The Name of the Other: Media, Heterotopias, and Border Country Interactions

Abstract

This chapter examines elements of the regulatory framework in effect in the Brazilian Border Region and neighboring countries as they interact with elements of the culture industry. Located in what is referred to as the Southern Arc, the first city we examine, Foz do Iguaçu-PR, lies on the border between Paraguay and Argentina. The second city is Tabatinga-AM, part of the conurbation region made up by a Colombian city and including the Peruvian border, coming to be known as the Northern Arc.

Our research was produced through the triangulation of primary data obtained in two trips into the field, carried out in 2013 and 2014, secondary data (official and semi-official) and academic bibliography.

Although projects relating to border integration, citizenship and economic development do exist, they do not question or challenge a nationalistic and politicized regime of representation portraying border areas primarily as routes for cocaine traffic or home to terrorist cells. The representation regime disseminated by mainstream media thus reduces the rich color and dynamics of the region to impoverished tones of gray recognizable in terms of “the name of the other.”

This chapter provides a relevant contribution to our understanding of communication processes carried out in two different regions of Brazil, both of them located far from the spotlights of mainstream Brazilian media. We employ a theoretical framework that combines geography of communication with perspectives on communication in borderland regions.

Citation

Silveira, A.C.M.d., Padilha Guimarães, I. and Schwartz, C. (2017), "The Name of the Other: Media, Heterotopias, and Border Country Interactions", Brazil (Studies in Media and Communications, Vol. 13), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 137-162. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2050-206020170000013013