Carnival, football and sex: stereotypes and the foundation of a country’s identity on anglophone media - a semiotic study

Abstract

The primary purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the stereotypes constructed around Carnival in Brazil as a "sexual festivity" in the international media, and the constant association of the country to Carnival, which consequently generates a hypersexualised gaze towards the entire country and its people, especially regarding the portrait of brazilian women, which might contribute to the rise of sex tourism in Brazil. As Brazil was in the international spotlight as the host of the World Cup, articles from 2014 by four news media – BBC News, CNN News, Daily Mail and The New York Post – were selected as primary sources for this study considering the accessibility and popularity of those. The selection was analysed through the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis, considering both aspects of text and image and the narrative set up over it. This investigation is framed in the field of Gender and Race Studies, also requiring a historical, social and cultural approach to the theme, relating the country's history to its portrayal abroad.