Abstract

SAJNA, Radoslaw. Branding Rio, Brazil and the environment: A global media coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. OBS* [online]. 2018, vol.12, n.2, pp.47-60. ISSN 1646-5954.

The Olympic Games are always a great opportunity to brand the city and country hosting such a big global event. The opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics was the best moment to show different values and images of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, but also to promote a global environmental idea with the message “let's save the planet”. Global media coverage of the ceremony should strengthen the messages. In this article an analysis of 30 articles published in 30 different newspapers (online) from different continents, reporting the opening ceremony, has been made to answer the question: how important were the environmental issues, comparing with presentations of different values of Rio and Brazil, in the global media coverage of the event. In concrete: did the global media coverage of the opening ceremony serve above all for branding Rio and Brazil or for promoting environmental issues as an important global problem? The results show that Rio and Brazil brands were promoted strongly (however with some critical views in different articles), while the environmental issues were mentioned in most articles, but highlighted only in a few of them.

Keywords : Brazil; environment; media; Olympic Games; Rio 2016; Rio de Janeiro.

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