Políticas culturais, esferas públicas e cultura digital: um estudo do fora do eixo e da Mídia NINJA

Abstract

From the investigation about the articulations of the media cultural collectives: Fora do Eixo and Mídia NINJA, in the context of the creation, implementation, and dismantling of progressive cultural policies by the Ministry of Culture during the first two terms of the Workers' Party (2003-2011), in the Information Age and of Cognitive Capitalism, and the expansion of Internet access in Brazil, concepts of Digital Culture are mobilized in promoting mediactivism as a counter-narrative political action, with the participation of cultural citizens in the narrative dispute in subaltern and selective public spheres, and the institutionalization of democratic procedures and mechanisms capable of giving voice to the demands of civil society and citizen initiatives. The methodology of this work includes netnographic research of materials available on the Internet through blogs, social networks, and institutional pages, both by media cultural collectives and by the State and mainstream media; as well as a bibliographic review of the Fora do Eixo Network and the Mídia NINJA, seeking connections between the fields of Social Sciences and Communication. The objective is to understand a segment of the political processes in the development of contemporary cultural production in Brazil, entering the debate on this production also in cyberspace through New Information and Communication Technologies (NICTs), enabling new forms of collective action in networks. This work differs from contemporary theories by verifying that such agents not only dispute the public debate of ideas on the streets and digital networks, budgetary resources, and guidelines of public management, nor solely for the ultimate goal of guaranteeing constitutional rights, but also plead for seats in legitimate spaces of institutional deliberation, with the purpose of maintaining open dialogue between the people's representatives and the electorate. The political action of new social movements seeks social mobilization in the institutional "fit" of the State, supporting candidacies in the competition for positions, in order to thus become part of the daily construction of the Brazilian Republic. We conclude that - as Célio Turino envisioned in the public policy "National Program of Culture, Education, and Citizenship - Living Culture" and the former Ministers of Culture, Gilberto Gil and Juca Ferreira - such an approach of expanding the State and the "anthropological sense" of Culture could provide a context for experiences of empowerment, autonomy, and social protagonism to civil society, considering the action of such media cultural collectives.