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The MST and the Media: Competing Images of the Brazilian Landless Farmworkers' Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John L. Hammond
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Abstract

For social movements, coverage in the media is a mixed blessing; but like many movements, the Brazilian Landless Farmworkers' Movement (MST) actively seeks it out. Treatment of the MST in the Brazilian media is analyzed here using the concept of frame. That treatment is determined by a complex interaction between media producers and movement activists. The frames adopted by those on each side influence public perception of the movement. This study identifies five such underlying frames (mostly in print media but with attention to a television soap opera based on the MST's activities) and examines the images of the movement that they present. Though the coverage often presents the MST in a favorable light, it does not necessarily encourage the goal of mobilization that the movement seeks to promote.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , Winter 2004 , pp. 61 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2004

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