Civic Media Networks in the Amazon and the Digital Counter-hegemony

Abstract

This article is based on the role played by media practices in constructing a stereotyped idea of low-income districts in Brazilian cities and seeks to present, as a contrast, the potential reaction of digital-based movements made up of young people who wish to break with the media framework imposed upon their communities. The project developed in the Terra Firme neighborhood in the city of Belém in the northern Brazilian state of Pará has been adopted as a case study, within the scope of the public university and in partnership with the community - represented by young university students who entered the institution based on the quota policy. The project identified, characterized and supported emerging civic media networks within these communities, particularly during the 2010s, through participatory methodologies for the co-creation of knowledge. As a result, it produced collaborative cartographies, a web series on the history of the neighborhood narrated by residents, maps updated online and technical training that enabled actions and generated new agendas for the social media. These productions forced the mainstream to accept a new media contextualization of the neighborhood, thereby breaking away from the narrative monopoly by conventional media vehicles, and promoting social innovation in public policies. The actions presented herein are a sample of some of the reactions against the hegemony of social and urban development models that result in the marginalization and even concealment of entire sectors of society.