The rural media representations: Comparative analysis of Brazil-Portugal

Abstract

This paper analyses the sociomediatic representations of the countryside in Brazil and Portugal, from two specific angles: the idealized rural and the degraded rural. This procedure is justified by the media coverage of the environment in both countries, whose logic consecrated this duality. The research was based on the systematic review of academic studies on environmental mediatization, ecological history of ideas, sociology of communication and social sciences of the environment. The main conclusion is that, in both countries, media coverage of rural issues is focused on the interests of the urban citizens and reinforces aspects of the social imaginary, based on culturally relevant elements like fire, earth, water, forests. The mediation process acts as a powerful interactive reference to the assimilation of images and representations of nature, whether in relation to the rural idealized or the degraded rural.