Contemporanea : Revista de Comunicação e Cultura (Jun 2005)
Duas variantes da representação do real na cultura midiática: o exorbitante Big Brother brasil e o circunspeto Edifício Master
Abstract
The text aims at describing a remarkable phenomenon in our present day media culture: the representation of the real in television and cinema. Through the comparison between two audiovisual genres which deal with the real in the media, the Edificio Master documentary, directed by Eduardo Coutinho, and the Big Brother Brasil television program, the aim is to understand the cultural signification of two very different esthetic products that, nevertheless, share the dominant use of indexical signs, as their specific strategy. Without trying to minimize the obvious esthetic and ethic differences that exist between the reality show of the multinational company Endemol and the highly acclaimed Brazilian film, the article considers a fundamental tendency in present day media culture, namely, the techological and artistic production of an illusory intimacy at a distance, as a way of reflecting on identity. The functioning of the reality show aims at wrenching out of its orbit the normality of its participants, who must dwell in an abnormal place; the documentary, on the other hand, aims at offering a circumspect and moral vision of our everyday world, there where life takes place.
