INTRODUCTION

The RNPC-N/96 is formed by researchers and/or institutions that assumed the commitment of realizing, under volunteer work or making use of its own funds, the experimental study about the global/regional cultural identities in Brazilian culture, taking as reference the joint of images in the midia from Christmas/96.

The experimental study, consisted of the redemption of Christmas images projected by the Brazilian midia during the celebrations in 1996.

This study is being coordinated by Prof. Dr. José Marques de Melo, Scientific Director of the UNESCO Cathedra of Communication for the Regional Development, when in June 1995, took the initiative of inviting some scientists of Communication and other researchers from human sciences for a inter-disciplinary debate about the impact of globalization in Latin American cultures. Under the title " Latin American Cultural Identities in Global Communication Time".

In December/95 he developed an exploratory research about Christmas images in the press of São Paulo. Submited the main results to the judgement of three eminent academic groups gathered in 1996; a regional meeting in Laranjeiras/SE, a national in Londrina/PR and an international in Sidney, Australia.

The colleagues good reception under the research procedures, methodology and mainly the subject studied stimulated him to create a national network for research in communication.

When the Illustrious Prof. Marques de Melo invited me to make part in this group of researchers, in no moment I opposed, I accepted with greater satisfaction, not only for the fact of sharing a research of a current theme, as globalization, but also for the fact of acquiring more knowledge, improving the aspects related to cultural identities, where I particularly dedicate my studies for the doctorate thesis that relates the "Cultural Hybridism".

Working with Prof. Marques de Melo is not only a pleasure, but a pleasure that enriches, since he is an authority here in Latin America who has developed and produced works on these themes with concrete results and participation.

In relation to my work, that would be making utilization of samples from daily editions of Jornal do Commércio-PE, from 15 until 28 of December in 1996. This was sufficient time to catch the Christmas images, being those preceding the holiday, the record of events that comemorates the birth of Baby Jesus, being its immediate unfolding (without although including new years preparations).

INVESTIGATIVE PROCEEDING

The concept of images are not limited to graphic records (photographs), necessarily including the verbal. In all truth, such records appear in an articulate form, almost always connecting text/illustration.

Every article that contains reference to Christmas and its celebrations should be cut out. In the process of cutting out articles from a page, it’s recommended to avoid the damaging of data of eventual interest for research (that could be printed on its verse). Two alternatives could be sought: a) working with two issues of each edition; or b) making a copy of the article printed on the back.

The chosen articles must be classified by communicative categories. On the contrary to exploratory studies, which was limited to journalistic data (news, reports, columms, articles, etc. published in newspapers and magazines) or fictionals (soap operas), the present pilot-study has a wider scope. It includes all communicative categories - journalistics, advertising, entertainment, or educational, following the same guideline used in another pilot-study about the nature of the regional press from São Paulo. This means researching the totality of the space dedicated to Christmas images in each vehicle.

So, we deal with the following communicative categories:

a) Journalism - record of nowadays events (informatives, opinionative or eventually interpretative)

b) Publicity - advertisements (also called paid articles) about products, services, institutions, eventes, etc.

c) Instruction - articles with explicit educational goals (pre-college entrance examination tests, sewing classes, cooking recipes, etc.)

d) Entertainment - articles that represent a pastime and are intended for entertainment (comics, word puzzles, charades, poetry, tales, soap operas, musicals, etc.)

Having done the identification of the articles, firstly we would do its quantification. In our case since we dealt with articles we use the cm/col (centimeters-columm).

Having calculated the amount of space in (cm/col), taken daily by the articles that contain Christmas images, we did the respective annotation in the appropriate chart (annex 2) by communicational category. In our case the clippings were kept in separate folders by categories, in order to facilitate the posterior analysis of the focal points.

These proceedings were repeated routinely, during the research period.

It’s recommended for each researcher to do a work schedule acording to their respective availability. They can make the identification/cutout/assemble of the articles daily, followed by the mensuration of the space taken by communicational categories and immediately accomplish the analysis of the focal points. This is the best option in operational terms.

It’s important to organize a work schedule that avoids the temporal distance of the object studied. If this occurs, inevitably disturbs are made to perception/capture of cultural indicators inherent to the conjuncture researched.

Methodology Analysis

The analysis of Christmas images were made methodologically from the focal points built on the pilot-study (MARQUES DE MELO, The Brazilian Cultural Identity etc, 1996).

Preliminarily, it’s convenient to elaborate summary sheets to each article selected, apprehend the content of messages and shortly describe the Christmas images;

After, it is recommended to gather the data of the thematic analysis on the back of the same file or building comparative charts, according with the volume and the complexity of the researched material;

For this, let us rebuilt schematically the referential of the focal points:

a)tradition/innovation

a1. religious celebration (rites and motivations)

a2. Christmas symbols (scenary and personages)

a3. nature of the holiday (structures and elements)

b) space/time

b1. territoriality (global, national, regional, local)

b2. temporality (past, present, future)

c) public/private

c1. surroundings (places, functions, limits, figurations)

c2. social actions (institutions, classes, comunities, people)

SYNTHESIS OF CONTENT

The present study allow to outline according to demonstrative chart (annexed), as a printed vehicle of communication, the daily journal (annexed), creates a cultural environment in which people are involved, whether they want it or not, in an exarcebated consumption. Resulting then on a

"miscellaneous Culture" characterized by the fragmentary, eventual associationism, heterogeneity.

In our research, its evident that the majority of space taken by Christmas images are related to advertising with a total of more than 76%. secondly the journalism with 9.77%; thirdly education with 9.63% and at last entertainment with 4.42%. (Analysis elaborated according to the methodology mentioned in the beggining of this document).

With this showing, considering the high percentual of circulation of advertising images, we noticed once more, that the contemporary industrial and technological society is also called "mass and consumption society". As everything is largely produced in it, its social structure "prepares" us, also mentally, for being compelled to consume an incredible amount of goods that are not shown. This important and sophisticated "preparation" work is done through commercial advertising and the mass communication sources.

However, the Brazilian population, in terms of buying power, have dealt lately with a disastrous reality, the working mass support themselves with extremely low salaries, that are hardly enough to cover the basic needs of survival. The middle class, always inexpressive as far as numbers are concerned, finds itself , besides this, in a fast process of impoverishment. The upper classes, which are favored by better salaries and income, besides representing a small percentage in our demographic numbers, find themselves still concentrated mostly in the Center-South part of the country.

In terms of Brazil, this could be translated as follow: the whole country will be influenced to live and think according to the ideology of the upper classes.

These are exactly the classes most influenced by the global culture, also because they live in urban regions which are more developed, where there is a concentration of multinationals, also due to their higher buying power, have a better condition to purchase cultural products. That is the reason for their ideology to be more impregnated with North American elements, that are passed on to the remainder of the country.

This "ideological identification" between the middle and upper classes of the emerging countries, interests mostly the exporter of cultural models. The products they produce becomes desired for consumption. The more similar to them, the more is felt and even believed that what is convenient for them will also be for Brazil. The means of communication know very well how to stress this point, specially on holidays, changing the characteristics of the event because of the consumption of industrialized meterials, almost always of low quality, trying to reach the lower economical and intellectual classes.

The means of communication were transformed in instruments of conformity of the masses to the economic system and the politic regime that interests the dominant social segments.

In this line of thought I question: Who are true users of the printed press? Are the frequent readers of a daily newspaper? Or are the businessmen, owners and sponsors of this communication vehicle?

I am almost sure this question will be hovering us!

The Christmas images were condensed basically to a quantitative and qualitative level in advertisement generating a need for consumption that is at the same time usefull to look up anthropological studies, as said by Néstor García Canclini "...the meaning of the rituals and the irrationality of the consumers...". "How to tell apart the spending ways that contribute to the reproduction of a society , from those that dissipate and desintegrate". Is The waste of money in popular consumption a self sabotage of the poor, simple sample of their incapacity of organizing themselves to progress?"

It is true, as written by Beatriz Sarlo, that every shopping center is seen as "a space with no qualities, an interplanetary flight to Cacharrel, Stefhanel, Fiorucci, Kenzo, Guess and Mc Donald’s".

Francis Vanoye says that "in a mass culture, the individual will be more or less educated according to his retaining and memorization ability and his capacity of establishing ties, connections, synthesis among an avalanche of information fragments that bombards him."

The subliminal messages explore the human capacity to receive influences without having conscience of the fact.

Once more mentioning Canclini, who finds a key to answer these questions about the frequency this sumptuous, costly spendings motivated by the printed media, which associates to rituals and celebrations because through them "the society searches to organize itself rationally". Through the rituals, say Mary Douglas and Baron Isherwood, "the groups select and establish - due to collective agreements - the bearings that direct their lives. The media knows this very well."

Marques de Melo, with no doubt explicits in his work about global identities the consequences of the mutations of the cultural processes in the contemporary society "...the velocity in which the process of globalization flows, does not leave any other alternative to the national cultures but integrating themselves to the global scene. It is a process that has as an agent the world citizen , acting as a consumer in the cultural market and making itself banal through the messages that the media (massive or segmented) disseminates routinely. The folklore acts as an element of mediation/decodification/adaptation in the communitarian field.

Considering that this research will still be under development, for the fact of the object of study being negligible and actual, I leave two questions still in study:

Historical

The JORNAL DO COMMERCIO was founded by member of The Pessoa de Queiroz family. During its first 11 years of activities, the newspaper alternated its editorial contents in favor of the defense of the so called "productive classes" with the political partisan militancy. This was the political option that resulted in the sabotage of the newspaper plant and offices and the destruction of all its quarters in the Revolution of 1930.

Only in 1934 the JORNAL DO COMMÉRCIO would again circulate, totally rebuilt and renewed for the standards of that time. From 1946 on, the first investments were made for the industrial and graphical renovation, culminating with an ample editorial reform, that lessened the dimension of the paper and began to utilize pictures on its first page.

In the decades of 60 and 70 always creating and innovating, the JORNAL DO COMMÉRCIO was appointed as the biggest and most modern newspaper of the North and Northeast. In this period the printing facilities were modernized with the acquisition of new equipments, electronic machines, photografic instruments, etc. The issues started to be previously diagrammed, with a more expressive participation of the news teams on their edition.

In the 80s the JORNAL DO COMMÉRCIO faced slow decadence having successive crisis, following the removal of senator F. Pessoa de Queiroz of its administration.

A few unsuccessful administrations resulted in two processes of intervention, and the selling of the company, and the loss of its readers, sponsors and total disbelief that the JORNAL DO COMMÉRICO someday would be recuperated.

The peak of the crisis ocurred in 1987, when a strike of journalists, printers and administrative employees stopped for nearly forty days all activities of the paper.

In March of 1987, a group of businessmen from Pernambuco took over the stock control of the JORNAL DO COMMÉRCIO. Among the new owners were shareholders from the Grupo Bompreço, which sometime later would be major shareholders of the Sistema Jornal do Commércio de Comunicação, made up of the newspaper, a TV station, an AM radio and another FM in Recife and four stations in the countryside of Pernambuco.

Having as a leader the businessman João Carlos Paes Mendonça, an agressive and continous process of recuperation of the JORNAL DO COMMÉRCIO began. A financial healing of the company was done, the liquidation of laborite and welfare debts. Investments on a new editorial room were made, the process of hot composition was left behind and the old linotypes were changed by the composer process.

A sales and subscription by telemarketing program was created and the pre-printing system was changed to Nylonprint. The informatization of the editorial room was initialized.

Nowadays, the project is consolidated, the JORNAL DO COMMÉRCIO has its editorial room, mixed with young and experient journalists and it is totally computerized. It works with two networks connecting about 70 of last generation computers and running the ATEX system, specific for newspaper. Its team of photographers make use of F 90-X NIKON cameras. Its developing system is one of the most modern in the country. The paging, illustration and graphic printing are produced in a computer platform and the images are printed by scanners with 2.400 Dpl of resolution with 12 bit per color, asuring a higher and better quality. The printers of the micro pagers are VR 36 Image Setter, which photolithographs are taken ready for printing.

The printing facilities of the JORNAL DO COMMÉRCIO is composed by a rotative DEV Horizon 2.400, with 9 units of printing and two folding machines and another rotative GOSS Community, with 6 units of printing and a folder. With these equipments the printing facilities of the JORNAL DO COMMÉRCIO has the capacity of printing about 130.000 issues/day.

With a distribution concentrated in the metropolitan area of Recife and the countryside of the state, the JORNAL DO COMMÉRCIO has an average circulation of 50.000 issues on weekdays, 76.000 issues on Saturdays and 95.000 issues on Sundays. It holds the largest number of subscribers in the North/Northeast and its the leader of paid circulation in the state of Pernambuco.

In the last few years, its participation in the local advertising market has increased significantly, with highlight to its participation in the national media.

For all this, the JORNAL DO COMMÉRCIO is now again one of the most important newspapers in the country and the one who has the largest paid circulation in the state of Pernambuco.