Analysis of the conditions of production of Cidade dos homens (City of Men): connections between Education and Communication

Abstract

This article proposes connections between Communication and Education through the investigation of the conditions of production of a television program. Starting from the archeological thinking of Michel Foucault, and highlighting the inseparability of theory and method, it questions the notions of causality and linearity in search of an "origin" for the research object we intend to study. It seeks to signal to multiple conditions for the emergence of the miniseries Cidade dos homens (City of Men). For that, it selects the programs broadcast in the period between 2002 and 2004 on Rede Globo, emphasizing the originality of their themes and the contemporaneity of their production. The article also searches the way in which the program presents truths about black youngsters and inhabitants of the city peripheries, characters until recently excluded from the leading roles in fiction shows. The study tries to take into account the strength that social movements have acquired in Brazilian society, movements admittedly political, characterized by controversy, and that begin to be part also of the sphere of television. It thus becomes important to consider the way in which the television incorporates the discourse of these movements, and transforms them before returning them to the public. The research work on the television medium, more specifically based on the analysis of images, by entailing an ethical and political stance, becomes a fundamental task for anyone interested in the creation of individuals committed to culture, ethics, and education.