Treatment in the Spanish digital press of the Brazilian carnival and its dissemination in social media

Abstract

Mainstream press reaches the greatest number of people throughout the consumer decision-making process despite the fact of being less credible than specialized tourist press. However, tourism is a transversal sector and news related to tourism is susceptible of appearing in any one of the media sections. Thus it may gain presence or make a greater impact on the public who will subsequently share or disseminate this information through social media. The mass media may either enhance or attenuate stereotype images associated to Brazil, even throughout seasons like Carnival. This paper aims to analyse the information about Brazil provided by mainstream media and assess its impact and diffusion throughout internet and social networks. It conducts a context and content analysis of the digital editions of the main Spanish newspapers by measuring the interaction of these editions with Facebook. Our results show the presence of certain stereotypes associated to the image of Brazil as well as a certain emphasis on the negative aspects of events that are either directly or indirectly related to Carnival. However, social media seem to make no elevated diffusion of these events.