(I don't know if I can actually get a video link on here, so check out this link for a brief clip from the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FuQoj0wEoY )
As was the case on a given weekday in Casa Denise (and particularly once vacation began for the kids) the first half of the day consisted of breakfast, lunch and a whole bunch of TV. As I fell into the rhythm with the family, I noticed that the show that was most popular with the family was a news/talk show-esque program called "Se Liga Bocao." Think a mix between the Today Show, Larry King and Jerry Springer. The program's title means "Call Big-Mouth." "Big Mouth" is meant to capture the program's expository nature as it shows what other, more traditional news programs, refuse to.
I'm posting about this particular program because of it's unique nature, not only compared to the more traditional news programs in Brazil, but also compared to any news program that I have seen. The program's host (O Bocao), who apparently was formerly a reporter for Brazil's Globo network, goes to great lengths to show a side of Bahia (the show only airs in Bahia) that you will never see on any other news program. Along with his field reporter (whose name escapes me at the moment) they broadcast stories about police violence, drug trafficking and kidnapping. The program devotes at least twenty minutes to tearful testimonials from interviewees about friends or family members who are missing.
However, there is another side to the program. This other side (the Jerry Springer side) makes the program look like a joke as Bocao's field reporter will at times openly humiliate the interviewee, oftentimes the victim of some crime or malady. Combined with sound effects and music from the main studio, segments of the show will appear to be aired with the sole purpose of ridiculing and humiliating the state's poor (who are nearly always the subject of the episode), either in favelas or the periferia (boonies). This humiliation includes showcasing an abuse victims wounds, rough questioning of alleged criminals at the police station, and openly ridiculing those who seem just happy to be on TV.
I'm conflicted about the program. On one hand, it represents something that many of us aren't used to: news media that doesn't seem to have some sort of obvious ideological lean. It portrays both the good and the bad in a seemingly objective light. The major problem is the way O Bocao goes about presenting aspects of this news. While the program does give a non-sugar-coated look at the darker side of the state of Bahia (if it weren't for the program one might believe every single one of the state sponsored ads about how much better life is for every baiano and baiana) it does so at the expense of the dignity of its subjects (like Jerry Springer, except in this case it's not staged). From an outsider's perspective Baianos look principally poor and ignorant and not a whole lot else.
But maybe that's what is necessary for this form of news to have some sort of effect. It is definitely popular and takes up a significant chunk of airtime in the middle of the day. I guess what remains to be seen (the program is only a few years old) is whether it will spark positive action or will just be something at which viewers point and laugh.
Is objectively informing people as to what is out there--whether or not others are humiliated in the process--enough?
I'm not exactly sure.
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1 comment:
1.) Looking at your words and the colors made my eyes hurt, and now I have weird lines of light in everything I look at, which is bad because I am at work.
2.) I am at work!
3.) Yeah.
So this seems like something I'd be conflicted about, too. I mean it's important to show things, but I'd have to say that just because you're shedding light on otherwise hidden issues that live in the marginal spaces of society, it doesn't give you license to be a (for lack of a better word) ass about it. Political commentary (especially this kind) that wants to be funny always walks the very thin line between being empathetic and apathetic- and those are two very different things.
I think the problem is that most people, if we're really honest with ourselves, will just look, laugh, think "that's a shame" and then turn the channel.
BUT if you do see some sort of positive impact on the action that people in Bahia take (as a direct reaction to this program) please do let us know.
I mean you know.. there's a first time for everything.
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