Localization as Japanization or Brazilianization Iwabuchi (2002) discussed how Japan localized U.S. culture in a process of

Localization as Japanization or Brazilianization Iwabuchi (2002) discussed how Japan localized U.S. culture in a process of

Japanization. In this process, Japan selectively incorporated foreign elements of popular culture, technology, and economic technique into the still dominant mainstream of Japanese popular culture and Japanese cultural industry.

Straubhaar (1981, 1 984) wrote about how Brazilian television has Brazilianized foreign influences into a set of cultural industries and cultural forms, such as the

telenovela, that are nationally distinct. The argument in both cases was that a strong national culture, supported by government policy and relying on dynamic

cultural industries, successfully incorporated foreign influences into a continuity of national popular culture and national cultural industry. Both adapted foreign

formats and made them over into something that seems nationally specific. Rego ( 1988), Oliveira ( 1 993), and others critiqued that argument about Brazil, arguing that Brazilian cultural industries could not be considered

autonomously Brazilianized because they had become integrated parts of the world capitalist economy. Even if Brazilian commercial media created most of their own national cultural products, they still promoted consumption and brought Brazilians, both rich and poor, into accepting the world capi­ talist economy and their role in it. Critics felt that it didn't matter if the soap opera was now produced in Brazil as long as it copied American forms of soap opera and still sold Colgate-Palmolive soap (Oliveira, 1994). Although that critique is quite astute in terms of the media's role in economic global­ ization, it diminishes the role and importance of culture, per se. It leaves open the question of what happens to culture when foreign forms are adapted to local media and local cultures. In particular, it ignores the role of the actual cultural producers in places such as Japan or Brazil. As they bor­ row foreign forms and incorporate them in their own production, what explains their work process, and what can explain the larger impact on their

Producing National Television, Glocal and Local 151

local and national cultures? I turn now to examining Brazilian television, specifically its telenovelas, in terms of structuration (Giddens, 1984), local­

ization in the sense that Iwabuchi (2002) used it, glocalization (also fre­ quently used to analyze the Japanese case), Ricoeur's configuration process, and the larger framework of hybridity. I look closely at the case of the adap­

tation of the telenovela to Brazil and one case in particular.

Structuration and Television Production in Brazil There are several layers of actors with distinct interests in Brazilian televi­

sion: the state, the advertisers (representing the global and national indus­ trial economic elite), the television industry or network, the producers and writers within the network, and the audience. Although some of these

clearly have more power than others, all are able to exercise some small degree of constraint over the others.

The state has had the most power, particularly when the military directly controlled the crucial telecommunications infrastructure and much of the advertising and enjoyed direct censorship power between 1964 and 1 984. Even after the end of military rule, the state is still a power that broadcasters, particularly TV Globo, try very hard to please. It can still constrain or enable many of their actions. However, there is also countervailing power for televi­ sion, which can enable or constrain politicians' access to the audience via news or other programs. In a democratic system, the government badly needs favorable coverage. So do other parties and political figures. A complex dance of mutual constraint extends between media, particularly major television networks, and the government. This applies to both television news opera­ tions and entertainment, particularly the telenovelas, which have carried

political themes for many years (Porto, 2005; Straubhaar, 1989a).

Within the broadcast operation, there is also an uneven set of powers and constraints. TV Globo has considerable power to control agendas for content. However, Globo seems to delegate production of telenovelas and

other programs to creative talent, who are relatively free as long as they stay within the parameters or boundaries for commercial success demanded by the company. Internal management expects a consistent level of production quality but provides the resources to enable high-quality productions, par­ ticularly for the telenovelas, which are the prime-time cash cow of the firm. More than anything, what is demanded and rewarded is commercial success, which is not surprising in a private commercial firm but which indicates that the firm is willing to push cultural, political, and moral boundaries as long as that content succeeds with the audience. That gives the audience a

1 52 Chapter 6 powerful but indirect constraint on the institutions of the broadcaster and

the state.