This paper is an attempt to understand the relationship between the Brazilian ethnic media in Japan and the Brazilians' way of life. The producer of media that has been chosen for this endeavor is the editor in chief of the largest Portuguese-language paper in Japan, The International Press (hereafter IP). (1) The skeletal data for this paper was taken from an interview (June 26, 2001) with the editor in chief of the IP, Fatima Kamata. At this time a co-worker to Kamata, Kunihiro Otsuka, was present as the interpreter and commentator. In addition to the information gained from this interview, this paper draws from the author's nearly 10 years of observation and his investigation of the IP. (2) An overview of the media In 2001, the IP reached its 10th year. There were many changes in the Brazilian community in Japan during those ten years. The paper itself has undergone some changes as well. The editing has kept with the times and orientations of the Brazilian community in Japan. (3) Regarding the format, during these past 10 years the greatest change has been the large increase in the number of pages. The first issue was 16 pages long; it has now grown to 72 pages. In the beginning, the content was almost wholly devoted to news in Brazil. The format now includes multiple themes divided into sections. In other words, in format, the next biggest change was the division of the paper into separate sections. International news; general news; letters to the editor; government and politics in Brazil; Brazilian society; sports; and the Brazilian community and culture are each separate folds. In addition, in one section they publish a tabloid paper. This also is divided into two sections; a section on the latest events in Brazil and classifieds, and a section for information on television programming. In the TV section, the timetable for programs broadcast on the (SKY PerfecTV) channel through the IP-affiliated IPC television station are listed alongside information on the stars and summaries of the dramas. (4) It is clearly a full-scale, color format, serious newspaper. Editorial staff members are considered to be experienced journalists. Kamata has over 15 years of journalism experience in Brazil. Initially, Kamata worked for the Japanese-language paper Jornal Paulista, and then the local paper in Sao Paulo. In 1995, responding to an invitation from the IP, she moved to Japan. Out of the eight full-time editorial staff in the editing department, four have experience as journalists in Brazil. The remaining four were hired in Japan. These eight mostly remain inside editing more than reporting and writing copy. The staff from the branch offices write articles on the local community and send them in. Currently the IP has branches in six localities with one reporter in each location. Of those six reporters, only one of them has experience as a journalist. In the newspaper-publishing world today, often a person who is in touch with the realities of the Brazilian community in Japan is more useful than one who may have graduated from journalism school in Brazil and has experience in Brazil. At the beginning, Kamata herself, when working for this type of community paper (the Japanese paper in Sao Paulo) adjusted, learning by trial and error that the editing policies are different than those of a regular mainstream paper. That is why with these papers, experience in the journalism world is not emphasized. In other words, an ethnic newspaper is a type of community newspaper. If you graduate from the journalism school of Sao Paulo University, you will be taught how to create a large newspaper. However, an ethnic community paper has many differing aspects from one of these papers. The branch offices especially need to report local events in their surrounding area, so the ability to report locally is more important. The veteran editors will wrap up the article so it is well-written as long as the correspondent can communicate new and accurate information. The changes in contents can also be seen in rival papers Nova Visao, Tudo Bem and Folha Mundial. According to Kamata, "As the community changes within Japan (especially as the number of years of residency increases) and the readers' demands themselves evolve, each press is attempting by trial and error to respond." One of the revolutionary changes came with the educational column in June 2001. This was because as residents' terms lengthened, they no longer could ignore their children's education. As for the transformations in the Portuguese-language papers, the Nova Visao, predominantly covering the Tokai area, was suspended at one point, but then restarted in 2001 again as a tabloid monthly. The Gulliver-sized enterprises of the IP and Tudo Bem based in Tokyo, in comparison to the Folha Mundial and the Nova Visao, are so-called rivals, but seem to be giving them a run for their money. Besides these newspapers for Brazilians living in Japan, there is also radio, Portuguese-language TV programs, and in Gunma and Aichi prefectures there are small community newspapers. For example, in the Aichi Prefecture, there is the Aichi Popular and in Gunma, there is the Ria de Rojipuro via Dori that are meeting the needs of even finer aspects of the Brazilian community. The IP has also given consideration to the radio programs of each area by listing program timetables for FM stations playing Portuguese-language programs in the culture section at the bottom of page two (Section D). Changes in the community and page space Around 1991, when the IP first started meeting the needs of Brazilians living in Japan, the readers simply wanted to know what was going on in their homeland. But this would not be considered out of the norm because the general laborers' plans required them to work in Japan for two or three years, save money and return to their home country. Just because they were residing in Japan, it was merely a "pit stop" while their point of reference remained with their native land. In this sense, during that period, it is considered that Portuguese-language newspapers, such as the IP, were being read merely to glean information on Brazil. However, today the period of stay has lengthened, in a manner of speaking, and permanent residency is increasing, so that the demands on the newspaper are changing as well. "The current tide shows that information that is closely in touch with living those Brazilians in Japan is now being sought after," Kamata says. For example, there is a questions section from the reader's corner in one part of the letters to the editor section of the IP. The content of the questions that are received in this section have changed greatly over a period of 10 years. In the beginning, there was absolutely no information regarding living in Japan as a Brazilian, so the bulk of questions were simple questions regarding living in Japan and the rest were questions concerning work, such as labor conditions, visa applications, etc. In other words, most questions asked were those that could be simply answered. However, recently the questions are becoming more varied, starting with anything from "How can a person who wants to buy a house in Japan go about this?," "How do you go about getting a Japanese driver license?" to "Do you know of any classes that teach you how to make bread?." "These questions are more like regular questions of daily living," states Kamata. Then later, questions that required legal help, such as acquiring visas or passports, were referred to the appropriate private agencies that sprung up in each area, and the agencies would handle the issues. In other words, if you had the money, most problems could be solved. Most of these types of enterprises that aid in adjustment are "ethnic businesses." In this manner the contents of the IP and its rival papers have evolved over time, responding to changes around them. They have changed so that they no longer are providing one-way information to their readers, but are providing space for their readers to voice their opinions. Furthermore, the recent trend is for this space in which the readership is participating is growing larger and larger. Integration and enlargement
At the time of launching the paper, it was not thought that it would become a comprehensive paper. That is because when you look at the number of registered Brazilians just 10 years ago, in the 90s, it was only 56,000 people. That number, now 10 years later in 2000, is 250,000 people. No one would have imagined such a thing. The change in the number of readers has effected the transformation of the content. By responding to the changes within the community over a ten-year period, the IP has evolved into the comprehensive paper that it is today. In addition, the reason it is divided into sections by genre is because this is similar to the format of Brazilian newspapers. This desire to make the paper something to which Brazilians felt a familiarity started at some period. However, at the Mainichi newspaper print shop where the IP is contracting out space, the machines could not insert color prints. So the paper was coping by printing them separately and for a while making two deadlines. Mainichi has now acquired new machines and there are no issues with the machines. However, separate from this problem, the deadlines for the copy are still only twice a week, on Friday and Monday. On Fridays, there are breaking bulletins and unrelated cultural pieces. The deadline on Monday involves the media departments that have to wait for the latest news to come in. The IP prints the cultural columns beforehand, and the Monday deadline copy is printed on Tuesday morning so that on Wednesday morning the paper is in the stores. There is also a correlation between the increase in the size of the paper and the increase in readership. In addition, there is a relationship with their disposable incomes. In other words, there is a strong connection between the increase in the potential readership and how much these people can spend toward entertainment and information, as well as a connection to the amount of newspaper space and to increased investments into the newspapers. In actuality, if the potential readership grows and stabilizes economically, it is easier to land advertiser contracts from the perspective of the media, which leads to easier investment for increases in space, and for investing in machinery or personnel for information gathering. When the length of stay for Brazilians in Japan increased and issues with children's education arose, the IP was able to make space for these issues as well as diversify according to one's locality of origin, social status and age group. Even if you are in community media, when you are a large-scale media outlet, analysis of the management end is very important. The IP officially has a circulation of about 60,000; however, in actuality it is probably around 30,000. In addition, it has 40,000 subscribers to its satellite broadcast.
Page: 1 . 2 next>>>
|
