{"id":26032,"date":"2016-01-05T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=26032"},"modified":"2022-07-05T12:30:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T15:30:41","slug":"best-and-worst-international-reporting-on-rios-favelas-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=26032","title":{"rendered":"Best and Worst International Reporting on Rio’s Favelas: 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This is the latest contribution to our media watchdog series on the\u00a0Best and Worst International Reporting on Rio\u2019s favelas<\/a>, part of\u00a0RioOnWatch\u2019s ongoing conversation on the\u00a0media narrative<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0media portrayal<\/a>\u00a0surrounding favelas.<\/em><\/p>\n

2015 draws to a close with less than eight months remaining to the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Olympics<\/a>. With the increasing global\u00a0media attention\u00a0ahead of the Games has come rare and insightful in-depth reporting on key issues like race<\/a>, state violence<\/a>, the real motivations behind evictions<\/a>, and active challenges to stigma<\/a>, as well as exciting platforms<\/a> for favela residents to speak directly to international readers. This amplified reach builds on a trend we documented in the first phase of our longitudinal research on\u00a0international mainstream coverage of Rio’s favelas<\/a> from 2009 to 2014: in six major English-language outlets favela residents were cited over six times more in 2013-2014, the year ahead of the 2014 World Cup, than in 2009-2010, just\u00a0after the Olympics were awarded to Rio.<\/p>\n

Still present in 2015, however, were dangerous stereotypes, lazy<\/a> language, and the misrepresentation of favelas as ‘slums’ and ‘shantytowns.’<\/a>\u00a0Our research found<\/a> that, although the use of the word ‘slum’\u00a0is declining in favor of more accurate and nuanced\u00a0descriptions<\/a>, it remained the most frequent\u00a0translation\u00a0applied to favelas in 2014. The media’s use of stigma-heavy terms<\/a> and other stereotypes bolsters government policies that harm\u00a0favela residents by painting an image that any policy is good policy, and that there are no assets in these communities to protect.<\/p>\n

Here, we analyze some of the most unproductive articles we saw in 2015\u00a0and celebrate some of the best.<\/p>\n

The Worst<\/h3>\n

An ABC Australia<\/em> article<\/a> from November<\/strong> tackles the productive question of whether visiting a favela as a foreigner is an \u201cinsightful tour or poverty porn,\u201d but the article opens with an unproductive scene: \u201cIn the middle of one of Rio’s poorest suburbs a tall black man approaches me and takes my hand. He isn’t about to rob me. Or sell me drugs…. He just wants to show me how to dance.\u201d Regardless of the author\u2019s intention here, playing with tired but still pervasive stereotypes<\/a>\u00a0perpetuates them further, especially when the text lacks any criticism of stereotypes. Unfortunately in Rio, stereotypes linking black men to drugs and crime are too often relied upon to justify police killing innocent people<\/a>. Furthermore, the author\u2019s language to describe favelas lacks nuance. She refers to them as \u201chotbeds of drug traffickers and extreme poverty,\u201d a misleading statement about communities where less than 1%<\/a> of residents are\u00a0involved in trafficking. Increasingly connected to technology<\/a>, about 65%<\/a> of favela residents are part of Brazil\u2019s growing middle-class.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

In January 2015 an article from the Daily Mail<\/em><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0suggested\u00a0unfounded rumors that David Beckham purchased a home in Vidigal<\/a> in 2014 were responsible for gentrification in the neighborhood<\/a>. This false narrative obscures the growing trend of increased interest in Vidigal property since the Pacifying Police Unit (UPP)<\/a> was installed in January 2012<\/a>, as well as the considerable community organizing in\u00a0early\u00a02014 to debate its impacts<\/a>. Although the article features a number of resident quotes detailing the difficult effects of rising rents, it undermines the credibility of residents by contrasting the \u201ctruth\u201d (that Beckham did not buy property there) and \u201cthe version told by almost everyone in Vidigal.\u201d This undermining is particularly problematic alongside quotes from a French resident of Vidigal who says: \u201cPeople are very ignorant here… People are very lazy and no-one is professional. It’s like living in Africa. I tell people, you know why you are third world, because you don’t know how to work.\u201d The article offers no criticism of or counter-quotes to these heavily stigmatizing<\/a>,\u00a0racist comments.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

A book review<\/a> from the Evening Standard<\/em><\/strong> took Misha Glenny\u2019s complex book<\/a> about former Rocinha<\/a> druglord, \u201cNem,\u201d and managed to decimate the nuance of the story through lazy language. The author describes favelas as \u201cdrug-blighted shack dumps.\u201d The fact that he also refers to favela residents as \u201ccountryfolk\u201d suggests a limited understanding of Rio\u2019s socioeconomic and physical geography. Nem and other druglords are labeled \u201cshantytown Napoleons,\u201d which seems a poor, unexplained reference to Napoleon as well as an inaccurate portrayal of the mostly brick and cement homes in Rocinha and other favelas. The article suggests favelas are stagnant\u2014\u201clittle has changed\u201d since Nem\u2019s childhood\u2014and that someone like Nem, who \u201cat least resolved to… make something of his life,\u201d stands out from the rest of the apparently passive masses. The underlying insinuations are that the average favela residents\u2019 lives amount to little, and that their circumstances are due to a lack of \u201cresolve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Best<\/h3>\n

Nadia Sussman\u2019s video report on police violence in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a> for the New York Times<\/em><\/strong> is a harrowing portrait of a community caught in the crossfire. Using interviews with relatives of the victims of police violence this year<\/a>, including the mother of 10-year-old Eduardo de Jesus<\/a> who was killed in May, mixed with community-shot footage of violence and gunfire, the video highlights the failures of police intervention in Alem\u00e3o<\/a> and the desperate hopes and dreams of peace within in the community. Shot and edited with sensitivity, the video expresses the emotional and psychological trauma faced by residents caught in conflict situations and captions outlining judicial events and statistics of violence emphasize the lack of justice and peace.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Flora Charner\u2019s Beacon<\/em> project “I Am Favela: A View from the Inside Out<\/a>“<\/strong> is a fully reader funded series which showcases \u201cincredible stories of people who are fighting discrimination and changing the negative stereotypes often associated with favela culture.\u201d The series gives voice to favela residents across the city doing inspirational work to destigmatize and improve life in their communities, including Voz das Comunidades<\/em> reporter Daiene Mendes<\/a> from Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, martial arts trainer Will Ribeiro from Andara\u00ed<\/a> and tour guide and activist Thiago Firmino<\/a> from Santa Marta<\/a>. The profiles provide valuable, nuanced insight into the daily life, qualities<\/a> and challenges of\u00a0Rio\u2019s favelas through the personal stories and voices of individual community members.<\/p>\n

James Young\u2019s recent\u00a0report on evictions<\/a>\u00a0for VICE<\/em><\/strong> is a thorough journalistic look at the broad issue of forced evictions<\/a> and the Olympics<\/a> in Rio, giving voice to residents and specialists and visibility to the counter-narrative that the Olympics are being used to advance real estate interests<\/a> in the city. The author highlights the fallacy of the given reasons for eviction in the cases of Vila Recreio II<\/a> and Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>, the policy failure of Morar Carioca<\/a>–the stated social legacy of the Olympics, and the physical, emotional and social damage<\/a> caused by destroying whole communities. In approaching the topic of evictions through historical precedence and context backed by community perspectives, the article provides an impressive summary of the issues involved in Olympic city evictions in Rio.<\/p>\n

Out last\u00a0week, another essential article on evictions is Sean Gregory’s evocative\u00a0report on Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>\u00a0for TIME<\/em><\/strong>. Although it’s important to note that relatively few of\u00a0Vila Aut\u00f3dromo’s current or evicted\u00a0residents are “impoverished” as the article’s title suggests, this piece interviews and draws critical attention to\u00a0the remaining families’ personal connections to their community, their relentless determination to remain, and their arguments for resistance, despite the battered state of their neighborhood<\/a>. This is especially critical in the face of a new strategy by the City to claim\u00a0to reporters that no one is left. The prominence of resident quotes and translations of resistance graffiti gives respect and validity to the residents’ struggle and leaves readers at the end with a sense of the same inspiration visitors to the community experience: moved\u00a0by the community’s overwhelming lesson, that\u00a0“Not everyone has a price.” Finally, as\u00a0TIME<\/em> sports reporter, Gregory adds important context,\u00a0emphasizing that removal from Vila Aut\u00f3dromo is both “not exactly in keeping with the Olympic spirit<\/a> of fair play” and contrary to the City’s\u00a0“vow to incorporate the <\/a>favela<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>into the Olympic planning.” Gregory does, however, notably\u00a0point out that the City still has a chance\u00a0to “finally fulfill its vow to incorporate the\u00a0favela<\/em> into the Olympic planning, and improve infrastructure and services within the community in ways that will last well after the Olympic flame has gone on.”<\/p>\n

Stephanie Nolen\u2019s compelling feature on racial inequality in Brazil<\/a> for <\/strong>The Globe and Mail<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>exposes the extreme obstacles many favela residents, the majority of whom are Afro-Brazilian, face in combatting a rigid, yet little acknowledged, race-based hierarchy. The author lays out an inherent contradiction: Brazil\u2019s national identity is founded on a celebration of racial diversity\u00a0while\u00a0racial inequality is blatantly pervasive in day-to-day life. The article then dives deep into the lives of Brazilian families to demonstrate through complex stories how that contradiction is sustained. The rich historical context provided shows why Brazil has unique concepts of race, but the comparisons drawn to other countries, like the US, strengthen the article\u2019s significance.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/i>\u2019s \u201cRio Olympics: View from the Favelas<\/a><\/strong>\u201d series<\/strong><\/a> gives respected community journalists a global platform for their reflections. In the latest round of articles, each journalist wrote a series of diary-style entries on events in their community. Michel Silva, the founder of Rocinha news outlet <\/span>Viva Rocinha<\/a><\/span><\/i>, reflects<\/a> on how the death of a teenager barely made the news, challenges\u00a0the\u00a0social role of the Pacifying Police Unit<\/a> (UPP), and questions the real motivations behind hosting a golf demonstration in Rocinha.\u00a0Tha\u00eds Cavalcante, a journalist from\u00a0Mar\u00e9<\/a>,\u00a0emphasizes<\/a>\u00a0the regular police presence in daily life in Mar\u00e9, but also documents the cultural and community activities that go on despite it. The series also published a diary of the the daily violence<\/a> in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o by Daiene Mendes. These community journalists bring depth and relevance that is rarely equaled by outsiders, and they disrupt stereotypes through their eloquent and passionate writing about their communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other fantastic articles this year include coverage from both The New York Times<\/a><\/em> and Fusion<\/a><\/em> of the growing importance of community journalists and residents using video to document police violence in Rio. We also highly recommend Jonathan Watts’ feature on billionaire developer Carlos Carvalho’s plans for Barra<\/a>, Catherine Osborn’s analysis of pacification in Alem\u00e3o in 2015<\/a>, Simon Romero and Taylor Barnes’ piece on the “grim acceptance” of police killings<\/a>, and Will Carless’s consistent coverage of key race and violence issues<\/a>. A\u00a0BBC<\/em> video<\/a>\u00a0brought new perspectives into the discussion\u00a0by allowing two children from Mar\u00e9 to take the reigns in telling their story.\u00a0RioOnWatch<\/em>‘s Editor Theresa Williamson published a piece on the complicated role of land tenure in favelas facing real estate speculation in Architectural Review<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0Finally, the AP’s ongoing investigations<\/a> into virus and bacteria levels in Rio’s waters have sustained a\u00a0critical\u00a0conversation about the City’s failure to deliver one of its key Olympic legacy promises and expand basic sewerage systems in Rio.<\/p>\n

In short, we’re thrilled to see a huge leap of improvement over this same report just two years ago<\/a>, when there were no articles we felt were good enough to feature, and look forward to even more amazing\u00a0reporting on favelas in 2016.<\/p>\n

Check out past\u00a0articles looking at the Media Portrayal\u00a0of Favelas here<\/a>. And download\u00a0our full 2009-2014 longitudinal \u201cFavelas in the Media\u201d study here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas This is the latest contribution to our media watchdog series on the\u00a0Best and Worst International Reporting on Rio\u2019s favelas, part of\u00a0RioOnWatch\u2019s ongoing conversation on the\u00a0media narrative\u00a0and\u00a0media portrayal\u00a0surrounding favelas. 2015 draws to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":26225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1294,1293,1267,1668,1736,1277,1288,1282,1329],"tags":[1653,280,32,11,65,23,1845,1900,1366,147,5,15,17,124,10,12,2634,1910,453,363,4,39],"writer":[921],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-communitymedia","8":"category-evictionswatch","9":"category-gentrificationwatch","10":"category-participationwatch","11":"category-1736","12":"category-uppwatch","13":"category-highlight","14":"category-research-analysis","15":"category-by-international-observers","16":"tag-community-media","17":"tag-complexo-da-mare","18":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","19":"tag-forced-evictions","20":"tag-gentrification","21":"tag-mass-media","22":"tag-media","23":"tag-media-narrative","24":"tag-analyzing-media-portrayal-of-favelas","25":"tag-morar-carioca","26":"tag-olympics","27":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","28":"tag-police-brutality","29":"tag-race","30":"tag-real-estate-speculation","31":"tag-rocinha","32":"tag-series","33":"tag-series-best-worst-reporting","34":"tag-stigma","35":"tag-vidigal","36":"tag-vila-autodromo","37":"tag-vila-recreio-ii","38":"writer-rioonwatch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26032"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=26032"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=26032"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=26032"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=26032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}