Thank you Felix and others for your insights, very helpful to me and very alarming.
I'm trying to catch up at a very basic level, particularly on the recent role of digital media politics in Brazil (from English language texts). Below are some media that I have initially read/listened to, that might also be of interest to others who want an introduction. I'd be grateful if anyone who knows a lot more can share their thoughts, or can share/knows of insightful empirical and theoretical analysis (particularly with respect to the role of "social" and other digital media in the context of the cultural and political economy)? Also, I'd be interested in comparisons with the coming to power of Duterte and other far-right authoritarian leaders? And, any ideas on theoretical/critical traditions might best speak to the situation? Discussion between Brazilian and non-Brazilian thinkers ["experts"], hosted by david runciman, see podcast number 125 at: https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2018/125-whats-happening-in-brazil https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/ One researcher's classification of Bolsonaro Whatsapp participants: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/25/brazil-president-jair-bolsonaro-whatsapp-fake-news There has been quite a bit of journalist reportage with respect to social media, particularly WhatsApp,..I'd like to know what about the role of other social media platforms? Facebook, Twitter, c.f the US and elsewhere. https://www.vox.com/world/2018/10/29/18025066/bolsonaro-brazil-elections-voters-q-a and on Al Jazerra the mass media is usefully linked to social media: e.g. https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2018/10/social-media-battleground-brazil-election-181006112106125.html and e.g. https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2018/10/jair-bolsonaro-wrecking-ball-brazil-media-181027052443655.html [an aside,..the last one has some useful background for those outside the UK about Corbyn's proposed media policies and relationship with the media.] many thanks Lincoln > On 14 November 2018 at 03:46 Felix Stalder < [email protected] > mailto:[email protected] > wrote: > > > > I just spent ten days in the city and region of Sao Paulo, talking > mainly to artists, academics, activist associated with right-to-the-city > and indigenous movements. This is the limited impression I got from > this. Please correct, add, deepen it with more substantial information > and knowledge. > > > The mood is, little surprise, very dark. Everyone expects heavy waves of > repression coming down, leading to the destruction of entire sectors of > the society and the environment. The signs are everywhere, not just > Bolsonaro's rhetoric during the election campaign, but all levels of > society are already shifting. On the legal front, major social movement, > such as the Landless Movement (MST) and indigenous movements have > already been, or are on the cusp of being, declared terrorist > organizations, removing what ever protection under the law existed and > whatever restraints the security apparatus might have had before. > > The ministry of the environment will be integrated into the ministry of > agriculture, the ministry of labor is supposed to be closed down. It's a > Polyanian "disembedding" of labor and land. > > Street level violence is also picking up. Even in a relatively peaceful, > well-to-do university town outside Sao Paulo, which still voted 70% > Bolsonaro, a prominent gay performer was murdered in his home, within > one week of the election. To the people I talked to, this was not a > co-incidence. > > What makes the mood particularly dark is that most people still have > memory of the previous dictatorship in Brazil, which lasted particularly > long, 21 years, from 1964 to 1985. Memories of people suddenly > disappearing, of repression and of stiffing cultural climate, are still > fresh, at least for those who still have a sense of history, which is > the minority. > > The coalition that brought Bolsonaro to power is mix of the old > oligarchy, corporate interests set on privatization (which will likely > happen at an extreme scale), middle classes who saw the Lula and Dilma > presidency as a threat to their status by creating social mobility for > workers and peasants, but not improving services for them. > > Also, there is a feeling of deep institutional rot, mainly in form of > largest-scale corruption, which not only tarred the Workers Party, but > all but wiped out the established right-wing parties. In addition, very > real concerns with security and violent crime. And, I think very > important, were the evangelical churches that promote an extremely > conservative social agenda. They mobilized the masses and Bolsonaro's > first TV interview after the election was on one of their channels > > About 30% of the electorate chose not to vote, even though it's > mandatory, and this is interpreted as being mainly those who were > against Bolsonaro but couldn't bring themselves to supporting a > candidate from the Workers Party. > > A major aspect of the election campaign was that it was almost > exclusively done over social media, Whatsapp in particular. There was a > total absence of what one might call classic public discourse in which > the different sides would have encountered each other directly. > > Bolsonaro is not an impressive figure, if you see him on TV, and he is > prone to gaffs, so he refused any televised debates and the stabbing in > early September played so much into his hand that quite a few are > convinced that it was fake. > > The medium of choice was Whatsapp, mainly because it's pre-installed on > most smart phone and can be accessed without a data plan. So, for many > people, the Internet is Whatsapp and the "full internet" is for rich > people. This reminds me of the "basic internet" that Facebook wanted to > bring to India, that is free access to nothing but Facebook. While they > didn't succeed in India, they succeeded in Brazil, by being much less > upfront but working with the existing providers, basically subsidizing > them for free access (if I understand this correctly). > > The Bolosonaro Campaign reportedly spent US 12 million on an extensive > fake news campaign, claiming, among others, that his opponent, Haddad, > has raped a child (he was a former minister of education). These > messages, which were highly targeted, Cambridge Analytica style, to > specific groups where spread in part by the social networks of the > churches. It is also believed that the campaign obtained profiles and > contact information from a Facebook hack, which was Facebook announced > in mid September. > > But given the nature of Whatsapp, all of this is really hard to account > for, only Facebook itself can trace the flow of messages through its > network. > > But is another reminder what anti-democratic politics look like. Key to > its success is the destruction of even the last vestiges of the public > sphere. So, as corny as the televised presidential debates are, not > having them makes things even worse. And I wouldn't be surprised if > Trump refused them in the next election cycle as well. The ground work > against the fake media has already been laid. > > There are tensions within the coalition that carried Bolsonaro. It's > mainly around free trade. While Bolsonaro wants to tear down Mercosur, > certain sectors of the industry want to keep it. It's not too dissimilar > to Trumps stance on Nafta. And the solution might be the same. Make some > cosmetic changes, give it a new name, and claim success while not really > disturbing manufacturing and trade. > > Brazil, to state the obvious, is an extremely large and diverse country, > whatever comes will be fought over hard and internal contradictions are > abound in a country as unequal in all respects such as this. But there > is no obvious silver lining in this, not the least because the > development is part of a global trend, rather than a national outlier. > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| http://felix.openflows.com > |OPEN PGP: https://pgp.key-server.io/search/0x0BBB5B950C9FF2AC > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > mailto:[email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: >
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