TELENOVELAS AND REALITY: SOCIAL MERCHANDISING

Recently, CNN broadcast a news story about "social merchandising" (the inclusion of social issues) in Brazilian telenovelas. And even though Brazil is not the only country where writers do what has been called "social merchandising" with their telenovelas (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), it is undoubtedly the place where it's done with more constancy.

TELENOVELAS AND REALITY: PREMIERE OF LIBRES COMO EL VIENTO

Last night RCTV began broadcasting in Venezuela its new telenovela Libres como el viento, written by Pilar Romero (Mi Prima Ciela, Elizabeth, Maite, Toda Mujer), inspired in Rómulo Gallegos' novel "La Brizna de Paja en el Viento".

In the telenovela's synopsis, it is emphasized that this is a love story "marked by the current happenings in university life". This context is a clear reference to the reality of the student movement in Venezuela, which became a political protagonist after the government did not renew RCTV's broadcast concession in May 2007:

It's too early to assess this telenovela. For the moment, I'm interested in its context, which we can see represented in the following promotional:



I can't help but to notice that these days Venezuelan telenovelas are living a moment that is the opposite of the one I studied in the year 2003. At that time, RCTV and Venevisión competed for the first place. Both networks were on the same political side: opposing Hugo Chávez's government. Their novelas, however, offered two very different options. Venevisión represented and editorialized the harsh political reality in successful telenovela Cosita Rica, written by Leonardo Padrón. For his part, José Simón Escalona, RCTV's dramatic chief, believed that at the time Venezuelans didn't want to see more reality on their tv screens (Acosta-Alzuru, 2007, p. 34). Hence, RCTV broadcast La Invasora, written by Iris Dubbs, followed by Estrambótica Anastasia, authored by Martin Hahn.

Today we're in a completely different situation. RCTV can only broadcast via cable, is dedicated to producing remakes and versions, and places its wagers on a telenovela with a context linked to reality. Venevisión, without a strong competitor in Venezuelan TV, nevertheless is keenly aware of the delicate situation regarding freedom of expression in Venezuela. Therefore, this network prioritizes international sales and asks its writers to author telenovelas that are more "universal", devoid of local flavor, and avoiding any references to the country's controversial reality.

And, even though the telenovela industry always begs the question: "what do audience members want to watch in their telenovelas?", it's impossible for me to think of that, when I'm sure that we're doing much worse in my country. In every sense.

REFERENCE
Acosta-Alzuru, C. (2007). Venezuela es una Telenovela. Caracas: Alfa.

HUGO CHAVEZ AND TELENOVELAS

Todotnv is one of my favorite telenovela blogs. Today there's a  post about how easy it is to blame telenovelas for all sorts of things. This post, of course, brings about the eternal controversy of whether media reflect reality, or reality is influenced by media content.

In Latin America, where telenovelas were born, we also blame telenovelas in a variety of ways...even if we watch them religiously. But, last week President Hugo Chávez attacked telenovelas in his weekly speech to the nation (he also attacked the Internet):

"Be careful with those capitalist telenovelas: they poison (...) They have an ideological intention: to destroy a child's potential, to induce the youth to a life that is plastic, and to induce them to violence, prostitution and a loss of values."

Here's the video:

Chavez y las Telenovelas
by noticias24

President Chávez seems to have forgotten that the origin of telenovelas can be found in the feulleton literature (Dumas, Balzac, etc.), and that the cradle of telenovelas is Cuba. He seems to have forgotten also that his own network  TVES purchases and produces telenovelas.

These and other arguments were aptly expressed by Venezuelan telenovela writers in an article in daily El Universal on August 26:

Leonardo Padrón: Telenovelas Cosita Rica and Ciudad Bendita "were entirely Venezuelan. They constitute  400 hours of television that speak of the people who habit Caricuao or La Bombilla in Petare and how fragile are their living conditions, those hours aren't about the natives of Texas or Arizona.  "In my telenovelas, I've spoken about domestic violence, teen pregnancy and irresponsible fatherhood. Tell me how is it that I'm inculcating there capitalist values!"

Pilar Romero: "A telenovela is a love story. The only one that had a different slant, but wasn't 'capitalist' at all, was POR ESTAS CALLES. The rest are love stories with a moralizing intention. Evil is punished and good is rewarded."

Martín Hahn: "I've never thought about writing a telenovela that is capitalist or socialist. I only think of writing an entertaining telenovela with a positive message. The struggle to keep families together, forgiveness, reconciliation and personal betterment are the themes I like to touch on my telenovelas."

Benilde Avila: "I don't understand why Chávez said that. He must not watch telenovelas. It's a contradiction to say that telenovelas are poison when TVEs, his social television network, produces and broadcast them."

Personally, I'm quite surprised about this attack on telenovelas by President Chávez. Up until now he has been a shrewd communicator who knows how to respect and use the Venezuelan people's popular culture tastes and consumption. At times, he has even use that knowledge to manipulate Venezuelans. To attack telenovelas with empty arguments in a country in which people consume on a daily basis the same number of telenovelas as meals is a foolish mistake. 

We can criticize many things about telenovelas. But, we can also say positive things about them regarding the health messages they can transmit, etc. And, we'll never know for sure if Hugo Chávez would be president if there hadn't been a telenovela called Por Estas Calles. 

IAMCR-Stockholm-MEDIA PRODUCTION

The conference I'm participating in Stockholm has been very fruitful thanks to the diversity of participants, points of view, theoretical approaches and countries present. My first presentation focused on the writing and production of telenovela Cosita Rica during the historic eleven months that preceded the recall referendum of President Hugo Chávez. Following is a video of my presentation. Two warnings: the video's quality is not high, and it's 15 minutes long, which can prove unbearable to those not used to academic presentations. I share it in the spirit of keeping alive the conversation about telenovelas that I've always wanted my blog to be.



Here's the session's full program:

TUESDAY, JULY, 22nd , 17h45-19H , ROOM HÖRSAL B5
WG-MPA7 - PRODUCTION RESEARCH: DRAMA AND
ENTERTAINMENT
Convenor:
Chris Paterson, Working Group Chair
Chair:
Chris Paterson, University of Leeds, UK
Discussant:
David Hesmondhalgh, University of Leeds, UK
22. Online Game Companies as Media Institutions: A Case Study on The Legend of
Mir II
Qiaolei Jiang, Chinese University of Hong Kong
23. Imagination and censorship, fiction and reality: Producing a telenovela in a time
of political crisis
Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, University of Georgia, USA
24. Reaching New Audiences through Drama Production and New Platforms
Mats Bjorkin and Maria Edström, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
25. Production as reception? A Theoretical Approach to a Production Analysis of
Television Satire
Hanne Karina Bruun, University of Aarhus, Denmark

VENEZUELA ES UNA TELENOVELA

Today I was planning to write about the latest in a string of new Venezuelan telenovelas, Torrente (Venevisión). However, I'm going to postpone my analysis for a few days because I must note a review about my book,  Venezuela es una Telenovela that was published today in Venezuela's most read newspaper, Ultimas Noticias.  The review's author is respected literature and performing arts critic E.A. Moreno-Uribe, who's also the author of one the blogs I visit and respect most, El Espectador.

I appreciate Moreno-Uribe's words towards Venezuela es una Telenovela  (story in Ultimas Noticias, blog El Espectador). More importantly, I appreciate his depiction of my research agenda, the significance of my continuous back and forth between the U.S. and Venezuela as I get closer and farther away from my object of study, and my determination to understand better the fascinating and (generally misunderstood) television genre of telenovelas:

Her tastebuds will never forget the flavors of black beans, arepas and plantains that she ate for decades with her family, even though she cooks them in her home in the United States--Athens, Georgia, where she has lived with her husband and children for the past 14 years. She comes periodically to Caracas, where she was born 50 years ago, to recharge her batteries, test her memories and also her feelings. More importantly, her research on telenovelas also keep her eyes fixed on this city.

...

She does not want to write a telenovela or to teach how to do it. She is a researcher interested in the links between media, culture and society, which she teaches in the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Her book is a polished academic work in which she applies theoretical models to understand the production, representation, identity, consumption and regulation of telenovelas. She does not want to demonstrate anything, but to study the impact and social phenomenon that each telenovela is.

...

Fifteen months of fieldwork, plus two years of analysis and writing make her book, Venezuela es una telenovela. It is obligatory reading for those who want to know the truth of that fantastic entertainment genre.

SUPER TUESDAY AND TELENOVELAS

Tomorrow, February 5, is Super Tuesday here in the U.S. This is the day in which 24 states, plus American Samoa, will hold caucuses or primary elections for one or both political parties. Fifty-two percent of the Democratic delegates and 41% of their Republican counterparts will be elected tomorrow. To say that it's a key date in the decision process to elect the next U.S. President is an understatement.

In several of these states the vote of Hispanic/Latinos/Latinas will play a crucial role. Therefore, some candidates (especially Democrats) have been courting their vote. It's fascinating to take a tour through the candidates websites and see how (and if) they assume the Latino vote as important:
Hillary Clinton
Barack Obama
John McCain
Mitt Romney
Mike Huckabee.

Back in November I published a post about the intersections between telenovelas, politics and society in which I mentioned the three-episode pro-Barack Obama mini-telenovela prepared by Vote Hope targeting the Latino vote in California, a state that is Super Tuesday's juiciest prize.







This mini-telenovela has caught the attention of journalists, bloggers and immigration groups:

La Política
Comunidad
The Border Line
Hispanic Tips
The Huffington Post

But, this isn't the only telenovela related to the U.S. Presidential race. Voto Latino, an organization that seeks to empower the Latino community by encouraging its participation in all aspects of U.S. life, has an online spoof of a telenovela enticing Latinos to register and vote. Starring La Pasión de la Decisión are Rosario Dawson (co-founder of Voto Latino) and Wilmer Valderrama. So far, it has two episodes:





The question of whether these "telenovelas" will achieve their goals will take some time to be answered. Meanwhile, I'm very interested in finding out if these melodramas "feel" like telenovelas to those who have made of this TV genre a part of their everyday life.

TELENOVELAS, POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Just like telenovelas can carry messages that promote health and the improvement of certain sociocultural problems (see my last post), these shows can also include political topics.

In Brazil, the vanguard of realist telenovelas, realism, politics and telenovelas have frequently walked hand in hand (see Realism and Politics in Brazilian Telenovelas by professor Mauro Porto). In Venezuela we have the cases of Por Estas Calles and Cosita Rica. In all these instances, telenovelas actively participated in the political conversation of their country of origin.

It's interesting to note that the serialized melodramatic format of telenovelas is being used in the U.S. not only to promote health and education in the Hispanic community (again, see my last post), but also for political purposes. In particular, the political campaign of Democrat Barack Obama is using a micro-telenovela consisting of three 4-minute episodes titled a Tu Voz, Tu Voto in an effort to win the primary election in the key state of California. In this way, telenovela-inspired formats have become the media format of choice when the goal is to reach U.S. Latinos: