Brazil – Beijing Changes the Way Mega-media Events are Presented: Perspectives of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Abstract

Focusing on the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the influential Brazilian newspapers O Globo, with a daily circulation of 281,800 and Folha de Sa˜o Paulo, with a daily circulation of 257,800, reported the results of the competitions, commented on Chinese culture and history and criticized the Chinese government. In Brazil last year, these newspapers’ sales increased by 11.8 per cent and were the highest in Latin America with around 4.39 million newspapers circulating every day in Brazil. In order to compare the contents of the influential newspapers O Globo and Folha de Sa˜o Paulo, we translate some relevant passages of the Olympic news and reports and criticize both Brazilian daily newspapers. We also examine the print media’s reports on the Beijing Olympics in August 2008. The results aim to show fragments from the texts published between 1 and 25 August 2008, in A Tarde, the newspaper with the largest circulation in the state of Bahia, Brazil. We also analyse video related to the Beijing Olympics available on YouTube and examine comments and news articles on Brazilian sites during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In line with international trends, the Brazilian media emphasized the performance of the athlete Liu Xiang.