Teresa Alves: new PhD in Communication Sciences

The doctoral exams in Communication Sciences by Teresa Costa Alves were held on October 2 (10:00 a.m.), in the ICS (Social Sciences Institute) Sala de Atos of the University of Minho, in Braga. The thesis is supervised by Madalena Oliveira, Senior Lecturer at UMinho’s Communication Sciences Department (Institute of Social Sciences), and investigator at CECS, and Antônio Adami, from Universidade Paulista (UNIP), and is entitled “The sounds of Lusophony: multicultural contexts of public radio service in Portugal and Brazil”.

According to the new PhD, “Lusophony envolves the space where Portuguese language is spoken and understood as the mother tongue for people to communicate. It stands as a linguistic landscape that that overviews sounds as different as the countries that are part of it”. Plurality of accents and musical genres rooted to this space by the ocean, reflects a wide range of sound possibilities that can represent Lusophony’s sound mediascape.

Teresa Alves says that Radio is the real sound médium, so we will resume our analysis in two settings: public radio, “because in public service broadcasting we find (theoretically at least) plurality and diversity as founding principles, essential to deal with the Lusophone culture”; and radio shows aimed at the diaspora, “where distance and a feeling of belief can be translated into accents and music products”.

The new PhD observes that beeing Brazil the largest Portuguese-speaking territory, this is why some thinkers believe that it should take on the responsability for the lusophone territory, the fact is that Portugal has spread its language over a huge territory, from Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil, to East Timor. In that framework, she asks “if is there greater mediatic flow between the two countries, as they may be more interested in one another, or are we looking at a typical couple where one loves the other more?”. In iorder to answer at these research questions, a number of case studies were analyzed in depth: public radio shows on the Lusophone culture in Portugal and Brazil radio shows produced for the Portuguese diaspora in Brasil, “in order to record a sound mapping of the representations of the lusófona culture in the radio in both countries”.

The panel of examiners was chaired by the ICS president, Helena Sousa, representing UMinho’s dean, and the following members:

– Luís António Santos, Lecturer at UMinho’s Communication Sciences Department (Institute of Social Sciences) and investigator at CECS;

– Pedro Portela, Lecturer at UMinho’s Communication Sciences Department (Institute of Social Sciences) and investigator at CECS;

– Sílvio Manuel Rodrigues Correia dos Santos, Invited Lecturer at Philosophie and Information Department of the Faculty of Letters of University of Coimbra;

– Nelia del Bianco, Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Communication of University of Brasilia (Brazil);

– Madalena Oliveira, Senior Lecturer at UMinho’s Communication Sciences Department (Institute of Social Sciences) and investigator at CECS.

Text: Vítor de Sousa

Photos: Marta Barbosa