They didn’t understand…: The failure of the information campaigns to prevent forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon

• Luciana Miranda Costa Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Natal, Brazil

Palabras clave: Communication, Environment, Information Campaigns, Reception Studies, Brazilian Amazon

Resumen

In the last few years, the Brazilian Amazon has burned under the gaze of international media through the satellites lenses. The response of Brazilian Federal Government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has been to implement and to intensify information campaigns. The basic idea is to transmit information about techniques for preventing “accidental fires”,allegedly unknown or “inappropriately” used by family farmers and rural workers. The goal is to “teach” them on the importance of environmental protection and take them to a change in their “wrong” behavior. This article outlines the main conclusions of a research about the four major information campaigns in Brazil. As a result, it can be affirmed that the campaigns did not achieve their main objectives because they still did not consider the idea of a strategic behavior of the receivers of the information, considering them as just ‘receivers’ - according to the principles of the outdated Mechanistic Model of Communication – and not as interlocutors.

Citas

Araújo, I. (2000) A Reconversão do Olhar: Prática Discursiva e Produção dos Sentidos na Intervenção Social. São Leopoldo: Unisinos.

Bourdieu, P. (1998) O Poder Simbólico. Translated from French by Fernando Tomaz.

nd ed. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil.

Certeau, M. (1994). Invenção do Cotidiano: Artes de Fazer. Petrópolis: Vozes. Costa, F. A. (1994) ‘Racionalidade Camponesa e Sustentabilidade’, Paper do

NAEA 1(29). Belém: NAEA: 05-48

Costa, L. M. (2006) Comunicação e Meio Ambiente: a Análise das Campanhas de Prevenção a Incêndios Florestais na Amazônia. Belém: UFPA/NAEA.

Finnegan, J.R; Jr Bracht, N. and Viswanath, K. (1989) ‘Community Power and Leadership Analysis in Lifestyle Campaigns’, pp. 54-84 in Salmon, C. T. (Ed.). Information Campaigns: balancing social values and social change. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications.

Foucault, M. (1970) The Order of Things: an Archaeology of the Human Sciences. London: Tavistock Press.

GTA (2001) Prodoc - Documento de Projeto. Proteger II. Mobilização e Capacitação de Agricultores Familiares, Extrativistas e Indígenas para a Prevenção de Incêndios Florestais na Amazônia. Brasília: GTA.

Homma, A. K. O. (2003) História da Agricultura na Amazônia: da era pré- colombiana ao terceiro milênio. Brasília: Embrapa Informação Tecnológica.

Hornick, R. (1989) ‘The Knowledge-Behavior Gap in Public Information Campaigns: a Development Communication View’, pp.113-138 in Salmon, C. T. (Ed.). Information Campaigns: balancing social values and social change. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications.

Martín-Barbero, J. (1997) Dos Meios às Mediações: Comunicação, Cultura e Hegemonia. Translated from Spanish by R. Polito and S. Alcides. Rio de Janeiro: Editora UFRJ.

Orlandi, E. P. (1978) ‘Protagonistas do/no Discurso’. Foco e Pressuposição (4): 30-41.

Orlandi, E. P. (1994) et al (Orgs.) Gestos de leitura: da história no discurso. Campinas, São Paulo: Editora da Unicamp.

Ramos, P. C. M. and L. Santos (2001) Queimada Controlada. 2nd edn. Brasília: PREVFOGO.

Shannon, C. E. and Warren W. (1949) A Mathematical Model of Communication.

Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.