(200 words)In recent years, the internet has become a key site for the portrayal of Rio de Janeiro's favelas. This article examines blogging by favela residents and argues that digital culture constitutes a vital, and as yet not systematically explored, arena of research on the representation of Rio de Janeiro and its favelas. Based on ethnographically inspired research carried out in 2009-2010, this article examines two examples of blog 'framing content' (a sidebar and a static page) encountered during fieldwork, which functioned to establish a concrete link between the posts on the blogs in question, their authors, and a named favela, even when the posts were not explicitly about that favela. At the same time, the framing content also made visible, and affirmed, the translocal connections between that favela, other favelas, and the city as a whole. These illustrative examples from a wider study show how favela bloggers are engaged in resignifying and remapping the relationships between different empirical scales of locality (and associated identities) in Rio de Janeiro, demonstrating the contribution an interdisciplinary approach to the digital texts and practices of favela residents can make to an understanding of the contemporary city and its representational conundrums, from the perspective of 'ordinary practitioners'.
tori holmes is a lecturer in Brazilian Studies in the School of Modern Languages at Queen's University Belfast. She received her PhD from the University of Liverpool in 2011 for a thesis examining the use of blogs and other internet platforms by Brazilian favela residents. Her current research interests centre on digital culture and urban representation in Brazil, including in web documentary. A further area of interest relates to digital research methods and ethics, and issues associated with interdisciplinary research. She is a member of the Latin American Cyberculture project (http://latamcyber.wordpress.com). address: School of Modern Languages, 10 University Square, Queen's University Belfast BT7 1NN. [email: t.holmes@qub.ac.uk]ethnographic and ethnographically inspired approaches are becoming increasingly popular in studies of digital media and digital culture, and are being used by scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, as well as in interdisciplinary projects. Nonetheless, specific methodological tensions and dilemmas can arise in the encounter between different research traditions. One area of such tension relates to how texts are approached, and how they are linked to other types of data. This article reports on related methodological questions which arose in interdisciplinary research into how residents of a favela, or shantytown, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil used the internet, and particularly blogs, to represent the area where they lived. Overall the article argues that the interdisciplinary nature of the research provided an opportunity to adapt and develop methodological concepts and approaches from different traditions (including anthropology, internet ethnography, new literacy studies and internet studies) in response to the characteristics of the field site. These were brought together in the idea of 'following the content', which also included the concept of the 'content event', inspired by new literacy studies and employed to connect texts and practices.
ResumoEste artigo analisa Casas Marcadas (2012), um curta que critica as remoções no Morro da Providência no Rio de Janeiro. Apesar de não ter sido feito originalmente para distribuição on-line, o documentário foi disponibilizado no YouTube e tem página no Facebook. Ele também já foi exibido em cineclubes, mostras e festivais. Para discutir o impacto do curta e os seus efeitos, o artigo desenvolve um marco conceitual inspirado no "modelo de coalizão" de David Whiteman e no trabalho de Brian T.Edwards sobre a circulação de obras culturais. O trabalho de Edwards permite estabelecer uma conexão entre o conteúdo da obra (seu "significado") e a repercussão alcançada por ela (seus "movimentos"). Adotando a terminologia de Edwards, a análise do significado de Casas Marcadas reflete sobre o uso no curta de imagens históricas relacionadas com remoções e transformações urbanas no Rio. Em relação a "movimentos", o artigo rastreia a circulação digital e presencial do filme e discute menções ao curta em websites, textos acadêmicos e obras derivadas. A análise, desenvolvida da perspectiva dos estudos culturais, permite concluir que o filme gerou uma série de microimpactos e conseguiu influenciar o debate sobre remoções e transformações urbanas no Rio de Janeiro em certos círculos sociais e políticos.Palavras-chave: produção audiovisual periférica; documentário; circulação; favelas. AbstractThis article analyses Casas Marcadas (in English, Marked Homes) (2012), a short film which presents a critical view on removals in the Morro da Providência favela in Rio de Janeiro. Although not originally produced for online distribution, the documentary was made available on YouTube and has a page on Facebook. It has also been shown at cineclubs, mostras (thematic film series or events), and festivals. To discuss the impact and effects of the short film, the article develops a conceptual framework inspired by David Whiteman's "coalition model" and Brian T. Edwards' work on the circulation of cultural works. Edwards' approach allows for a connection to be made between the content of the film (its "meaning") and its repercussion (its "motion"). Following Edwards' terminology,
Giving visibility to urban change in Rio de Janeiro through digital audiovisual culture: A Brazilian webdocumentary project and its circulation
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