Brazilian Media Brazil is South America's most influential country, an economic giant and one of the world's biggest democracies.
South America's biggest media market is home to thousands of radio stations and hundreds of TV channels.
Media ownership is highly concentrated. Home-grown conglomerates such as Globo, Brazil's most-successful broadcaster, dominate the market and run TV and radio networks, newspapers and pay-TV operations.
Brazilian-made dramas and soaps are aired around the world.
Game shows and reality TV attract huge audiences.
The constitution guarantees a free press; vigorous media debate about controversial political and social matters is commonplace.
Brazil is rolling out digital TV services; it aims to switch off analogue TV transmissions from 2016.
The press
O Dia - Rio de Janeiro daily
O Correio Brazilense - influential daily
O Globo - Globo-owned Rio de Janeiro daily
Jornal do Brasil - Rio de Janeiro daily
Folha de Sao Paulo - daily
O Estado de Sao Paulo - daily Television
TV Band - commercial network operated by Grupo Bandeirantes
Rede Globo - major commercial network operated by Globo
Sistema Brasileiro de Televisao (SBT) - major commercial network
TV Record - major commercial network
NBR - operated by state-run Radiobras
Rede TV - commercial network
TV Cultura - public, educational and cultural programmes Radio
Radio Nacional - FM and mediumwave (AM) network operated by state-run Radiobras
Globo Radio - commercial networks operated by Globo
Radio Eldorado - affiliated to O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper, operates mediumwave (AM)news station and FM music station
Radio Bandeirantes - network operated by Grupo Bandeirantes
Radio Cultura - public, cultural programmes News agencies
Agencia Brasil - state-owned
Agencia Estado - private, Sao Paulo-based
Agencia Globo - private
Overview
A drive to move settlers to the Amazon region during military rule in the 1970s caused considerable damage to vast areas of rainforest.
Deforestation by loggers and cattle ranchers remains controversial, but government-sponsored migration programmes have been halted.
In 2005 the government reported that one fifth of the Amazon forests had been cleared by deforestation.
Since then, it has made efforts to control illegal logging and introduce better certification of land ownership, but environmental reports suggest the reforms have made little difference.
Brazil's natural resources, particularly iron ore, are highly prized by major manufacturing nations, including China. Thanks to the development of offshore fields, the nation has become self-sufficient in oil, ending decades of dependence on foreign producers.
Brazil has had to be bailed out in times of economic crisis, but reforms in the 1990s, including privatisations, brought some financial stability.
There is a wide gap between rich and poor.
Much of the arable land is controlled by a handful of wealthy families, a situation which the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) seeks to redress by demanding land redistribution. It uses direct protest action and land occupation in its quest.
Social conditions can be harsh in the big cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, where a third of the population lives in favelas, or slums.
Brazil's Aids programme has become a model for other developing countries. It has stabilised the rate of HIV infection and the number of Aids-related deaths has fallen. Brazil has bypassed the major drugs firms to produce cheaper, generic Aids medicines.
Brazil is revered for its football prowess. Its cultural contributions include the music of classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos and Bossa Nova icon Antonio Carlos Jobim.
I found those usefull links on my research:
Brazilian Media A collection of the leading Brazilian daily newspapers and weekly magazines http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1419&fuseaction=topics.links&group_id=230008
Those geographic characteristics were very important in the establishment of Brazil as a country and in the development of the Brazilian media system. http://www.pressreference.com/Be-Co/Brazil.html
