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TV Rating System: building citizenship on the small screen
Building on
international experiences The international initiatives undertaken to regulate audiovisual content can contribute significantly toward the reformulation of the Brazilian TV Rating System. First, the analysis of those regulatory frameworks reduces the risk of establishing parameters that are substantially disconnected from those implemented in the communications field in contexts similar, in some measure, to the Brazilian context. At the same time, the analysis can serve to inform the development of a domestic model, and demonstrate that the path adopted by the country is consistent with the Democratic State Based on the Rule of Law.
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s discussed in some detail above, the criticism leveled by particular interest groups in Brazil against the country’s various media regulatory systems tends to center on the question of censorship and the attendant constriction of democracy. However, in this section we will see that the rating procedures adopted in consolidated democracies – which are in general more comprehensive than those in effect in Brazil – lend support to the argument that this type of public policy in no way runs counter to the defense of democracy. In addition, comparative analyses of the legislation in other countries – although susceptible to being rendered obsolete by the pace of change – enables the collection of a series of tangible components capable of informing the country’s rating process. With this in mind, it is imperative to recognize the peculiarities (cultural, political, social, and historical) of the nations whose legislation we analyze below – television stations in England in the 1950’s, for example, were required by law to go off the air between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., so as to