A Bloody Weekend in Manaus: A Case Study of Televised Crime Reporting in Amazonas, Brasil

A BLOODY WEEKEND IN MANAUS: A CASE STUDY OF TELEVISED CRIME REPORTING IN AMAZONAS, BRASIL Rachel Reis Mourao, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin Introduction Far from the slums of Rio de Janeiro and the international drug trafficking conflicts that so often make it to the international headlines, Amazonas viewers constantly watch local television shows which claim that the Brazilian state is dominated by drug trafficking, that homicide rates are out of control, the streets are lawless, and “evil” is spreading everywhere. These stories are often accompanied by images of drugs, weapons, corpses, and relatives mourning the deceased, often described as “another victim of drug trafficking.” In the summer of 2011, two specific TV shows stood out as local audience leaders during lunch hour in the capital Manaus: Alô Amazonas and Comunidade Alerta. Is the state of Amazonas actually “bleeding,” or is the high popularity of the shows only another example of the adage in journalism, “if it bleeds it leads?” Of all the issues raised by the overwhelming success of crime shows in the region, I was most interested in the difference between the characteristics of victimizations portrayed on television and the actual incidence of crime, as captured by official government statistics. Using recorded episodes, I analyzed the content of two shows, both of which are broadcasted from Manaus to the majority of the Amazonas state. The quantitative findings were complemented by ethnographic research conducted during six weeks in Manaus as participant-observer of the shows’ production and reporting teams. Using qualitative interviews with producers , key informants and viewers, I set out to understand the process of news making and news consumption of crime shows. Finally, I compared the media-generated estimates of crime to actual crime rates using data provided by the 2009 National Household Survey. The analysis provides answers to two key questions: What is the profile of the media-constructed image of the prevalence and character of crime and violence? In what ways do the actual estimates of crime victimization differ from the image the media presents to the public? THE EVOLUTION OF POPULAR CRIME SHOWS IN BRAZIL Comunidade Alerta and Alô Amazonas are part of the growth in crime shows which began in Brazil in the early 1990s. The first successful program of this type to achieve nationwide appeal was called Aqui, Agora. C  2014 Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 3 The Latin Americanist, June 2014 Broadcasted by the Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT) and aimed at lowincome viewers, the show introduced techniques like direct camera (where the host directly faces the viewers) and long takes using a dolly or a Steadicam to reproduce the action in real time. Aqui, Agora achieved remarkably high ratings for a television show outside Globo – Brazilian’s quasi-monopoly absolute TV network leader – reaching 31% share in São Paulo by 1992 (Hamilton, 2009). In response, other networks quickly copied the format of the show, blending criminal reports with community discontent – complaints about lack of public services in general, like water, electricity, infrastructure, etc. – to produce their own variations of Aqui, Agora. The year 2004 marked the golden age of crime shows in Amazonas. Local networks broadcasted more than six daily shows dedicated to crime and community. The shows were audience leaders, as they responded to the perception that the government was not addressing the problems that afflict the poor (Gusmão, 2004). The popularity of crime shows was also evident in the 2004 elections: Sabino Castelo Branco, host of Bronca na TV, and Wallace Souza, host of Canal Livre, were the most popular federal congressman and city councilman, respectively. In 2002, Wallace’s brother, Carlos Souza, also host of Canal Livre, was the most popular state legislator in the history of Amazonas, with 147, 212 votes, or 10 percent of the total electorate. Castelo Branco and the Souzas owned crime shows and presented themselves as vigilantes. They invaded slums and gave arrest orders, playing the role of “coronels” or police commissioners (Correa, 2004). In 2008, the biggest scandal in the history of the Amazonas media put an end to the complete dominance of crime shows in local TV and politics...