Why I’ve gone off newspapers, part two: balance

Posted: 23rd May 2014

IN THE MAINSTREAM media there seems to be a trend towards scaremongering for an optimum number of clicks or sales. You may recall my earlier blog about the power of emotive language to frighten and depress us in newspapers. This post builds on that notion with a specific case study: coverage of Brazil ahead of the World Cup there next month.

Until recently, focus on Brazil has been largely economic and broadsheet: its place was in the list of rising nations with an economy outstripping our own. But of course, now that our young soccer princes are bound for the Cidade Maravilhosa, words have turned swiftly to fear.

Whereas reports of Brazil’s economic and social difficulties would usually be restricted to the international pages, now they have moved up the news agenda. But the debate about Brazil doesn’t continue in the usual way.

As the kick-off draws closer, watch carefully as media outlets slowly but surely try to have us consumed by thoughts of those nasty favelas (tightly packed working-class districts that sweep up many mountain sides) and recent cases of violence in the city that have absolutely nothing to do with the majority of residents (including the large numbers who live in favelas).

One recent report suggested executives were ‘freaking out’ because the hotel the England squad is to stay in will be near a favela. Never mind that Rocinha, being the largest favela in all Brazil, is pretty much visible from any number of angles in Rio. Incidentally, it’s not actually around the corner to the England squad’s hotel at all – it’s a couple of miles away. But unless you’ve been to Rio, or have the presence of mind to Google map it for yourself, why would you doubt what you are reading?

Will any newspapers be reporting the fact that the Royal Tulip Hotel is located on the beachfront at Sao Conrado, by Avenida Niemeyer – surely one of the most stunning coastal roads in the world? Turn your head in the opposite direction of the favela and you get a wonderful view of the crashing azure Atlantic Ocean. I wonder which side of the hotel their rooms will be on? Incidentally, the district in which the team will be training, called Urca, is a wonderful place. All the panic about traffic? I expect they’ll be helicoptered in!

Now, a genuine threat to safety is not something to be sniffed at. Brazil is a developing nation, and the divide between the middle class and the poor is quite stark. But rather than a wholesale rendering of the city as a no-go wasteland, how about a bit of balance amid scary statistics about a rise in muggings, and genuinely terrifying headlines like ‘Don’t scream if mugged’?.

Where are the plain-speaking articles on staying safe, with a rundown of the kind of places to go that welcome tourists? How about a football fans’ guide to etiquette? It may be too early to request such articles, but I seriously doubt many will publish this kind of thing when it’s much more lucrative to show images of someone hurling a Molotov cocktail at police during clashes in a poor district.

Here are some more article ideas: How about an in-depth piece about the whole spectrum of life in Copacabana (a massive area by the way, and not just a beach for tourists to get mugged on). How about some cultural insight into the people, and information about why it might be a good idea to buy your beach snacks from some of the wandering vendors who spend all day peddling refreshments? I’ve not seen anything like this out there yet.

I dread to think ahead to the reporting that will take place during the World Cup, when we will doubtless continue to be exposed to a very narrow measure of what Rio de Janeiro/Brazil is all about. They will report heavily when some football fans get drunk and wander into a slightly iffy neighbourhood without their wits about them and get mugged or worse. They will use this kind of outcome as a means to level criticism at the World Cup itself (perhaps a legitimate target if news about organisational failures are to be believed), but more damaging they will use it as an excuse to further demonise the people. What I’ve read so far is hugely insulting to the majority of the people living in the favelas, who are only interested in getting on with life and earning their wages like we are.

For what it’s worth, I recently went to Rio, travelling on their bus network with the ordinary Cariocas. I went to the main tourist attractions as well as a number of off the beaten track locations. If you don’t flash your cash, dress to impress or cause a scene, you know what? The people of Rio won’t give a stuff who you are and will leave you well alone. If you happen to interact with them, they’ll likely be incredibly welcoming, as I found.

There is always a place for genuine concern about the welfare of a nation and its people – serious problems are afoot in Brazil that shouldn’t be ignored, and we’d be crazy to close our eyes to that.

However, my hunch is that our mainstream media will close its eyes to Brazil once the World Cup is over. Brazil will have served its purpose: to shift some column inches. To find out what happens next you’ll probably have to go back to the broadsheets’ international pages. But I can live in hope for another outcome.