The role of communication for Brazilian social movements
James N. Green and Paulo Abrão are, respectively, president of the Board of Directors and executive director of the WBO. Green is a professor of Brazilian history and culture at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and the author of 11 books about Brazil. Abrão is a Visiting Scholar at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and senior advisor to Artigo 19 for South America. The article was written for the 100th issue of the WBO's weekly bulletin, dated January 19, 2024. To subscribe and receive weekly editions of the WBO newsletter, with news and analysis about Brazil, for free, enter your email in the form below.
The Washington Brazil Office (WBO) issued the 100th edition of its newsletter on January 19, 2024. This is an important milestone for a communication project that is produced in Brazil and over the years has been offering an informative and analytical point of view on what is happening in the country, politically, economically and socially.
Over these hundred weeks, the WBO bulletin has established itself as a reliable information source for the complexities unfolding in Brazil. The last few years have been marked by transformative events, such as the election of a far-right government, led by the now former president Jair Bolsonaro and the return to power of the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who, after being arrested by Operation Lava Jato, had a triumphant comeback, leading a movement to reestablish democracy in the country, in the wake of the shocks of a failed coup attempt on January 8, 2023.
Understanding and explaining Brazilian political dynamics is not easy even for those who were born in the country and speak Portuguese. When it comes to transporting this reality to a foreign audience, everything becomes even more challenging.
It is not common for there to be periodic, solid, and reliable publications in English about Brazil. Foreign audiences can find sporadic information in major newspapers about key occurrences. Television stations and news agencies also offer some journalistic monitoring of events, as do some magazines, websites and specialized publications, linked to academic study centers or U.S. and European think tanks. But this is not enough for those who want to learn more about the country.
WBO Newsletter
The publication reached one hundred editions in January 2024 and began to be distributed in Portuguese, in addition to English
In this regard, there is a large number of academics, journalists, researchers of all types, activists, trade unionists, government officials, and congressional aides, as well as congressional representatives and senators, who want to learn more about what is taking place in Brazil through analyses that is capable of contextualizing the singularities of the Brazilian reality, while comparing or contrasting them from an international perspective to a foreign audience.
Without this contextualization, information is meaningless. Or the true meaning may actually be lost, leading the reader to reach ill-informed understandings, which can bring distortions and risks for those who need to produce analysis, knowledge and decisions in relations with Brazil, its economy, and civil society organizations operating in the country.
Over the course of these one hundred issues, the WBO has reached an audience of almost 3,000 readers. Every Friday, they receive a contextualized summary of the week’s major events in Brazil; an editorial written by André Pagliarini, assistant professor of history at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, and associate researcher at the WBO; and a weekly article written by an invited guest. That person is an expert in their field and can offer an in-depth and well-informed point of view on their research and work topics – be they regarding themes, such as the environment, gender, race, the economy, and human rights more broadly, or in specific aspects of these major themes, such as recently published analyzes regarding the Lula government's foreign policy or singularities in the functioning of the Brazilian legislative branch.
To celebrate the 100th issue of the bulletin, the WBO decided to start distributing it in Portuguese. This decision reflects an effort to collaborate not only with an English-language readership, but also to begin providing partners and allies of Brazilian civil society organizations and movements with informative material that is clear, easy to understand and free of charge. The WBO believes that good information – clear, precise and reliable – is fundamental for understanding the context in which these organizations operate. It is also essential for successful decision-making processes.
The press is important. The WBO promotes, defends, and collaborates with journalists working in radio, TV, newspapers, websites, portals and magazines, in addition to joining in the defense of their rights and collaborating with organizations in this sector. But the WBO also invests, stimulates, and promotes communication carried out by civil society organizations and movements, as a way of giving visibility and legitimacy to grassroots communication that is not always reflected faithfully in the mainstream media.
The one hundred issues of the WBO bulletin – as well as other communication products, such as the Brazil Unfiltered podcast, the website, and social networks – are concrete expressions of the principles that the organization promotes and defends. They are also practical tools to encourage cooperation, reduce distances between realities, give a voice to those who are neglected, and contribute to the production of a more diverse, plural, democratic, reliable and useful information ecosystem for all who need to understand, every week, what actually takes place in Brazil.
