although television figures as are the key source of information, when we examine the group of young people who gave the correct meaning of a variety of acronyms and expressions separately, television no longer appears so important, as shown in the table below.

Table 4 – Young people who answered the definition of acronyms and expressions correctly, by source or medium where they obtain information (percentage)

Source: Ibase/Pólis, Juventude Brasileira e Democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas, 2005.

In the table above, it can be seen that the young people who correctly identified the acronyms and expressions use other sources to obtain information about the world. The three most cited sources are Internet, teachers, and newspapers and magazines.

The sources of information mentioned by young people from classes A/B, on all the subjects were: newspapers and magazines, Internet and radio. These young people provided the highest number of correct answers on NGO, UN and quota policies. The situation is quite different when compared with the young people from classes D/E, that is, the poorest sector. In this case, the Internet is mentioned in relation to all subjects, followed by family, and newspapers and magazines. The poorest young people provided the most correct answers on the meanings of.

The situation with regard to young people from class C is rather interesting and deserves further attention. In this case teachers play a prevalent role in practically all of the subjects, followed by the Internet and newspapers and magazines. Television does not appear as a major source of information on any of the subjects involved. Young people from class C also demonstrated a level of information well above that of the young people from classes D/E.

Final remarks

The data presented here intends to be the basis for preliminary thinking on how far the information that young people report receiving via television has been adequate (more than informing and entertaining) for contributing to sound knowledge about what is happening in the world.

The young people generally show little understanding of the meaning of expressions related to public affairs. Although they report getting their information from TV, when called on to qualify that information, we observe the use of other sources, such as the Internet, even if superficially. Teachers are another reference mentioned, especially by the middle classes. Schooling level is another strong influence affecting whether young people call on other networks to access knowledge.

Although young people claim television to be their primary source of information, it can be inferred that this fact is not directly related to whether or not they understand what is reported there. After all, watching television is not necessarily an exclusive activity. Studies show that young people watch television while they study, listen to music, talk on the telephone and so on.

Also fitting here is the way television broadcasts public events, because often, although they are given exhaustive coverage, they are presented superficially. They are also submerged in an astounding welter of information pouring out in a series of images selected and edited by media companies.

Thought should also be given to the importance of constructing other ways of watching television, to denaturalize what is profoundly familiar to us. School would be one of the prime locations³ for this, however organizations engaged in democratizing society can also play a leading role by exploring people’s understanding of the media, what goes on behind the scenes, the ways information circulates and the relationship between ratings and the editorial function.

There is no doubt that television needs to be questioned both politically and sociologically about its images, sounds and its relationships (Bourdieu 1997: 12). However, since it is situated in a given context, the question arises: to what point could television be that different from the society it is part of? As Novaes warns,

Television is permeated by the tensions and contradictions of Brazil. And I think that, just as young people are society’s rear-view mirror, so young people mirror us, they are not different. Because the phase of youth is a time of experimentation, a time when identity is being created, television can also be a thermometer in that regard. (Novaes 2006)

It therefore seems that television is mainly performing an entertainment function, occupying young people’s idle moments, and making a limited contribution to their political and cultural education. Although we know that information goes beyond the plane of the simple transmission of facts, it is clear that the use of TV as entertainment alone adds little to stimulate more complex thinking about the needs of the world we live in.

As Adorno has already warned (1997), a television ‘habit’ is developing where television, like other mass media, is becoming the only stated content of information. Through the abundance of what it offers, it is diverting young people’s understanding from other agents present in the process of their education. We must make a detached appraisal of this utilization of symbols; discovering that would contribute to our better understanding of exactly what space television has taken up in the lives of the new generations.

If information cannot be divorced from education, it is fundamental to think about the communications media in public policy terms, so that the space that television occupies in our societies can contribute to prompt critical thinking or, as Bourdieu stresses, to prevent television, which ‘could have been a formidable instrument for direct democracy, from turning into an instrument of symbolic oppression’ (1997: 13). It is therefore essential for societies not to shirk the specific and extremely serious responsibility of shaping new generations, informed above all by critical thinking about one of these key agencies - television.

Notes

¹  The aim was to gauge how informed young people were on international politics (Free Trade Area of the Americas – FTAA and United Nations Organisation - UN), social rights (Statute on Children – ECA and quota policies – affirmative action policies) and on organized civil society (World Social Forum, NGOs and Greenpeace).

²  In July 2006, a major newspaper, the Folha de São Paulo, reported on an Instituto DataFolha opinion poll on this issue. In this poll 65 per cent of interviewees said they were in favour of adopting quotas for Afro-descendants at public universities. Approval diminished, however, among respondents with higher family income and schooling.

³  In the early 1980s, Brazilian philosopher, José Américo Mota Pessanha, argued emphatically for media to be included in school curricula, beginning in fundamental schooling. In 1997, with the implementation of the National Curricular Parameters, the following transverse themes were incorporated into school curricula: ethics; cultural plurality; environment; health; sexual orientation; work and consumption. The subject of media was not included.

References

Adorno, Theodor, Televisão e formação, http://www.educacaoonline.pro. br/art_televisao_e_formacao.asp?f_id_artigo=524. Translation: Wolfgang Leo.

Bourdieu, Pierre, Sobre a televisão, Jorge Zahar Ed. (Rio de Janeiro, 1997).

Champagne, Patrick, ‘A Visão Mediática’, in A miséria do mundo, Pierre

Bourdieu (coord.), Editora Vozes (Petrópolis, 1999).

Fischer, Rosa M. B., ‘O estatuto pedagógico da mídia: questões de análise’. Educação e Realidade, xxii/ii (1997), pp. 59-79, (Porto Alegre, 1997).

Haddad, Sergio, Interview in Caros Amigos magazine, November 2002.

Ibase & Pólis, Relatório nacional de pesquisa de opinião. Research Project Juventude Brasileira e democracia: participação, esferas e políticas públicas, Ibase, Pólis (March 2005).

Ibase & Secretaria Executiva do Fórum Social Mundial, ‘Pesquisa sobre o perfil dos participantes’, Coleção Fórum Social Mundial 2003, volume V, Ibase (Rio de Janeiro, 2003).

Novaes, Regina, Round table on youth and media. UFRGS. Canal Futura/

Rede Globo, Porto Alegre. Accessed on 13 November 2006. http:// www.intercom.org.br/boletim/a02n40/acontece_futura.shtml.

Salgado, Raquel Gonçalves, Pereira, Rita Marisa Ribes & Jobim e Souza, Solange, ‘Pela tela, pela janela: questões teóricas e práticas sobre infância e televisão’, Cadernos Cedes, xxv, lxv (Campinas, 2005). Available at: <http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-32622005000100002&lng=en&nrm=iso>. Accessed on 24 April 2007. Prepublication.

Document(s) 7 de 11