CELEBRATING TWO DECADES OF ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIP: The Brazil-U.S. Colloquium on communication studies

ABSTRACT

The article reviews the twenty-year trajectory of the Brazil–United States Colloquium on Communication Studies, emphasizing its relevance in strengthening a comparative and collaborative research agenda between scholars from both countries. The dossier brings together seven articles addressing central themes of contemporary communication, such as the attention economy, platform regulation, digital visual narratives in journalism, metajournalistic discourse, sports media culture, interpretive methods for public social sciences, and research strategies for elites in a digitizing society. Collectively, the texts highlight the importance of transnational approaches, inter-American case studies, and methodological rigor for understanding communicational phenomena in democratic and digital contexts. The dossier also acknowledges the legacy of José Marques de Melo and the leadership of Sonia Virgínia Moreira in consolidating the Colloquium, underscoring the continuity of an academic partnership that advances theoretical and methodological development in communication studies in Brazil and the United States.

Keywords
International academic cooperation; Comparative communication studies; Digital society

RESUMO

O artigo apresenta um balanço dos 20 anos do Colóquio Brasil–Estados Unidos de Estudos da Comunicação, destacando sua relevância para o fortalecimento de uma agenda comparativa e colaborativa entre pesquisadores dos dois países. O dossiê reúne sete artigos que abordam temas centrais da comunicação contemporânea, como economia da atenção, regulação de plataformas digitais, narrativas visuais no jornalismo, discursos metajornalísticos, cultura esportiva televisiva, métodos interpretativos para ciências sociais públicas e estratégias de pesquisa sobre elites na sociedade digital. Em conjunto, os textos evidenciam a importância de abordagens transnacionais, estudos de caso interamericanos e rigor metodológico para compreender fenômenos comunicacionais em contextos democráticos e digitais. O dossiê também reconhece o legado de José Marques de Melo e a liderança de Sonia Virgínia Moreira na consolidação do Colóquio, ressaltando a continuidade de uma parceria acadêmica que contribui para o avanço teórico e metodológico dos estudos da comunicação no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos.

Palavras-Chave
Cooperação acadêmica internacional; Estudos comparados em comunicação; Sociedade digital

RESUMEN

El artículo presenta un balance de los veinte años del Coloquio Brasil–Estados Unidos de Estudios de la Comunicación, destacando su relevancia para el fortalecimiento de una agenda comparativa y colaborativa entre investigadores de ambos países. El dossier reúne siete artículos que abordan temas centrales de la comunicación contemporánea, como la economía de la atención, la regulación de plataformas digitales, las narrativas visuales digitales en el periodismo, el discurso metaperiodístico, la cultura deportiva televisiva, los métodos interpretativos para las ciencias sociales públicas y las estrategias de investigación sobre élites en una sociedad digitalizada. En conjunto, los textos evidencian la importancia de enfoques transnacionales, estudios de caso interamericanos y rigor metodológico para comprender fenómenos comunicacionales en contextos democráticos y digitales. El dossier también reconoce el legado de José Marques de Melo y el liderazgo de Sonia Virgínia Moreira en la consolidación del Coloquio, resaltando la continuidad de una colaboración académica que impulsa el desarrollo teórico y metodológico de los estudios de la comunicación en Brasil y Estados Unidos.

Palabras-claves
Cooperación académica internacional; Estudios comparados de comunicación; Sociedad digital

This special issue celebrates two decades of collaboration between researchers in Brazil and the United States (Intercom, 2026a). For twenty years, Brazilian and American professors lead this important effort that has truly benefitted generations of scholars by bringing together researchers from across the Americas in a very special academic partnership. The fruit of these labors is not simply regularly held meetings during these two decades (including meetings held via Zoom due to COVID-19). Nor is the fruit of these endeavors limited to publications, although these have also been important outputs marking scholarly milestones. Indeed, as this journal special issue shows, the Brazil-U.S. Colloquium on Communication Studies continues to produce scholarship reflecting this very special relationship that acts as a constant impetus for international solidarity and knowledge exchange Intercom, 2026b.

The special issue begins with an article by the 2025 Keynote Speaker for the Colloquium: Silvio Waisbord. Professor Waisbord is on the faculty of George Washington University where he serves as Professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs. His many other international contributions (Saad and Ramos, 2021) are too numerous to cite but include Editor of the International Journal of Communication and Past President of the International Communication Association. The title of his article is “Comunicação, democracia e a tirania da economia da atenção”/“Communication, democracy, and the tyranny of the attention economy,” Waisbord brings together an important dissection of the attention economy as it relates to communication practices and democratic wellbeing. Focusing his gaze on attentional resources, Waisbord argues that placing the attention economy at the center of communicative analysis is vital in order to understand “algorithmic attention in the digital society” that allows us to probe “expression, dialogue, (mis)information, and other communicative phenomena” in the Age of AI (Waisbord, 2019). As Waisbord makes clear, without proper understanding of attention as a human resource, we cannot understand how communication occurs via digital media, networks, and the like. For while digital media in democratic societies allows for virtually unlimited transmission of content, the value of the content is only realized when scarce attentional resources are secured. In his words: “Any type of communication, format, or intention demands attention; otherwise, it has no reach or impact…Without attention, expression is pure expression—a manifestation of ideas, feelings, sensibilities—but not necessarily communication, as it has no audience or interlocutors. For communication to exist, attention is needed.”

The concept of attention is implicit in the next article “Dinâmica dos grupos de interesse na regulação das plataformas digitais no Brasil: propostas para estabelecer regras sobre as receitas das notícias online”/”Interest Group Dynamics in Regulating Digital Platforms in Brazil: Efforts to Set Rules on Online News Revenues” by Jonas Valente (Oxford Internet Institute), Renata de Oliveira Miranda Gomes (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Fernando Oliveira Paulino (University of Brasilia). Just as Waisbord underscores the significance of attentional resources, Valente et al. show how the crisis in advertising revenue is spurred by this shift. As they write: “The concentration of online content distribution and advertising revenue by platforms has fundamentally changed the traditional media landscape, triggering a crisis for publishers who relied on those revenues.” As the authors make clear, policymakers are only beginning to grapple with regulations that have long been shaped by “powerful, competing interest groups.” As the article makes clear, as the digital revolution accelerates, “The core of this battle lies in the redistribution of economic value and the establishment of new market rules to address the unequal bargaining power between legacy media and digital giants.”

The implications of the shift to digital media is also clear in entitled “Framework Para a Construcão de uma Narrativa Digital Visual no Jornalismo: Diálogo Interamericano na Producão do Conhecimento”/ “Framework for Building a Digital Visual Narrative in Journalism: Inter-American Dialogue in Knowledge Production.” From attention to democracy and policy, this next contribution offers a meaningful comparison of digital visual narratives in journalism thanks to insights from the authors Cristiane Fontinha Miranda (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil) and Maria José Baldessar (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil). Their study “addresses the challenge of adapting traditional journalism to the complexity of the Web by employing theories from Emotional Design, Interface Design, and Design Thinking to propose a conceptual framework that guides this process.” Drawing on their expertise in qualitative methodologies, they offer rich comparative data from interview with both journalism professionals and scholars in Brazil and the United States. In so doing, they show us the importance of taking “comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives on the production of convergent content for multiple platforms and devices.”

This comparative perspective is also at the heart of the article “Tendências nas análises de discursos metajornalísticos na cobertura política brasileira por jornais estadunidenses” / “Trends in metajournalistic discourse analysis in Brazilian political coverage by U.S. newspapers” by Marcos Paulo da Silva (Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande – Mato Grosso do Sul – Brasil). Continuing the theme of professional evolution in Brazilian and American journalistic fields, da Silva provides an analysis of “metajournalistic discourse in Brazilian political coverage by U.S. newspapers. Metajournalistic discourse is defined as professionals engaging in discussions, both within and outside the profession, about its normative foundations.” Through cross-national comparison, we see how normative assumptions about the field of journalism have wide-ranging implications about how political themes are treated, in particular populist issues and leaders, which is both timely and relevant in Brazil and the United States. Finally, the author reveals how varied legal frameworks shape the industry in each country, an angle of vision that readers will find of great value.

Taking comparison of professional fields further, the next article continues cross-national comparison in sports in the two countries. The article is entitled “Mídia e Cultura Esportiva : o esporte na TV aberta do Brasil e dos Estados Unidos”/”Media and sports culture: sports on broadcast television in Brazil and the United States” by Ana Paula Goulart de Andrade (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro – Seropédica – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil) and Igor Vieira Ferreira (Universidade Federal Fluminense – Niterói – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil). Drawing on theoretical frameworks established by Berger and Luckmann, they examine the importance of television in creating a significant professional subculture in both Brazil and the United States. They offer a nuanced comparison between Brazilian and American sports broadcasting thanks to their analysis of parallel programming case studies in each country (TV Globo’s Esporte Espetacular and NBC’s One Team: The Power of Sports (NBC). As they find, there are both “…similarities and differences in the production, circulation, and consumption of sports audiovisual content…” The result of which is an “interface between culture, sport, and audiovisual media” leading to a distinct conception of sports and society across the two nations.

As these cross-national projects in communication studies show, researchers in Brazil and the United States share an abiding commitment to excellence in research methods (ROBINSON et al., 2017). The next article is “Ferramentas para as Ciências Sociais Públicas na era digital: Estratégias interpretativas para a análise de conteúdos de interesse público”/ “Tools for Public Social Science in the Digital Age: Interpretative Strategies for Content Analysis in the Public Good” by Laura Robinson (Santa Clara University – Santa Clara, California – United States). Robinson extends this theme to examine the growth of digital platforms in Brazil and the U.S. that may not be well served by big data approaches. Instead, Robinson argues that using automated coding and other strategies is not ideally suited for those researchers “contributing to public-facing social sciences in which narrative, storytelling, and naturally occurring discourse are prominently featured.” Robinson, offers a nuanced approach to content analysis strategies for interpretively oriented qualitative researchers: “In providing replicable methodological tools to analyze data interpretively, this research provides a toolkit for qualitative researchers engage in Public Social Science in an age of contentious politics.”

Finally, the special issue closes with “Estudando as elites antigas e novas: as elites em uma sociedade em processo de digitalização”/ “Studying Elites Old and New: Elites in a Digitizing Society” by Jeremy Schulz (University of California Berkeley, California, United States). Continuing the thread of cross-national comparison, Schulz continues the discussion of rigorous social science methods critical to communication scholars. Training his attention on elites in the digital age, Schulz not only offers a blueprint for sampling, recruiting, and interviewing members of various types of elites but also “shows how various recruitment and interviewing strategies may be adapted to take advantage of contemporary digital platforms in order to identify and recruit individuals who are not tied to particular workplaces or organizations.” As Schulz concludes these strategies will become increasingly important to better understand both professional digital elites, as well as the more elusive elites who populate contemporary content creation and gig platforms.

In closing, it is more important now than ever to keep our focus on global connections shared by Brazil and the United Staes rather than succumbing to the temptation to be preoccupied by what is “close to home” in our own national contexts. As we see, the articles are marked by the recurrence of several important approaches to communication research: constant comparison, cross-national case studies, and rigorous methods, all of which highlight both similarities and differences across the Countries of the Future: Brazil and the United States. This special issue highlights this commitment not only with these seven articles, but the twenty years of care and commitment after the idea of Professor José Marques de Melo (in memoriam) and under the leadership of Sonia Virgínia Moreira who has shared this journey with American partners including Joseph Straubhaar (University of Texas at Austin), Vicki Mayer (Tulane University, New Orleans), John Baldwin (Illinois State University), Samantha Joyce (Saint Mary’s College of California), and Laura Robinson, as well as generations of scholars in Brazil and the U.S.

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• How to cite:
  MOREIRA, S. V. and ROBINSON, L. Celebrating two decades of academic partnership: Brazil–United States Colloquium on Communication Studies. São Paulo: INTERCOM – Revista Brasileira de Ciências da Comunicação, v. 48, e2025119. https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-58442025119en
• Funding:
  CNPq and CAPES
• INTERCOM Journal encourages data sharing but, in adherence to ethical guidelines, does not require the disclosure of any means of identifying research subjects, thereby preserving their privacy. The practice of open data aims to enable the reproducibility of results and ensure unrestricted transparency in published research findings without requiring the disclosure of the subjects’ identities.

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All data supporting this article are contained within the text.

References

• INTERCOM. Colóquio Brasil-EUA (histórico). Disponível em: https://portalintercom.org.br/coloquios/historico/ Acesso em: 9 jan. 2026.
  » https://portalintercom.org.br/coloquios/historico/
• INTERCOM. Brazil-US Colloquium on Communication Studies 2004-2021. Disponível em: http://www.emeraldmediastudies.com/Brazil-US-Colloquium.html Acesso em: 9 jan. 2026.
  » http://www.emeraldmediastudies.com/Brazil-US-Colloquium.html
• SAAD, E.; RAMOS, D. Silvio Waisbord: diversidade e fragmentação – o campo da comunicação como uma pós‑disciplina e seus desdobramentos na contemporaneidade. Matrizes, São Paulo, v. 15, 2021. Disponível em: https://revistas.usp.br/matrizes/pt_BR/article/view/186265/172238 DOI: (dx.doi.org in Bing). Acesso em: 9 jan. 2026.
  » https://revistas.usp.br/matrizes/pt_BR/article/view/186265/172238
• WAISBORD, S. Communication: A post-discipline. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019.
• COTTEN, S. R.; ROBINSON, L.; WILLIAMS, A.; SCHULZ, J. Brazil: Media from the Country of the Future. Faculty Book Gallery, v. 13, 2017. Disponível em: https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/330 Acesso em: 9 jan. 2026.
  » https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/330

Edited by

• Editors responsible for reception, desk review, and evaluation:
  Ana Paula Goulart de Andrade (UFRRJ) and Jorge Carlos Felz Ferreira (UFJF)

• Editors-in-Chief:
  Dr. Marialva Barbosa
  Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ
  Dr. Sonia Virginia Moreira
  Rio de Janeiro State University, UERJ

• Executive Editors:
  Dr. Jorge C. Felz Ferreira
  Federal University of Juiz de Fora, UFJF
  Dr. Ana Paula Goulart de Andrade
  Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRRJ

• Associate Editor:
  Dr. Sandro Torres de Azevedo
  Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  27 Feb 2026
• Date of issue
  2025

History

• Received
  11 Oct 2025
• Accepted
  01 Dec 2025
• Published
  30 Dec 2025