Narrativas sobre o Marajó: colonialismo, estereótipos e produção midiática

Abstract

This dissertation investigates contemporary media narratives about the Marajó Archipelago, analyzing how colonialism, historical stereotypes, and media production logics contribute to the construction of representations marked by exoticization, symbolic violence, and the homogenization of Amazonian subjects. The research adopts a qualitative approach, grounded in communication studies and decolonial thought, articulating a discursive analysis of news reports published by G1 from 2019 to 2024. The study demonstrates that Marajó is frequently portrayed as a space of backwardness, poverty, and barbarism in narratives that reiterate colonial imaginaries and reinforce center–periphery hierarchies, thereby erasing the region’s historical, social, and cultural complexity. It is observed that such media discourses tend to decontextualize social problems, detaching them from their structural causes, while simultaneously silencing local voices and their forms of resistance, knowledge systems, and ways of life. By problematizing these representations, this work seeks to contribute to a critical reading of media production about Marajó in the Amazon, highlighting the need for ethical and plural communicative practices committed to listening to local subjects. Finally, it argues that the deconstruction of stereotypes is fundamental to producing narratives that break with colonial logic and promote more just and complex forms of visibility.