Historiography of the advertising and Propaganda Research Group: a bibliometric study of Intercom Congress editions (1994-2024)Abstract
This paper carries out an analytical mapping of the scientific production of researchers participating in the Advertising and Propaganda Group, with data relating to 31 years of intellectual contribution by this research group at the Intercom National Congress. The corpus collected for analysis relates to the papers available in the PORTCOM collection (1994-2000) and in the electronic annals of the Intercom Portal (2001-2024). It adopts the bibliometric historiography method, carrying out procedures for retrieving scientific production, bibliometric data processing and historiographic analysis. VantagePoint text and data mining software was used to process the metadata. The database’s indexing period (1994 to 2024) identified 1,407 productions, authored by 1,150 researchers. The results of the research point to: the maintenance of the theoretical framework in canonical foreign authors; the low diversity among Brazilian researchers; the high concentration of scientific production in the country; public universities as the most productive institutions.
Keywords
Research in Advertising; Scientific Production; Intercom Congress; Research Group
Resumo
Este trabalho realiza um mapeamento analítico da produção científica de pesquisadores participantes do GP Publicidade e Propaganda, com dados relativos a 31 anos de contribuição intelectual deste grupo de pesquisa no Congresso Intercom Nacional. O corpus coletado para análise se relaciona aos trabalhos disponíveis no acervo do PORTCOM (1994-2000) e nos anais eletrônicos do Portal Intercom (2001-2024). Adota o método de historiografia bibliométrica, realizando procedimentos de recuperação da produção científica, processamento bibliométrico dos dados e análise historiográfica. Para o tratamento dos metadados, utilizou-se o software de mineração de dados e texto VantagePoint. O período de indexação da base (1994 a 2024), identificou 1.407 produções, de autoria de 1.150 pesquisadores. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam: a manutenção do referencial teórico em autores canônicos estrangeiros; a baixa diversidade entre os pesquisadores brasileiros; a alta concentração da produção científica no país; as universidades públicas como as instituições mais produtivas.
Palavras-chave
Pesquisa em Publicidade; Produção Científica; Congresso Intercom; Grupo de Pesquisa
Resumen
Este trabajo realiza un mapeo analítico de la producción científica de los investigadores participantes en el Grupo de Publicidad y Propaganda, con datos relativos a 31 años de contribución intelectual de este grupo de investigación en el Congreso Nacional de Intercom. El corpus recogido para el análisis se refiere a los trabajos disponibles en la colección PORTCOM (1994-2000) y en los anales electrónicos del Portal Intercom (2001-2024). Adopta el método de la historiografía bibliométrica, realizando procedimientos de recuperación de la producción científica, tratamiento bibliométrico de los datos y análisis historiográfico. Para el tratamiento de los metadatos se utilizó el software de minería de textos y datos VantagePoint. En el periodo de indización de la base de datos (1994 a 2024) se identificaron 1.407 producciones, autoría de 1.150 investigadores. Los resultados de la investigación señalan: el mantenimiento de la referencia teórica en autores extranjeros canónicos; la baja diversidad entre los investigadores brasileños; la alta concentración de la producción científica en el país; las universidades públicas como las instituciones más productivas.
Palabras clave
Investigación en Publicidad; Producción Científica; Congreso Intercom; Grupo de Investigación
Introduction
This study provides an analytical mapping of the scientific output of researchers participating in the Advertising and Propaganda Research Group (AP-RG), with data covering 31 years of intellectual contributions by the group at the National Intercom Congress. It spans the period from 1994 to 2024, encompassing editions XVII to XLVII of the Brazilian Congress of Communication Sciences. The corpus for observation and analysis includes papers from the PORTCOM collection – Open Access Portal to Communication Science Production (1994-2000) and the electronic annals of the Intercom Portal (2001-2024)1. This work extends and updates previous stages of bibliometric research on the same subject (Covaleski, 2014; Covaleski, Silveira, Andrade, 2017), now covering the complete body of AP-RG’s works, considering the preserved materials still available in electronic media that document the group’s intellectual history.
Since this is a secondary analysis based on the collection and interpretation of documents and content, the methodology is hybrid—combining statistical formalism and quantitative analysis with qualitative investigation of content and context. This approach ensures systematic and reliable verification.
VantagePoint text and data mining software (Porter & Cunningham, 2004) was used to process the metadata of the publications. Its functions include correcting records, grouping data, and building thesauri to standardize the names of people, keywords, locations, and other variables in the database. Additionally, the tool enables the construction of co-occurrence matrices to cross-reference different fields within the database. This research focuses on the “year” variable, which is essential for historiographical studies, as it allows us to track data trends over time.
Studies of Advertising researchers contribute to understanding the development of this field of scientific research. The primary aim of this work is to construct a bibliometric historiography of the Advertising and Propaganda Research Group (AP-RG) at the National Intercom Congress, covering the period during which the works from the RG remain accessible. The research highlights the most relevant themes addressed in the articles retrieved from the online repository and electronic annals over 31 editions of the congress. It establishes rankings of the most productive institutions and the most frequently cited authors and analyzes the scientific output of the core participants in the research group. This study adopts the method of bibliometric historiography by conducting the following procedures: retrieving the scientific output of the research group, processing bibliometric data, and performing historiographic analysis.
The metadata collected from the 1,407 files accessed includes authorship, work titles, academic titles of authors and co-authors, institutional affiliations, state and regional geographical locations, keywords used as indexing elements, the names of authors cited in the bibliographical references, and the year corresponding to the congress edition in which the work was presented.
Historical Context of the Advertising Research Group
The historiographical study of the AP-RG allows for the reconstruction of the intellectual output of its researchers, based on the collection and analysis of all articles available in electronic format in the Intercom Society’s collection, and establishes bases for epistemological, theoretical, methodological, thematic, and empirical assumptions. It also reveals the pathways of knowledge within networks of individuals shaped by their actions and interests as agents in the world. In the field of bibliometrics, historiography is enhanced, giving rise to what is known as bibliometric historiography. This method, as presented by Santos et al. (2012), reconstructs the historiography of a subject using a “chronological visualization map,” based on metadata.
Eugene Garfield (1925-2017) plays a key role in the body of historiographical studies based on scientific information metrics. Garfield, inventor of the impact factor and founder of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), which revolutionized the scientific communication industry and is now part of Clarivate Analytics, developed the concept of algorithmic historiography, which he introduced through the HistCite software (Garfield; Pudovkin; Istomin, 2002). This software is responsible for mapping citation networks capable of representing the history of researchers, areas of knowledge, and topics, based on bibliometric records supported by metadata containing keywords, author names, and journal titles.
Chart 1 shows the history of the AP-RG through its different names over the analyzed period, highlighting the role of the respective coordinators. It also details their affiliations and administrative leadership.
The evolution of the RG’s designation over the years has, to some extent, affected the reception of papers with a broader scope at certain times, such as when it included papers from the Marketing area between 2001 and 2005, and more specific ones at other times, like during the creation of the Thematic Division that unified three RGs in Advertising (Epistemology and Language; Brands and Strategies; Political Propaganda) between 2010 and 2012.
The institutional ties of the coordinators also influenced participation and output. Universities represented by the coordinators, particularly USP with three coordinators and UMESP with two, saw more intense participation and production. Other institutions with productive researchers, such as PUC-RS and UFSM, also ranked well. However, during the periods when UFV and UFAL had representatives, the impact on training new researchers was limited, as we will discuss later, due to the absence of an undergraduate Advertising program at these institutions.
The group of coordinators includes experts in the RG’s themes and areas of study, making them significant historical or contemporary references for their peers. Some are among the most cited, as will be discussed below
Data Analysis
The works considered in this collection cover the period of the database’s indexing (1994 to 2024) and identify 1,407 publications, authored by 1,150 researchers from across the five regions of the country. Of this total, 16 works were authored or co-authored by foreign researchers.
In the early years of the database, from 1994 to 2000, the low number of papers in each edition of the congress was likely due to several factors. These include a smaller contingent of researchers dedicated to advertising research at the time, the fact that many postgraduate programs were still graduating their first master’s and doctoral students in this field, and the lack of an established culture around participation in scientific events. Additionally, the Intercom Congress had not yet become a prominent space for academic discussions on advertising and propaganda, and there were no incentive programs from educational institutions or research funding agencies to support the presentation of papers at scientific congresses.
Graph 1 shows an overview of the annual production of papers presented at the AP-RG. The number of papers presented at each edition of the congress was also influenced by factors such as the event venue, its logistical implications, and participation costs, as well as external factors like the recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When collecting data from 1994 to 2000, we were only able to access papers from the PORTCOM collection – the Open Access Portal to Communication Science Production – created by the Intercom Society in 2008. At that time, there was no official portal with the event’s electronic proceedings. The portal, organized by Professor Nelia Del Bianco, was discontinued in 2014 by the board of directors at the time. As a result, the data from this early phase of the RG is incomplete, as some participants from these editions did not provide full versions of their papers for publication. Since formal templates for the event did not exist, many papers published on the portal had to be digitized for online access. The portal even contains scans of typewritten papers from this period.
When analyzing the productions by decade, based on the metadata available in the database (1994–2024), 61 papers were presented in the 1990s, 447 articles in the 2000s, 650 in the 2010s (the most productive decade so far), and 249 in the first five editions of the congress in the 2020s.
The most representative regions of the country in terms of paper production and presentation over the decades are: Southeast (34), South (16), Northeast (11), Midwest (2), and North (2) in the 1990s; Southeast (223), South (131), Northeast (64), Midwest (28), and North (4) in the 2000s; Southeast (355), South (153), Northeast (101), Midwest (28), and North (19) in the 2010s; and Southeast (127), South (75), Northeast (31), North (12), and Midwest (7) in the 2020–2024 period. Notably, the rankings of the country’s regions in terms of paper production have remained consistent over the decades, except in the 2020s, when the North region surpassed the Midwest.
Over the 31 years analyzed, as shown in Graph 2, the Southeast accounted for more than half of the papers presented at the RG (52.5%), totaling 739 productions. It was followed by the South, with 374 articles (26.6%); the Northeast, with 205 (14.6%); the Midwest, with 65 (4.6%); and the North, with 37 (2.6%).
The predominance of production concentrated in the Southeast can be better understood when we compare this percentage (52.5%) with the number of bachelor’s degree programs in Advertising in the region. According to data from Enade 2022, there are 191 programs in the four Southeastern states (118 in São Paulo, 33 in Minas Gerais, 31 in Rio de Janeiro, and nine in Espírito Santo), corresponding to 55% of the country’s Advertising programs. A similar scenario is observed when looking at the number of postgraduate programs based in this region. Data from Compós – the National Association of Postgraduate Programs in Communication – indicates that of the 63 programs associated with the entity as of 2024, 27 are in the Southeast, representing 43% of the postgraduate programs in Communication in Brazil.
Also according to Enade (2022), the South has 69 programs (20%); the Northeast, 46 (13%); the Midwest, 28 (8%); and the North, 14 (4%) undergraduate programs in Advertising. Regarding graduate programs in Communication, in addition to the 27 already mentioned in the Southeast, there are 13 in the Northeast (21%), 12 in the South (19%), seven in the Midwest (11%), and four in the North (6%), according to the 2024 Compós list of programs. These percentages partly support the hypothesis of proportionality between productivity in regions well-served by undergraduate Advertising and postgraduate Communication programs, which presupposes more researchers and greater incentive for scientific research based on the number of courses available in each region.
The most productive federation units during the indexing period, with more than 10 papers, are as follows: São Paulo (575), Rio Grande do Sul (230), Rio de Janeiro (109), Pernambuco (105), Paraná (81), Minas Gerais (75), Santa Catarina (59), Bahia (29), Goiás (27), Pará (27), Alagoas (24), Distrito Federal (21), Espírito Santo (17), Ceará (16), Mato Grosso do Sul (15), and Rio Grande do Norte (14). Graph 3 provides a visual representation of this production by state.
Regional leaders in this context include São Paulo, responsible for 78% of the Southeast’s scientific production; Rio Grande do Sul, accounting for 61% of southern state production; and Pernambuco, whose productivity reaches 51% among the nine states of the Northeast. In the Midwest, Goiás represents 41% of the region’s production, while in the North, Pará contributes 73%. Of the other northern states, Amazonas accumulated six papers during the indexing period, Amapá and Roraima had one each, while Acre and Rondônia presented none at the AP-RG over the 31 years. Among the other northeastern states, Paraíba and Sergipe each had seven papers, Maranhão three, and Piauí one. In the Midwest, Mato Grosso presented three papers, and Tocantins had only one.
Graph 4 highlights the institutions with the highest production over the 31 years of indexing. The data reveals a concentration of scientific production in Advertising, as the top 10 most productive institutions in the AP-RG (Intercom 1994–2024) presented a total of 716 papers, equivalent to 51% of the overall output. In a universe of 249 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with papers presented over the 31-year period, this percentage demonstrates a significant concentration. If we expand this ranking to the 35 most productive institutions with at least 10 papers during the indexing period, they account for 1,127 papers, corresponding to 80% of the articles presented in the indexed period.
In the classification between public and private institutions restricted to this ranking, 630 (56%) of the total 1,127 works were carried out by public universities, and 497 (44%) by private higher education institutions (HEIs). The joint production of federal public universities dominates the ranking, with 350 papers (31%) from 13 institutions, listed in the following order: UFPE, UFSM, UFRGS, UFF, UFRJ, UFPR, UFG, UFAL, UFPA, UFMG, UNB, UFRN and UFES.
Of the 10 non-profit private educational institutions classified as confessional, seven are Catholic: three Jesuit (PUC-Rio, UNICAP, and UNISINOS), three diocesan (PUC-SP, PUC-Campinas, and PUC-Minas), and one Marist (PUC-RS). This group is the second most productive, with 321 papers (28%).
There are three state public universities in this ranking: São Paulo State University (USP)—the most productive of all Brazilian institutions in this area, contributing 221 papers (20%)—and São Paulo State University (UNESP) and Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), each with 12 papers. USP, therefore, accounts for one in five articles in this ranking. Over the 31 years of AP-RG production, USP accounts for 15.7% of the total production.
Non-profit and non-confessional private educational institutions accounted for 149 papers (13%) from a group made up of ESPM-SP, FCL, ESPM-RS, FUMEC, UNIVATES, UNIP, and UNIVALI. In terms of academic organization, three are classified as colleges: the Higher School of Advertising and Marketing (ESPM) in São Paulo and Porto Alegre, and Cásper Líbero in São Paulo. All the other HEIs in this ranking are academic organizations classified as universities.
As a representative of municipal public education, FURB in Blumenau-SC contributed 35 papers (3%). Only one university is classified as a private for-profit institution, UTP – Tuiuti University of Paraná, which produced 27 papers (2%)—an exception to the general trend of little or no scientific production in for-profit HEIs within the scope of the AP-RG.
If we examine the data on the productivity of the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), it is natural to see that the University of São Paulo, the largest higher education institution in the country, ranks at the top. This reinforces the perception that it is not only the leader in its state and region but also undeniably outstanding at the national level. Contributing to this success are the incentives to participate in the congress, the increasing training of new researchers in the field, and the significant role played by three AP-RG coordinators over the 31 years it has been indexed: Gino Giacomini Filho (1997-1999), Clotilde Perez (2015-2017), and Eneus Trindade (2021-2024).
We should also highlight the state and regional leadership of the Federal University of Pernambuco, which represents 82% of the state’s work and 42% of the Northeast region’s total—primarily due to the consistent intellectual output from a group of researchers dedicated to advertising and consumer studies. The Methodist University of São Paulo, ranked as the third most productive, benefits from its historical role as one of the founders of the AP-RG and the important contributions of its Research Group coordinators in the early years, such as Paulo Rogério Tarsitano (1994-1996) and Elizabeth Moraes Gonçalves (2000), alongside the continued productivity of its contemporary researchers.
Other highly productive HEIs also owe part of their scientific research performance in advertising to previous AP-RG coordinators, who contributed both through their intellectual production and in training researchers in the field. Notable figures include Professors Neusa Demartini Gomes and Maria Lília Dias de Castro, who were affiliated with PUC-RS and UFSM, respectively.
During the administrations of coordinators José Benedito Pinho (2001-2003) and Jean-Charles Jacques Zozzoli (2007-2010), the greatest contributions were in structuring and consolidating the Research Group, as both had institutional ties with universities that did not offer an Advertising course—UFV and UFAL, respectively—limiting their capacity to train new researchers at their original institutions. For Professor Zozzoli, his individual production accounted for 86% of UFAL’s contributions to the AP-RG. Similarly, Professor Goiamérico Felício Carneiro dos Santos, coordinator for the 2018-2020 term, contributed 74% of UFG’s work. This illustrates that there is a concentration of production not only from a limited number of universities but also from a few researchers at each institution for various reasons.
The concentration of scientific production in advertising is further evident in the number of HEIs contributing to each event. Data collection exclusively considered the institutional affiliation indicated by the researcher in Intercom’s submission system, without verification from other databases or sources. Only in exceptional situations—such as when the data was incomplete or corrupted—did we verify the researcher’s affiliation at the time of the event through their profile available on the Lattes Platform.
When we grouped the authors of papers presented at the AP-RG (Advertising and Propaganda Research Group) from 1994 to 2024 by the frequency of publications, we identified 28 researchers in the core area with 10 or more papers during this period, totaling 418 papers, which corresponds to almost 30% of all submissions, as shown in Graph 5. In contrast, the long tail in the dispersion zone comprises 800 authors with just one article published during the indexing period. The intermediate zone consists of 58 authors who produced between five and nine articles, including both historical and emerging researchers, responsible for 384 works. In the peripheral zone, which includes authors with two to four texts, there are 264 researchers who have accumulated 644 works.
The researchers who were productive during the indexing period (1994-2024) and form what can be called the core area of the AP-RG—those with 10 or more papers presented, either individually or as co-authors—are as follows: Clotilde Perez (31), Eneus Trindade (27), Maria Lilia Dias de Castro (21), Bruno Pompeu (21), Rogério Covaleski (20), Sérgio Trein (19), Jean-Charles Jacques Zozzoli (18), Goiamérico dos Santos (17), Paula Renata Camargo de Jesus (17), Rafael José Bona (16), Juliana Petermann (15), Silvio Koiti Sato (13), Fábio Hansen (13), Neusa Demartini Gomes (13), Maria Cristina Dias Alves (13), Luiz LZ Cezar dos Santos (13), Dirceu Tavares (12), Karla Patriota (12), Selma Felerico Garrini (11), Admir Roberto Borges (11), Celso Figueiredo Neto (11), Diogo Kawano (11), Elizete de Azevedo Kreutz (11), Roberta Del-Vechio (11), André Iribure (10), Fernanda Sagrilo (10), Janiene dos Santos (10), and Pablo Moreno Fernandes (10).
It is interesting to note that the most productive and contributory researchers in the AP-RG are naturally linked to institutions with high productivity in the field of advertising research. Moreover, this group of authors from different generations reflects academic genealogy, indicating the formation of new researchers in the field, guided by established researchers who serve as master’s and doctoral supervisors. For example, Clotilde Perez supervises authors listed in this ranking, including Bruno Pompeu (Master’s, Doctorate, and Post-Doctorate), Sílvio Sato (Master’s/Doctorate), Janiene dos Santos (Master’s/Doctorate), and Pablo Moreno Fernandes (Doctorate). Eneus Trindade supervises Maria Cristina Dias Alves (Doctorate/Post-Doctorate) and Selma Felerico (Post-Doctorate). Neusa Demartini Gomes supervises Sérgio Trein (Master’s/Doctorate), while Maria Lília Dias de Castro supervises Fernanda Sagrilo (Master’s/Doctorate). Other developments and ramifications could be explored through academic genealogy but may serve as the subject of a future study.
Regarding the themes researched in the AP-RG, we can understand the interests and research emphases of the group through the keywords indicated as indexing elements of the papers. However, keywords were only computed for articles from the period 2000 to 2024, which corresponds to a universe of 1,311 studies. In contrast, the papers collected in PORTCOM from 1994 to 1999 lack a submission template that standardized their form and structure, resulting in almost all articles not indicating the respective indexing words. Consequently, the few data collected from the 1990s were discarded for statistical purposes.
Figure 1 shows the adherence of keywords to the AP-RG themes in its different phases. However, the representation of tags suggests a possible difficulty for researchers in the field to index their scientific work correctly and adequately. In a Research Group dedicated to investigating themes related to advertising, consumption, communication, and brands, among other relevant topics, the percentage of keyword records directly related to the interests of the field of study is average. This could suggest, in one interpretation, a dispersion in the area concerning the researched themes; alternatively, it may reflect a methodological misunderstanding among advertising researchers regarding indexing their own productions.
Thus, when examining the broad collection period for this variable, from 2000 to 2024, the most frequent keywords are shown in Figure 1. This analysis is restricted to keywords that appeared at least 25 times in the timeframe without disambiguation. In order of frequency, they are: advertising (696), communication (315), propaganda (250), consumption (244), brand/s (202), marketing (160), discourse (103), media (82), culture (82), publicist [female term] (81), politics (75), identity (61), publicist [male term] (61), market (61), teaching (57), consumer (51), semiotics (48), strategy (48), ethics (39), internet (38), social (37), image (37), language (36), creation (36), branding (35), gender (35), agency (31), representation (29), technology (29), social networks (29), mediatization (28), behavior (28), fashion (27), women (26), and work (25).
In another contribution to this bibliometric historiography, we constructed a ranking of the 50 most cited authors by researchers in the area, based on the 1,407 productions collected over 31 years from the AP-RG. This allows us to visualize, on one hand, the influence of classic and hegemonic figures from related fields and, on the other, the emergence or consolidation of contemporary references. These references not only come from the field of Communication but also from adjacent areas that significantly influence these studies, such as Sociology, Philosophy, Linguistics, Marketing, and Anthropology.
When classifying the authors by the areas of knowledge that most informed the bibliographic set of analyzed articles, we identified 17 authors whose studies, work, and training primarily classify them as communicologists. Some of these authors could also be classified as semioticians or linguists, for example. This group includes Brazilian researchers Clotilde Perez (1970-) and Lucia Santaella (1944-), both of whom are semioticians but primarily focus their research in the field of Communication. Also in this group are Brazilians Eneus Trindade (1973-), João Anzanello Carrascoza (1962-), Vander Casaqui (1971-), and Rogério Covaleski (1969-), whose research concentrates on advertising and consumer phenomena. Raquel Recuero (1976-) and André Lemos (1962-) contribute particularly through studies related to digital social networks and cyberculture.
Additionally, a group of senior researchers has historically contributed to specific areas of communication: José Benedito Pinho (1951-) in interdisciplinary communication, Maria Lília Dias de Castro (1946-) in promotionality, Nilda Jacks (1955-) in reception studies, Neusa Demartini Gomes (1946-) in persuasive communication, and Nelly de Carvalho (1935-2024) in advertising writing. These authors remain relevant, and their intellectual production continues to serve as a reference for contemporary researchers. Completing the list of Brazilian communication authors are Rafael Sampaio (1953-2020) and Armando Sant’anna (1929-2001), whose technical-marketing works are significant historical contributions to the foundational bibliography of advertising courses throughout Brazil.
In the case of the Brazilian authors in this ranking, self-references in their works presented at the AP-RG were subtracted from the analysis—specifically those of Perez, Trindade, Carrascoza, Pinho, Casaqui, Covaleski, and Demartini Gomes. Only references made by peers were included in the calculation.
As for foreign communication authors, the list includes the American Henry Jenkins (1958-), known for his contributions to convergence culture, and the Colombian Jesús Martin-Barbero (1937-2021), who, although born in Spain, is recognized as a semiologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. He dedicated most of his studies to communication, particularly through his theory of mediation.
The second most referenced group of authors consists of sociologists, with 13 of them listed in the top 50. This group includes four French authors: Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007), Roland Barthes (1915-1980), Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002), and Michel Maffesoli (1944-); three British authors: Mike Featherstone (1948-), Stuart Hall (1932-2014)—who was born in Jamaica—and John B. Thompson (1966-), who is of American origin; as well as the Belgian Armand Mattelart (1936-), the Polish Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017), the Italian Andrea Semprini (1958-), and the Spanish Manuel Castells (1942-). Two Brazilian authors listed as sociologists in this ranking are Professor Muniz Sodré (1942-), recognized as one of Brazil’s greatest intellectuals in the field of communication, and Professor Renato Ortiz (1947-), an important researcher of Brazilian culture and identity. To classify these authors as sociologists, we considered their primary area of knowledge or professional activity as stated in their respective biographies, since many of them work across Sociology, Philosophy, Anthropology, and Communication.
The authors identified as linguists include seven names: the Russian Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975), the French Patrick Charaudeau (1939-), Dominique Maingueneau (1950-), and Jean-Marie Floch (1947-2001), the Lithuanian Algirdas Greimas (1917-1992), and two Brazilians, Professor Eni Orlandi (1942-) and Professor José Luiz Fiorin (1942-). This group encompasses important and recurring references from language studies, discourse analysis, and semiotics.
The group of philosophers, also with seven members, who most frequently serve as references for studies in advertising includes the French Gilles Lipovetsky (1944-), Michel Foucault (1926-1984), Pierre Lévy (1956-), and Edgar Morin (1921-). Although Lévy was born in Tunisia, he is based in France and holds French citizenship. Completing the list of philosophers are the Italian Umberto Eco (1932-2016), Canadian Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), and American Douglas Kellner (1943-).
In the fields of Management and Marketing studies, the main contributions come from American authors Philip Kotler (1931-), David Aaker (1938-), and Al Ries (1926-2022). In addition to their common nationality, all three are long-standing authors with prolific intellectual output. Anthropologists round off the list with three references: the Brazilian Everardo Rocha (1951-), the Argentinian Néstor García Canclini (1939-), who is based in Mexico, and the Canadian Grant McCracken (1951-). A visual representation of this ranking is available in Graph 7.
Some other authors, equally relevant, were close to making the ranking of the 50 most cited but are on the periphery of this set. These include the Danes Torben Vestergaard (1943-) and Kim Schrøder (1951-), co-authors of the book The Language of Propaganda, which accounts for their ranking; the 41 references attributed to them refer to this single work. Also included are Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) (German philosopher), Guy Debord (1931-1994) (French philosopher), and David Harvey (1935-) (British geographer), each with 40 references.
When analyzing the ranking, it is notable that, although there is a male prevalence among the most cited Brazilian authors, there is a certain balance between genders (12 men and eight women). However, the complete absence of foreign female researchers in this ranking is somewhat intriguing. Among the 31 most cited foreign authors, there are no women. In addition to the top 50 positions, the most cited foreign female names include French professor Laurence Bardin (1949-), a reference in Content Analysis, with 41 mentions; Canadian journalist Naomi Klein (1970-), with 40; and British anthropologist Mary Douglas (1921-2007), with 35 mentions.
Looking at the number of authors by country in the ranking of the 50 most referenced authors, there are 20 Brazilians, 11 French, five Americans, three British, two Canadians, two Italians, one Russian, one Lithuanian, one Belgian, one Spaniard, one Pole, one Argentinian, and one Colombian. When grouped by continent, there is a preponderance of Latin American authors (22), followed by Europeans (21) and North Americans (seven), with no authors from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, or Oceania in the ranking.
The analysis also reveals that the ranking is predominantly made up of male authors (84%), while female authors account for only 16%. Furthermore, the low representation of Black authors is notable, with only two: Stuart Hall and Muniz Sodré, leading to the conclusion that of the 50 most referenced authors, 48 are presumably white.
In summary, based on this list of the most prominent and influential authors in the body of work analyzed over 31 years of research by the Advertising and Propaganda Research Group, the bibliography in this field is primarily male, white, and European.
Final Considerations
This work aimed to map the scientific production of the Advertising Research Group over 31 years (1994-2024), starting from the oldest edition that still preserves the records of papers presented at the Brazilian Congress of Communication Sciences – National Intercom. Using bibliometric methods, we were able to ascertain aspects related to the origin of research production in the field, rank the most productive institutions and researchers, and identify the authors who most inspire and guide research in this area in Brazil.
Corroborating, updating, and expanding upon previous research (Covaleski, 2014; Covaleski, Silveira, & Andrade, 2017), this new stage of the investigation, while not exhaustive, reveals visible disproportionalities in the distribution of production between regions of the country, highlighting the issues of inequality and imbalance that affect the nation in various aspects.
There is evidence of the strength and productivity of a few higher education institutions (HEIs) compared to the nascent contributions of many others when it comes to research in Advertising. The lack of participation in research by a larger number of private universities is equally undeniable; with a few exceptions—generally restricted to confessional institutions—these universities invest little in scientific production. In public universities, although production remains constant in several cases, there is a need to increase and diversify the plurality of production, which is currently centered on a limited number of researchers per institution.
The intention is to continue mapping and analyzing scientific production in the area by ascertaining new variables and refining and correlating the collected data. This will allow for new and collaborative inferences for research in this field, based on the tabulation of other variables already collected in the database but not yet analyzed.
In summary, the main results of the current study are as follows: bibliographic references are still primarily based on hegemonic foreign authors, although there is a gradual and consistent increase in the citation of contemporary national authors. However, among foreign authors, both canonical and contemporary, there is a predominance of white men, mostly Europeans. There is low representation of race (96% are white), gender (no foreign women), and origin (no authors from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, or Oceania) among the 50 most cited authors. Additionally, there is a concentration of intellectual production among researchers from a few institutions that promote and support scientific output. Visible disproportionalities exist in the distribution of production between states and regions of the country, as well as in the lack of diversity among Brazilian authors. Among the most productive institutions, public universities stand out, while private universities lag behind in productivity. In public HEIs, although production is constant, this productivity is often concentrated among a few researchers per institution.
In light of these findings, the research underscores the need for the development of means to record, disseminate, and preserve the AP-RG collection, which, after 31 years of data collection, already has several gaps and losses that could affect the historical record of Brazilian scientific research in Advertising.
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1
The files of the papers from the 2023 and 2024 editions were collected from the Annals of the Intercom Portal and supplemented by data provided by the AP-RG Coordination. Since 2023, there has no longer been an obligation for papers presented at the Intercom Congress to be published in the electronic annals of the event.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful for the contributions of the professors who provided data and memories about the history of the AP-RG, especially Eneus Trindade, Gino Giacomini Filho, Luiz LZ Cezar dos Santos, Nelia Del Bianco, and Neusa Demartini Gomes.
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Support:
This study was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) through a Research Productivity Grant (Process: 308290/2021-6).
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