MATRIZes is a journal for the publication of scientific production whose object of study is communication. It hosts theoretical works, analysis experiences and conceptual formulations on communicative processes, means, mediations and emergencies of interactions in the contemporary generalized information society. It is a journal open to reflections on the historical transformations of mediations in culture; on the production of languages ​​and their interfaces; about the socio-political implications of the activities implemented, as well as their cognitive consequences. To this end, it preserves the inter and transdisciplinary horizon of the theoretical and methodological contributions of communicational thinking. It is expected, therefore, to resize historical knowledge and traditions that contribute to define, map and conceptually explore communicative events, reviving the commitments that are also part of the history of PPGCOM-ECA-USP. At the limit, the need to create a space for the construction of a critical and consequent theory of communication study practices is evident.
Universidade de São Paulo. Escola de Comunicações e Artes, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Comunicação
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms: Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right to first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) which allows sharing of the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal for non-commercial purposes. Authors are authorized to assume additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (eg, publishing in institutional repository or as a book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Matrizes, matizes e tonalidades nos estudos da comunicação
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Un nuovo paradigma nel campo dei feminist television studies
Gli anni duemila hanno visto emergere sulla scena internazionale dei gender/feminist media studies un corpus crescente di letteratura accademica che, contrapponendosi alla invisibilità in cui la convenzionale storiografia dei media relega la presenza femminile, si impegna a riconoscere e valorizzare il lavoro e il ruolo cruciale delle donne nella storia degli stessi media. Alla intersezione tra approccio biografico, storiografico e media industry studies, questa letteratura si discosta dal mainstream degli stessi studi di genere e media nel focalizzare la ricerca e l'analisi non tanto o non soltanto sulla esclusione e la marginalizzazione delle donne all'interno degli apparati di produzione quanto sulla presenza nei media, fin dalle origini, di figure femminili che sullo schermo o dietro lo schermo, above o below the line, individualmente o collettivamente, hanno contribuito in modo sostanziale a fare una storia da cui sono state cancellate. Il presente articolo ricostruisce questo percorso.
The researcher, the professor and the photographer: an interview with Boris Kossoy
In this interview granted to Matrizes journal, arranged shortly after he received the title of Professor Emeritus from ECA/USP in September 2025, Kossoy revisits aspects of his intellectual trajectory and comments on shifts in the way he understands photography. Envisioning new forays into the valley where the real and the fantastic coexist, which he observes as the path of his work, the researcher points to ongoing transformations that challenge the very nature of photography.
Lista de Pareceristas dezembro de 2024 a novembro de 2025
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Teses e dissertações 1º de julho de 2024 a 30 de junho de 2025
Notas para a criação de uma área transdisciplinar dos estudos latino-americanos de comunicação
The future is a remake: Translations of worlds in the work of Denilson Baniwa
In a remote conversation, Denilson discusses how he considers himself a shaman based on his experience of translating the Baniwa world for white people—accessing white art and the white world, but without definitively becoming one of us—occupying precisely the space between. He plays the role of diplomat and mediator, facing the powers and dangers, the pains and delights of this task—just like a shaman, communicating worlds. He also considers himself an art hacker, reinterpreting a certain idea of hacker acquired during his studies in Computer Science in Manaus, Amazonas state, an experience that is significant in his works, commonly constructed from interventions in images of colonization.
Communicative ecology, Cumade Fulozinha and Potiguara cosmology in Paraíba
This article discusses traditional Indigenous knowledge from the communicative ecology of the cosmology of the Potiguara people, who inhabit the state of Paraíba, in northeastern Brazil. It focuses on the enchanted being called Cumade Fulozinha, a forest spirit who protects the woods and animals. In addition to the Potiguara people, the Paraíba region is inhabited by three other Indigenous ethnic groups: Tabajara, Cariri, and Tarairiú. The article explores the perspective of dreams as a technology for accessing, maintaining, and engaging with ancestral knowledge. This knowledge goes beyond the mythological sphere and is processed daily, in the modern immediacy of the networked existence of living beings interacting with Mother Earth.
The indigenous net-activism of the Rede Wayuri: trans-specificity of the networks of the Amazon rainforest
The advance of the digitalisation process, especially broadband and mobile connectivity devices, has caused profound transformations in villages and among indigenous peoples over the last 20 years. While in the Brazilian Amazon there is no shortage of examples of the introduction of satellites, sensors and the internet of things in defence of their rights and territories, in the interior of the state of Amazonas there are predominantly net-activist actions that hark back to a first phase of this phenomenon, marked by the collective taking of the floor in search of the empowerment of those who live in the forest. This article presents the initiatives of the Wayuri Network, an indigenous communication network in Alto Rio Negro-AM, which produces and circulates narratives as modes of resistance, in collaboration with all sorts of entities, human or not, and technologies digital or not, making up a new form of the social.
Notas Sateré-Mawé à cosmofagia do ocidente: entre a prototipação de mundos e o Nusoken
The text addresses how the west has prototyped a worldview based on its form of knowledge, which encompasses philosophy, religion, science, and technology. In doing so, it ignores the perspective of other cosmologies. The article also highlights the tensions and contradictions in the relationship between humans and nature. It demonstrates the encounter between the west and the sateré-mawé ethnicity and the vast differences in their cosmological conceptions. It discusses communication in the practices of the sateré-mawé, emphasizing the importance of guaraná and initiation rituals as forms of knowledge and cultural resistance.
From communicating to dwelling: the contributions of indigenous peoples to the construction of a connective idea of communication
The article discusses the crisis of the modern idea of communication by critically examining the Western conception of technique, often assumed as universal and understood as a human action and an external instrument for transmitting content. In contrast, it proposes, based on new forms of connectivity and digital ecosystems, the notion of a technological dwelling, in which humans, technology, and the environment constitute symbiotic and inseparable dimensions. In this scenario, communication ceases to be an exclusively human prerogative and becomes a property shared among all elements of the ecosystem—including plants, animals, and inorganic components—thereby approaching the cosmological perspectives of Indigenous peoples of Brazil.
Indigenous digital connective communication in Brazil: between appropriation and technological incorporation
This article analyzes Brazilian digital connective communication, the interaction of Indigenous peoples with digital media devices and languages. Based on a study of Indigenous experiences and a review of research produced by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, the objective is to reflect on the epistemological perspectives of this communication. The results point to two visions: “appropriation”, which interprets the uses of these technologies as strategic instruments, and “incorporation”, which focuses on the specificities of Indigenous communication linked to a complex connective ecology or cosmotechnics of these peoples, and their experimental relations with digital Technologies.
Indigenous ethnomedia: a collective voice to amplify actions in history
Indigenous ethnomedia aims to rescue and amplify the voices of Brazil's Indigenous peoples, combating silencing and stereotypes. It allows these individuals to develop and disseminate their own narratives, decolonizing communication by connecting traditions to modernity. Through multimedia, ethnomedia strengthens identities, preserves knowledge, and promotes dialogue and listening between cultures. Radio Yandê and several audiovisual collectives demonstrate this transformative power of Indigenous communication. Therefore, ethnomedia is about (re)existing and inspiring, ensuring that stories are told by the true protagonists and recognizing the invaluable contribution of Indigenous peoples to Brazil.
Body painting, digital technologies, and ancestrality in the Upper Xingu
O estudo explora a relação entre corpo, memória e território com ponto focal nos indígenas do Alto Xingu, a pintura corporal é indagada como uma prática que inscreve a memória sobre o corpo, vinculada à tradição e à ancestralidade. Essa prática, historicamente ligada à preservação da identidade e à transmissão de saberes ancestrais, passa por um processo de transformação entre os jovens, que começam a incorporar elementos da cultura não-indígena em seus grafismos corporais. Esse fenômeno produz tensões entre gerações, revelando incertezas sobre a preservação da tradição, diante da necessidade da contemporaneidade indígena.
Indigenizing digital communication technologies: Autonomy and struggle of the Gavião indigenous collectives (Pará)
The article presents (counter)narratives aimed at constructing a history of the incorporation of industrial communication artifacts by a collective of peoples known as the “Gavião,” who inhabit the Mãe Maria Indigenous Land (Pará, Brazil). Based on a collaborative and multi-sited ethnographic research, the proposal is to foreground the voices of key figures in the contemporary history of this people regarding the impacts of electricity, radio, telephone, television, internet, smartphones, and digital applications on their sociality. The research indicates that the indigenization of these technologies fosters autonomy in relation to the State and facilitates access to rights and public policies, while also intensifying internal divisions and schisms among the different groups that make up the “Gavião people.”
Shamanic communication: paths to decolonize communication theories
Os paradigmas fundantes do campo da comunicação foram construídos em torno de uma matriz epistêmica lógico-causal. Essas raízes eurocêntricas desviaram as possibilidades de emergência de teorias capazes de alargar a concepção de comunicação a partir de conhecimentos não ocidentais. Entre essas epistemologias outras, o xamanismo indígena revela-se como um terreno fértil para a descolonização das teorias da comunicação. Suas qualidades técnica, conectiva e metamórfica podem revelar dimensões e qualidades subjacentes às tecnologias comunicativas. Trazemos essas reflexões a partir de pistas dos próprios xamãs, que comparam essas tecnologias a seus corpos e aos processos de conexão com forças extra-humanas e diferentes níveis cósmicos.
The Editorial Board of MATRIZes appreciates when interviews submitted to the journal are conducted with pioneering researchers who have had a strong influence in their field of study, considering that the relatively broad format of this type of text can foster the recapitulation of significant aspects of their trajectories and self-reflective discussions. From this perspective, one name remembered was that of Jean-Claude Bernardet, an author whose contributions have been fundamental to Brazilian film studies. With a personality as multifaceted as that of his mentor, Paulo Emílio Sales Gomes, Bernardet passed away on July 12 of this year, leaving an important mark on national culture as a critic, actor, screenwriter, filmmaker, translator, writer, professor, and university researcher at the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo (USP). As a way of paying posthumous tribute to Bernardet, the journal reached out to people close to him to verify the existence of any unpublished interviews, and came across filmmaker Fábio Rogério, who kindly shared some materials that had not yet been released in print. Thus, an interview conducted on December 1, 2019, at the Fest Aruanda Hotel in João Pessoa, Paraíba, was selected and edited, in which Bernardet discusses aspects of his biography and his relationship with Brazilian cinema.
Demolitions, transformations,and renewals of communication objects
Since at least the 1990s, I have been progressively working on the epistemological-empirical construction of a new conception of telenovela and, more broadly, of television fiction, through the concepts of narrative of the nation (Lopes, 2003) and communicative resource (Lopes, 2009). Now, I add a third—Deep Brazil, a notion still under development. Present in reports by travelers and discoverers, in chronicles and narratives, it was in this context that the categories of sertão and litoral were forged, which ended up being appropriated by the media, books, cinema, and, later, television, in order to highlight the contrasts between rural and urban spaces. However, we want to advance a more current proposal of Deep Brazil, which affirms more the hybridization of sertão and litoral than their opposition or complementarity. For this, we will make an approach to the theme followed by an empirical analysis in images from Cinema Novo films and in three television fictions from 2023: Cangaço novo (Prime/O2), Terra e paixão (TV Globo), and Vai na Fé (TV Globo).
The semantics of influence in contemporary times
This text presents a review of the work Influência, by Brazilian sociologist Renato Ortiz. In this book, released in the fall of 2025 by Alameda, the author presents an essay on influencers in today’s digital world. For Ortiz, we are living in a new semantics of influence, which reconfigures all spheres of contemporary grammar. His reasoning begins with neologisms and goes on to influencers, the internet, communication, the market, and public opinion.
Memory literacy: television fiction as a space for shaping politically conscious citizens
In contemporary society, television has been replacing a certain bookish culture in the knowledge of the past, which makes it particularly relevant to understand the contribution of audiovisual fiction formats in the creation of social memory, with the aim of building a literacy of memory that allows us to recognize the mechanisms of collective identity construction and the sense of belonging to a particular community. Given the growing consumption of audiovisual fiction, we believe it is important to understand the role that historical and period fiction can play in the discursive revision of the past and the “truth of the past,” as well as its relationship with state power and the counterpowers that attempt to influence the construction of national memory.
Essays on the abyss: politics of the gaze, violence, technopolitics
The essay incorporates three large areas of transformations that have shaken up the contemporary scene: institutional deterioration, the detonation of the social pact(s), and the exhaustion of ecosystems, both biological and sociopolitical. The objective is to think about the impacts of these transformations on our mindsets and address the critical work involved in the production of knowledge about the world. This essay brings the question of methodological imagination to the center of the discussion in an attempt to illuminate an area that often is opaque in academic work. Three dimensions that have marked the work of Rossana Reguillo as a researcher and thinker about the modern world are addressed, deepening understanding of the social production of meaning and the dynamics of power.
Institutional imaginaries: Serialized television fiction and cultural imperialism from the US
This article examines the role of US institutional TV series, particularly medical dramas, as soft power tools. From both constructivist and cultural imperialism perspectives, the study argues that these productions shape global perceptions of US institutions, disseminating ideals and imaginaries. They reinforce authority, historicize practices, and extol virtues of US institutions. The active participation of real entities in regulating these fictional narratives is highlighted, emphasizing their relevance in US cultural projection. The study concludes that institutional series connect audiences to complex social structures, playing a crucial role in contemporary cultural diplomacy.
Disinformation systems: thoughts in dialogue
This review addresses the complexity of contemporary disinformation through Raquel Recuero’s book, A rede da desinformação: Sistemas, estruturas e dinâmicas nas plataformas de mídias sociais, published in 2024. The text argues that, although deception is ancient, its current dimension is reconfigured by digital platforms. Recuero proposes disinformation in three dimensions—object, process, and effect—advocating the thesis of a systemic problem. While maintaining the centrality of the reviewed work, the text dialogues with Byung-Chul Han on the critique of infocracy and digital sovereignty. It also engages with Judith Butler, who offers lenses to understand polarization and denialism in public debates, such as on gender issues, which hinder informed deliberation and the pursuit of truth.
Conspiracies of the self in the quasi-world of disinformation
This review provides a critical assessment of the latest work by Canadian writer, researcher, and socioenvironmental activist Naomi Klein, known for books that condemn disaster capitalism. In Doppelgänger, the innovative author starts from a personal dilemma—being systematically confused with a near-homonym on social media, her distorted double—to construct a political narrative about disinformation and denialism, polarization, political extremism, and neoliberalization of sociability. With this, she develops a notion of a mirror world, where the doubles of rationality roam in a disturbing way.
Media ecologies, social movements andactivism
Media ecology theory offers a vital lens for understanding the complex relationships between media, social movements, and activism. This article examines how different levels of engagement—from superficial references to deep theoretical applications—have shaped MovAct studies. It explores four ecological traditions: medium theory, information ecology, communicative ecologies, and approaches inspired by Guattari and Fuller, all emphasizing technological materiality and communicative interconnectedness. It analyzes key contributions (overcoming online/offline dualism, stressing old media, critiquing corporate platforms) and areas of disagreement, and advocates a flexible, “impure” understanding of evolving media ecologies and activist practices.
The history of communication studies across the Americas: an introduction
The Scientific Editors of MATRIZes have decided to include in the Dossier section of this issue the text entitled The History of Communication Studies across the Americas: An Introduction, by the American colleagues David W. Park, Jefferson Pooley and Peter Simonson and the Spanish Esperanza Herrero, in its Portuguese translation (A história dos estudos de comunicação nas Américas: Uma introdução), in the context of an international collaboration explained in the text itself, carried out in recent years, which can be considered of great importance as a joint effort of the academic communities associated with three top-level open access journals on the American continent, which regularly publish communication studies in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, with mutual translations in most cases. The intention is to highlight the common purpose of strengthening the exchange of perspectives and rigorous research results on the histories of communication studies, which have been generated, debated, and projected for a future that is certainly heterogeneous but less fragmented than the current one on the American continent.
This article treats the recent transformations on the public space. Particularly, the idea of visibility, important dimension of the contemporary debate, is developed. The author uses two examples (celebrity and luxury) to demonstrate that the notion of “being visible” is ambiguous. On one side, mainly on the case of the celebrities, it becomes a value; on the other side, it is a dilemma for the world of the rich, which frontiers are traced to separate them from ordinary people.
Digital platforms: system of apparatuses and hegemonic structures of social mediation
This essay articulates studies on hegemony and the Political Economy of Communication (EPC) to analyze digital platforms and the process of platformization. Two central categories are identified and developed. The first of these categories understands digital platforms and platformization as a system of private apparatuses of hegemony, focusing on the contributions of Gramsci and the notion of the media apparatus form, developed by Giovanni Cesareo, from the Italian school of EPC. In a second moment, based on Brazilian authors of EPC, with a central focus on Bolaño, the article seeks to understand digital platforms and platformization as hegemonic structures and processes of social mediation characteristic of the current moment of capitalist development. The article seeks dialogue and dialectical synthesis between the two critical theoretical currents based on Marxism.
Political Economy of Communication (PEC)
social form of Communication and its functionalities