AbstractsCommunication

Exploring trends in Brazilian television consumption : a quantitative study of major urban centers from 2004 to 2014 and a case study of two rural communities in the Amazonian region

by Jeremiah Petra Spence




Institution: University of Texas – Austin
Department:
Year: 2015
Keywords: TV audience research; Brazil
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2063959
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/2152/31668


Abstract

This dissertation has the objective of expanding the frontiers of understanding of audience research with television viewers in Brazil, given the data available for this study. This dissertation emphasizes the importance of examining the infrastructure serving rural communities, as it frequently presents the largest barrier to those populations adopting and utilizing media and new media technologies, and I reflect of the detrimental role that political corruption has on the development process in rural communities, focusing on the case of Juara. This dissertation expands on the cultural proximity work of Joseph Straubhaar (1983; 1991) with a deeper exploration of the relationship of the Brazilian audience with preferences for subtitled versus dubbed foreign content. Importantly, this dissertation modifies the prior conclusions presented in cultural proximity theory  – mainly, that the Brazilian audience should prefer content in this order: National -> Regional -> U.S.; rather, this dissertation concludes, clearly based on the data reported, that instead the Brazilian audience currently prefers content in this order: National -> U.S. -> Regional. Advisors/Committee Members: Straubhaar, Joseph D. (advisor), Kumar, Shanti (committee member), Chen, Wenhong (committee member), Rojas, Viviana (committee member), Higgins Joyce, Vanessa (committee member).