The traditional peoples and communities that live in the Cerrado know how important they are for the conservation of their territories – for the living forest, clean rivers and a land free of poison. Their ways of life, and of land and water management, respect mother nature’s cycles, ensuring socio-biodiversity is maintained.
Although fundamental to the existence of the Cerrado, the Amazon, the Pantanal and other territories, it is hard for these populations to receive positive coverage in the mass media. Dominated by politicians and those involved in agribusiness, who are often themselves media outlet proprietors, the hegemonic media chooses only to consider tragedies as legitimate news, without focusing on those responsible for environmental destruction.
Faced with these challenges, on 29 November, CESE hosted a “Virtual Conversation Circle – Strategic Communication: narratives and knowledge of the people of the Cerrado”. The meeting was intended to provide listening experiences and knowledge exchange between communications collectives, journalists from the alternative press, and ecumenical and grassroots organizations working in the struggle and defence of rights.
More than 30 members of Cerrado collectives held a conversation with journalists Lorena Carneiro, editor of Brasil de Fato Bahia, Vânia Dias, from TVE Bahia and Luis Brasilino editor of Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil. The idea was to discuss the best pathways for traditional peoples and communities to access and guide media outlets, particularly their own.
Talking about her own trajectory, Vânia cited certain obstacles that often constitute the daily life of a newsroom and gave some tips for getting round them. “There is a hierarchy within the newsroom and, however much you identify with a particular item, the chief might not, and so it gets overlooked. It hasn’t got anything to do with the journalist personally. I hear about a lot of items, and it saddens me, because it’s not my decision.”
She talked about the importance of knowing which outlet to send your news item to, based on its editorial line – if it has a more conservative bias, it’s not worth trying. In other cases, although the outlet or the journalist is more ideologically aligned to traditional peoples and communities, they may not be able to translate the facts for the outlet, meaning that a well-drafted press release is essential.
She also noted that it’s important to get to know the media outlets. “If you have an urgent matter to report, a recorded programme won’t help you. You have to go live on-air. It’s important to make a list, to find out who are the allied journalists there, to make and keep your contacts. At least once a week, every newsroom has a meeting about news items. If the item reaches us on the day of the meeting, it’s more likely to be approved.”
To complement Vânia’s words, Lorena highlighted something the mass media tends to repeat frequently, in an attempt to make its image credible: supposed journalistic impartiality. “There is no neutral journalism. If you have to choose between what material goes on air and what doesn’t, you’re making a political choice. It’s steered by an editorial line, by some kind of thinking.”
In relation to tips, she recommended that groups always ensure that they have at least one person dedicated to communications. “Although there are limitations, it’s important to have someone dedicated to this. Who can think about it beforehand, plan. Take photos, work on the information that will be sent to the press.”
She provided some tips regarding the tools journalists use to facilitate their work when writing texts, such as the lead – a paragraph that contains the main information about the event – and which can help when the item is sent to the newsroom: What is it – what activity/event took place? When did/will it happen? Where – the location? Contact – who can provide more information on the topic?
Brasil de Fato is a nationwide media outlet explicitly aligned to grassroots causes. Its Bahia region has a site (www.brasildefatoba.com.br – in Portuguese) that covers Bahia, Brazil, and the world; a radio programme, on air every Sunday and available to listen to free on Spotify; as well as a social media presence.
Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil also follows a counterhegemonic editorial line. A good number of the articles published on its site (www.diplomatique.org.br – in Portuguese) come from partners. According to Luis, an average of 70 to 80 articles come in every month, ready for the team to analyse, discuss and then publish, “So it would be interesting to have this collaboration with yourselves,” he told the movements.
Luis explained that Diplomatique Brasil seeks to prioritize “in-depth analyses, long texts. Something you could read months or even years later, based on data, research. Which provides historical, geographical, political or social context.”
In addition to its site, it produces a weekly podcast – the Guilhotina, which is also available on Spotify at no cost – with interviews aimed at in-depth discussions on a theme; it has produced series such as “Cerrado dos Povos: Saberes e Biodiversidade” (the Cerrado of the Peoples: Knowledge and Biodiversity”) and “Ocupação da Amazônia pelo mercado” (the Occupation of the Amazon by the market).
Vânia is a black, feminist and antiracist woman, with 10 years’ experience in television and a commitment to progressive agendas and discussions about art, culture, health, children, the environment and the city.
We contacted journalists from other media outlets – Mídia Ninja, Agência Envolverde, Nexo Jornal, Ecoa UOL, Repórter Brasil, Agência Pública, Sumaúma, Mídia Índia, Amazônia Real and Agência Rádio Web – and they sent videos to the meeting advising how the groups can get in touch with their newsrooms. All the participants will receive this material after the activity.
Challenges for the traditional peoples and communities of the Cerrado
The conversation circle also included representatives from the organizations’ communications wings. Lara Thifanny Ferreira, from the Bico do Papagaio Young People’s Working Group, and Maryellen Crisóstomo, from the coordination team of the Communications Collective of the National Coordination for the Coalition of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas: CONAQ) (in Portuguese) talked about their experiences and challenges as communicators for the Cerrado.
Maryellen criticized the discussions about climate change and the “solutions” that appear at international meetings, aimed at the communities rather than at big business. “It’s such a huge contradiction, because we aren’t the ones destroying the biome. We aren’t the ones who are responsible for trees and animals disappearing from nature. We have a relationship of affection. It’s the river where we bathed, our ancestors went there, it’s the forest that everybody knows, and all understand its importance.” She pointed out that even the conflicts covered in the news are problematic.
“Cases of violence make a greater impression, but those conflicts didn’t just start there. There is a context, but it’s only covered when something really extreme happens, like the killing of a leader. We have problems setting out our positive agenda, reporting on the importance of traditional peoples and communities for the preservation of the biome. The discussion has to be reformulated in this manner,” she concluded.
Lara also addressed the difficulties her community faces in bursting local bubbles. “We still have problems getting into arenas outside our activist circles. We need our grassroots base to have access to these means of communication.”
She gave one successful example of this, when they participated in training and were able to get on to the radio programme of a large local broadcaster. “We took over the microphone and came to the conclusion that it was time for us to be the protagonists of our own story. There’s nothing better that when we talk about what we experience ourselves.”