Abstract

POSCH, Patricia  and  CABECINHAS, Rosa. Being present through absence: the semiotic construction of recent Brazilian migration to Portugal in the Brazilian media. Comunicação e Sociedade [online]. 2020, vol.38, pp.201-217. ISSN 1645-2089.  https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.38(2020).2592.

Over recent years, a rising number of Brazilians have migrated to Portugal. This phenomenon confirms certain trends that have already been identified in the literature while also revealing important changes in its configuration. These transformations are accompanied by a diversification of discourses about the phenomenon, that occurs across different media platforms. In the case of television, the discourses are transmitted in the form of audiovisual content which, more than just being an alternative language to writing, constitutes an important tool for articulating knowledge. In an attempt to understand the semiotic approach towards this fact in the Brazilian media, we decided to analyse all episodes from the first season of the television journalistic series, Portugal pelos Brasileiros (Portugal by Brazilians), broadcast in Brazil by Rede Globo de Televisão in early 2018. The principles of Social Semiotics developed by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen were used from an intersectional perspective as a starting point to unveil how the visual and sound resources used in this series, and the combination thereof, contribute to the construction of discourses about new Brazilian immigrants living in Portugal. In view of the identified arrangements, we conclude that we are facing a media discourse that privileges representation of recent Brazilian immigration in Portugal in a segmented manner, revealing the perspective of one specific group of immigrants, to the detriment of the plurality of voices and experiences that are inherent to the phenomenon as a whole. We view the ongoing intention to separate the representations of the new Brazilian immigrants in Portugal from other representations commonly related to Brazilian migrants from previous migratory waves, through the configuration of new semiotic repertoires to the effect, as a part of broader discursive strategies that might have direct consequences on the social life of the persons in question.

Keywords : media discourse; Social Semiotic; intersectionality; migrations; Portugal pelos Brasileiros.

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