PROCESS BOOK Brazil and its mass media conglomeration as a case of study. The role of media in political representations. - German Palomeque
MY PROCESS DOCUMENTATION
Brazil and its mass media conglomeration as a case of study. The role of media in political representations. German Palomeque Student ID: 98324221 University of Applied Sciences Europe Bachelor Project Photography Prof. Michael Danner & Prof. Raffaele Gallo (So M.A.) January 13th, 2019 info@germanpalomeque.com
ABSTRACT
This thesis investigates the cover photographs of
three different Brazilian magazines, with regards to the question of how political actors of the Worker’s Party are displayed according to the editorial’s leaning. Considering the broad reach and massive impact of these editorial groups on public opinion, it appears necessary to analyze this question, especially in times of political turmoil and social disturbance.
The timeframe and focus of the analysis are set
between 2011 and 2017, a period when Brazil witnessed three major historical events: The imprisonment of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as well as the election and later impeachment of the country’s first female president Dilma Vana Rouseff. To comparatively analyze each cover’s representation of these political events, the qualitative method of visual content analysis is applied.Thereby, the findings provide evidence that three of the magazines are political biased, with Veja and Época presenting a clear tendency to portray the PT’s party members in a rather unfavorable way, contrasting with CartaCapital that display these political actors in a more favorable manner.
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CONTENT 01 Theory
01.1 First Steps
01.2 Research
01.3 Organizing the Content
01.4 Methodology & Analysis
02 Photo project
02.1 Aim of the project
02.2 Creative Process
02.3 Shooting Plans
02.4 Shooting at Brandenburger Tor
02.5 Shooting in Friedrichshain
02.6 Shooting of Riza Cรถrtlen
02.7 Editing & Printing
03 Evaluation 03.1 Evaluation
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01 THEORY 01.1 First Steps I believe that there is one common obstacle in every project: The start. It was challenging to start working on my Bachelor Thesis, and I am sure that I am not the only student experiencing this issue. The first thing that I did to begin the process was to pick a topic that truly interests me. Something I experienced. Challenging to accept, my own family and friends were (and are) very influenced by the media they consume. The situation is worst in the case of my parents, who belong to a generation that would hardly ever question whether what they see on TV or read in the newspaper is or is not real. Previously I wrote a term paper, analyzing the cover photographs from two Argentinean newspapers. During this project, I have received feedback that I have an ability to discuss political issues without showing bias to a particular political inclination. The next step of the process then was to define the scope of the study. In order to do this, I took the opportunity to run a workshop during Emily Smith’s class, asking students from different parts of the world to bring three photographs from their country’s politicians. One of the images should portray the subject in a positive light, one neutral and the last one in a negative light. Then, I mixed the portraits and separated the class into groups. Each group was given a selection of photographs where they edit and organize the portraits according to what they interpret as positive, negative or neutral. Lastly, we compare the results with the actual intention of each student.
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The results from this workshop were that media manipulation exists worldwide and I could use this as a case of study. From Australia to Russia, every country has diverse media conglomerates that manipulate people’s opinions towards public figures. Inspired by a Netflix documentary called “The edge of democracy”, I decided that I wanted to use the PT party (Worker’s Party) from Brazil as an example. The decision was based on its unprecedented events: The first chosen female president was impeached (Dilma Rouseff), and Luis Ignacio da Silva (ex-president of Brazil) was accused of corruption, facing 12 years of prison. The documentary points out the role of media in this political turmoil, and this triggered my interest in this topic in particular.
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01.2 Research What followed was a journey into understanding the dynamics of the Brazilian political arena. I began to get to know the diverse actors and the key events that shaped Brazil’s history. Many conversations about the topic with Brazilian friends helped me to verify the collected information and also to add more insights about my neighboring country’s history. Hundreds of essays already exist covering from different perspectives the role of media in the coverage of specific Brazilian political events. On the one hand, the amount of information was really helpful, but it was also a bit overwhelming. Another aspect to highlight: many of these studies were written in Portuguese but they helped me as a guide towards finding other monographs and further information. Such as which magazines to include in my analysis: Because I wanted to provide the reader with a wide political spectrum, I chose to work with three main magazines. Two of them could be seen as having a rather conservative political approach (Veja and Epoca) in contrast to the third one (Carta Capital) which has a more independent and left-wing stand. One key aspect from the beginning was a website called “Media Ownership Monitor”. It is a German-based project that aims to provide information about media concentration in different countries. This website aims to create awareness towards the presence of the same media group in diverse platforms, such as radio, tv and print outlets. The Iberoamericanische library played a key role while looking for information about Brazil’s history. It also stocks Brazilian magazines, but not precisely the ones I use later in the analysis. Retrieving the magazines that I ultimately used for my study was not easy: Firstly, I tried to subscribe to Veja’s and Carta Capital’s web portals (Epoca was
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not necessary due to their accessible archive). The difficulty with subscribing was because I have never had a residency in Brazil, which is a condition to gain access to the magazine. I eventually solved this issue accessing the covers through Google, which was especially challenging in the case of Carta Capital, which was somehow more difficult to find than the other two.
01.3 Organizing content After reading many articles, monographs, and essays on my topic, I had to condense the research scope. I simply could not include it all. This was a hard task but luckily Raffaele helped me to distinguish between the more and the less relevant content: I mainly had to reduce the theoretical framework in order to prioritize the photographic aspect of my work. This meant that I could not dive deep into the political side of the matter (challenging though, because this aspect really interests me). Consequently, I structured the content simply in two chapters (see previous index in the image below).
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The first chapter provided the background information necessary to understand the socio-political context of the magazine covers. This segment included a quick overview of Brazilian history; information on the main political actors portrayed on the covers as well as insights on the PT party and the media groups owning the magazines. The second chapter then contained the actual analysis of the cover photographs. After explaining the applied methodology and why it was selected for my work, I addressed the reasons behind the selection of the nine covers of my study. Lastly, I performed the analysis of the cover photographs and formulated a conclusion.
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01.4 Methodology & Analysis As a method of analysis, I used Qualitative Visual Content Analysis. I chose to focus on three variables: Social distance, Visual Modality, and Behavior. For all of them, I defined a set of values. I was then ready to start analyzing the cover photographs. It was really helpful to use the chosen methodology as a guide in order to analyze the different aspects of the images. I have to admit that this was the most interesting part of the whole process because it was most practically related to photography. In order to ensure my objectivity and to avoid missing important details, I exchanged thoughts and brainstormed together with a friend. My aim thereby was not so much to analyze all possible details of the images but to focus on the most relevant aspects relating to my research question.
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02 PROJECT 02.1 Aim The practical part aimed to reflect the theoretical part in images. Being free from the academic framework, I could (finally) fully express myself with a series of images that support my research findings.
02.2 Creative Process It was clear to me from the beginning that I wanted to show the same event in different ways. Something that inspired me was Barbara Probst’s series where she displays photos of the same instant taken from different perspectives. She creates this effect by locating a set of cameras in different places around the subject. This enables the viewer to draw a whole set of interpretations of the scene. This way, the viewer is the one who connects all the images and creates their owns story. Having clear that I wanted to show the same event from different perspectives (in accordance with the theory part), I then needed to define what and how exactly I wanted to photograph. As my written work relates to politics, I wanted to keep addressing socio-political matters in my photographic work. One of my series realtes to the brutal military repression in the Chilenean demonstrations of November and December 2019. The second set works with the idea that media sometimes misrepresents facts, victimizing or idealizing certain actors. Last but not least, I wanted to include a real life politician in my work, providing a more complete vision on how media could manipulate viewer perceptions according to their political leaning.
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02.3 Shootings plan and Medium I knew from the start that I wanted to have these three series. The planning phase consisted of gathering and organizing the resources needed for each shooting: For some of them I need to contact people, get props or get specific equipment. I listed all the necessary items on a list that later on helped me with the overall time management, avoiding last minute stress. Regarding the medium, I chose to shoot with a Pentax 645Z medium format to get a high level of detail on each photograph from the series. I’ve never shot with this camera before, so it added a complexity level that at the beginning I kind of struggled with (I could not lock the focus or deal with other technical aspects that I would not have had if I had used my camera). However, later on I enjoyed this new experience especially regarding the results. There is a huge quality gap between my Canon 5D mark ii and this beauty. I made usage of my camera too, however, when I asked for friends’ assistance with doing backstage photos from the diverse shootings.
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02.1 Shooting at Brandenburger Tor This shooting turned out much differently than I expected. I was in contact with a group of Chilenean people, trying to explain my project and how I wanted to portray this topic of the military brutality in their country. I heard from them that they will gather at Brandenburger Tor on a Friday that occasionally matched with a Fridays For Future demonstration. While I was there trying to find this group, I met a person from Guatemala. We started talking and it turned out that his girlfriend is from Chile and was also looking for the same group of people. After 20 minutes, she returned to us, and by the time she arrived, I had already introduced the whole project to her partner (and almost convinced him to participate). Sadly, neither her or me succeded in finding the group of Chilenian people. Consequently, I spontaneously invited them instead to be part of my project. To release pressure, I told them that the shooting would just be for testing proposes. For this shooting, I had bought materials to craft an eye patch in a farmacy, that I later on applied to their faces. The implementation was kind of easy and did not take long (surprisingly, as it was the first time I put an eye patch).
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02 Photo Project
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For the shooting, I chose a spot that would show people demonstrating without giving away too much about the topic of the demo. That was my intention here: I wanted to have the general demo atmosphere without its specific cause. I aimed at having three good pictures of each model: one of them close up, emphasizing the subject’s facial expression; one of their fists, symbolizing violence and thirdly, one from a further distance allowing the viewer to note the environment and the surrounding situation. While I took the photos, a girl approached me saying that she had observed us and was wondering what we were doing. She was also from Chile and when I explained the project idea, she said that she would be interested in participating. Regarding the photo directions that I gave: I told them to mentally travel to Chile. To imagine what was going on there at the moment and what the military is doing. To think of themselves or their families as possible victims. By doing this, I aimed to get them into a certain state that later on can be spotted in their gaze. Actually, in one of the girl’s portrait, one can see she is close to crying. This shooting was quite special and felt unique for me. I connected deeply with the subjects and I think this can be seen in the images.
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02.2 Shooting at Friedrichshain This shooting required a lot of time and effort. The first challenge was recruiting 22 people (without paying them). I posted this invitation (see below) on diverse social media platforms and somehow it worked out. I wanted to have at least 15 people in order to achieve the feeling of a usual demonstration. I imagined that this was the minimum number of people needed to create this effect. Something else that increased the complexity of the task was that I have never handled a drone before. After two technical meetings with Eric from the arsenal however and one extra practice by myself, I felt confident enough to give it a go. Furthermore, it was an extra challenge to handle that many people at the same time. I had to direct their moves and attitude. I achieved that through a short introductory explanation about my intention with this shooting. I emphasized that surely we should have fun and enjoy, but also brought awareness to the fact that we all needed to be focused on the undertaking. A really good photograph could be ruined by someone laughing or not really being involved in the acting. I also encouraged them to adopt a sense of togetherness, in order to convey a believable impression of an actual demonstration. Another detail that helped to enhance the authenticity of this series’ photographs were several signs that I had made in advance using the wood from fruit boxes and cardboard.
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02 Photo Project
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I chose the shooting location considering that the end of that street was under construction and we would be totally undisturbed there. Also, I loved the mosaic-like pavement pattern of that specific street, which I knew would look great from a cenital view. I was really lucky with the weather: it was raining one hour before the shooting but I was sure it would stop in time. Indeed, the rain stopped five minutes before the shooting started, which made it much easier to have everyone comfortable (Even though my magic powers could not tackle the coldness of that day). Overall, I can conclude that this shooting was one of the most challenging that I have ever done. To direct more than 20 people by myself while flying and taking photos with a drone, plus using an unfamiliar camera made it a great challenge.
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02.3 Shooting With Riza Cรถrtlen After many e-mails in German (thanks to Michael Danner for helping me optimize the formulations), I managed to set up an appointment with Riza Cรถrtlen. He is a member of Die Partei, a German political party that has a satirical approach to politics. Coincidently, I did a commission for a Berliner magazine about two years ago where I had the chance to meet Riza. Since then, I was amazed by his office (see photo below) and his down to earth attitude. In contrast to the previous two shootings, where I had a clear idea in my mind of how the final result would look like, the process of this shooting was more unpredictable. I was unsure whether he would follow through on my ideas which felt a bit stressful.
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02 Photo Project
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That stress started to vanish at the moment when I arrived at the office and started talking to him: He is a really approachable person and enabled me to explore different possibilities for the photos that I had in mind. In the beginning, I told him that this session was quite special to me because it was the last shooting of the whole BA project (and therefore also the last shooting for university). Then, I briefly explained to him the core idea of my project. After showing him a couple of photos from the staged demonstration, he got the idea of what I was looking for and consequently he engaged more excitedly. I used a ring LED light, which I think fits perfectly with the bizarreness of his office (and outfit). Due to his easy-going personality and engagement in the shooting, it was quite fun overall.
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02 Photo Project
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02.4 Editing & Printing Once I printed all the photo material, I had a meeting with Michael Danner to discuss how I could present my work. This task was not easy at all: I had a clear arrangement idea in mind and Michael challenged me, offering diverse possibilities. Considering that I chose a big space to display my work (I count with 6.5 meters long space on a high wall), I originally imagined to arrange them in the form of three horizontal rows, one for each set. He, however, suggested trying out how they would look if we mixed them. This setting actually looked much more interesting indeed: It forces the viewer to observe the whole wall in order to put the pieces together. Eventually, we decided on printing five photos from the shooting at the Brandenburger Tor in A1; four pictures of the demonstration in A2 and eight pictures of Riza Cรถrtlen in A3. At this stage of my process, I still have to decide on how exactly to display my photos on the wall. Currently, I am working on the draft (that simulates how they will be distributed) that is shown on the next page. Lastly, we thought about creating a small magazine that referencing the way on how media could displaythe image of Riza to the members of the political party. It would display different merchandaising products with Riza face, such as pins, mugs, flags, etc.
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03 EVALUATION 03.01 Evaluation Finally, I would like to make a brief self-evaluation of the whole project. Overall, I think that I succeeded in the creation of an exciting project. Even though it took a lot of effort, I am glad to have chosen a topic that kept my interest throughout the whole process. In regards to the theoretical part, I think that if the research on it would be extended and done more in-depth, it has the potential of being published in the future. Something that I could have done better on the other hand is my time management, avoiding last-minute stress. Another aspect to improve in is my academic writing skills. If I had not had my native speaker friends to proofread and correct the grammar of my work, I am sure that the outcome would not have been the same. When it comes to the practical part, I think I have one key aspect to reconsider. Perhaps it is because of my graphical approach towards photography, but from the beginning, I visualized a 3x3 grid with nine photos in total as the outcome of the whole practical project. This was, on one hand, an advantage because it helped me to organize the shootings. On the other hand, I feel that it limited my creativity during the rest of the process. To conclude, I want to highlight that this project really offered me the opportunity to experiment with new techniques, like flying a drone and using a camera that I am not used to. This taught me to quickly adapt to changes and also to keep exploring diverse medium possibilities. It was also important to me to have had the chance to apply several skills gained in the last years of studies throughout this project.
Declaration I declare that the following bachelor’s process book on Brazil and its mass media conglomeration as acase of study has been written only by the undersigned and without any assistance from third parties. Furthermore, I confirm that no sources have been used in the preparation of this process book other than those indicated within the work itself.
German Palomeque Berlin, January 13th 2020