Abstract
In this chapter, we analyze the role of favela digital activism as a tool to fight against oppression, injustice, and human rights violations in Rio de Janeiro. By studying “favela digital activism”, we refer to residents’ “us by us” philosophy in which they can become the narrators of their own stories. The methodological approaches are inspired by digital anthropology. We conducted the research in two stages, with netnographic observations in the first phase and offline ethnographic observations and interviews in the second phase. In order to offer an in-depth exploration of one successful initiative, we analyze the case study of a Facebook page called Maré Vive, created by residents of Maré, a large network of favelas in Rio de Janeiro. We argue that favela digital activism represents a distinctive urban media phenomenon, providing residents with tools for everyday survival in a context of conflict and social inequality.
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Notes
- 1.
Presenting a beehive-like appearance, the favelas are usually densely populated and located on hilly unstable areas, impoverished areas, or on the outskirts of a city. From a distance, they look like an undistinguishable mass of brick-colored small boxes, built on top of each other. However, the favelas are heterogeneous environments with significant social, economic, and demographic differences from favela to favela, neighborhood to neighborhood, zone to zone, city to city.
- 2.
The license for most commercial qualitative coding software, such as NVIVO, is expensive and it has been challenging to have them installed at the university labs. For future projects, we are searching for free and open source software.
- 3.
Here is worth noting that research reports with statistics of favela residents’ consumption and living standards are rare. Usually, they are produced by NGOs devoted to working with favela residents such as Observatório da Favela. Therefore, given the lack of research, some of statistics may not be up-to-date.
- 4.
The forthcoming book The Media Urban Companion, edited by Zlatan Krajina and Deborah Stevenson will offer a welcome contribution in this sense. The book will be published in 2019 by Routledge.
- 5.
Fictitious name to preserve the activist’s anonymity and protect his privacy and security.
- 6.
For more information on Maré Vive, please visit the website: www.facebook.com/Marevive and @Marevive.
- 7.
Maré Vive also has a twitter account (https://twitter.com/MareVive), with 3529 followers, and an Instagram profile @Marevive, with 9913 followers, as of the time of writing.
- 8.
Another fictitious name to preserve the activist’s anonymity and protect his privacy and security.
- 9.
Here, it is worth clarifying that providing detailed definitions of both “community media” and “community” is beyond the scope of this chapter.
- 10.
Sem Terra are areas within Complexo da Maré.
- 11.
This was true until 14 March 2018 when Marielle Franco, a city councilor, human rights advocate, and former resident of Maré, was brutally murdered in Rio de Janeiro. Right after the murder, Maré Vive replaced Dona Orosina’s photo with a silhouette of Marielle’s face in honor of her. The crime remains unsolved.
- 12.
The pink flower reaction was made available temporarily on Facebook in 2015.
- 13.
When including comments from users of the page, we chose to not disclose their names for ethical purposes.
- 14.
Examples of posts that address this theme can be found on the following dates: 19 January 2017, 23 February 2017, 17 March 2017, 30 March 2017, and 02 April 2017.
- 15.
As we do not have the space to include all screen captures, we included links on this table so that this content can be easily accessed.
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Medrado, A., Cabral, T., Souza, R. (2020). Favela Digital Activism: The Use of Social Media to Fight Oppression and Injustice in Brazil. In: Martens, C., Venegas, C., Sharupi Tapuy, E.F.S. (eds) Digital Activism, Community Media, and Sustainable Communication in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45394-7_9
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