Research Articles Television's Interpellation: Heeding, Missing, Ignoring, and Resisting the Call...

Research ArticlesRICHARD PACE

Television’s Interpellation: Heeding, Missing,Ignoring, and Resisting the Call for Pan-NationalIdentity in the Brazilian Amazon

ABSTRACT In this article, I focus on the ways in which audiences in the Amazonian community of Gurupa respond to television’s

interpellation for pan-national identity. I examine how viewers heed, miss, ignore, and resist the call for identity as well as how their

various responses to this “call” shape their worldview and behavior and impact the process of nation building. Utilizing audience

ethnography over a 25-year period, I show in this study how televisual messages are contextualized and localized, mitigating the forces

of nationalistic homogenization. [Keywords: television, audience ethnography, national identity, Brazilian Amazon]

A LTHOUGH ANTHROPOLOGY is a relative new-comer to the field of television studies, over the past

few decades a small but growing number of researchers havebeen hard at work creating a theoretical and methodologi-cal niche for the discipline (see Ginsburg 2005; Osorio 2005;Peterson 2003).1 Prominent among their contributions areethnographies examining the scope and magnitude of tele-vision’s influence over audiences—particularly the extentto which viewers in different cultural settings accept, re-work, ignore, or subvert televisual messages and how thisprocess might affect their worldview and behavior. Thesestudies go to the heart of ongoing debates in media studiesover the extent of viewer passivity and agency in responseto television texts as well as the role of ethnography in un-derstanding media use and effect in everyday experience(see Abercrombie and Longhurst 1998; Bird 2003; Creeber2006; Kitzinger 2004).

Of particular interest to this work is viewer responseto television’s interpellation for pan-national identity.2 Ac-ceptance of and adherence to the ideals of pan-nationalidentity, as a form of “imagined community,” are funda-mental to maintaining a relatively stable and presumablylegitimate polity or regime, which is a common goal fornation states regardless of size, cultural diverseness, or po-litical system (Anderson 1991; Appadurai 1990).3 Yet, thereare many cases where the spread of pan-national identityfails to create solidarity, triggering unexpected responsesranging from indifference to resistance (Creed 2004). These

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 111, Issue 4, pp. 407–419, ISSN 0002-7294 online ISSN 1548-1433. C© 2009 by the American Anthropological Association.All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2009.01151.x

alternative responses can challenge stability, nullify unity,and disrupt nation building.

The research presented here is a case study examin-ing the ways televiewers heed, miss, ignore, and resist thecall for pan-national identity as well as how their responsesto this “call” influence their worldview and behavior andimpact nation building. It is an audience ethnography ofthe agroextractivist community of Gurupa, located alongthe Amazon River in the state of Para, Brazil.4 The studyspans 25 years and incorporates thousands of hours of be-havior observation and informal interviews as well as datafrom interviews schedules administered in 1986, 1999, and2007.

THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS

Within television studies, there is a contentious rift be-tween researchers prioritizing media influence (e.g., thepower of the text) and researchers emphasizing activeaudiences (e.g., viewers’ ability to mediate messages;see Corner 2000:383). The result is a paradigmatic impasse,fueling polemic critiques of opposing approaches (Kitzinger2004:24; see also Rajagopal 2001:24–25). The research Ipresent here will not escape these critiques, even though itattempts to bridge the gap by gauging the relative strengthof television influence vis-a-vis viewers’ ability to medi-ate it. The approach is a variation of what Jenny Kitzinger(2004:16, 192) calls “New Media Influence” research. Build-ing on cultivation analysis (Gerbner 1970), and in my

408 American Anthropologist • Vol. 111, No. 4 • December 2009

case understood within an ethnographic context (Kottak1990), this approach focuses on the ways television impactsviewers over time through a variety of textual processeswhile simultaneously accounting for viewers’ ability to rein-terpret, filter out, or subvert messages using culture andpersonal experiences (Corner 2000:384; Creeber 2006:95;Kitzinger 2004:14–15).5 It is a nuanced approach attempt-ing to weigh media power through an understanding ofviewers’ responses as “products of time and place, embed-ded in power structures, shaped by patterns of everydaylife, conventions, common sense and language” (Kitzinger2004:189).

The “New Media Influence” approach allows re-searchers to hone in on the impact of socially and politicallymotivated representations of reality that are constructedfrom particular—frequently hegemonic or ideological—points of view (Abu-Lughod 2005:43; Creeber 2006:1).6

These representations are generated by a power elite andassociated cadre of writers and producers (however diverseor fractious) who try to interpellate television viewers intoacceptance of or submission to certain social roles andpossibilities of citizenship through the promotion of pre-ferred views on nationalism, modernity, development, andso forth.7 This is not to say that preferred messages em-bedded in programs are always coherent, that viewers willautomatically accept them (as shown in this research), oreven that they are always manifest or foremost in theminds of the creators (Fiske 1987; see also Abu-Lughod2005:12–13 for a discussion of ideological “slippage”). Inspite of this, researchers do find viewer acceptance (some-times widespread acceptance) of ideological themes in pro-gramming, particularly when program creators or pro-ducers and program viewers share similar backgrounds(Creeber 2006:95; Kitzinger 2004:186–187, 190). Whenthey do not share similar backgrounds, as in this case study,pivotal questions focus on how and why viewers heed, miss,ignore, and resist the ideological interpellations.

PAN-NATIONAL IDENTITIES, REGIONAL IDENTITIES,AND TELEVISION

Although television’s role in the production and dissemi-nation of pan-national identity is complex, it is nonethe-less an “essential technology” for nation building, in thatit reaches large audiences, who need not be literate, withpowerful portrayals of unity constructed from experiencesthat all viewers are assumed to share (Abu-Lughod 2005:9;Morley 1992:255). These portrayals provide viewers with asense of belonging through shared culture, language, ideol-ogy, religion, or history while defining a core of norms, re-sponsibilities, and duties for citizenship. At the same time,these representations may also conceal and deflect acutescrutiny of the power used to sustain regimes, cover upsocial inequalities, and suppress citizen discontent (Abu-Lughod 2005:9; Mankekar 1999:65).

Of key significance to anthropology is how viewers re-spond to television’s interpellation. For the last two and a

half decades, I have investigated and analyzed the dynamicbetween the call for pan-Brazilian identity and the persis-tence of regional identity in Gurupa (see Figure 1). Thecommunity has proven to be an intriguing research site,given its long history of geographic isolation from the restof Brazil and, until recently, its tenuous connection to na-tional culture. The first real-time media connection to otherparts of the nation only occurred in the late 1940s withthe arrival of battery-powered radio (Wagley 1976:279), fol-lowed in 1982 by the community’s first limited receptionof television broadcasts. I began research in the communityin 1983, before it was widely exposed to television, provid-ing me with the rare opportunity to observe the phasingin of the medium. Combined with earlier studies (Galvao1955; Wagley 1976), a unique before-and-after perspectiveemerged. This longitudinal viewpoint also facilitated theisolation of television’s impact from other media, such asprint (which has historically been limited both in terms ofavailability as well as the population’s ability to read it),videos/DVDs (recently introduced), and Internet (recentlyintroduced but with very limited access).

Residents of Gurupa fit comfortably into the regionalculture, here referred to as Amazonida culture. It consistsof the small-town and rural inhabitants of the region,along with some urban counterparts who are not indi-genes (ındios) nor recent (1960s–2000s) migrants comingfrom other parts of Brazil. In the social-science literature,they are variously known as agroextractivists, traditionalpeoples, peasants, or caboclos (a derogatory term meaning,among other things, half-breed). The culture spans the en-tire breadth of the Amazon basin, encompassing one-halfthe rural population (Hall 1997:70).8 Between Amazonidaculture and the rest of Brazil, there are substantial differ-ences in historical and ethnic backgrounds, ecological adap-tations, religious beliefs, worldviews, and linguistic dialects(Ribeiro 2000:215–238; Wagley 1971:23 ff.). Given thesefeatures, the introduction of television—with its call forpan-Brazilian identity and its focus on constructing “na-tional unity through communication” (Tavola 1983:26)—should significantly impact the community.

THE SETTING

Gurupa is a rural municipality and municipal seat in thestate of Para, located about 500 nautical miles upriver fromthe city of Belem. The town population is approximately7,000, surrounded by the 9,309-square-kilometer munici-pality with a population of 16,614 (Instituto Brasileiro deGeografia e Estatıstica 2008). Access to the municipalityis primarily by river boat because there are no connect-ing overland routes and air transportation is irregular andcostly. People earn a living through the extraction of forestproducts, subsistence agriculture, some wage labor in town,and considerable migration to other locales in the regionfor wage labor. Approximately 95 percent of the popula-tion is comprised of the working poor and peasantry, whilethe remaining five percent fall into the lower middle class in

Pace • Amazon TV 409

FIGURE 1. Commercial district and port of Gurupa. (Photograph by author)

Brazilian terms. Since the 1980s, the town has had six hoursa day of electricity, which increased to 24 hours a day inthe late 1990s. The rural interior, however, lacks electricityunless a household can afford a diesel-powered generator.

Television first arrived in 1982, but with problematicreception and an expensive price tag. Only three familiescould afford the luxury. In 1986, the federal government in-stalled a municipal satellite dish, which greatly facilitatedreception. Combined with changes in the national econ-omy that reduced inflation and the mass production oflow-cost television sets that consumers could buy throughinstallments, television ownership in Gurupa rapidly accel-erated. Table 1 lists the expansion of TV ownership, whereasTable 2 calculates the TV exposure rates for the three sur-veys administered as part of this research.9

TABLE 1. Television Ownership in the Town of Gurupa

Percentageof sample

Town Number of with apopulation TV sets satellite

Year estimate (∗estimate) dish (%)

1982 2,800 3 —1986 3,000 86 01999 6,200 700∗ 34.42007 7,000 1,000∗ 24.6

PAN-NATIONAL INTERPELLATION

Since Brazilian television’s inception in 1950s, the govern-ment and members of the intellectual elite have chargedthe networks with the task of promoting national unitythrough the creation of a pan-national identity (Ham-burger 1999:93; Kottak 1990:36–37; La Pastina 1999:18;Machado-Borges 2003:31; Mader 1993:70; Mattos 2002:34–35; Tufte 2000:71). The ideal pattern to be diffused to allregions of Brazil was the middle- and upper-class lifestyleof the southeastern states, with bourgeois sector of thecity of Rio de Janeiro being the most favored setting(Kottak 1990:49; Mattelart and Mattelart 1990:80). Pro-grammers hoped that a core of Brazilian cultural traitsmight be created through viewer observation of everythingfrom eating habits, leisure activities, dressing styles, deco-rating styles, linguistic patterns, and product-consumptionhabits to common views on modernity, ethnicity and race,class, and gender (Machado-Borges 2003:31; Vink 1988).

TABLE 2. Television Exposure Rates in the Town of Gurupa perSurvey Samples

1986 1999 2007Time watching (n = 69) (n = 95) (n = 65)

Mean years 1.9 13.1 22.3Mean daily hours 0.6 4.2 2.2


TABLE 3. Most Preferred Television Program

Program type 1986 (%) 1999 (%) 2007 (%)

Telenovela 42 44 54National news 6 22 3Films 21 13 28Sports 3 14 11Documentaries 0 0 4Other (humor, cartoons, 28 7 0

series, variety)

Globo, Brazil’s dominant television network created duringand by the military dictatorship, openly heeded the callof the state and elite and explicitly began exhibiting thisidealized version of “Brazilianness” while downplaying re-gionalism (Machado-Borges 2003:31; Mader 1993:70).10

The principal vehicles for message dissemination, bothcultural and political, have been the prime-time telen-ovelas and national newscasts. Telenovelas, in particular,are the most widely watched and likely the most pow-erful programming in terms of disseminating preferredmessages.11 They are melodramatic series that are pro-duced domestically, broadcast during prime time six nightsa week, and end after six or seven months of airtime

FIGURE 2. Family viewing. (Photograph by Heather Lee)

(Kottak 1990:39). Females and males of all age groups watchthem, and the storylines—and the issues they raise—are dis-cussed throughout Brazilian society (La Pastina 2001:545;Reis 2000:204).

VIEWER RESPONSE IN GURUPA

Since the 1980s, Gurupa televiewers have been repeatedlyinterpellated by programming to join in national unity,adopt a pan-Brazilian lifestyle and worldview, and consumeproducts advertised on television. Globo has been the prin-cipal network disseminating these views and the only chan-nel available without a private satellite dish. One hundredpercent of the 1986 survey sample reported it as their most-watched channel, followed by 85 percent in 1999, and 77percent in 2007. Among program types, the telenovela isthe favorite program reported by the survey samples (seeTable 3).

From my research, I have observed four general waysin which viewers respond to televisions’ interpellation (alsosee Hall 1992; Wilk 2002:289–290; see Figure 2). The firstis heeding, or accepting, the preferred messages. Heeding israrely accomplished without some degree of interpretation,negotiation, and reworking; the amount of reworking de-pends on the viewers’ background and familiarity with the


content (i.e., cultural capital as defined by Pierre Bourdieu[1984]). But, in general, viewers understand and accept thepreferred message. The second method of response is miss-ing the preferred message. In these cases, the viewers lackthe background and familiarity with the content that isrequired to recognize and understand what is being com-municated; the messages simply go unnoticed. The thirdresponse is ignoring. Here messages are noticed but are in-terpreted as uninteresting, unintelligible, or plainly false.The last response is resisting. Messages are understood asfalse, misleading, or as a threat to the preferred or acceptedworldview. Instead of ignoring these messages, the responseis to subvert them by articulating alternative viewpoints.These viewpoints rely on other sources of available infor-mation, such as that coming from churches, political par-ties, unions, family members, friends, and so forth. As anote of caution, these four responses are not mutually ex-clusive. A viewer can accept some messages incorporatedinto a program, miss or ignore others, and resist still others(see Mankekar 1999:27).

Heeding Interpellation

During fieldwork, I observed two basic forms of heeding:alterations in social behavior and shifts in worldview. Al-though I found many examples of each, here I review onlya few of the more substantive cases.

Media engagement. To heed pan-national identity inter-pellation, viewers first had to develop the habit of watch-ing television. Given the initial scarcity of sets, this was adaunting task, requiring new rules for visitation, public ac-cess, and viewing etiquette (Pace 1993). A number of newspectatorship habits evolved, such as people in town promi-nently displaying their sets in open windows facing thestreet. The sets were conspicuously left on with the volumeblaring whether or not someone inside was watching andeven when poor signals reduced reception to static. Com-munal viewership (at least through windows and doorways)became mandatory for television owners, and transgressorswere sanctioned (see Pace 1993). Other habits of spectator-ship included absolute silence (even during commercials), afixed gaze on the screen, no undertaking of additional tasks(even for the crowds standing outside), and almost no bodymovement (even for children).

Additionally, there was widespread displacement ofpublic activities: the termination of the nightly promenadethrough the streets of town is a prime example. Before thewidespread presence of television, between 7:00 p.m. and10:00 p.m. each night, community members would strolldown the first two streets to visit, share news, and gossip.With the spread of television, however, nearly all Guru-paenses (people from Gurupa) began to heed the medium’sevening call, and few wandered the streets at night to social-ize. Televiewing also preempted festivals, religious services,and even night school, each of which had to be timed so asnot to interfere with the nightly telenovelas and news. With

the end of the nightly promenade, an important space forlocal identity formation was lost—just as a new space fornational identity formation emerged through the expand-ing mediascape.

By 2007, media engagement habits changed greatly.Communal viewing was no longer mandatory, given the in-crease in television sets throughout the town. Sets were stillprominently displayed in open windows in many homesduring daytime, but at night most doors and shutters wereclosed, thereby blocking viewing access (closing shuttersreduced the number of mosquitoes in homes, because fewhouses had glass windows or screens). Inside homes, amongsmaller audiences, people were more apt to converse dur-ing programming. Gazes were less frequently fixed on thescreen, and viewers moved about during programming.People often combined televiewing with other tasks. In ad-dition, the town’s very public nightlife returned as peopleonce again ventured out into the streets to socialize. Un-like the pretelevision days, big public events, like concertsand community-wide festivals, were scheduled to start af-ter the last telenovela ended (around 10:00 p.m.). But therewere lots of exceptions for smaller-scale festivities that wereconducted regardless of whether they coincided with televi-sion programming. The medium’s powerful draw appearedto have abated, tempered by time, as Gurupaenses felt lessneed to heed its call—or at least not to heed it every night(see Reis 2000:241 for comparison). This trend is also sug-gested by the drop in mean hours watched in the surveysamples from 4.2 in 1999 to 2.2 in 2007 (see Table 2). Thisshift in behavior foreshadowed modifications in identityformation as well.

Discourse communities. Identities are formed linguisti-cally as discursive constructions (pathways to identity) incorrelation with social relationships (Barker 1999:23). Thisrequires shared language, symbols, and representations,for which television is a major medium of dissemination(Barker 1999:31). Television talk, or a television-discoursecommunity, is a common way that these elements are givencultural relevance through interpretive discourse (Katz andLiebes 1984; Lull 1988; Wilk 2002). In Gurupa, participatingin the television-discourse community has provided muchnovel information that allows viewers to rethink nationalidentity.

Of the many topics circulating through Gurupa’s TVtalk, I found that texts with international focus have madethe most obvious impact on pan-national identity forma-tion. These texts were also the most likely to be accepted inan uncritical fashion, as most viewers had few alternativesources of information to assess or challenge them (see Linsda Silva 1985:139 for similar comments). Whether it wasBrazil’s opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq or a disputed callagainst the national team in the World Cup soccer compe-tition, opinions varied little from the preferred nationalisticposition. These televisual messages functioned well to cre-ate feelings of national unity, especially when contrasted


with an objectified international “other” whose foreignnessaccentuated Brazilian “sameness” (for similar observations,see Wilk 2002:295 for Belize and Hamilton 2002:166 forThailand).

One salient example I observed in Gurupa occurredin 2005 during the airing of America, a telenovela thatfollowed the experience of an undocumented Brazilianwoman working in the United States. While in Gurupa,I was approached by many people who were eager to dis-cuss the differences between U.S. and Brazilian cultures.I remember commenting on cross-cultural emotional re-sponses, proxemics, gender roles, wealth, and religion. Forthe first time in Gurupa, I heard people talk about theirBrazilian ways (jeitos brasileiros), contrasted with local ways(costumes daqui) and distinguished from “American” ways.By joining the discourse community, Gurupaenses envi-sioned themselves as Brazilians as never before; mean-while, the experience sharpened the boundaries for regionalidentity.

Another way in which the television-discourse commu-nity works is through the introduction of new vocabulary.One example among many I observed was the use of theterm gringo, which in national usage refers primarily to peo-ple from the United States but can also include Europeans.Prior to the 1990s, I never heard anyone use the word inGurupa. By the 1990s, however, Gurupaenses had encoun-tered the label in a number of television shows. When Ireturned to Gurupa in 1999, people referred to me for thefirst time as a “gringo.” I soon noticed that they lumpedall “Americanos” and Europeans together as gringos. Sur-prisingly, Brazilians of European descent from the south,as well as Brazilians of Asian descent, were also labeledas gringos—much to their chagrin. Apparently, people inGurupa appropriated the term from television and appliedit to their lives in an “us” versus “them” dichotomy. In thisview, the gringo was anyone not from the north, especiallyif they had what Gurupaenses considered European or Asianfeatures. Gurupaenses responded to television’s interpella-tion for a national discourse community but reworked themessage to also signify regional identity.

Consumerism. A fundamental message conveyedthrough Brazilian television programming is the desir-ability of capitalist culture and the need for consumerism(Kottak 1990:23; La Pastina 2001:547; Vink 1988:242).Advertisements and programming in general attemptto structure the nature of consumerist desire and offerpossibilities to satisfy it. In Gurupa, this has been onlymarginally successful, given the weak purchasing power ofthe consumers. Nevertheless, the impact of consumeristinterpellation can be seen in the modest increases in typesand quantity of consumables in stores and households.

More pertinent to this section, however, is the possi-bility that heeding consumerist interpellation might con-tribute to a sense of pan-national identity. Others havemade such a case. In a study of Papua New Guinea, for ex-

ample, Robert Foster (1999:250, 270) noted that consump-tion of advertised goods was a powerful way to “materializenationality”—in a sense forming an imagined communityof consumption. In the same fashion, Thaıs Machado-Borges found, in her study of televiewers in the Braziliancity of Belo Horizonte, that consumption produced “a feel-ing of belonging, a feeling of collective participation in na-tional rituals and national passions” (2003:203–204).

In Gurupa, I recorded a number of such cases. Of partic-ular note was the consumption of Brahma Beer (a nationalbrand) during the 2002 World Cup soccer championship.The beer company was a major sponsor, and they ran ad-vertisements persistently during the monthlong event. Asa result, according to the merchants and bar owners, con-sumption of Brahma beer surged sharply, outpacing con-sumption of the generally more popular regional beers. Theincrease eventually precipitated the placement of an “emer-gency” order to specially ship in more beer by river boat.When I asked my consultants the reason behind the surgein Brahma Beer consumption, all pointed to the televisionadvertisements, adding that drinking the beer during thecompetition made them feel more Brazilian. One individ-ual declared to me, “I drink Brahma because I am a Brazilian.This is Brazil’s beer” (interview, June 12, 2002).

Development and best place to live. When asked todefine development (desenvolvimento), most Gurupaensesconceptualized the process as the creation of wage-laborjobs through rapid industrial growth—a view propagatedthrough the national media since the 1960s. When I askedfor specifics, the idea was localized. What Gurupa neededto develop was wage-labor jobs secured through a saw millor heart-of-palm–processing plant. Once wage-earning jobswere established, my consultants insisted, prosperity (pri-marily in terms of increased consumption) would naturallyfollow.

Hints of change in the conceptualization of develop-ment, however, began to emerge in the late 1990s. Incipientenvironmental and sustainable-development discourses ap-peared within the community. Far from being a preferredmessage broadcast through the mass media, these messageswere introduced by the Catholic Church and an NGO op-erating in Gurupa called the Federacao de Orgaos de As-sistencia Social e Educacional [Federation of Social and Ed-ucational Assistance Entities (FASE)]. After much work byFASE, assisted by the rural union and the Workers’ Party(Partido dos Trabalhadores), Gurupaenses were able to estab-lish extractive reserves and sustainable-development plansfor large parts of the municipality (Oliveira 2002; Pace2004). Preservation of the rain forest through economic ac-tivities deemed sustainable became the focus. These actionsdivided the community, with many accepting the valueof sustainable development while others retained hope forsome form of industrial development.

Despite these changes, when queried about the level ofdevelopment in the municipality, most Gurupaenses had


TABLE 4. Best Place to Live

Year Gurupa (%) USA (%) Belem (%) Rio (%)

1999 74 20 3 32007 37 62 1 0

mixed feelings. Many steadfastly pointed to the lack ofindustry. In the 1980s, for example, when I asked my keyconsultants to list favorable localities in which to live,Belem was typically ranked first and Gurupa consistentlylast (Pace 1998:30). As television became more widespreadin the mid-1990s, I noted through informal interviewsthat this view was only exacerbated. By 1999, however,an abrupt reversal occurred. Nearly three-fourths of sur-vey respondents listed Gurupa as their favorite place tolive. In 2007, this opinion changed once again, with theUnited States becoming the number one locale of choice(see Table 4). Why these shifts? Was there any link totelevision?

Three factors were likely behind these opinion shifts.The first involved significant improvements in the local in-frastructure and economy between the 1980s and 2000s.Among these were 24-hour-a-day electricity, greater accessto radio and television, daily boat service to other towns,daily availability of meat and fish to the population, re-duction in undernutrition rates and chronic disease rates(Roe-Ferhman and Pace 2007), and a boom in the extrac-tion of the palm-berry acaı, which raised per capital income(Oliveira 2002). There was also a fundamental shift in po-litical influence with Worker’s Party rise to power, therebyenabling greater levels of participation in local politics bya wide range of Gurupaenses. These changes generated awidespread feeling that the municipality was rapidly pro-gressing. Gurupa seemed to be a good place to live.

The second factor was a significant rise in fear of crimein the world beyond Gurupa. This fear was created, in largepart, by exposure to crime shows on television.12 On adaily basis, Gurupaenses were exposed to crime stories fromBelem, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo. The reports were re-plete with detailed and graphic depictions of violence. Ad-ditionally, radio programs and newspapers from Belem toldand showed explicit, gory details of crime. Long-term expo-sure to these images and narratives appeared to have createda highly elevated fear of crime—and, thus, of the distanturban spaces that received most media attention for theircrime rates. As a result, desire to live in such places plum-meted. When I asked people in 1999 why they overwhelm-ingly preferred Gurupa, the nearly unanimous response wasthe community’s relative safety and tranquility, in contrastto the danger and violence they witnessed on television inthe larger cities.

A third feature, accounting for the rise of the UnitedStates as the most ideal place to live in the 2007 survey,was the broadcasting of the telenovela America. From thetelenovela and the media flow that followed, Gurupaenses

understood for the first time in clearly perceptible and cul-turally relevant terms (because the messages were transmit-ted through the telenovela, not a foreign film), the qualityof life that existed in the United States. They witnessed de-pictions of material affluence and economic opportunitythat sharply contrasted with television’s depiction of lifein Brazil as well as with their own experiences in Gurupa.As for the 37 percent of the 2007 survey that still preferredGurupa over all other locales, respondents stated that safetyand tranquility continued to be the critical factors.

Although the televised depictions of national crimeand international affluence might appear counterintuitiveto nation building, these messages did create a sense ofnational unity in terms of what to despise (crime) and to-ward what to aspire (the modernity of the United States).By contrast, the hybrid notion of sustainable development(composed of international, national, and localized views)and preference for Gurupa as the favored place to live chal-lenged pan-national identity, the latter showing persistenceof regional preferences and regional identity.

Missing Interpellation

In many cases, televiewers in Gurupa missed the preferredmessage transmitted through television. They did not pos-sess the particular background or sufficient familiarity torecognize the intended meaning. The example I discusshere refers to product placement or merchandizing.

Product placement is a form of advertising involvingthe insertion of a consumer item or service into a pro-gram, increasing its visibility and marketability (La Pastina2001:541; Vink 1988:236). While watching television, Ifrequently asked coviewers if they noticed product place-ments. In some instances, they were aware of the merchan-dizing and readily commented on the quality or price of theitem. In many other cases, however, my coviewers missedthe placements, particularly the items or services targetingwealthier audiences such as dietary supplements, weight-loss pills, plastic surgery, pet foods, cars, motor oil, paint,expensive clothing, banks, computer technology, and tu-toring services.

When viewers did notice these latter types ofmerchandizing—particularly once I pointed them out—they inevitably interpreted them as part of the storyline.The Gurupaenses I talked to understood the product place-ments as props exhibiting the affluence of the urban privi-leged class or as symbols of progress and modernity. Theydid not interpret the product placements as something theycould consume. Antonio La Pastina (1999:30, 192) com-ments on this same phenomenon in Macambira (north-eastern Brazil), pointing out that viewers need to have abasic awareness of capitalistic culture and exposure to theitems or services being advertised to read and understandthe merchandizing. Most people in La Pastina’s study, justas the people in Gurupa, simply saw the product placementsas integral parts of the telenovela narrative, or they did notsee them at all (La Pastina 1999:192).


How does missing much of the merchandizing inter-pellation, while at the same time observing these itemsor services in a telenova’s storyline, affect notions of pan-national identity? In his research in Macambira, La Pastina(1999:194, 2005:144) found that viewers reacted to the in-dicators of wealth and modernity with a deepening sense ofmarginality. This experience, he maintained, fractured na-tional identity and created sentiments of injustice and in-equality, as the viewers did not have access to the goods andlifestyles demonstrated on television. By contrast, the Gu-rupaenses I talked to did not openly express these feelingsof injustice or inequality. Instead, they constantly referredto the excitement and modernity such items represented.So, what is the reason for the difference between the twocases?

Lila Abu-Lughod (2002:377) provided one possible an-swer from her research among the urban poor and peas-antry in Egypt. She found that the ways in which theseviewers were positioned within modernity were at suchodds with the visions that the urban middle-class profes-sionals promoted through television that selective readings(including missing interpellation) was the result. In a par-allel manner for Gurupa, the gap between the world of themiddle- to upper-class telenovela of the southeast and thatof local life was so vast that a logical connection betweenthe two might have been impractical. In the 1999 and 2007surveys, for example, many insisted that telenovelas wereunreal and the wealth shown was exaggerated. Others rea-soned that the characters depicted had good-paying jobs orlived in rich places—meaning they understood the demo-graphic distortion of the shows, which favored wealth overpoverty (Kottak 1990:56–57; Machado-Borges 2003:43).

In contrast, the people of Macambira were likely po-sitioned differently, slightly more integrated into the cap-italist economy and capitalist culture than Gurupa. As aresult, where Gurupaenses saw glamour and modernity ina fictitious or distorted setting, Macambiraenses felt depri-vation and marginalization in a world closer to home. Peo-ple in Gurupa could ponder the possibility of repositioningthemselves in relationship to modernity, aspiring to sharein the lifestyle and national identity presented on televi-sion, whereas Macambiraenses apparently had fewer suchillusions.

Ignoring Interpellation

During my research, I was able to record a number of casesin which viewers noticed messages calling for some form ofpan-national identity but, instead of heeding them, simplyignored them. Here I discuss the case of carnaval.

Carnaval has long been identified as a major unifierof Brazilian culture, fostering a sense of collective identityand national culture (DaMatta 2001:26–27). The countryindulges in innumerable celebrations in the weeks preced-ing the holiday and then reaches a massive festive frenzyduring the last few days of the celebration. All of this is

televised in great detail through hundreds of hours of car-naval coverage from all the major cities. For Gurupaensesliving in town, ever since the late 1980s, the viewing ofthese festivities on television has been unavoidable.

Despite exposure to the pageantry and national pridefeatured in the celebration, up until 2007, Gurupa’s car-naval had been a sedate event. There were dances, parties,and an occasional dancing block that paraded around thetown accompanied by a makeshift samba band, but theevent paled in comparison to other, more popular local cel-ebrations, which drew much larger crowds. In the 1999 sur-vey, I asked respondents to rank their favorite celebrations.Carnaval ranked last on a list that included Christmas, thefestivals of Saint Benedict and Saint Anthony (important lo-cal saints), and Independence Day. By 2007, the celebrationcrept up in the local rankings, possibly because of televisionexposure. Yet, no one ranked it as most important, and onlyeight percent said it was the second most important event,followed by 40 percent for third most important, 18 percentfor fourth, and 34 percent for least important.

Puzzled by this uninspired attitude toward the“quintessential” Brazilian event, I asked my consultantswhy Gurupa did not celebrate carnaval as the rest of Brazildid. I received four categories of replies: (1) the event wasunaffordable because the local government did not sponsorit (providing money for decorations or the simple but col-orful T-shirts, which the dancing blocks used as costumes);(2) it followed too closely to the most important local cel-ebration of Saint Benedict (late December), so people didnot have the resources, or desire, to celebrate again; (3)there was no history to celebrating carnaval in the com-munity, so why start now; and (4) it was the peak of therainy season, which not only soaked the environment withnumerous daily downpours but also dampened spirits, leav-ing little willpower for revelry (also see Wagley 1976:187).Against these odds, television interpellation seemed to havecreated only a tepid desire to celebrate this important showof pan-national identity.

In contrast to the local indifference toward carnaval,Gurupaenses openly and enthusiastically embraced a veryhyped-up, carnivalesque expansion of the June Festivals(festas juninas). These festivals honor Saints Anthony, John,and Peter, as well as celebrate Brazil’s rural identity. Theyare most popular in the north and northeast of Brazil butare celebrated throughout the country (Wagley 1976:203–204). The monthlong event typically consists of bonfires,fireworks, regional foods, religious processions, “country”music, popular theatrical performances, and dances suchas the quadrilhas (a type of square dance that is structuredaround a mock wedding). Of particular note, in recent yearsthe quadrilhas have transformed into competitive contests.Some are now televised.

In Gurupa, the quadrilhas became competitions be-tween different public schools, or on an advanced level,between rival dance squads and the surrounding towns(Gurupa usually had four dance teams). The squads were


often named after favorite telenovelas. They consisted of 30to 40 youths, who practiced their dance steps for months inpreparation for the festivities. Their costumes were costlyelaborations of stereotypical rural folk dress. The danceswere flashy, carefully choreographed, and performed to re-gional music known as forro. The money, time, effort, en-thusiasm, and comradeship involved in the quadrilhas par-alleled that of the carnaval dancing blocks in other parts ofBrazil.

Why did many Gurupaenses choose the June Festivalsover carnaval? It was possibly because of the June Festivals’sassociation with rural roots; its alignment with the north-ern and northeastern identity, as experienced through themusical, gastronomical, and dance traditions; its occur-rence during the dry season when outdoor activities weremuch easier to participate in; and its overlap with the com-munity’s own patron-saint celebration for Saint Anthony.Whatever the reason, it was clear that television interpel-lation to pan-Brazilian identity through carnaval was nomatch for the largely untelevised regional and rural attrac-tion of the June Festivals.

Resisting Interpellation

On various occasions, I witnessed resistance to televisionmessages. Viewers were well aware of the preferred mes-sage, rejected it, and then volunteered (or when prodded,offered) alternative explanations on the matter. Two exam-ples are discussed here.

Belief in the local supernatural. In Amazonida culture,there are a variety of supernatural beings believed to in-habit the rivers and forests, many of which take the formof animals as well as some that have the additional abilityto take on human form (Galvao 1955; Slater 1994). Tellingpersonal stories of encounters or near encounters with thesebichos encantados (enchanted creatures) is an expression ofregional identity, and I have heard many Gurupaenses doso. However, with increasing exposure to television, I no-ticed shifts in the stated beliefs about these beings.

Table 5 lists the responses to queries on the existenceof bichos encantados. A number of television programs,widely watched by people in Gurupa, had specifically dis-cussed Amazon bichos encantados.13 In general, the pro-grams presented beliefs in these creatures as regional folk-lore and superstition, characteristic of the uneducated andbackward (Slater 1994:39, 221). This viewpoint appeared tohave initially taken a toll on public opinion in the 1999 sur-vey. Intriguingly, this was followed by a rise in belief in the2007 survey, especially for Catholic respondents.

The first supernatural entity is the cobra grande (giantsnake or anaconda). Too large to support its weight on land,it inhabits the river, where it can wreak havoc on any-one in or on the water. Almost always appearing at night,it has been observed as a pair of brightly glowing eyes,a blue flame streaking across the water, or even an illu-minated riverboat, sometimes with people aboard (Galvao

TABLE 5. Belief in Supernatural Creatures

Positive response 1986 1999 2007 2007∗to the question: (%) (%) (%) (%)

Does the cobra grande exist? 90 77 91 96Can the boto transform 68 55 48 55

into human form?Does the curupira exist? 62 40 40 47∗Catholic-only responses.

1955:98–99; Slater 1994:160). The second entity is the boto,or freshwater dolphin, said to have the ability to transforminto attractive human forms and seduce the unsuspecting.The end result, however, can be pregnancy for women anddeath by drowning for men, although some humans arespared this fate by being taken underwater to a mysticalcity (encante; Galvao 1955:96–97; Slater 1994). The final be-ing is the curupira, a small, dark, childlike creature with itsfeet turned backward. It is considered to be a powerful for-est guardian who entraps humans abusing nature (usuallyengaging in overkill of fauna). These humans, once seeingthe curupira’s footprints, try to escape by going the oppo-site direction, only to run into the awaiting beast that stealstheir souls, or, in other versions, they follow the tracks onlyto become lost in the forest (Galvao 1955:99–101; Slater1994:138–141).

As Table 5 indicates, between 1986 and 1999, therewas a decline in the stated belief for each of these entities.The steepest decline was for the curupira. Interestingly, amore generic version of the curupira had emerged throughschool textbooks. This curupira was presented as an ındioyouth (indigenous human), complete with war paint, feath-ers in a headdress, bright red hair (as on fire), and its feetturned backward. The pan-Brazilian form was discussed inthe school textbooks as folkloric and imaginary. Lesser de-clines occurred for the supernatural beliefs about the botoand the cobra grande, as those beliefs were possibly bufferedby the visible presence of similar creatures (snakes, dol-phins) in nature.

By the 2007 survey, reported belief in the cobra grandesurpassed the 1986 level, while belief in curupiras remainedconstant and transforming botos fell further. If, however, adistinction is made between Catholic and non-Catholic re-spondents, among Catholics belief in curupiras rose whilebelief in botos remained steady.14 Why these changes?When I asked my key consultants if the initial decline inbelief of these supernatural creatures was related to theirnegative depiction in the media and school textbooks, mostacknowledged the connection. When I asked about the par-tial resurgence in belief, particularly among Catholics, myconsultants suggested that some reasoned that outsiderscreating television shows or writing books about Amazoncreatures did not really understand the local reality. Per-haps, they suggested, if these outsiders stayed in the rainforest longer, they too would encounter these creatures (see


Slater 1994:221, 223, for similar comments). Others repliedthat the creatures were more numerous in the past andmight now be facing extinction, but they did exist.

What was possibly being expressed through these view-points was an affirmation of regional identity through re-sistance or indifference to the preferred televisual and text-book messages. For many Gurupaenses, the persistence, orreassertion, of regional views and regional identity con-tested national sensibilities relating to the rain forest su-pernatural.

Political preferences. Media researchers have long de-bated the influence that televised political messages haveon public opinion—and particularly on voting behavior.In Brazil, one of the most intense debates centered on thepresidential elections of 1989. The majority of political andmedia analysts agreed that the Globo network slanted itselection coverage in favor of the conservative candidate,Fernando Collor de Mello (Straubhaar et al. 1993:123).Arguably, the biased coverage was influential in swayingthe close election in Collor’s favor. The majority of Gu-rupaenese voters, however, were undeterred by Globo’s fa-voritism and voted in the initial and runoff elections for theWorkers’ Party candidate, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (“Lula”).In fact, Gurupa was the only municipality in all of Brazilwhere Lula carried both the initial and runoff elections.

Why did Gurupa differ substantially from neighbor-ing municipalities that voted for Collar as well as frommuch of the rest of Brazil, in that most Gurupaenses per-sistently rejected the conservative message they heard onGlobo? The answers lie in the messages coming from al-ternative sources of political information, particularly thereligious and politicoeconomic discourses emerging fromthe Catholic Church and the rural labor union (Pace 1998).Both of these institutions were strongly influenced by Lib-eration Theology. As taught by the community’s priestand church laity, religion and politics were intertwined,forming a critique of local and national injustices (includ-ing structural sins of capitalism) with a corresponding callfor peaceful, but forceful, protest to challenge and changeabuses. By the late 1980s, following much organizationalwork, social-consciousness raising, legal action, and pub-lic marches, an explicit political culture of resistance hademerged among a majority of Gurupaenses that was criticalof the conservative political ideologies but very supportiveof oppositional and leftist views. Even though the Churchmovement was vehemently opposed by Gurupa’s conserva-tives, the messages from the priest, church laity, and ruralunion members worked in favor of Lula’s Workers’ Party,and in the end these messages were more powerful thanGlobo’s favoritism or the local conservatives.

CONCLUSION

My research results from Gurupa demonstrate the diverseand unpredictable relations between program intent and

viewer reaction in the context of constructing pan-nationalidentity. By using a longitudinal approach and focusing onshifts in worldview and behavior, I explore in this studyexamples of successes, failures, and cases that go askew asthe national media interpellates viewers to be good citi-zens. Clearly, viewer response is an uneven and complexprocess. Yet, with the benefit of several decades of research,there are a few generalizations that can be made. To date,the most salient change has been the creation of the pan-national television-discourse community—key to provid-ing the material through which identities can be refash-ioned. With television exposure, Gurupaenses now discusstopics of national-level relevance in real time, using thecurrent national lexicon and symbolism. Quite a few of myconsultants commented that this ability was the most im-portant change in their lives that had come from television.It undoubtedly fosters some sense of national identity.

But how far does adherence to a new discourse com-munity go in terms of generating significant changes inidentity, worldview, and behavior? As the research pre-sented here demonstrates, the results are mixed. ManyGurupaenses have heeded interpellation, forgoing publicevents to watch television in national unity (at least ini-tially), identifying with televised views of Braziliannessonce contrasted with an objectified foreign other, alteringpatterns of consumption (although constrained by incomelevels), fearing crime in urban places, and shifting notionsof best place to live. At the same time, there has been re-silience of regional culture (and social class) demonstratedby the missing of many product placements, the ignoringof carnaval while indulging in June Festivals, continued be-lief in the local supernatural, and a lack of majority supportfor media-preferred politicians.

Have these latter reactions challenged the sense of be-longing, nullified unity, or disrupted nation building to thepoint of threatening stability and legitimacy? In the casesof product placement (viewers’ inability to consume), car-naval, and the local supernatural, no conspicuous threathas emerged. But these persistent regional patterns do sig-nal an important disjuncture with the forces of nationalistichomogenization. In the case of politics, the adherence toa political culture of resistance by a sizable portion of thepopulation has challenged state legitimacy and stability inthe past (Pace 1998:175–183). It has shown little sign of ero-sion despite exposure to preferred nationalistic messages—an important consideration given the volatile political andenvironmental challenges in the region.

Perhaps the broadest, most comprehensive summationof television’s impact in Gurupa is that the bulk of pre-ferred messages communicated through the medium havebeen significantly transformed, or indigenized (Appadurai1990), by regional preferences and real-life constraints. Infact, ignoring and resisting preferred messages might haveactually triggered a better-defined regional identity. Un-til the present, there has been no hegemonic nationalistmessage overwhelming the local culture and leading to


uniform changes. This is not to deny the possibility ofgreater influence in the future. But for now, people use theirlocal worldview—their regional culture and local identity—to contextualize and refashion pan-national identity. Thenational is being localized (Ginsburg 2005:20). The resultsare multifarious and complex.

RICHARD PACE Department of Sociology and Anthropol-ogy, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN37132; [email protected]

NOTESAcknowledgments. Utmost gratitude is owed to Conrad Kottak forintroducing me to television studies and guiding me throughthe early stages of research. Many thanks to Marianne Schmink,Samuel Sa, Paulo Oliveira Jr., and FASE for their support in differ-ing stages of research. Also thanks to MTSU colleagues for editorialcomments and to FRCAC for research funds.1. Creeber (2006:6) defines television studies as an interdisciplinaryapproach to the medium, broken down into four major researchcategories: institutional analysis, historical analysis, textual analy-sis, and audience and reception studies.2. Interpellation, as applied to televiewing, describes how ideo-logical messages embedded in programming catch the viewers’ at-tention through hailing, calling, or recruiting and how this processinfluences viewers’ thoughts and behaviors. According to Althusser(1971:172), interpellation involves a relationship between ideologyand subjectivity in which individuals are “always-already subjects”receptive to a dominant, naturalized, and therefore invisible ide-ology. Television viewers, in this sense, are preprogrammed to bereceptive to ideological messages. In fact, the existence of ideol-ogy and the interpellation of individuals as subjects are one andthe same thing (Althusser 1971:163). That is not to say that inter-pellation always works, as it can “regularly miss its mark” (Butler1997:33).3. As with all forms of identity, pan-national identity is never fixedbut, rather, is continuously constructed, constantly transforming,and always the object of negotiation. As additional sources of in-formation become available, such as through television, identitiescan become more complex, fragmented, or hybrid (Barker 1999:3,23).4. The research presented here falls within the category of audienceand reception studies as described in Note 1. Within the emergentfield of media anthropology, this four-category framework for re-search has yet to develop, and researchers frequently attempt tocover multiple categories with varying results. This study, by con-trast, is limited in scope and allotted space and only addresses theremaining categories where essential.5. These include message framing (ways in which media accountsimplicitly reproduce given assumptions while marginalizing oth-ers), priming (making certain themes prominent through mediacoverage), and agenda setting (helping to define the terms of pub-lic debate; Corner 2000:384).6. For a discussion of strengths and weaknesses of ideological ap-proaches, see Abercrombie et al. 1980; Barker 1999; Hall 1992;Kitzinger 2004. In anthropology, see Abu-Lughod 2005; Boellstorff2003; Mankekar 1999.7. Media researchers disagree over the extent to which the produc-tion of preferred messages in programming reflects the interestsof the powerful. Researchers even disagree over the possibility ofidentifying preferred messages within television texts (see Creeber2006:48–51; for Brazil, see Franca 2006:35–36 and Vink 1988:246).In Brazil, Mattelart and Mattelart (1990) and Hamburger (1999)point out that popular programs such as telenovelas are open worksthat, during production, receive input from viewers, fans, commer-cial interests, elite and popular presses, institutional networks, mar-keting research organizations, churches, government censors, andactivist groups. Despite the social, political, and ideological strug-gles encapsulated in program production, sometimes resulting inthe intentional embedding of polysemic texts (Vink 1988:246),

media specialists (at least in Brazil) find that hegemonic discoursesand forces continue to predominate television (Franca 2006:36).In terms of reading and accepting preferred messages, Kitzinger(2004:190–191) warns against using the “mantra of polysemy” todeny viewers’ potential to decode messages. Framing, priming, andagenda setting of messages, even when entangled in intentionallypolysemic texts (e.g., point and counterpoint exchanges in newsreporting), can effectively communicate preferred messages.8. There are variations in Amazonida culture based on differinggeography and history. Still, the similarities are strong enough tobe easily identified, especially by other Brazilians.9. Three locally recruited research assistants and I administeredthe interview schedules in the town of Gurupa. The first (1986)was a nine-percent random sample of residences (N = 69); thesecond (1999) was a nine-percent sample (N = 99), interviewingin every fifth residence; and the third (2007) was a five-percentsample, interviewing in every fifth residence (N = 65). Each surveyhad a similar distribution of age, gender, and self-reported socialclass.10. Globo is the nation’s largest television network, with regularnightly audience shares ranging from 40 to 60 percent.11. For this work, I rely on the textual analysis conducted by Brazil-ians and Brazilianists—Kottak 1990; La Pastina 1999; Machado-Borges 2003; Sodre 1977; and Tufte 2000—to identify preferredmessages transmitted through Brazilian television.12. During the postauthoritarian regime period (1986 to today),television programs have increasingly become “public spheres ar-ticulating and promoting debates on issues of common concern”(Tufte 2000:106–109). Urban violence, in particular, has come tothe forefront in many shows (see Caldeira 2000:388).13. For example, my consultants listed documentaries and filmssuch as Cousteau’s Amazon: Journey to a Thousand Rivers (1991); Ele, oBoto (1987); Where the Water Runs Black (1986); and the telenovelasPantanal (1988) and O Rei do Gado (1996).14. The number of non-Catholic Christians (Jehovah’s Witness,Seventh Day Adventist, Assembly of God, and the QuadrangularChurch) in the survey samples has increased from two percent in1986 to six percent in 1999 and, following a surge in proselytizing,22 percent in 2007. Key to the discussion here is these non-CatholicChristians’ common view that belief in the local supernatural ispaganism. This theological stance denies the existence of the localsupernatural, thereby altering responses, particularly as measuredin the 2007 survey. Some of these respondents, however, did acceptthe existence of the cobra grande but only as an oversized serpentwith no supernatural attributes.

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FOR FURTHER READING

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