Digital strategies by media collectives of Indigenous people in Brazil

Camila Emboava Lopes

ImageLieuwe Jan Hettema

Indigenous media producers seem to value on-site communication activities as much as digital communications

Camila Emboava Lopes says that media produced collectively by minorities such as Indigenous Peoples can be considered alternative because it is often produced outside the centres of power.

“Such groups often operate with fewer resources, and find creative ways to make their voices heard, combining on-site and digital communication strategies”, Camila Emboava Lopes says and continues:

“This doctoral dissertation provides an analysis of how different media initiatives developed by Indigenous producers in Brazil use digital media in their communication work.”

“One of the surprising findings is that Indigenous media producers seem to value on-site communication activities as much as digital communications. For example, even the initiatives that operate mainly on social media also promote on-site events like workshops, meetings and festivals.”

Contemporary rather than the past

Camila Emboava Lopes emphasizes that digital forms of communications seem to be particularly useful to communicate with outsiders. Communicators use digital media to reinforce that Indigenous Peoples are contemporary, rather than belonging to the past.

“Furthermore, digital media is widely used to gather local and international support for mobilizations in favour of Indigenous rights. A crucial theme related to such mobilizations is how Indigenous rights relate to ideas of nature protection and sustainable development.”

Social media brings possibilities and challenges

She further describes how indigenous peoples are according to previous research underrepresented in majority media. However, Indigenous media producers have been developing communication alternatives to try to echo their voices for many decades.

“In a time when communications are dominated by digital media and corporate social media platforms, this doctoral dissertation underlines the importance of studying how Indigenous Peoples relate to the possibilities and challenges in such communication contexts.”

The doctoral dissertation examines five different media initiatives developed by Indigenous producers in Brazil: Rádio Yandê, Mídia Indígena, APIB, ASCURI and Tybyra. The research activities included online and on-site observations, interviews with media producers and analysis of media content posted by the initiatives on their social media pages.