Brazilian media narrative about Russia: Construction of reality and correlation with American media

Abstract

The authors discuss the cultural and psychological aspects of media reality within the framework of constructivism, and trace the nature of the information flow about Russia in Brazil over time. The article examines the form and content of the Brazilian press narration about the Russian Federation for the period of 53 years, from 1968 to 2021, on the example of one of the main and widely distributed periodicals: “Veja” magazine. The authors analyze its cover content as a polycode text, and subsequent articles. The study used the methods of narrative analysis, and methods of linguacultural interpretation of linguistic features. The study carried out a comparative analysis of the covers of “Veja” magazine with the covers and articles of the leading American magazine “Time”, corresponding in terms of time and subject matter of the articles. This comparison demonstrated a direct correlation between the way Russia was described in the Brazilian press and the Western media in terms of style and form of presenting information. It allowed the authors to speak about the influence of American hegemonic press on the Brazilian media narration. The correlation of the polycode texts has proved the use of the cognitive functions of the visual media language in politically dependent media spaces. The 53-year period taken for the analysis showed that over such a long timeline with multiple events both in Russia and Brazil, as well as in the whole world, including the emergence of the BRICS, the Brazilian media narration has not changed and continued to follow the American mainstream.