Hall of Mirrors: Media, Democratization, and the Public Sphere in Maranhão, Brazil

• Published date: 01 May 2018
• Author: Julián Durazo Herrmann
• Date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18757473
• Subject Matter: Articles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 220, Vol. 45 No. 3, May 2018, 208–223

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18757473

© 2018 Latin American Perspectives

208

Hall of Mirrors

Media, Democratization, and the Public Sphere in

Maranhão, Brazil

by

Julián Durazo Herrmann

Freedom of expression and access to diverse sources of information are seen as critical

elements of democracy, although their concretization on the ground is subject to strong

interference. Recent regime change in Maranhão, one of Brazil’s poorest states, has led to

the emergence of new media and some expansion of the public sphere. The traditional

oligarchy continues to dominate the media, however, and the opposition media replicate

its exclusion of nonelite actors. The Maranhão experience confirms that normative

approaches to the media either as automatic contributors to democracy or as instruments

of elite manipulation have little value for understanding media dynamics.

Liberdade de expressão, bem como o acesso a diversas fontes de informação, são

considerados elementos críticos da democracia, ainda que a concretização desses fatores esteja

sujeita a forte interferência. A recente troca de regime no Maranhão, um dos estados mais

pobres do Brasil, tem levado ao surgimento de uma nova mídia e a uma certa expansão da

esfera pública. Contudo, a oligarquia continua dominando a mídia tradicional e a mídia

alternativa imita a prática de exclusão de atores não pertencentes à elite. A experiência do

Maranhão confirma que tratamentos normativos que veem a mídia como contribuinte

automática do processo democrático, ou como instrumento de manipulação da elite, teem

pouco valor para se entender a dinâmica da mídia.

Keywords: Media, Subnational politics, Democratization, Maranhão, Brazil

On January 1, 2015, Flávio Dino became governor of Maranhão, one of

Brazil’s poorest states. He thus became the first Communist (Partido

Comunista do Brasil—PCdoB) governor to come to power in Brazil —albeit

supported by a much larger coalition. In the eyes of many observers, he also

broke definitively with almost 50 years of local political domination by for-

mer President José Sarney and his family. As José Sarney retired from the

federal Senate and his daughter Roseana resigned the governorship a few

days before the end of her term, Maranhão seemed poised for profound

political change.

Julián Durazo Herrmann is a professor of comparative politics at the Université du Québec à

Montréal. He has worked extensively on the challenges of transitions to democracy and subna-

tional politics in Latin America. He is grateful to the numerous media actors who granted him

interviews and shared important insights on the role of the media in Maranhão. He also acknowl-

edges the gracious help and comments of the faculty of the Universidade Federal do Maranhão

at São Luís and Imperatriz.

757473LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X18757473Latin American PerspectivesDurazo / DEMOCRATIZATION AND THE MEDIA IN MARANHÃO

research-article2018

Durazo / DEMOCRATIZATION AND THE MEDIA IN MARANHÃO 209

My purpose here is to explore the scope of this change through the lens of

the media’s role in the subnational political system. Freedom of expression and

access to diverse sources of information are seen as critical elements of democ-

racy (Dahl, 1971), and a focus on them will allow us to assess whether and how

new actors and new issues penetrate the public sphere and, through the cre-

ation of a general opinion, participate in society’s decision-making processes.

By giving publicity to government action, the media contribute to improving

the quality of public debate, but they may also become an instrument for

manipulation and exclusion (Habermas, 1991 [1962]). Therefore, an in-depth

study of the political economy of the media in Maranhão—its actors and

issues—will allow us to gauge the penetration of regime change into subna-

tional political mores. I shall evaluate who has access to the media, what themes

are aired and thus become part of the information considered in political dis-

cussion, what actors and themes are excluded from the public sphere despite

subnational regime change, and whether these exclusions allow oligarchic

groups to reproduce their legitimate control over both the media and the polit-

ical system (Esteves, 2004).

Maranhão has an area of 331,937 square kilometers and a population of

6,904,241, 63 percent of which lives in urban areas. It is Brazil’s second-poorest

state in terms of per capita income. Only 32 percent of households have access

to the Internet, and 50 percent of the population have access to cell phones —

among the lowest proportions in Brazil (IBGE, 2014). The state once housed one

of the strongest and longest-lasting examples of regional boss rule (coronelismo)

in Brazil. José Sarney became governor in 1966 with the support of the military

regime and used his subnational platform to become president of the Aliança

Renovadora Nacional (National Renewal Alliance—ARENA), the ruling party

under the military regime between 1979 and 1984, and then president of Brazil

between 1985 and 1990 and federal senator between 1991 and 2014. He is the

owner of Maranhão’s most important media conglomerate, Sistema Mirante,

the only one to cover the whole state with both radio and television and the

publisher of the state’s most important daily newspaper, Estado do Maranhão.

After a brief outline of Maranhão’s political history for the past 50 years, I

address three questions: How is the Maranhão media system constituted? How

does it reflect the state’s political opening? How do the media reflect the emer-

gence of new political actors and the changing balance of power? I attempt to

outline the dynamic relationship between the media and Maranhão’s broader

political system through a historical-structuralist approach (Kohli etal., 1995).

To do so I resort to both primary sources (mostly media products) and second-

ary ones, as well as to a number of semidirective interviews with media actors

on the ground (Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias, 2000).

Maranhão Under the SarneyS and Beyond

In 1965 the recently installed Brazilian military regime held state-level elec-

tions. While the dismal results led it to suspend direct elections for state gover-

nors for the next 16 years (Stepan, 1973), in Maranhão the election brought José

Sarney—a federal deputy, a successful writer, and a member of the Academia