PATTERNS OF INFORMATION EXPOSURE
AMONG WORKERS IN A RURAL TOWN
COMMUNETY IN SOUTHERN BRAllL

Thais fur the 0m af Ph. D.
MlCHlGAN STATE UNWERSH'Y
Thomas L. Biair
1956

THESIS

This is to certify that the
thesis entitled
Patterns of Information Exposure

Among Workers in a Rural Town
Community in Southern Brazil

presented by

Thomas L. Blair

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

\

rflzfln— degree mm
and AnthrOpology

Major professor E32;

Date June 18; 1956

0-169

 

 

PATTERNS OF INFORMATION EXPOSURE AMONG WORKERS IN

A RURAL TOWN CCTh’NITY IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL

b y if t)

Thomas LY Blair

A THESIS

Submitted to the School for Advanced Graduate Studies of
' Michigan State University of Agriculture and
Applied Science in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY I

Department of Sociology and Anthropoldéj _

1956 f,

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The writer is in dobtei to Dr. Charles I. Loonis,

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tate Lnivers ity, who was instrumental ir granting me the
opportunity to participate in the oxers eas research activi-
ties of the Area Research Center. Dr. Loomis has been of
great help in my graluate career and has shown unfailing
interest in the present research. Grateful acknowledgment
is her ewi h ma ie to Dr. John Useem, under whose capable
direction the final manuscript was written. To Dr. Useem
I owe more than can be readily expressed in words.

The collection of the research material was supervisei
by Dr. Raymond L. Scheele, the writer's initial advisor.
To Dr. Joel Smith I owe my deepest thanks for his guidance
in the analysis of the data. Thanks are due to the members

of the author's guidance cormittee: Dr. ”Varies Hof: 3r

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p1.

Dr. William Form, members of the De paitment of Sociology
and Anthropology, and Dr. Carlos 3. T ran of the Department
of Foreign Studies; and to Dr. Duane L. Gibson.

Many persons have been of assistance to me through

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Gregory F. Stone, now of the University of Minnesota; Sr.
Emilio Willems, professor of Brazilian Studies, Vanderbilt
University; and Dr.'Charles Wagley, Head, Department of
AnthrOpology, Columbia University.

5y sincere thanks are due to the mayor and officials
of the town of Tapes, lio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and the
owners of the Fazenda Rosa Arrozeira Brasiloira and the
Mercantil Arroz company for their official assistance. Two
factory orkers who befriended the author should be men-
tioned here, harmy Hoff and Gaston Cesar. Sr. Joao Batiste
Aguiar participated in the field work.

Finally, the author wishes to acknowledge with deepest
appreciation the John Hay Whitney Foundation whose Oppor-
tunity Fellowship made it possible for him to complete his

graduate study.

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Dissertation:

Major Field:

Thomas L. Blair

candidate for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Patterns of Information Exposure Among
Workers in a Rural Town Community in Brazil

Sociology

Biographical Background:

Born, June 9, 1926, New York, New York

Undergraduate Studies, Northeastern University, Boston,
1945-50, AB 1950

Graduate Studies, Boston University, Boston, 1950-51,
MA 1951, Columbia University, New York, 1951-52,
Michigan State University, 1952-56

Experience:

Graduate Assistant, Department of Sociology
and Anthr0pology, Boston University, 1950-
1951, and Department of Sociology and An-
thr0pology, Michigan State University, 1952-
1955; Research work at Columbia University
Bureau of Applied Social Research, 1951-52;
National Opinion Research Committee, 1951-
1952; International Public Opinion Research,
1952; Institute of International Education,
1952; and Michigan State University Area
Research Center, 1952-55. Chairman, Depart-
ment of Sociology and Social Studies, Jarvis
College, 1954-56.

Honors and Memberships: Fellow, John Hay Whitney Founda-

tion, 1952-54. Member, American Sociologi-
cal Society, Society for the Study of Social
Problems, Inter-American Congress of Psv—
chology, and the Southwestern Sociological
Society

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PATTERNS OF INFORMATION EXPOSURL XOTG WORKERS IN

A RURAL TOWN COMMUNITY IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL

by

Thomas L. Blair

AN ABSTRACT

Submitted to the School for Advanced Graduate Studies of
Michigan State University of Agriculture and
Applied Science in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Sociology and AnthrOpology

1956

APproved

 

 

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THOMAS L. BLAIR ABSTRACT

In Brazil, the development of industrial enterprises
based on the milling of agricultural cash crops placed
large numbers of peOple into close proximity and manifold
social relations. The process of industrialization created
a wider range of communication and social interaction which
facilitated the diffusion of information. Workers in rural
town agro-industrial communities became increasingly ex-
posed to new ideas, opinions, and news.

The author explored the variations in information ex-
gpsure among three occupational groups, agricultural, fac-
tory, and office workers, in the agro-industrial structure
of a rural town community in southern Brazil. Three sources
of information exposure were investigated: (a) selected
mass media, (b) social visiting, and (c) contact with out-
side persons. Answers were sought to several questions:
How are workers eXposed to new information? What are the
Patterns of exposure? What are the differences in the ex-
posure of workers to various channels of information?

Tests of thirteen operational hypotheses indicated
that agricultural workers were less exposed to information
than factory workers who, in turn, were less exposed to in-
formation than office workers. It was noted that:

Agricultural workers did not possess the necessary
Prerequisites (e.g., literacy and income) for the use of

media. They were infrequently exposed to new information

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THOMAS L. BLAIR ABSTRACT

through social visiting and had infrequent contacts with
bearers of information from the outside world.

Some factory workers possessed the prerequisites for
use of media. Among those who were eXposed most had access
to newspapers and radios. Their information exposure was
re-inforced and expanded by frequent visiting with other
exposed workers and by frequent contact with outside per-
sons. Cross-occupational visiting by factory workers fa-
cilitated the dissemination of information up and down the
occupational scale.

Office workers were literate and had substantial in-
comes. They were frequently exposed to media. Their fre-
quent exposure was expanded through visiting with highly
exposed fellow workers and by wide contacts with outside
persons.

The study revealed three specific types of audiences

on the basis of exposure to new information:

Type A.

l. Primacy of inter-personal information exposure.

2. Exposure to new information infrequent.

5. Content of information received: local and
provincial.

4. Persons typically rural illiterate agricul-
tural workers.

5. Oriented toward traditional "folk" values and

patterns.

Type B.

l. Primacy of oral and direct exposure to mass
media; oral exposure supportive of direct
exposure.

2. Exposure to new information more frequent than
Type A.

5
THOMAS L. BLAIR ABSTRACT

3. Content of information received: often about
non-local occurrences.

4. Persons typically urban semi-literate factory
workers.

5. Transitional between traditional folk values
and those of modern society.
Type C.
l. Primacy of direct exposure to mass media.
2. Exposure to new information a daily occurrence.

3. Content of information received: urbane and
cosmOpolitan.

4. Persons typically urban literate office work—
ers.

5. Oriented toward modern values common in large
Brazilian cities.

In sum, the socio-economic organization of the rural
town agro-industrial community in Brazil exposes varying ‘
groups of workers to different social environments which in
turn affect the probability that they will possess a given
pattern of exposure to new social knowledge. Analysis
showed that the observed patterns of exposure to informa-
tion through mass media, social visiting, and contact with
persons from outside were significantly related to occupa-
tional position, location of work, and position in the fam—

ily life cycle.

 

 

 

CHAPTER PAG

til

I. THE IWDUSTRIALI A mic; or 1AA: DLVBLOIED AREAS
AND IviUiPhTIflN AXIcsciA

er

The Less DevelOped Areas of the World . . .
Their characteristics . . . . . . . . . .
Econox 'ic develOpment and its results . . .

\fH—‘H

Statement of the Research . . . . . . . . . 8
Area of inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Problev and hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . lO

811m ary o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 12
II. AGRO-I"DUSTRIALISR l] B ALIL AXE ITS EF-

t~v~ywnm< 12

. JJVALU o O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o J

The Process of Technolog’ .1 Change . .'. . 1}

FJ
()
A.)

She nges in the lural Social Crder . . . . . 16
Patterns of ownership . . . . . . . . . . 16
Size of landholdings . . . . . . . . . . . 17
100 tion of work . . . . . . . . . . . . lE
Scope of ownershi . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Class structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The agro-industrial rural town commu—

nity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
n

D-(j .

summary 0 0 O O O O O O O O O C C O

R

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ii~Io {ELIE LSATIAAI 0‘? TH "J F LJAAT) " .LLZJh- 'vii

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The Background of tze Iresent btudy .
The rese( -sCh teqrr o o o o o o o 0
Confirmation of *‘ siriificance of

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£4.13 ...
areas ani auii ences . . . . . . . . . . 2E
Selection of com imu unities . . . . . . . . . 23

Location of tr e Present Study: Tares, A1:
Grande do Aul, Brazil . . . . . . . . . . 23
The cultural history of southern I“"azil . 50
Tap A: location and history . . . . . . 32
hysical s ructure . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

CHAPTER

Population . . . .
Male workers . . . . . . . . . .
Why Tapes was chosen . . . . . .

Conduct of the Investigation in Tapes
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . .

IV. THE POPULATION STUDIED AND THE TREATMENT OF
THE DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How the sample was chosen . . . . . . .
Size and structure of the sample . . .
Limitations of the sample and the

sampling method . . . . . . . . .

The Analysis of the Data . . . . . . . .
Specification of the hypothesis .
Arranging the data for analysis .
Average rank technique . . . . . . . .
Operational hypotheses . . . . . . . .
Statistical analysis . . . . . . . .

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1. .
V. THE RESEARCH FIEDINGS . . . . . .

Selected Mass Media . . . . . . . . . .
(1) Literacy and newspaper readership
(2) Frequency of newspaper reading . .
(5) Newspaper reading and radio owner-

ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(4) Locality of radio stations listened

to by radio owners . . . . A - . .

Profile of the three groups' exposure to

information through mass media of com-
munication . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Further Results . . . . . . . . . . .

Social Visiting . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(5) Visiting patterns: occupation .
(6) Visiting of kin . . . . . . . . . .
(7) Visiting of kin in the same occupa-
tional group . . . . . . . . . .
(8) Visiting unrelated persons in the
same occupational group . . . . .
Profile of the three groups' exposure to
information through social visiting

vi
PAGE
54
36
58
4O

41
41
41
41
45
45
43 '
45
47
48
so
52
54
55
57
so
62

63
68

69
7o
74
78
82

84

vii

CHAPTER , PAGE
Contact with Persons from Outside the

Local Community . . . . . . . . . . . 88

(9) Frequency of contact with persons
from other rural town locali-

ties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
(10) Frequency of contact with persons

from the capital city . . . . . . . 9O
(11) Frequency of contact with persons

from other states . . . . . . . . . 9O
(12) Frequency of contact with persons

from other countries . . . . 9O
(13) Most distant place from which per-

sons were contacted . . . . . . . . 90
Further analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Profile of the three groups{ exposure to
information through contact with per-
sons from outside the community . . . . 96

Summary of the Results . . . . . . . . . . . 100
VI. CONCLUSIONS: SOME FACTORS AFFSCTING INFORMATION

EXPOSURE AVOIG NOXKERS IN A RURAL TOWN COM-
MUNITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Occupational Position . . . . . . . . . . . 110
The plantation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
The rice mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
The mill office . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Subjective sentiments . . . . . . . . . . 118

Variations in Information Exposure Related to
Location of Work, Occupation Position, and
Position in the Family Life Cycle . . . . 119

Availability of mass media . . . . . . . . 120
Access to information . . . . . . . . . . 123
Consumption of media . . . . . . . . 126
Direct access through social innovations . 129
Oral communication . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Audience for new information . . . . . . . 154
Control over exposure . . . . . . . . . 156
Class and information exposure: statics
and dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

 

AIIEIIDICEQ 0 O O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o .

Appendix A Some Characteristics of the POpula-
tion and Economy of the State of
Rio Grande do Sul . . . . . . . . .

Attendix B Some CharacteriSLics of the Study
Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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111
H
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Note on the Existence, Accessibility,
and Limitations of Information Ex—
posure through Kass Kedia in
Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Appendix D Questions Relating to Backgr-und Charac-
teristics and Information Exposure of
Workers 'n the Rural Town Community

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

1. Distribution of Males and the Total POpula-
tion in the Three Districts of the Muni-
cipio of Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

2. Distribution of Persons Five Years of Age
and Over Who Are Able to Read and Write:
for Males and the Total Population in the
Town of Tapes and Other Places, Municipio
of Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5. The Industry of Occupation of Adult Males
in Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

4. Literacy and Newspaper Readership of Agri-
cultural, Factory and Office Workers . . . . 56

5. Frequency of Newspaper Readership of Agri-
cultural, Factory, and Office Workers . . . 58

6. Newspaper Readership and Radio Ownership of
Agricultural, Factory, and Office Workers . 61

7. Number and Locality of Radio Stations Lis-
tened to by Agricultural, Factory, and
Office Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

8. Summary of the Tests of Operational Hy—
potheses Relating to Exposure to Mass
Media . O O C O O O O O O O C O O O O O . O 66

9. Occupations of Persons Visited Most Often by
Agricultural, Factory, and Office Work-
ers . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . 71

10- Relationship of Persons Visited Most Often
by Agricultural, Factory, and Office
Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

11- Occupations of Related Persons Visited Most
Often by Agricultural, Factory, and Office
Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

12- (Occupations of Unrelated Persons Visited
Most Often by Agricultural, Factory, and
Office Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

TABLES

15.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

Summary of Tests of Operational Hypotheses
Relating to Exposure to lnformation
Through Social Visiting . . . . . . . . . .

Frequency of Contact of Agricultural, Factory,
and Office Workers with Persons from Other
Town Localities . . . . . . . . . . . .

Frequency of Contact of Agricultural, Factory,
and Office Workers with Persons from Porto
Alegre (Capital City) . . . . . . . . . .

Frequency of Contact of Agricultural, Factory,
and Office Workers with Persons from Other
States 0 O C O O O O 0 O O O O O O O O 0

Frequency of Contact of Agricultural, Factory,
and Office Workers with Persons from Other
Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Most Distant Place from Which Persons Have
Been Contacted by Agricultural, Factory,
and Office Workers . . . . . . . . . . . .

Summary of Tests of Operational Hypotheses
Relating to Exposure to Information Through
Contact with Persons from Outside the Com-
munity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Summary of Tests of Thirteen Operational Hy-
potheses Concerning Patterns of information
Exposure among Fifty Agricultural, Factory,
and Office Workers in a Rural Town Commu-
nity in Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Population Age Composition, Rio Grande do
8111, 1950 o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0

.Age and Place of Residence of Population, Rio
Grande do Sul, 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . .

.Distribution of Population by Color, Rio
Grande do Sul, 1950 . . . . . . . . . .

(livil Status Composition of POpulation, Rio
Grande do Sul, 1950 . . . . . . .

EReligious Affiliation of POpulation, Rio

Grande do Sul, 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . .

PAGE

87

89

91

92

93

95

97

105

150

151

152

152

153

 

 

 

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26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

52.

35.

54.

35.

56.

57.

38.

Literacy of POpulation 15 Years and Over,
RioGrandedo Sul, 1950 . . . . . . . . . . .

Distribution of Population 5 Years of Age
and Over by Place of Residence and Abil-
ity to Read and Write, Rio Grande do
Sul, 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Industry of Occupation of Population 10
Years of Age and Older, Rio Grande do
sul O O O O O 0 O O O O O O O O O O 0

Age of Agricultural, Factory and Office
Workers, Tapes, Rio Grande do Sul, 1952 . .

Ethnicity of Agricultural, Factory and Of-
fice Workers, Tapes, Rio Grande do Sul,
1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Religious Affiliation of Agricultural, Fac-
tory and Office Workers, Tapes, Rio Grande
do Sul, 1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Educational Attainment of Agriculture, Fac-
tory, and Office Workers, Tapes . . . . . .

Total Income per Year in Dollars for Agri-
cultural, Factory and Office Workers,
Tapes 0 o o o o o o o o o o ‘ o o o o o o o 0

Ranked Average Monthly Wage for Various
Classes of Workers in Factories and Planta-
tions, Municipio of Tapes . . . . . . . . .

Number of Persons Supported by Agricultural,
Factory and Office Workers Interviewed in
Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Computed Average Yearly Number of Dollars per
Consumption Unit for Persons Supported by
Agricultural, Factory and Office Workers
Interviewed in Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . .

Average Current Prices at Retail Level for
Basic Food Items, Municipio of Tapes .

.Average Current Prices for House Rent and for
Construction Materials, Municipio of Tapes,
Rio Grande do Sul, 1952 . . . . . . . . . . .

xi

PAGE

154

164

165

165

166

167

168

169

170

171

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TABLE PAGE

59. Type of Home Tenure of Agricultural, Factory
and Office Workers Interviewed in Tapes . . 172

40. Type of Home Tenure and Land Tenure for Agri-
cultural, Factory and Office Workers Inter-
viewed in Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

41. Length of Residence for Agricultural, Fac-
tory and Office Workers Interviewed in
Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

42. Number of Places Lived in for Agricultural,
Factory and Office Workers Interviewed in
Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

45.- Geographical Origin of Publication and Fre-
quency Distribution of the Number of Men-
tions Given to Seven Brazilian Newspapers
Read by 55 Agricultural, Factory and Of-
fice Workers, Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . 187

44. Pertinent Characteristics of Seven Important
Daily Newspapers in Porto Alegre . . . . . . 188

45. Geographical Location of and Frequency Dis—
tribution of the Number of Mentions Given
to Eleven Radio Stations Listened to by
Nineteen Agricultural, Factory and Office
Workers in Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

46. Major Radio Stations in Rio Grande do Sul,
1 948 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 1 90

47. Some Popular Films Shown in Local Movie

House (1952— 55) by Nationality of Origin
and Name, Tapes . . . . . . . . . . 191

LIST OF FIGURES

FI GURE
I. IMap and Pertinent Information on Brazil . . . 156
II- TMap of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil . . . . . . . 157

 

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I. THE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF LESS DEVELOPED
AREAS AND INFORMATION EXPOSURE

A significant contemporary social movement is the
spread Of the industrial mode of production to remote areas
of the world. Industrial and.technological systems, char-
acterized by the application of rational and scientific
principles, have penetrated to widely dissimilar cultures
often referred to as "backward" or "underdeveloped." With
industrialization have come new forms of socialand econom-‘
ic organization, urbanization, new avenues of mobility, and
motivations and aspirations toward higher standards of liv-
ing. In addition, industrialization has exposed workers to
new information, ideas, Opinions, and thought, i.e., to new
social knowledge. The main aim of this research is to
study the relationship between the socio-economic position
of workers in a rural town community of a newly-industrial-
izing Latin American nation and the pattern of their expo-

sure tO new sources of information and new social knowledge.

The Less Deve10ped Areas of the World

Their characteristics. In the modern world the most

 

important factor distinguishing the more advanced from the
less advanced societies is that of industrial economic de-

velOpment. Eugene Staley offers a suggestive grouping of

 

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96 countries of the world in terms of their comparative
economic development. Staley groups these countries as
highly developed, intermediate, and underdeveloped, accord-
ing to their per capita national income, degree of urbani-
zation, and proportion of the working pOpulation engaged in
non-agricultural occupations.l

The underdeveloped nations Of the world include two-
thirds of the world's pOpulation. These nations may be
characterized by several interrelated factors:

(a) They are non-industrial and the level of business
organization commonly encountered is still in the pre-

capitalist stage.2

Economic advancement is handicapped by
the lack of use of the tools Of scientific management (such

as cost accounting, personnel departments, and modern mar-

 

eting procedures), by limited natural resources, scarcity

1Eugene Staley, The Future of Underdeveloped Countries:
Eplitical Implication of Economic Development (New York:
Harpers), 1953, pp. 16-17. Staleyjs use of these criteria
correSponds with those of other investigators. Cf. Kingsley
Davis, "Population and the Further Spread of Industrial So-
ciety," Proceedings of the American PhiloSOphical Society,
Vol. 95, 1951, p. 8; Beate R. Salz, The Human Element in In-
Qustrialization (Chicago: American AnthrOpologicaI Associa-
tion and the University of Chicago), Vol. 57, No. 6, Part
2, Memoir 85, 1955, p. 1; and Hilda Hertz Golden, "Literacy
and Social Change in Underdeveloped Countries," Journal of
Byral Sociology, Vol. 20, No. 1, March, 1955.

2J. H. Boeke, The Structure of the Netherlands Economy
éNew York: Institute of Pacific Relations3,71942, pp. 90-

 

 

 

of capital, low labor productivity, and a "backward" eco-

nomic "mentality" among entrepreneurs.

5

COUNTRIES GROUPED BY LEVEL OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT4

Highly Developed
l. Americas: Canada, United States Of America

2. Europe: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Nether—
lands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

5. Oceania: Australia, New Zealand
Intermediate
1. Africa: Union of South Africa

2. Americas: Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Uru-
guay, Venezuela .

5. EurOpe: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary,
Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain

4. Asia: Israel, Japan
5. Eurasia: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Underdeveloped

1. Africa: Algeria, Angola, Belgian Congo, Cameroons,
Egypt, EthiOpia, French Equatorial Africa, French
West Africa, Gold Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Libya,
Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Nyasa-
land, Northern Rhodesia, Ruanda-Urundi, Southern
Rhodesia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Tanganyika, Tunisia

2. Americas: Bolivia, Brazil, British West Indies, CO-
lombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico,
,Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru

'SSee Staley, pp. cit., p. 207, and Boeke, pp. cit.,

pp- 91-95.

4Staley, loc. cit.

4

5. Asia: Afghanistan, Borneo, Burma, Ceylon, China,
Formosa, India, Indo-China, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq,
Jordan, Korea, Lebanon, Nepal, Malaya, New Guinea,
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Thailand,

Turkey ‘
Greece, Rumania, Yugo— 1-

 

4. EurOpe: Albania, Bulgaria,
slavia

(b) Poverty, illiteracy, ill-health, high birth and
5

death rates, and low levels of living are common.
(c) The majority of people get their living from the
land and live on the land or in small village communities.
.Persistent problems in rural areas typically are excessive
concentration of land ownership, uneconomic land practices,

:fragmentation Of small holdings, abSentee landlordism, and

the lack of clear titles to land.

(d) Rural persons are isolated from the mainstream of

thus modern social, political, and cultural life of the na-

tiixns in which they live. This isolation plays an impor-

k

5For a general analysis of the non-industrial areas of
the’world see Ralph Linton, Most of the World (New York:
Collnmbia University Press), 1949. See also Golden, pp. pip.,
PP- 197; Kingsley Davis, Human Society (New York: Macmillan
00-) , 1948, p. 614 ff; C. E. A. Winslow, The Cost of Sick-
E$§£i_and the Price of Health (Geneva: World Health Organiza-
tlon),‘195l;'Karl Sax, "Population Problems," Ralph Linton
(ed‘,)’ The Science of Man in the World Crisis (New York:

Coluunbia University Press), 1945, pp. 258-81; and Josue de
Little, Brown

Castrro, Geo ra h and Hun er (Boston, Mass.:
and.(30,)T'I§§§?-gfi§pEg?§—§:V. For elaborate statistics see ,

E7839 ort on the World Situation (New York:
ti , an nited ations Monthly Bulletin of Statis-

-£fi§’ 'June, 1952, pp. vii-xi, and Table 54.

 

6Staley, pp. cit., Chapters I and II.
\

tant part in the oft-noted "backward-ness" and "conserva-

7

tism" of native peOples.
(e) These nations are or have been colonial or semi—
colonial, economically and/or politically dependent upon
Western nations.8
Economic development and its results. The course of
recent history indicates that the less developed areas of
the world are increasingly affected by the Spread Of indus-

trialization.9 Industrialization induces qualitative

7Robert Redfield, The Primitive World and Its Trans-
formations (Ithaca, New-York: Cornell University Press),

53.

8Raymond Kennedy, "The Colonial Crisis and the Future,"
Ralph Linton (ed.), The Science of Man in the World Crisis,
220 Cit. ’ pp. 306-46.

9Industrialization as used here refers to the complex
0f factors, of primarily Western origin, involved in the
‘tramsformation of the economies of underdeveloped countries
tkrrough the introduction of scientific technology, power
mechanization, factory systems, mass production, rational
(tivision of labor, and the related social, economic values,
1:911:15, patterns and institutions Of the more advanced na-
Ions.

For discussions of the classical characteristics of
the industrial mode of production see Wilbert Moore, Indus-
trial Relations and the Social Order (New York: MacmillanS,
I[324-37, pp. 55-48; R. H. Tawney, TEe Acquisitive Society (New
York; Harcourt Brace), 1920, assim, especially Chapter 5,
and his Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (New York: Pen-
QUIn), 1947, pp. 149-65; Talcott Parsons, Essays in Socio-
10 ical Theor Pure and A lied (Glencoe, 111.: Free
FPessS, 1959, pp. 95-116; and tEe works of Marx, Weber,

Polanyi ,. and Veblen.

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changes in the traditional social structure and economy,
the external consequences of which result in the slow emer-
tgence of native peOples from their centuries-old isolation,
and in an increase in their political and economic impor-
tance in the larger world.10
As the economic evolution of less developed areas pro-
gresses there occurs,
a whole complex of interdependent changes manifested
simultaneously in (l) the physical environment, (2) in
the forms Of association by which men live and work,
and (5) in the skills, habits, and thought patterns of
individuals.11
Economic development modifies the physical environment
'through the introduction of new roads, buildings, factories,
?harbors; it brings the eXpansion of towns and cities, and
Peaddustments in land use and tenure. lt fosters new asso-
CLations and increased interaction between large numbers
0f individuals. It introduces and enables the diffusion of
literacy, health programs, higher standards of living,
tecdmnical specialization, new ambitions, motivations and
aspirations, respect for the scientific method, and the
idea.of "progress." The process of industrialization is

¥

loSee Wilbert Moore, Industrialization and Labor: So-
Cial As ects of Economic Develo ment (Ithaca, NEW York:
orne n vers1ty ress ,1 , pp. 1-8 and Chapter XII;
StaleY. pp. cit., pp. 200-10; Salz, pp. cit., Chapter I;

23d George Souls, David Efron, and Norman T. Ness, Latin

erica in the Future World (New York: Farrar and Rina-
hart), I945, Foreword and Chapter 18.

11Staley, pp. cit., pp. 202-03.

 

 

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clearly one of cultural diffusion and social and cultural

change.12

Undoubtedly, there are variations in the effects of
the introduction <df western world industrial technological
systems.15 Nevertheless, some major changes in the struc-
ture of traditional societies have been noted: (a) econom-
ic relations become separated from the traditional social
system, (b) the rural town and factory rival the field and
open country as a place of work, residence, and social in—
teraction, (c) money becomes an acceptable standard as pay-
ment for work, (d) new groups Of workers are formed and new
individuals ascend to positions of wealth and power, and

(e) the number of agencies transmitting information and

knowfledge increases.14

12See Moore, pp. pgp., pp. 178-99; Bronislaw Malinow-
Skin, The Dynamics of Culture Change (New Haven: Yale Uni-
versity Press), 1945, Chapter II; and Redfield, pp. pip”
Chapter II.

15These variations depend on such factors as the nature
0f the society and the conditions extant at the time of in-
dustrialization, the type of political and economic system
utrlizing the industrial mode, the degree of harmony be-
tween.the ends and values of the innovators and the native
Dopulations, and the methods by which industrialization is
Introduced. See Wilbert E. Moore, "Utilization of Human
Resources in Industry," Modernization Programs in Relation
to Human Resources and PO ulation Problems (New YOrk: Mil-

iemoria ' n , 9 P;4 fn.

1“See Yale Brozen, Social Implications of Technological
figflfififi (New York: Social Science Research Council),—I950;
llbank Memorial Fund, International Approaches to Problem§

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These changes affect the exposure Of individuals to
new sources of information, opinions, attitudes, and news.
.The develOpment Of factory towns places large numbers of
individuals in close proximity to each Other and to media
Of information; exposing them, as a consequence, to new
persons and differing points of view. New roads bring con-
tacts between distant localities; bus drivers, tradesmen,
and travelers serve as important disseminators of informa-
tion. Thus, the process of industrialization creates a
wider range of social interaction which facilitates the

diffusion of information and social knowledge.

Statement of the Research
Area of inquiry. The advent Of industrialization in

inural Brazil brought about the rapid develOpment of rural

k

<M?'Underdevelo ed Areas (New York), 1948; Margret Mead,
Cul—tural Patterns and Technical Chan e (Paris: UNESCO),
I953, pp. 245-68; Leo Lowenthal (ed. i, Special Issue on In-
teruiational Communications Research,Public Opinion Quarter-
_1. o . , o. , 1nter ; and articles by S. Herbert
Frankel, William Fielding Ogburn, Wilbert E. Moore, Jean
merastie, and Einar Thorsud in Social Implications of
Technical Chan e, International Social Science Bulletin
(Paris: UNESCES, Vol. IV, No. 2, Summer 1952.
Often the "effective" industrialization of underdevel—

Oped areas is handicapped by barriers and antipathies. See
Mead, . cit., pp. 260-65; James M. Reinhardt, Paul Mead-
ows an JoEE'M. Gillette, Social Problems and Social Polipy

New York: American Book Company), 1952, pp. 105-07; Pres-
ton James, "Significance of Industrialization in Latin ,

erica," Fred E. Dohrs, Lawrence M. Sommers, and Donald
Fetterson.(eds.), Outside Readings in Geography (New York:
Crowell), 1955, pp. 571-74; Wilbert E. Moore, Labor Atti-
tudes Toward Industrialization in Underdeveloped Countries,"
and Bert F. Hoselitz, "The City, the Factory and Economic ~ I
GrOWth:" in Papers and.Proceedings of the Americ Economic .
éflQCiation, American Economic Review, Vol. XLV, go. 2, May @55-

 

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9
town communities placing individuals, previously unknown to
each other, into manifold social relations. New factory
.workers in.these rural towns were eXposed to mass media of
communication and interacted without the restrictions of
plantation life. Plantation workers, drawn into the orbit
of the new economic order, were linked with urban life
through the develOpment of communication and transportation
systems. The shift to cash wages led to the possibility of
attaining such new social goods as education, radios, and
newspapers. Social visiting and contacts with persons from
outside the local community facilitated the inter-personal
diffusion of information. As a result, workers in rural
'town communities became exposed increasingly, directly and
indirectly, to new ideas, information, news, and Opinion.

Several questions may be asked concerning this process
017 industrialization and information exposure: Has expo-
sure to new social knowledge occurred equally for all work-
ers, or do workers in one sociO-economic position have a
greater degree of exposure to information than workers in
Other'socio-economic positions within the social Structure?
If there are differentials, are they patterned? Are office
workers, for example, more exposed to information than fac-
tory workers, and are factory workers more exposed than
agricultural workers? To what extent is occupational posi-

tion a major determinant of information exposure? What are

 

 

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the differences in the exposure of workers to information

disseminated through different communication channels.

Objectives. This study has been approached with two

principal objectives: (a) to establiSh whether patterned

differences in information exposure exist among the three
occupational groups studied; and (b) to make inferences
about the historical, cultural, structural and situational

factors which may account for the observed patterns and

variations in information exposure.

The problem and hypotheses. The investigation to be

jpresented here is an exploratOry case study of the varia-
‘tions in the form and character of information exposure
annong fifty agricultural, factory, and office workers in .

tune agro-industrial structure15 of a Brazilian rural town

cxnnmunity.l6 Three potential sources of information were

investigated: (a) selected mass media of communication,

15By agrO-industrial structure is meant that type of
ecomiomic organization involving high cost factory enter-
Prlese based on the milling of agricultural cash crops, such

as Izice, coffee, and sugar.

16A rural town community in Brazil consists of a town
and. j;ts periphery, its social, occupational, and ethnic
grollrus, and formal institutions. It is a small urban area
ser‘fiuig as an administrative, marketing, religious, and in-
fOI-‘Ineztion dispensing center. The research presented here
SPECBimfically relates to agro-industrial rural town communi-
ales3, i.e., those rural town communities whose economies
re‘ Iwelated to their rural surroundings through the depend- -
emcee <>f the town factory on outlying plantations as sources

Of raw agricultural products.

 

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11

(b) social visiting within the community, and (c) contact

with persons from outside the community.

The focus of the study is on the social arrangement of

three groups within the working pOpulation and their pat-
terns of eXposure to sources of information. The theme for
inquiry suggests that the exposure of workers to information,
ideas, news, and opinions, is related to the nature of their
position in the sociO-economic structure of the agro-
industrial mode of production. The general prOposition is
that the economic organization of the rural town community
.in.Brazil exposes (to a greater or less degree) varying
gyroups of workers to different environments (more or less_
Lniiform for each) which affect the chances that they will
pmnssess a given pattern of exposure to new social knowledge.
For the purpose of providing a test of the general
PITXposition an empirically testable hypothesis was formu-
latusdm It specified that the form and character of informa-
tioxi exposure, expressed in terms Of (a) mass media, (b) so-

Cia]. visiting, and (0) contact with persons from outside,

variJes directly with the occupational position of the work-

er 111 the rural town community. To test this specific hy-

Pothesis thirteen Operational hypotheses were developed.
EaCkl <Jperational hypothesis asserted that significant dif-
ferfinces among the average ranks for each group would exist

lnSta‘ted directions. The hypothesized direction for each

 

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Operational hypothesis was A-F-O: i.e., that agricultural

workers (A) would have the lowest average rank indicating
‘ the lowest degree of information exposure; factory workers
(F) would have the next highest average rank or the next
highest degree Of information exposure; and office workers

(0) would have the highest average rank or the highest de-

gree of information exposure. The differences found among

the average ranks were evaluated statistically.

Summary
The spread of the industrial mode of production and its

effects facilitated the diffusion of information, ideas,

annd Opinions. The scope of the present investigation in-
xnolves (a) an appraisal of the extent to which various oc-
cnrpational groups within a Brazilian rural town (agro-
ixniustrial) community are exposed to information, and (b)zn1
idenntification and analysis of existent patterns of expo—
surwe and relevant social variables associated with these
Patiaerns. Chapter II attempts to picture some of the im-
POrflsant technological and social structural changes result-
ing from the agro-industrialization of Brazil (the geo-

graphical locus of the study), and indicates the general

context within which the information exposure of workers

was Studied.

 

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II. AGRO-INDUSTRIALISM IN BRAZIL
AND ITS EFFECTS'

The socio-economic structure Of Brazil in the first

three hundred years of its existence was characterized by

the plantation system.1 At the turn of the twentieth cen-

tury it underwent a slow process of industrial and techno—

logical change. In many rural areas of Brazil where indus-

trialization impinged upon the traditional forms of econom

ic organization, there developed high-cost agro-industrial

enterprises based on the milling of such agricultural cash

cxrops as rice, coffee, and sugar.’ The develOpment of these

eniterprises had major effects upon the traditional struc-

tnxre of socio-economic organization.

The Process of Technological Change
Up to 1880, after more than three centuries of settle-

merrt, Brazil was primarily an agricultural and semi-colonial

k

,, 1The usage adopted here is that of George M. McBride,
PlEuntation," Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New

York: Macmillan), 1937, Vol. 2, pp. 148-55: "Plantations

° ° . are a form of great landed estate usually in colonial

01‘ Semi-colonial countries, which raise such . . . products

as <3crtton, sugar, rubber, coffee, tea, rice, pineapples,

and. bananas, with a laboring class kept in economic, if not _ '
poliltxical servitude." For a penetrating social historical
ifflysis of the Brazilian plantation system and its con-
Cglhnltions to Brazilian civilization see Gilberto Freyre,

t 53 Grande e Senzala (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1955, or

Sle Sing ish trans ation by Samuel Putnam, The Master and l

-§33E§ (New York: Knopf), 1946.

 

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nation whose economy was based on the growing and selling,
,primarily abroad, of cash crops produced on large estates
by plantation slave workers of African descent.2 Concen-
tration of land ownership among a relatively small number
of large landholders had reduced the masses of people to
landless agricultural plantation laborers. It had also
produced low standards of living, a class system which po-
larized the rich landowner at one and and the landless la-
borer at the other, and a working pOpulation skilled only
in the performance, under close supervision, of a limited
number of manual tasks.5 ,

At the turn of the twentieth century, a number of

changes in the economic structure of Brazil occurred.
These changes were related to the pressure of new competi-

tive world economic conditions. The most important devel-

Opment was the introduction Of the industrial mode of pro-

2See Oliveira Vianna, "0 Povo Brasileiro e Sua EVOlu-

cao," Recenseamento do Brasil, 1920, Vol. 1, p. 282; Fer-
nando Azevedo, Brazilian Culture, tr. by William R. Craw-
ford (New York: Macmillan C§.7, 1950, p. 68; Pedro Calmon,
Historia Social do Brasil (Sao Paulo Brazil: Companhia

l ora .ac1ona , o . , Chapter 10; and Dorival Texeira
Viera, "The Industrialization of Brasil," T. Lynn Smith and
A@exander Marchant (eds.), Brazil: Portrait of Half a Con-
Essen: (New York: Dryden Press), 1931, p. 245.

 

3T. Lynn Smith, Brazil: People and Institutions
(Baton Rouge, La.: Louiéiana State University Press),
1946. pp. 489-96.

 

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15
duction into the plantation economy of the rural areas.)+
Its objective form, the pplpp (a large central agro-
lindustrial plant), involved the application of organized
methods and principles based on scientific knowledge. The
use of mechanical, steam, and electric power allowed the
extension of technical processes and the develOpment of
factories engaged in the milling of agricultural cash
crops. I

.Industrial enterprise rapidly developed. In 1889
there were 656 industrial establishments; in 1907 this num-
ber had increased more than five times. to 5,250; and by
1920 the number had increased to 15,556. From its begin-
nings in 1850, when there were only 50 industrial establish-
ments, agro-industries, i.e., those industries relating to
the transformation Of agricultural products, have always
dominated the Brazilian economy. In 1907, the first indus-
trial census indicated that foodstuff (or agro-industrial)
enterprises represented 26.7 per cent, or the largest single
Preportion, of Brazil's total industrial production. In

—_‘

4See Viera, o . pip., pp. 247-60; Azevedo, pp. cit.,
PPo 106-07; and CEImon, o . pip., Vol. 2, Chapter XIII? A
definitive social histor1cal work in this field is Gilberto
FrBzre's, Sobrados e Mucambos (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria
Jose Olympia Editora), 1951 edition Colecao Documentos Bra-
81leiros, 5 volumes. These volumes outline the history of
he Patriarchal plantation system and analyze its decline
and replacement by an urban bourgeois way of life.

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16

1920, such industries accounted for_40.2 per cent Of all
‘factory-produced goods.5

The development of agro-industrial enterprise was not
universal, nor were its effects uniform. Everywhere its
progress depended on the presence of an exploitable cash
crop, on the ease or difficulty with which workers made the
transition from rural life to the factory environment, and
on regional and local conditions. Everywhere it involved a
modification of the traditional feudal plantation system,
its related values, and the characteristic modes of orien-
tation of rural persons. The new agro-industrial system
not only increased the exploitation Of agricultural re-
sources, the consumption Of goods produced, and the effi-
ciency of idle capital, but also brought about fundamental

changes in the social order of Brazil.6

Changes in the Rural Social Order
Patterns of ownership. The introduction of agro-,

industry was related to the breakdown of the characteristic

‘—

5Viera, loc. cit.; see also Calmon, pp. cit., Vol. 5,

PP. 194-96, sad-ppT—295-97.

6868 Rocha Pombo, Historia do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro,
Brasil), 1914, Vol. V; Calmon, pp. pip., Vols. 2 and 5;
Smith, Brazil: PeOple and Institutions, pp. pip., Chapter
XVI; Julio Bello, Memories de um Senhor de Engenho (Rio de
Janeiro, Brasil: Livraria Jesé.0Iympio Editorai, 1958, es-
Pecially Preface by Gilberto Freyre; and Azevedo, pp. pip.,
Chapters I-III. '

J

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17
pattern of individual family ownership of large estates and
the substitution of corporate ownership of the means of
production. This involved the gradual disappearance of the
Older familistic, aristocratic, local ownership pattern,

and the appearance of corporations (sociedades anonymas),

 

urban bourgeois control, absentee ownership, and a general
business mentality. The Older "master-slave" relationship
was modified and developed into one between "worker and

"7

boss.

Size of landholdings. In the sugar-producing areas of

 

Northeast Brazil, along the coastal states, in the West and
in the Southern states of Sao Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul,
there was a trend toward even greater concentration of own-
ership and control of the land, as the large estates were
consolidated into still larger holdings. By 1800, the
utilization of Brazil's agricultural lands had already been
established along the lines of the great landed estate, and
the concentration of ownership of land in the hands of a

few had reached a high degree.8 Between 1800 and 1920, the

7See Pombo, ibid., pp. 515-16; T. Lynn Smith, ibid.,
P- 516; and Bello, iBid., p. xi, pp. 60-61, and p. I91.
The Brazilian novelist José Lins do Rego, writing in the
1930's,gives a vivid fictional account of the decay of the
Patriarchal society, the decline of the engenho, and the
rise of the usina. His five novels, Menino de Engenho,
Q_moleque Richard, Doidinho, Bangue, and Usina, form a pic-
ture of the sugar cane cycIe. ‘

8Smith, Brazil: PeOple and Institutions, 0 . cit.,
Do 489. Concerning Rio Grande do Sul, Smith indicates that

 

 

 

 

 

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18
consolidation of land had progressed to a point where more
than three-quarters of the land was in the hands of only
one-tenth of the total number of prOprietors, and only 5.5
per cent of the land was in the hands of half Of all pro-
prietors. The average acreage held by large landowners was

9

5,250; for small landowners it was only 45 acres.

 

Location of work. For centuries the primary transfor-
mation of agricultural crOps had been accomplished by small
crude mills (engenhos) located on individual plantations and
Operated by human, animal or water power. This method was
superseded, under the impact of industrialism, by large
central agrO-industrial plants (usinas), serving many planta—
tions, and powered by steam or electric generators. At
first, the widespread use of the ppipp form of economic or-
ganization was hindered by the high cost of its capitaliza-
tion and Operation and the apathy Of the landed rich.

Later, with the appearance of the urban entrepreneur, agro-

the plains were divided up into estancia (estates) many of
them more than 60,000 acres in size (see p. 494). This Ob-
servation is confirmed by another investigator who says,
"At the end of the eighteenth century there were 559 land-
owners in Rio Grande do Sul each having more than 18,000
and up to 90,000 acres." See B. W. Diffie, Latin American
Qiyilization (Harrisburg, Penna.), 1945, p. 508.

 

9George Soule pp pl., Latin America in the Future
World (New York: Farrar and Riheharti, 1950, pp. 80 and
552. The authors indicate that between 1920 and 1954 this
general pattern continued and there was "a further concen-
tration of the bulk of the land in the hands of a much
Smaller number Of the bigger proprietors."

r!\

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l9
industrial corporations were formed and the develOpment of
factory enterprise proceeded.10 I

The factory brought together for the first time a

large number of voluntary daily wage workers engaged in the
orderly production of goods in a fixed locality. Factory
work placed new controls on the worker. He was not free to
come to work at any time. Furthermore, he was subjected to
the new discipline of punctuality. Alternation of work and
rest occurred by the clock rather than by the sun. His work
habits and efficiency were rigorously checked. Above all,
the ex-peasant found himself in a new bustling environment
which did not allow him to utilize his ancient skills or

follow his traditional patterns of behavior.

chpe of ownership. The growth of the agrO-industrial

 

system under the leadership of urban entrepreneurs brought
about an emphasis on the ownership and control of capital
and the means of production, rather than land, as a yard-

stick for locating individuals in the social structure.

1OSee Viera, pp. cit.; Smith, Brazil: People and In-
gpitutions, pp. pip., pp. 517-25. With the growth of fac-
tory enterprise came the first significant attempts at the
Organization of labor unions. In 1907 Brazil recognized
the right of workers to organize; and in 1928, the first
national union, Confederaeao dos Trabalhadores do Brasil,
was organized. That year Brazilian workers participated in
the founding Of an international union, the Confederacion
syndicalrLatino Americano at Montevideo, Uruguay. See
MOises Poblete Troncoso, El Movimento Obrero Latino Ameri-
ggno (Mexico City, Mexico: Fonda Economics), 1946, pp. 58-

 

20

The objective counterpart of this shift in socio-cultural
values was the unification of the production of agricul-
tural goods from the planting of the seed to the processing
of the final product. The owners of the usinas usually
bought up adjacent plantation lands and consolidated them
. into large productive holdings.11

An illustration of the immensity of landholdings is
indicated by two analyses of landownership in Sao Paulo,
Brazil's most industrialized state. Soule, Efron, and Ness
indicate that in Sao Paulo, where industrialization reached
its greatest heights, 64.2 per cent of all agricultural
land in 1920-54 was controlled by lees than seven per cent-

of all landowners.12

Material presented by Smith indicates
that in 1920, of a total farm acreage of 15,885,269, ap-
proximately six million acres were owned by eight foreign-
Owned corporations.13 Both agree that similar situations
existed in other areas of Brazil which underwent industri-

alization.14

11Smith, ibid., pp. 512-19 especially quotation from
De Carli, O Processo storico a Usina em Pernambuco. See

also Calmon, pp. cit., V01. 2, Chapter XIII.

 

12Soule pp 31., pp. cit., p. 80.

13Smith, pp. cit., pp. 496-506, especially Table LIII,
and footnote, p. 5007

14One result of the incorporation of agricultural pro-
duction into the province of the processing factories was
that the entrepreneur performed the revolutionary task of
bringing science and new technology to the planting and
harvesting of agricultural cash crops.

1

13:11

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21

Class structure. The introduction of the agro—indus-
trial mode of production also brought modifications in the
organization of the class structure in rural Brazil. Dur—
ing the colonial period there had been essentially two
classes--the white landowning masters and their Negro
slaves.15 In later years, this dichotomous social order
was modified, principally through the abolition of slavery
in 1889.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century the cap-
italist class came into ascendancy. These were entrepre-
neurs who were less interested in the mere ownership of
land than they were in the formation of corporations to
produce agricultural goods transferable into capital. The
resultant rise of agro-industrialism and its new techniques
of organizing personnel and exploiting economic resources
led to a change in the traditional forms of relations be— - I .
tween employer and employee. Where these relations were
formerly marked by definite reciprocal social obligations
between the "master" and his "slave," now the new directors
and administrators were impersonal intruders, in many cases

W388 workers themselves, interested only in production.16

_—_

A 15See Calmon, Vol. 1, £2. cit., p. 18 and Chapter X;
Czevedp,.§2. cit., Chapter ; and Charles Wagley, Race and
I§§§s_ls__2221_§222ii (Paris: UNESCO). 1952, pp. V'aaa'rnz-

1 '-
C 6Charles Wagley, A Typology of Latin-American Sub-
.El£E£2§ (unpublished mimeOgraphed monograph), 1953.

22

In the rural areas, which underwent agro-industrializa—
tion, two new types of workers emerged: the "white collar"
worker and the factory worker. The one consisted of clerks,
professionals, and minor officials who performed routine
supervisory and technical functions; the other was made up
of unskilled and semi-skilled manual laborers and machine-
tenders. Despite differences in size, standard of living
and life-style--the "intellectual" workers were a relative—
ly small, well-paid, educated and urbane group-~the manual
and white collar groups had several things in common. They
worked in rural towns. They represented occupational
groups, the individual members of which obtained their
chief means of subsistence from selling their services in
return for a daily wage. Finally, they did not own or con-
trol the means of production.

At the bottom of the occupational ladder, within the
agro-industrial class structure, were the masses of impov-
erished, unskilled, landless, disenfranchised agricultural
Plantation laborers. They did not reside in towns and were
essentially "folk" peOples. Nevertheless, they were linked
‘With factory and office workers within the total framework
0f the agro-industrial economic organization. These three
groups were interrelated and inter—dependent in terms of
the linitary nature of the existent modes of ownership, con-

tr01_, and production of the agricultural product. The agri-

‘~ 1 .
cultural

ei ev-

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23
cultural worker cleared the company land, planted the Seed,
and harvested the crop; the factory worker dried, Shelled,
and processed the product by machinery in the town factory;
and the office worker toiled in the company office calcu-
lating costs, sales, profits, and wages. Each of these
three groups occupied a given position in the hierarchy of
occupations. That position was related to the role each
group played in the productive system and to the scale of
social values by which occupational groups were negatively
or positively valued.17

The aggo-industrial rural town community. The intro-
duction of the agro-industrial mode of production also aid-
ed the develOpment of small urban centers around the fac-
tory location. These small urban centers were tied to
their rural hinterlands through the dependency of the fac—
tory on the outlying plantations as sources of raw agricul-
tural products. These towns and their agricultural envi-
rons may be thought of as agro-industrial rural town com-
munities.

The social organization of agro-industrial rural town
cc>mm‘unities in Brazil encompasses the social, occupational,
ethnirh and institutional patterns of both the town and its

‘—

17see Wagley, Race and Class in:Rural Brazil, 22. cit.,
8p. 144-46; and Wesley. A Typology of Latin American Sub-
W, ibid., p. 21.

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V‘Jn‘ dl‘J

are melt}

 

 

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24
periphery. These communities represent a way of life to
their inhabitants, and suggest, conceptually, "socio—

"18 While the limits of these rural town

cultural wholes.
communities may coincide with political boundaries, they
are neither independent nor self-sufficient entities, for
they exist withinljnxgnrregional and national systems. Al-
though each community may have its own local customs, tra-
ditions, saints, kinship ties, and territoriality, each is
part of the larger modern nation which controls its econom-
ic life, enforces a uniform code of law, requires educa—
tional instruction, and so on. The towns of two to five
thousand persons within these communities serve as adminis-
trative, marketing, agro-industrial and information-dis-

pensing centers, and are sensitive focal points of social

interaction and social change.

Summary
The agro-industrialization of rural Brazil contributed
'UD an increasing complexity of social life. Among the im-
IKHTtant results of this process, from the point of view of
the present research, was the develOpment of agro-industrial

rural town communities and the increasing exposure of work-

ers fun new resources of social information. The diffusion

(T lsJulian Steward, Area Research, Theory and Practice
lhew YOI'k: Social Science Research Council), I950, pp, 114-
17’ and p. 106. ~

.9 '1..,r.,,..,‘

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bu. . at \u At\.:
‘4

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V‘VUL A

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'ULa. 4‘31

25
of information was facilitated through mass media and
through new patterns of interaction which arose among local
residents, and between local residents and persons from
outside the community. The occupational groups in these
rural towns cut horizontally across communities and re-
gions. When arranged hierarchically they represent an im—
portant segment of the rural Brazilian class structure sig-

nificant to the present inquiry.

Luv; n1
‘J-s #5.?

L.‘ l}; ‘

 

III. THE LOCATION OF THE FIELD RESEARCH
AND CONDUCT OF THE INVESTIGATION

The Background of the Present Study

The basic data for the present study were gathered
during an inquiry into the distribution and reception of
United States Information Service films in rural Brazil.1
That study was planned in the summer of 1952 and executed
in the field between November 1952 and April 1955. Commit-
ments to the sponsoring agency, the United States Depart—
ment of State, required that special target areas and audi-
ences in Brazil be the foci of investigation. The con-
tract, No. 80021625, signed by the Department of State and
the Area Research Center, Michigan State College, stated
that the Center was "to conduct overseas research in at
least three sections of Brasil, with Porto Alegre, Belo
Horizonte, and Recife tentatively selected."

In addition, the populations studied were to include
both agricultural and factory workers, as well as other

‘n

1The results of this study were presented in Raymond
L. Scheele and Thomas L. Blair, Report on the Distribution
Egg Reception of United States Information Service Films in
Brasil, Area Research Center, Department of Sociology and
Inthropology, Michigan State College, East Lansing, Michi-
San, 1955. The research design of the original research is
reviewed in this chapter.

 

27
personnel involved in the planting and processing of agri-
cultural cash crops. The investigators were to: (a) de-
termine the seasonal round of occupational activities asso-
ciated with such factors as weather, climate and type of
crops; (b) identify the more important cultural events;

(c) determine the more important patterns of inter-personal
contacts; (d) determine any preference patterns existing
among various groups in regard to motion picture content;
(e) observe attendance patterns at film showings, and

(f) determine the organizational structure that could most
effectively be enlisted in reaching each priority target
group.

The research team. A research committee and a field
work team were formed at Michigan State College for the
purpose of develOping and carrying on this investigation.
{The plan adOpted by the field team involved (a) investiga-
tions of the social structure of the United States Informa-
tion Service distribution offices, and (b) a survey of each
target area and of selected communities and audiences.
.Prior to departure for Brazil and during the early stages
0f the field investigation, information relevant to the re-

‘

2The research committee consisted of Dr. Charles P.
Loomis, Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthr0pol-
083, Dr. Olen Leonard, Dr. Raymond Scheele; and graduate
assistants, Mr. Charles Proctor and Mr. Thomas L. Blair.
Er. Scheele and Mr. Blair were chosen as the field research

team.

CAWCQ“

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a

CECCQ C

Q

1 c
13 011‘

k... 1
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‘45

V.\J ‘

 

28
search was obtained from library sources and from American
and Brazilian social scientists, government officials, in-
ternational agency personnel, and United States embassy and
consulate officials. This information helped orient and
guide the develOpment of the research design.-

Confirmation of the significance of the areas and

audiences. At an early stage in the research the signifi—

 

cance of the three target areas--Porto Alegre, Rio Grande
do Sul; Belo Horizonte, Minas Geraes; and Recife, Pernam-
buco--and the target audiences, was confirmed in confer-
ences with academic and governmental personnel. In addi-
tion, several days were spent examining census materials.
_It was established that each of the three regions had a A
distinct cultural, social, historical and racial back-
ground; and that the target groups represented important
segments of Brazilian society.

Selection of communities. A number of communities
lmithin each of the target areas were chosen for investiga-
tion, The field team developed a clearer conception of the
'fiYpes of communities within the target areas by hand—
tabulating data from original 1950 census forms.3 This
analysis included data on pOpulation characteristics, resi-

___

3This material was made available through the courtesy
gf‘the Brazilian census department (Instituto Brasileiro de
e06%.‘1‘afia e Estatistica).

J

$-

uly 1

U

ml l1
lane .

5"

W?

4».

29
dence, occupation, type of farm management, farm tenure,
land utilization and value of land equipment owned.‘

The purpose in selecting the communities was not to
study them as communities, but rather to use them as em—
pirical cases within which observations on certain limited
areas of behavior pertinent to the investigation were to be
made. Those finally selected for investigation were chosen
on the basis of the following criteria:

(a) an economy based on an agricultural cash crOp,
such as sugar-cane, cotton or rice;

(b) the presence of an agroeindustrial enterprise;

(c) the presence of large groups of daily wage labor-
ers;

(d) a total population not in'exceSs of 5,000;

(e) the distance from capital cit not to exceed that
covered by the United States nformation Service
distribution office; and

(f) whether or not United States Information Service
films had been shown in the community.

Location of the Present Study: Tapes,
Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
The research site of the present study is the rural
town community of Tapes, located in the central eastern
Portion of Rio Grande do Sul, a state in the southern part
Of Brazil. The southern region comprises the states of

Parana, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul, and lies on

a Plateau east of the Rio Parana river, south of the Rio

50
Grande river, and west of the Atlantic Ocean.“ Rio Grande
do Sul is bordered on the south by Uruguay, on the west by
Argentina, on the north by the state of Santa Catarina, and
on the east by two lakes, Lagoa Mirim and Lagoa dos Patos,
and the Atlantic Ocean. 1t has a pOpulation of 4,164,821;
most of which reside in rural localities. The economy of
the state is based on the production of rice, corn, wheat,
and the raising of cattle.5 It has made some strides in
mining and factory enterprises. In compariSon to many
~other states in Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul has played an im-
portant economic and political role in Brazilian affairs.6

The cultural history of southern Brazil.7 Rio Grande

do Sul, along with Parana and Santa Catarina, has a dis—

4Hilgard O'Reilly Sternberg, Chapter 2, "The Physical
Basis of Brazilian Society," in T. Lynn Smith and Alexander
Marchant (eds.), Brazil: Portrait of Half a Continent (New
York: Dryden PresS), 1951, p. 72.

5For maps and a review of some pertinent characteris-
tics of the population and economy of Rio Grande do Sul,
see Appendix A.

6See Anyda Merchant, Chapter 16, "Politics, Govern-
ment, and Law " and J. V. Freitas Marcondes, Chapter 17,
"Social Legislation in Brasil," in Smith and Merchant, ibid.

, 7Preston James, Chapter 5, "The Cultural Regions of
Brazil," Smith and Merchant, gp..cit.; Artur Ramos, Intro-
du a0 a AntrOpologia Brasileiro (RTE de Janeiro: Livraria
33 Globo), 19H7, Vol. 2, assim; Manoelito de Ornellas,
Gauchos e Beduinos: A Ori em tnica e a Formacao Social do
3:9 Grande do Sul (Séo PauTo: Livraria Jose Ulympio Edi—
tors), I948; Augosto Meyer, Guia do Folclore Gaucho (Rio de
Janeiro: Grafica Editors Aurora, Ltda.7, 1951; and the

 

 

 

51
tinct cultural history different from other regions of Bra-
zi1.. It is a region settled almost exclusively by people

of European origin. Furthermore, it is a region where
small farmers have become successfully established on a
jpermanent basis. The pOpulation in this area, in compari-
scmlto other regions, has a Comparatively high standard of
living and high rate of literacy for Brazil.
The first settlers in this area were roving bands of

:fighting men, known as the bandeirantes. In the earliest

 

_<iays the open grass-lands were settled as pastures for the
grazing of cattle and horses, and the vast forests were
Ileft to the retreating Indian tribes. These bandeirantes
innarried within the indigenous populations and their descend-
ants are known as Luso-Brazilians. About 1825 the first
<:olonists came into southern Brazil and tended to settle in
tihe forest and mountain areas. The first colonists were
(Earmans; later came Italians, Poles, Austrians, Spaniards,
.AImenians, Syrians and, in recent years, Japanese. These
rimmigrant groups and their offspring became known as brasi-

h

‘Works of Emilio Willems, see Assimilaiao e POpulagoes Mar-
lnais no Brasil (Sao_Paulo: Companh a Editora Necional),
, an Acu turacao dos Alemaes no Brasil (Sao Paulo:
Companhia Editorfi Nacional), 1946. For a contemporary pic-
t1211's of how Rio Grandense intellectuals view their cultural
hlStory see Jornal do Provincia de Sao Pedro and Revista
Idade Nova, two journals printed in Porto AIegre, the state
caPitaI; and the third volume of Erico Verissimo's trilogy

0 Tempo e O Vento (Porto Alegre, Brasil: Editors Globo):

52
leiro§_de sangue estrangeiro, that is, Brazilians of for-
eign birth or parentage. They developed small peasant com—
munities in the mountainous areas. The prairie lands, how—
ever, became the stronghold of the cattle-barons, and the
coastal lowland was the domain of the rice plantation own-
ers.

Tapes: Location and history. The town of Tapes is
located on the shores of Lagoa dos Patos (Lake of the
Ducks) in the flat lowlands of central eastern Rio Grande
do Sul. It is approximately 100 miles by land, and 90
miles by water, from the state capital, Porto Alegre. The
.name Tapes refers to several politico-geographical enti-
ties: (a) it is the name of a town which is at one and the
same time the district and sede do municipio (county seat),
(b) it is the name of the district in which the town is lo—
cated, and (c) it is the name of the county in which the
district and town are located. For map showing Tapes see p.157.

The economy of the county of Tapes is based on rice
growing and the economy of the town is based on rice
PITnzessing. Forty-four years ago Tapes was a small hamlet.
Today, with a pOpulation of 2,966, it is the largest town
in tune county. Tapes' growth as an important processing
Centner is related to the development of agro-industrial en-
terplfiise and to its strategic geographical position in re-

latilln.to Porto Alegre. In 1855, the area now called the

33

municipio of Tapes was called Dores de Camaqua. In 1911 it

 

was split into two municipios: Dores de Camaqua and Dores,
‘with the county seat at Dores. The municipio of Dores was
divided into several districts,the most important of which
was called Dores; the second most important was Tapes.
Shortly after 1911, Tapes became an important rice-producing
area and two rice-processing plants located themselves on
the shores of the lake. Tapes than became the rice-
processing center for the surrounding plantations and a cen-
.ter for shipment of rice by water to granaries in Porto
Alegre. With this develOpment of agro-industrial enter—
.prise Tapes grew in size, wealth, and population. In 1927,
though Tapes was still the second district in the municipio,
it had twice as many buildings as Dores and was a city of
PrOgress and great activity. Finally, in 1928, the name of

the municipio of Dores was changed to Tapes with the county‘

 

aeat located at Tapes. This change led to an influx of
Various commercial establishments and governmental offices.

I Physical structure. The lake-front is lined with
(belts and warehouses belonging to the two local rice-
Processing plants. The main avenue of the town runs direct-
ly away from the lake-front and is flanked by several
smaller avenues. Its streets, beginning with the Rua 15 de
N("N-I‘lll‘bro, run parallel to the lake. The town is six blocks

Wide talong the lake, and eight blocks long following the

54
main thoroughfare. The public square is in the center of
the town in front of the Catholic church. Surrounding the
square are the main shops, restaurants, markets, the bank,
theater, telephone and telegraph office, a small hospital,
several hotels, and the offices of various governmental
agencies. The rural periphery is generally devoted to the

growing of rice on large plantations.

POpulation. Demographic materials for the municipio

 

of Tapes are limited. Census bulletins for~l950 report
only information for the total population classified by

sex, place of residence, and literacy. The pOpulation of

 

the municipio is more than eighty per cent rural. The 93:
nicipio of Tapes has three districts, Tapes, Cerro Grande
and Vasconcelos, and each district contains a principal
population center bearing the same name as the district.
Comparison of the urban-rural composition of each district
imniicates that Tapes is the most urban. That is, it con-
tains the locality, the town of Tapes, with the largest
POIMilation of all localities in the three districts; and it
has: the highest ratio of urban dwellers to rural dwellers
(see Table 1).

In the municipio of Tapes, 49 per cent of all persons
morel‘than five years of age are literate. Males have a
sligfirbly‘higher degree of literacy than the total pOpula-

tion. Persons living in Tapes have a lower degree of lit-

35

waam ea banana 0am op oaapmm .Aommfi

.mmoH .HHmeam .oaaeams me 0am .momH

up onHSb mu oHv ooflmmnw080Q omsoo Scum po>wnonn

 

 

 

Ham.mm ¢.om meo.om m.om mam ¢.Hm smo.m m.ae masses
0mm.m 5.0m awm.e m.om wma m.o¢ wmm «.5: moaeoaooma>
mmo.b m.om mam.m b.om om o.mm use m.mm escape cameo
aca.m m.om o¢H.o m.am emm H.mm mmm.m m.e¢ momma
monE monE amass . moans
somwaMmom ammo somwmwwgom ammo defiwmwsmom ammo somwwwsmom psoo
Hem new a 9 Mom 9 Hem mpOfiHpmwm
Hmpoe Hwnsm amnnspsm amps:

 

 

 

wmmm<e so OHMHOHZDS wme mo mBOHmBmHQ flamme mme
ZH ZOHB¢QDQOW H<BOB 92¢ WHH<S mo ZOHBDmHmemHQ .H mHm4B

have a :

iwellers

‘1”“‘Wr

‘ fl
‘Me 'J J. ...,.

91‘

0. bfie

* I
ar.1

56
eracy than those living in the localities of Cerro Grande

and Vasconcelos but all urban dwellers in the municipio

 

have a decidedly higher degree of literacy than rural
dwellers (see Table 2).

Male Workers. The distribution of occupations in

 

Tapes was constructed from statements made by several local
informants. Table 5 indicates the industry of occupation
of the 651 known adult male employees in the town of Tapes.

In the rural areas of the municipio the principal industry

 

of occupation is farming. Agricultural workers generally
work on the lands of other peOple. There is, however, a
small number of farmers who own their own land. In addi—
ltion to the laborers, foreman, and owners directly engaged
in the production of cash crOps there are also store-owners,
artisans, and technicians who perform special services on
the plantations.

Why Tapes was chosen. It cannot be claimed that Tapes
8

 

is like all other towns in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Rather, Tapes appeared to be "representative" of an impor-
tant segment of rural urban life in Rio Grande do Sul and

southern Brazil touched by the process of agro~industriali-

k

8Tapes is, however, like some other towns, Small
rural towns are typical in Rio Grande do Sul.. 0f a total
of 92 localities in the state, 45 have between 2,000 and
5,000 inhabitants. These towns are, like Tapes, generally
municipal_seats and centers of communication, administra-
tlon, and industry. .

TABLE 2.

AND OTHER PLACES,

 

TAPES

57

DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONS FIVE YEARS OF AGE

AND OVER WHO ARE ABLE TO READ AND WRITE: FOR MALES
AND THE TOTAL POPULATION IN THE TOWN OF

MUNICIPIO OF TAPES

 

f

 

 

 

Males Only Total Population

Location Total Per Cent Total Per Cent

Number Literate Number Literate
Tapes 1,220 70 2.556 67
Hamlets 259 77 490 72
Rural 8,407 48 16,504 46
Totals 9,866 52 19,550 49

 

8Derived from Censo Demografico (1° de Julho de 1950),
Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, BrasII,

1952.

TABLE 5.

THE INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION

OF ADULT MALES IN TAPES, 1952-55

 

fir;-
El

 

 

Industry of Occupation Number
1. Rice factory workers . . . . . . . . . . . 250
2. Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5. Government . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4. Banking . . . . . . . . . 15
5. Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6. Transportation
7. and Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7O
8. Farming . . . . . . . 5O
9. Others (irregularly employed) . . . . . . . 115
10. Professionals . . . . . . . . . . 21
Total . . . . . . . . . . .

I

H \’ \ '

58
zation. Tapes was chosen because it was a small town serv-
ing as a marketing and communications center, having an
agro-industrial enterprise, and a rural periphery whose
socio—economic base was the growing of rice.

Certain other conditions favored the choice of Tapes:
(a) Tapes was part of the larger United States Information
Service study and was therefore accessible to the writer,
(b) in Tapes the writer had the services of a trained Bra-
zilian interviewer and the cooperation of local authorities,
and (c) Tapes was one of the last towns investigated and

the writer had, by then, the.benefit of six month resi-

dence in Brazil.

Conduct of the Investigation in Tapes

A main feature of the original USIS field study was to
seek direct interviews, using a uniform interview schedule.
In Tapes, the investigator utilized additional questions to
elicit information on the attitudinal and behavioral charac-
teristics of the respondents and provide information on
their'social backgrounds. The questions utilized in the
thesis are reproduced in Appendix D.

The field workers gathered information on the histor-
iCal, eCOIOgical, ani demographic characteristics of the

POPUIation, the region and the economy, and information on

the social organization of the factory and plantation.

.‘\

era"; v

g
in

t . .1
.fi... 3 we.
kw V.
.8 0c 4:...

 

[’5 'v
w'FJ

59

These data form the background for interpreting the study
findings and are not presented in great detail here.

During the research investigation the writer had the
services of Sr. Joao Batiste Aguiar, a graduate in law,
philosophy, and social science from the Catholic University
of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre. Sr. Aguiar was respon-
sible for all direct interviews and underwent a short peri-
od of training in the technique of interviewing before con-
ducting his first interview. _In the early stages of the
research the writer was present during each interview to
offer advice and guidance.

The writer and the Brazilian interviewer lived in the
town of Tapes for a period of one and one-half months. In-
.terviews were obtained systematically, first from factory
and office workers and then from agricultural workers.
Each interview lasted approximately forty minutes and was
obtained at the place of work or at other places the re-
Spondents desired. The investigators lived at a small ho-
‘tel.and spent most of the waking hours in the factory or in
tflie rice fields. At night they lounged in the square, or
Went to the theater, or visited, or drank coffee with the

\Norkers in the local cafes and bars.

40

Summary
This chapter has served to indicate the broad back-
ground of the research, to specify the general geographical
and cultural milieu, and to outline the way in which the
research was conducted in Tapes. Chapter IV deals with
pertinent aspects of the population studied and the treat-

ment of the data collected.

IV. THE POPULATION STUDIED AND
TREATMENT OF THE DATA

The POpulation

How the sample was chosen. As noted in Chapter III,
‘the original United States Information Service research was
Specifically focused on agricultural, factory, and office
xnorkers. In Tapes, at the time of the investigation, there
Twas one factory in Operation and one large rice plantation
\NhiCh could be studied. Lists of the workers in the two
Uestablishments were drawn up and samples were obtained by
:random selection from the major work categories in each oc—
<aupationa1 group.

Size and structure of the sample. ‘Among the fifty

 

“markers in the sample, twenty reSpondents were agricultural
“Kirkers, i.e., persons who performed a variety of manual
Jcflos on the rice plantation; twenty respondents were fac-
tOny workers, i.e., persons who performed unskilled and
Berri-skilled jobs in the town rice mill; and ten respond-
ants were factory office workers, i.e., persons who per-
fOIPIned routine clerical duties in the office of the town
rj-<3emill. The office workers studied represent almost a
huIldred per cent sample of workers employed in that cate-

golfiy; and the agricultural and factory workers studied

42
:represent twenty per cent and ten per cent samples of such
workers employed at the time of the study.

Analysis of the principal socio-economic characteris-

 

‘tics of the three occupational groups in the sample indi-

cates the followingzl

11. Agricultural workers
1. Relatively young (28.9 average mean years)
2. White native; some mulato (mixed Negro and white)
5. Catholic; some non-Catholics
4. Never attended school; illiterate
5. Low mean income; large number of persons supported
6. Live in company-owned houses; own no land
7. Newcomers
B. Factory workers
1. Relatively old (59.5 average mean years) I =

2. White native; some mulato and preto ("un—mixed"
African descent)

5. Catholic
4. Some primary school education; literate

5. Highest mean income; largest number of persons sup-
ported

6. Tendency to own homes and small kitchen gardens

7. Old-timers in the community; half have never lived
outside

\

1For a detailed discussion of the principal socio-
iccnlomic characteristics of the three occupational groups in
he sample see Appendix B.

fi/h

.1 ,

“IL

QN

 

_i———" ——-——— —-——_~/-

[+3

C. Office workers

1. Youngest (26.4 average mean years)
White native and non-native only

Catholic; some non-Catholics

2
3

4. Highest education; highly literate

5 High mean income; fewest persons supported
6

Renters or own their homes; some own large tracts

of land

7. Old—timers in the community; most have lived outside

Limitations of the sample and the sampling method.
The present study is limited to the population universe and
,sampling methods of the original United States Information
Service research. The study does not deal with samples that
fire "representative" in a statistiCal sense. The number of
ITBSpondents is small and, as a consequence, the data are
Dirt adequate for treatment by many statistical tests. They

arne, however, amenable to the application of non—parametric

OI‘ distribution-free statistics. The study, being explora-

tcxry, attempts to illuminate patterns and modes of behavior
I"Silalting to information exposure in the agro-industrial
strructure of a small rural town community in a newly-

lruiustrializing Latin American nation.

The Analysis of the Data

Specification of the hypothesis. To investigate the

catlsal relationships between socio-economic position in the

44

agro-industrial system of a rural town community and pat-
terns of information exposure, the general hypothesis was
re-phrased to make it testable in an empirical situation
and to indicate the Specific variables investigated. The
general hypothesis stated that the economic organization of
the rural town community in Brazil exposes (to a greater or
’lesser degree) varying groups of workers to different en-
vironments (more or less uniform for each) which affect the
chances that they will possess a given pattern of exposure
to a new social knowledge. I -

A re-phrased hypothesis specified that the form and
character of information exposure, expressed through (a) use
.of mass media of communication, (b) social visiting, and
Cc) contact with persons from outside the local community,
lwould vary directly with the occupational position of the
“Marker in the agro-industrial structure of the rural town
Community.

A test of this hypothesis required research designed
tC) provide information on the above three sets of dependent
VEtriables. A further requirement placed on the research
was that the analysis permit an evaluation of the associa—
ti-On.between the independent variable (i.e., the pattern of
aIWTangement of the three occupational groups) and each of
Vthfi dependent variables. Is the exposure of each group

Painerned? What is the direction of the pattern? That are

.11

“to A
um.

 

 

 

45
the differences among the groups and are they likely to be

significant?

Arranging the data for analysis. In arranging the
data for analysis two techniques were undertaken initially:
first, the occupational groups were ranked according to
their positions in the socio-economic structure; second,
the categories of responses to the questions relating to
each of the potential sources of exposure were ranked. At
‘the outset the three occupational groups were thought of as
laeing ordered according to their social status in the socio—
eeconomic structure of the agro-industrial rural town com-
nninity. Agricultural workers were accorded the lowest
,suocio-economic position, factory workers the next highest,
axni office workers the highest position of the three groups.
Axialysis of the socio-economic characteristics of the three
{grxyups lent support to the order selected.

Once the arrangement of the three Occupational groups
liaxi been established, the data for the dependent variables
were arranged in such a way that, when analysis was under-
telnet“ the exposure patterns of each occupational group

0011111 be shown in dimensions relevant to the specific hy-

POthesis. Sets of categories for each of the several ques-

tiOIIEB pertaining to the three dependent variables were de-

ViseKi. so that they had an internal order that allowed sub-

 

 

46
jects to be ranked by their responses.2 This ordering was
arrived at by ranking the categories for each question to
indicate relative degrees of information exposure from low
to high. For example, the categories of reaponses for the
question on frequency of newspaper reading were ranked
"never, two or three times a year, once a month, once a
week, several days a week, and daily."

For each question,'1ow, middle, and high exposure
Ineant something empirically specific. For example, lack of
the necessary prerequisites for use of mass media, infre—
quent use of mass media, and listening only to local sta-
‘tions would constitute low exposure to information through
rnass media. Visiting with relatively unexposed persons
would constitute low exposure through social visiting; and
iiifrequent contact with persons from non-distant places

2A. Exposure to mass media:
Do you read and write?
Do you read a newspaper?

How frequently do you read a newspaper?

Do you own a radio?
What radio stations do you listen to most often?

B. Social visiting:

Who are the three persons you visit most often in
this community? (Information was obtained for kin-
ship and occupation of person visited.)

C3. Contact with outside persons:

(How frequently do you meet persons from other lo-
calities, from the capital city, from other states,

from other countries?

throng

47

outside the community would be considered low exposure
through contact with persons from outside the community.

High exposure was considered, in each case, the Opposite of

low eXposure, with medium exposure falling in between. By

evaluating the position of each occupational grOup, for
each dependent variable, some indication of the overall pat-

terns of exposure for "average" individuals in each occupa-

tional group were established.

Average rank technique. The ordering of the question

responses and occupational groups enabled a test of the
'vadidity of the main hypothesis by an evaluation of the dif-

:ferences among the average ranks of the three groups.3 The

-'VHT test was chosen for this purpose because (a) the re-

:aponses to the questions were rankable in dimensions rele-

vwxnt to the specified hypothesis, (b) the size of the

.ssunple was small, and (c) no evidence of the shape of the

‘ 5In computing this average rank for a group, one starts
'bS’ assigning a rank of one to the most extreme type, and
esn.assigns to that type as many additional ranks as there
a1“? additional cases of that type. The mid-point of this
IRange of ranks is the rank of each case in that type. The
3neDCt type is assigned the next consecutive rank and as many
additional ranks as there are cases of that type. The pro-
ceTittre is repeated until all cases are given rank. The sum
of‘ 6111 these ranks, when divided by the number of cases in
EhSB ggroup, yields the average rank for the group. See W. H.
Vrileflsal and W. A. Wallis, "Use of Ranks in One—Criterion
all‘lance Analysis," Journal of the American Statistical As-

EQEEifizgipp, Vol. 47, December 1952, pp. 585-87.

was a
in;

c
O. 1
w:
IV
.\
I.
r
q
M
_
I
1

48
distribution for the dependent variables in the universe
was available.

Operational hypotheses. Once the procedure was estab-
lished a series of Operational hypotheses were develOped.
For convenience these hypotheses were arranged according to
the cluster of variables to which they related, thus making
it possible initially to treat each of the hypotheses as
independent indices of the general category to which they

belonged. A list of the operational hypotheses follows:

A. Selected Mass Media_

(1) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
of literacy and newspaper readership, will be lower than
that of factory workers whose average rank will in turn be

lower than that of office workers.

(2) The average rank of agricultural workers, who can
read newspapers, in terms of fre uency of newspaper reader- a
shi , will be lower than that of actory workers who can M
read newspapers whose average rank will in turn be lower
than that of office workers.

(5) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
of extent of newspaper readership and radio ownership, will
[be lower than that of-Tactory workers whose average rank
will in turn be lower than that of office workers.

(4) The average rank of agricultural workers, who own
iradios, in terms of the cosmOpolitan character of radio
.§tations listened to, wilI be Iower than that of factory
‘Norkers who own radios, whose average rank will in turn be
lower than that of office workers who own radios.

B. Social Visiting

(5) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
Of the occupations 9f persons visited most often, will be
Tower than that of factory workers whose average rank will
in turn be lower than that of office workers.

40

(6) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
of their kinship relations with_persons visited most often,
will be lower than that of factory workers whose average
rank will be in turn lower than that of office workers.

(7) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
of visiting kin who are in the same occupational position,
will be lower than that of factory workers whose average
rank will in turn be lower than that of office workers.

(8) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
of visiting of non-kin in the same occupational position,
will be lower than that of factory workers whose average
rank will in turn be lower than that of office workers.

0. Contact with Person from Outside

(9) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
of frequency of contact with persons from other rural lo-
calities within the state, will be lower than that of fac-
tory workers whose average rank will in turn be lower than

that of office workers.

(10) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
of frequency of contact with persons from the capital city,
will be lower than that of factory workers whose average
rank will in turn be lower than that of office workers.

(11) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
of frequency of contact with persons from other states, will
'be lower than that of factory workers whOse average rank
‘will in turn be lower than that of office workers.

(12) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
01? frequency of contact with persons from other countries,
VWill be lower than that of factory workers whose average
IYEnk will in turn be lower than that of office workers.

(15) The average rank of agricultural workers, in terms
01? the most distant place from which_persons have been con-
.Péicted, will be lower than that of factory workers whose
alrerage rank will in turn be lower than that of office

eOrkers. -

Each of these hypotheses stated not only that signif—

1Cant differences in the average ranks would occur, but also

SO

the hypothesized direction and pattern of these differ-
ences. The hypothesized direction for each Operational hy-
pothesis was A-F—O, i.e., that agricultural workers (A)
would have the lowest average rank (i.e., low exposure);
factory workers (F), the next highest average rank (i.e.,
the next highest degree of exposure); and office workers
(0), the highest average rank (i.e., the highest degree of
exposure). Deviations from this hypothesized direction
were possible since the patterns which were possible in-
cluded not only the hypothesized pattern A-F-O, but also
non-hypothesized patterns F-A-O, F-O-A, O-F-A, A-O-F, and
_O-A-F. Furthermore, the differences between the average
ranks of the three groups on any one Operational hypothesis
:might have been either significant or non-significant. I
fTherefore, eleVen out of the twelve possible outcomes of
‘the tests would not verify the working hypothesis.
Statistical analysis. A comparison of the average
rank of each group indicated the direction and intensity of
this differences among the three occupational groups for
each of the operational hypotheses. The determination of
true significance of these differences required statistical
evaluation. A cOmmon problem in social research is to de-
Cide whether several samples should be regarded as coming

from the. same population. When the samples differ, the

que8tion arises as to whether the differences Signify dif-

 

'V'_"I

~I-L
.
..
“M
.
v1. 4..
—
pa...
~..
LIA
6.
‘I 1'
Tfix

 

\fl
’)

ferences among the populations from which the samples came,
or merely chance variations among random samples from the
same population. Tests of the null hypothesis that there
were no differences between the groups were made for each
operational hypothesis utilizing the "H” test devised by

Kruskal and Wallis.4 "H" is a useful statistic in that it

 

4g. . , .. . .
elven k samples With Ni observations in the ith

sample, a test of the hypothesis that the samples come from
the same population may be made by ranking the observations
from 1 to Ni, finding he sums of ranks for each of the k

sa.mples, and computing a statistic "H". The "H” test is a
rank test and therefore may be used here. The statistic is
computed in the following manner

9
c.

k
__1 '
H 3 12 Z 321,- 5(N + l)
h N + l N.
l l

where k is the number of samples; N. the number of observa- ,m
tions in the th sample; R1 the sum of the ranks assigned to 3
the 2bservatior s in that sam ple; and _

N = 23' Ni

1

Where there are ties, because two or more observations
are equal, each observation is given the mean of the ranks
for which they are tied, and H is divided by

2:»

 

N<N2 - l)
where T = (t—l)t(t+l) and t = the number of tied observations
in a group with the same rank. 2: T is ta me over all groups

of ties.

52
makes it possible to assess the significance of the differ-
ences between the distributions of three or more groups or—

dered on the same criterion bycomparing the average ranks

of the groups. Its interpretation is comparable to a

single classification analysis of variance. It is advanta—

geous in the present research because it is a non-parametric

5

statistic.

Summary
The general hypothesis underlying the present inquiry
was re-phrased in the form of a testable hypothesis. Thir-
teen operational hypotheses were developed, based on a
‘ranking of groups according to the extremity of their re-

Sponses. Each Operational hypotheSis stated the expected

differences, their patterns, and directions. In the case

 

If the samples come from identical continuous pOpula-
txions, "H" is distributed as Chi-Square with k-l degrees of
freedom permitting the use of Chi-Square tables in inter-
IPJPeting the findings. Large values of "H" lead to rejec-
‘tixon of the null hypothesis. In the present study the .05
lervel of significance has been used. See K. Walker and
Joseph Lev, Statistical Inference (New York: Henry Holt),
i335, pp. 436-38, and Kruskal and Wallis, _gp. 933., pp. 583-

5Many statistical methods depend upon the assumption
th£ft the samples were randomly drawn from a normal popula-
tJJDIl. Sometimes this assumption is unwarranted as is the
case in the present study. Non-parametric or distribution-
free methods of statistical analysis are methods for "making
infe rences without any assumption as to the form of distribu-
§10q3_ in the pOpulation." See Walker and Lev, ibid., p. 426.
luC13_ methods as the "H" test are valid for any parent popu-
ation on a continuous variable. Ibid., pp. 426-50.

55
of each set of ranked categories it was hypothesized that
the direction and pattern of the differences among the av-
erage ranks of each occupational group would be A-F-O, i.e.,
agricultural workers would have the lowest rank, factory
workers the next highest, and office workers the highest
ranking. The differences between the average ranks for
each operational hypothesis were tested by use of the "H”
test. The following chapter contains an analysis of the

data organized to test the research hypothesis.

.
WV “VH1 n
“Unny

80118

t),
_A—

(3
c

c‘rm
Ev‘.‘

V. THE RESEARCH FINDINGS

The following is an analysis of the data collected to
test the hypothesis that the form and character of informaé
tion exposure, expressed in terms of (1) mass media of com-
munication, (2) social visiting, and (5) contact with per-
sons from outside the local community, will vary as the oc-
cupational position of the worker in the agro-induStrial
structure of the rural town community varies.

This hypothesis was investigated by an analysis of
thirteen Operational hypotheses considered as independent
indices of three research variables relating to information
Iexposure. Each operational hypothesis was tested by an

evaluation of the probability of obtaining the differences

«abserved among the average ranks of the three occupational

groups if no differences did, in fact, exist. The tables

and analyses relating to the thirteen operational hypotheses

have been arranged and numbered, for the convenience of the

reader, under each of the variables to which they relate.1

_—

1Complete statements of each of the operational hy-
DOtheses may be found on pp. 51-52.

55
Selected Mass Media2
As agro-industrial rural town cbmmunities developed,

an increasing number of workers were brought into physical
proximity to the major media of mass communication. A com—
plex of factors brought about greater opportunity to pur-
chase and use radios, newspapers and thereby to be exposed
to the information available through these media. Two
principal mass media, radios and newspapers, were selected
for investigating variations in exposure to information
through mass media of communication. In testing the hy-
potheses relative to mass media exposure, information was
.also obtained concerning not only the extent to which work-
ers in each occupational group possessed the necessary pre-
requisites for use of the principal mass media, but also
'the extent to which they actually exposed themselves to
‘bhese media.

(1) Literacy and newsPaper readership. Investigation
vmas carried out to ascertain the differences in literacy
zxnd.newspaper readership among agricultural, factory, and
cxffice workers. The results supported the first hypothesis

(see Table 4). Office workers were more literate and read

. 2For a general review of the facilities for mass com-
muruLcation available in Brazil see Appendix C: Note on the
Existence, Accessibility, and Limitations of Information
EXIKDSure through Mass Media in Brasil. For information rel-
atilfe to Tapes and Rio Grande do Sul see Tables at end of

ADP endix C .

56

TABLE 4. LITERACYa AND NEWSPAPER READERSHIPb OF

AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS

 

 

Occupational group

 

Literacy and news-

 

 

paper readership Agricultural Factory Office Total
workers workers workers
(Jannot read0 12 2 - 14
(Jan read and does
not read newspaper - 3 - 5
Can read and does
read newspaper 8 15 10 55
Totals 20 '20 10 50
Av. Rank 18.1 28.6 54

fi = 10.559 - p<.01; (d. r. = 2)‘jl

aBased on responses to question "Can you read?"

bBased on responses to question "Do you read a news-
P aper? "

cThese respondents reported they could neither read
no:- write.

d3 means that H has been corrected for ties.

57
newspapers more than did factory workers who, in turn, ex—
hibited these characteristics more than did agricultural

‘workers. It was also found that most persons, irrespective

5

of occupation, who were able to read did read newspapers.

The degree to which such behavior occurred for individuals

. . 4
in.each group varied, A-F—O.

(2) Frequency of newspaper readipg. As predicted, the
.frequency of newspaper reading varied with occupational po-
:sition (see Table 5). Office workers read newspapers more
iTPequently than factory workers who, in turn, read them
Huare frequently than agricultural workers.

Ability to read and educational attainment were ex-
IDJJored as possible correlative factors in frequency of
Iwaading. Eor individuals in all three occupational groups,
'bcaing able to read was not generally associated with fre—
QIlent reading of newspapers.5 Rather, the relationship be—
tWeen ability to read and the frequency of newspaper read—
eI‘ship varied with the occupational position of the worker

i111 the agro-industrial structure. Office workers, all of

r‘ 3Three factory workers deviated from this pattern.
luach.reported he could read but did not read newspapers.

4See pp. 52-53 for explanation of symbols.

5This is indicated by the fact that those able to read
(Crows 2 and 5 of Table 4) are found scattered throughout

all categories of reading frequency (Table 5).

58

TABLE 5. FREQUENCY OF NEWSPAPER READERSHIP OF
AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY AND OFF£CE WORKERS
WHO ARE ABLE TO READ ‘ nhknnd

a3 £2.14. 2 3/...(H

5‘9) are (1.7. 'v "A

Occupational group

 

 

 

Frequency
of newspaper .
. Agricultural Factory Office
reading workers . workers workers Total
Never - . 5 - 5
Two or three times
a year 1 - - 1
Once a month 5 - 8
Once a week 2 5 2 9
Several days a week - 5 4 9
Daily - 2 4 6
Totals 8 18 10 36
Av. Rank 10.0 17.4 ' 27.2

n = 12.5 - p(.Ol; (d. r. =‘2)

 

aBased on responses to the question "How often do you
read a newspaper? "

 

59

whom could read, read newspapers frequently (daily or sev-

eral times a week). Factory workers, who could read, did

not read newspapers as frequently as office workers, but
read them more frequently than did agricultural workers.
Agricultural workers, who could read, reported reading

neWSpapers infrequently (once a month or several times a

year).
Perusal of background material on grade level attained

in.school for each person who reported reading newspapers
:indicated that frequent reading of newspapers was more com-

Inon among those who had attained higher grade levels.

I

{Phis occurred for individuals regardless of occupational

aaffiliation.- Individuals who had attended primary school

(Jne year or more but had not completed the primary school
cnourse read newspapers more frequently (at least once a

week) than did those who had not reached this level of

snzhooling. Those who attended high school read more fre-

QFuently than all others. It is interesting to note, how-

evwar, that the degree to which these individual patterns

CN3011rred within each occupational group increased in the

PatTtermed direction A-F-O. That is, among all workers who

had been to school, office workers read more frequently

 

\
6Material on the educational attainment of the sample
Population may be found in Appendix B.

 

_-

60

than factory workers, who, in turn, read more frequently

than agricultural workers.

In general, these observations lend support to the

conclusion that, for the present sample, frequency of

newspaper reading varies with occupational position in the

agro-industrial structure. It appears to be related more

to the level of educational attainment than to ability to

read. Where individual variations occur they are patterned

along occupational group lines.
The owner—

(3) Newspaper reading and radio ownership.

ship>of radios was not widespread. Of the total sample

Ixxpulation studied, only 19 persons owned radios. The ex-
tent of individual ownership of radios within each occupa-
tixdnal group followed the hypothesized direction. Agricul- 5‘;
tnxral workers had a lower proportion of radio ownership ,
i

tkuin did factory workers who in turn had a lower prOpor-

ticnn of radio ownership than office workers.
Table 6 indicates that the pattern of differences
amcuag;the average ranks of agricultural, factory,and of-

flce workers was significant in the expected direction.

Thifis IlphOldS the third operational hypothesis. All persons

th’ Cnnned radios, regardless of occupation, also read news-

papers. (The degree to which individual consumption of
botki IPadios and papers occurred within each group followed
the Ciiarection A-F-O.) The converse was not true; all per-

so . .
’“3 VVIIO read newspapers did not own radios.

61

TABLE 6. NEWSPAPER READERSHIP AND RADIO OWNERSHIPa
OF AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS

 

 

Newspaper reading Occupational group

 

and Agricultural Factory Office

 

 

radio ownership workers . workers workers Total
None ' l2_ 5 - 17
One onlyb 6 5 5 14
Both radio ownership
and neWSpaper reader»
ship 2 10 7 19
Totals 20 2O 10 50
Av. Rank 16.4 29.4 55.9

‘1? = 8.781 ~ .O2)p).01; (d. r. = 2)

aThis table is based on a cross tabulation of the re-
SIHInses to the question "DO you read a newspaper?" and the
question "Do you own a radio?"

bThe only medium mentioned was newspapers.

62

Two conclusions may be drawn from these findings on
potential exposure to information through mass media:
(a) agricultural workers are least exposed, factory workers
are more highly exposed than agricultural workers, and Of-
fice workers are the most exposed, and (b) persons who own
radios have their exposure reinforced by reading newspa-
pers but persons who read newspapers do not necessarily

have their exposure reinforced through the direct means of

radio ownership.
(4) Locality of radio stations listened to by radio

owners.7 How "cosmOpolitan" are the radio stations lis-

tened to by agricultural, factory, and office workers who

- own radios? That is, are the stations listened to located

in.small rural towns, in the state capital, in other state

(eapitals and the national capital (Rio de Janeiro), or in

tflde capitals Of other nations? The chief criteria for de-

ttarmining the cosmOpolitan character of radio stations in

-Brmazil is their geographical location (coastal or inland,

‘urdaan or rural), and their program content. Rural sta-

ti one are small and provincial in their outlook, urban sta-

7Analysis Of the hypothesis relating to this aspect Of
'mae .study is limited by the fact that there were no data
001} ected on the radio listening patterns of non-owners.
1&3 probable that the listening patterns Of non—owners
are Similar to those Of radio-owners in their own occupa-
filonal groups since much radio listening occurs in the
'Ou“353 Of fellow-workers. See discussion of social visiting

later. in this chapter.

tions are larger and carry a variety of news broadcasts,

cultural and educational programs. Broadcasts from foreign

capitals transmitted over large urban stations, or picked

up on short-wave sets, provide additional information con-

cerning world events.

It was found that office workers listened to more cos—

mopolitan stations than did factory workers who, in turn,
listened tO more cosmOpolitan stations than agricultural

workers (see Table 7). This finding was in the hypothe-

sized direction, but was not significant. Office workers

were more exposed to information from the outside world

'broadcast by radio than factory workers who, in turn, were

more exposed than agricultural workers. It is probable

'that the findings shown in Table 7 are, in part, due to

(differences in "media tastes" and to factors associated :1

vrith economic status. As you descend the sociO-economic

sxzale in Tapes workers increasingly lack money to buy pow-

exxful sets, lack the verbal literacy to comprehend "big

city" programs, and so on.
Profile of the three groups' exposure tO information

.EQIVJugh mass media Of communication. 'The analysis suggest—

ed that the three occupational groups showed differences in

 

 

f ‘ésbe Appendix C (section on radio diffusion in Brazil)
01‘ dlscussion of factors which affect the diffusion and
reception Of information broadcast by radio.

64

TABLE 7. NUMBER AND LOCALITY OF RADIO STATIONS
LISTENED TO BY AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY AND

OFFICE WORKERS WHO OWN-RADIOSa

 

 

Occupational group

 

 

 

Locality Agricultural Factory Office Total
workers workers workers
b
Local 1 l 1 5
State capital 2' l2 7 21
Rio de Janeiro and
other state capitals - 4 7 11
Foreign capitals - l 2 5
Totals 5 18 17 58
Radio owners (2)_ (10) (7) (19)
Av. Rank 10 18.1 22.5

H a 4.664 - .io>p >.05; (d. f. a 2)

 

8Table is based on a frequency distribution of the
ggeographical location Of radio stations mentioned by radio
(Twners in response to the question "What radio stations do
you listen to most Often?"

bTapes does not have a local radio station, but other

nearby towns do .

both the degree to which individuals in each group pos-
sessed the necessary pre-requisites for use of mass media
and the degree to which they were actually exposed to mass
media. A summary of the tests Of the operational hypothe-
ses concerning exposure to mass media appears in Table 8.

A. Agricultural workers. host agricultural workers

 

were unable to read or write and those who were literate
read newspapers infrequently.' Few agricultural workers
owned radios, and those that did listened to a low average
number Of stations.9 Their listening patterns centered on
programs emanating from stations in local areas or in the
state capital. Agricultural workers (1) did not possess
"some of the necessary prerequisites for use of mass media
of communication, e.g., literacy (and its correlate, com-
prehension), and (2) those who possessed these prerequi-
sites were exposed infrequently to only one of the two
principal mass media. Thus we may conclude that agricul-
tural workers are infrequently exposed to information
transmitted through the two principal mass media.

B. Factory workers. Factory workers generally were

 

literate and read newspapers frequently, i.e., at least
several days a week. Half Of them owned radios and all of

‘these owners were newspaper readers. Radio owners listened

9Such an index gives a general estimate of the range
(Df radio listening.

66

 

 

 

TABLE 8. SUMMARY OF TESTS OF OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESES
RELATING TO EXPOSURE TO MASS MEDIA
.' Direction of . . .
Hypothe51s Difference Significance

(1) Literacy and news- . .Ol)p

paper readership HypOtheSIZed (A-F—O) (df = 2)
(2) Frequency Of news— . .Ol>p

paper reading HypotheSized (A-F-O) (df = 2)
(5) Newspaper reading . .02)p>.01

and radio ownership HypotheSized (A'F-O) (df = 2)
(4) CosmOpOlitan char- > >

acter Of radio sta- . _ _ .10 p .05

tions listened to by HypotheSized (A F 0) (df = 2)

radio owners

 

7

O)

to a higher average number of radio stations than did agri-
cultural workers. The programs they listened to emanated
from stations in the national capital and abroad, as well
as from the state capital and local stations. Factory
workers (1) possessed the necessary prerequisites for the
use of mass media, and (2) those who were exposed tended to
be exposed often to both principal mass media. They were
exposed to information transmitted through newspapers and
radio to a greater extent than were agricultural workers.

0. Office workers. All office workers were literate
and read newspapers frequently, i.e., daily or several
times a week. Seven of the ten office workers owned radios.
Their listening patterns were distinctive in that they lis-
tened to foreign stations more than did members Of the
other occupational groups. In addition, Office workers
listened to the highest average number Of different sta-
tions. Office workers (1) possessed the necessary prerequi-
sites for the use Of mass media, and (2) were all exposed
“to at least one media, and two-thirds were frequently ex-
}?Osed to two media. Office workers were the occupational
{group most exposed to information communicated through the
Ilrincipal mass media of communication. Whereas, factory
Eilndagricultural workers differed in the extent to which
‘tlley'possessed the prerequisites for use of the mass media,

alhi the frequency with which they used such media, Office

es

and factory workers differed in the quality Of the prerequi-
sites they possessed and their frequencies of exposure to
mass media.

Further results. Several aSpects of the data lend
xnerspective to the research. There are a number Of charac-
texristics common to individuals regardless Of their occupa-
tiJonal group membership:

(1) Workers who were able to read did so. However,
'beaing able to read was not generally associated with fre-
qjient reading of newspapers; rather,

(2) Workers having the highest degree Of educational
airtainment read newspapers more frequently than did those
Theiving a low degree of educational attainment.

(5) All workers who owned radios read newspapers.
However, all persons who read newspapers did not own radios.
Ifiiis suggests that newspapers were the greatest single
scuarce Of mass media information for workers.

(4) Workers who owned radios listened to stations
emanating from such non—rural places as the state and re-
gional capitals, the national capital, and foreign capi-
tals.

Further Observation of the data indicated that the de-
gree: to which these individual variations occurred for each
occupational group varied in the direction A—F-O. For ex-

am9163, analysis Of the finding that all workers who owned

A lillll lllilol

69
radios also read newspapers, showed that the degree to which
this phenomenon occurred was always higher for office work-
ers than for factory workers; and always higher for factory
workers than for agricultural workers. Thus, findings which
appeared to be wholly individual were found, upon further
Observation, to have an underlying pattern and order (ac-

cording to occupational group membership) similar to that

hypothesized.

Social Visiting

Agricultural, factory, and Office workers, as Observed
in this study, are differentially exposed to infOrmation
disseminated through the two principal forms of mass media.
However, another source of new information, ideas, Opinions
and news may be social visiting. It is possible that in
agro-industrial rural town communities, where economic and
cultural factors determine which segments Of the pOpulation
may be directly exposed to mass media information, many per-
sons will be indirectly exposed by word Of mouth. Since so—
Cial visiting is an important activity in the lives of the
PeOple Of rural Brazil and might function as an important
informal source Of information, a set Of questions was asked
to find out which persons the sample members ’visited most
Often. An evaluation Of the tests Of the general hypothesis

that social visiting will vary in the patterned direction

7O
A-F-O also indicated the manner in which social visiting
supplemented information excosure.

(5) Visiting patterns: occupation. Are there differ-
ences in the occupational levels of those persons visited by
agricultural, factory, and office workers?10 Table 9 indi-
cates that there is a significant pattern of intra-occupa-
tional group visiting for each of the three occupational
groups in the hypothesized direction. The estimated amount
of all such visiting by sample members was 68 per cent.11
Further analysis was carried on to determine the extent of
inter— and intra-occupational group visiting in each of the
three occupational groups.

Given the estimate of the total amount of intra-
oocupational group visiting by all sample members, what is
the probability that the patterns shown by agricultural,
factory, and office workers will differ from it as they do

as a consequence of chance factors? The null hypothesis was

1QSocial visiting is a manifold interactive process
Which involves not only whom an individual visits but also
who visits that individual. The latter is a significant as-
pect of social visiting, the data for which is lacking in
the present research. It is probable that an auxiliary
qgestion "Who visits you most often?" may have added a new
dimension to the material.

llThis estimate was obtained by dividing the fifty
cases of visiting with persons in one's own group by the to-

tal (73) cases of visiting-

71

TABLE 9. OCCUPATIONS OF PERSONS VISITED MOST OFTEN
BY AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY, AND OFFICE WORKERSa

_‘—:
_L

Occupational Group

 

 

 

Occupational
group visited Agricultural Factory Office Total
workers workers workers response
Agricultural 17 (+)b 8 (-) - (-) 25
Factory - (-) 15 (+) 5 (-) 20
Office 1 ('5) 9 (-) 18 (+) 28
Totals 18 52 23 73c
Av. Rank 15.5 56.6 54.5
'8 = 58.047 - p<.01; (d. r. - 2)
x2 . 60.80 =~p>.001 (d. r. = 4)

 

8Based on responses to the question "Who are the three
Persons you visit most often in this community?"

. bPlus and minus signs indicate the direction of the
differences between the observed frequency and the expected
frequency.

cOf a possible 150 persons-occupations that could be
Iner11_:ioned, i.e., 50 respondents times three persons and
their occupations, only 75 were actually mentioned. These
were used in the tabulations presented here.

'72

invoked for each occupational group, and the Chi-square

12

goodness-of-fit test was utilized. The results of the

 

12This statistical technique was found to be adequate
for use with small samples. Chi-square is conceived of as
a measure of discrepancy between a set of observed frequen-
cies and the corresponding frequencies expected under an
hypothesis whose conditions are set by the investigator.
As used here with three occupational groups, the data are
expected to show evidence of significant differences in the
tendency of each group to exhibit an intra-occupational
group visiting pattern like that of the total population.

The general formula for Chi-square is:

2 k (ri - Fi)2
X=Z n

i=1

 

Where Fi equals the expected or computed frequency and fi
equals the observed frequency in a sample of N observations.

HOWever, for small samples, according to Walker ang Lev,
22. cit., pp. 105-06, "the usual computation of )4 gives
too large a value leading to rejection of the hypothesis
more often than would the direct computation of probability
by factorials. This error can be offset by a procedure
Commonly known as Yates correction." Following Walker and
Lev, p. 106, the formula used was:

.2 a (lad - bcl - N/2)2N
TXL) Ia.+ b)(a.+ c)(b + d7(c + d)

~ In all cases where the technique was used with only
one degree of freedom the Yates correction for continuity
was applied in the computation. The results of the Chi-
Sguare tests are all interpreted from the table of distribu-
Flon for Chi-square found in G. Udney Yule and M. G. Kendall,
£1 Introduction to the Theory of Statistics 14th ed. (New
York; Hafner), 1950, Appendix. I). x. The chi-square table
tells what the probability is that a Chi-square as unusual
as that evaluated would be observed and on the basis of the
PPObability we either accept or reject the hypothesis.
Interpretation of the results of the Chi-square
SOOdness-of—fit test follow Walker and Lev, _qp. git”

75
tests13 indicated that (a) agricultural workers did more
visiting of persons in their same occupational group than
would be expected from the estimate of such visiting for all
:Sample members, (b) factory workers did less intra-occupa—
tzional visiting than would be expected, and (c) office
vworkers approximated the patterns of the total sample.14

It may be concluded that:15

(a) visiting fellow workers was common in all three
occupational groups;

(b) the degree to which a worker visited fellow work-
eexrs varied by occupational groups (see footnote 14: agri-

cultural workers overwhelmingly visited fellow workers,

while less than fifty per cent of factory workers visited

 

pp. 81-108, and Margaret Hagood and Daniel 0. Price, Sta-
Ei stics for Sociologists (New York: Henry Holt), 1952,
pp. 264—71. Other sources referred to were W. G. Cochran,
"The Chi-Square Distribution for the Binomial and Poisson
Series with Small Expectations," Annals of Eugenics, 7
(1936), pp. 207-17, and "The Chi-Square Correction for Con-
tinuity," Iowa State College Journal of Science, 16 (1942),
PP. 421-56; F. Yates, "Contingency Tables Involving Small
Numbers and the Chi-Square Test," supplement to the Journal
if the Royal Statistical Society, l (1954), pp. 217- .

15The results were: agricultural workers .05>p>.025,
factory workers .O2>p >.Ol, and office workers .50)p).25.

, _ 14The derived estimates of intra-occupational group
Visiting for each of the three groups were: agricultural
Workers 94 per cent, factory workers 46 per cent, and office

:giiters 78.2 per cent. For the total sample it was 68 per

th 15A limitation is placed on the conclusiveness of
i e89 results, since in some instances there were few cases
:1 the expected frequency cells.

74
inside their group; and office workers overwhelmingly vis-
ited persons within their occupational group);

(c) where visiting outside one's own occupational
group occurred, agricultural workers visited office workers,16
factory workers visited both agricultural and office work—
ers, and office workers only visited factory workers;

(d) the degree to which outside visiting occurred
varied: Factory workers visited persons outside their own
occupational level to a much greater degree than did either
agricultural or office workers.

(6) Visiting of kin. Analysis of the data to test hy-
pothesis five showed that workers in each occupational
group, if they visited, tended to visit persons in their
same occupational group more than persons in any other occu-
pational group. To what extent did agricultural, factory,
and office workers visit persons who were related to them?
Table 10 indicates that the persons visited by workers in
the three occupational groups were usually related to them.
The differences among the average ranks of agricultural,
factory, and office workers were significant but they were
11013 in the expected direction A-F-O; rather they were in
the direction F-A-O.l7 Factory workers (F) visited kin to a

greater degree than did agricultural workers (A), who in

\

16Only one case .

17The total pattern F-A-O might have been significant

 

 

 

 

 

75 (
TABLE 10. RELATIONSHIP OF PERSONS VISITED MOST OFTEN
BY AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERSa
Occupational Group
Relationship Agricultural Factory Office Total '
workers workers workers
Immediate family 5 2O 5 50
Relative l4 l6 7 57
God—father - 4 - 4
Friend 7 I2 15 34
Totals 26 52 27 105b
Av. Rank 55.1 46.8 64.7 if?
H = 6.85 - .05>p>.02; (d. r. .. 2)

 

aBased on responses to question "Who are the three
Persons you visit most often in this community?"

bOut of a possible 150 persons-relationships that

could. be mentioned, i.e., 50 respondents times 5 persons
and their relationship), only 105 persons-relationships
were actually mentioned. These were used in the tabula-

tions presented here.

76
turn visited kin to a greater degree than did office work-
ers (O).

Since this result deviated from theoretical expecta—
tions, analysis was carried further to ascertain whether

these deviations signified real differences between groups

or whether they were due to chance. Evidence was sought by

pairing each of the three groups to test the null hypothe-
sis that each pair of samples came from the same population

:and that any differences observed would be due to chance

:factors. The "z"18 test was utilized to test the null hy-

pothesis.

 

cur either or both of the pairs (A-F, A-O, F-O) could have
tween the major contributor to the significant "H".

18"z" is a test of the significance of the difference
'bertween pairs of average ranks. it is computed according to

tlle following formula:
z = 212 - n(N + l)/2n5Ԥ

where R is the sum of the ranks of all cases in a group; N
is 'the number of cases in both groups; and n the number of
cases in the group for which ranks are summed; and

2__N(N2-l -£‘.T N-n
0-5:" 12%In“"‘"‘N-l

Where T =- (t - 1)t(t + 1) and t =- the number of tied obser-
vatixons in a group with the same rank.

(Zomputations of "z" may be adjusted for continuity.
All Inasults are interpreted from a table of areas under the
noruua]_ curve at various ordinate positions. Since the 0p-
erational hypotheses all stated the direction of the dif-
ffinances expected, one-tailed interpretations were used in

77

Evidence was found which appeared to confirm only that
part of the original hypothesis which stated that office
‘workers would visit kin less often than agricultural and

factory workers. The patterns of visiting of factory and

agricultural workers both differed from office workers but

did not differ from each other.19

Concerning patterns of visiting kin we may conclude
that (a) most workers who visited did so with persons re-
lated to them, (b) factory workers visited kin to a greater
degree than agricultural workers who, in turn, visited kin
to a greater degree than did office workers, and (c) fac-
tory and agricultural workers did not greatly differ from
each other in the extent to which they visited kin, but

both did differ significantly from the patterns exhibited

by office workers.
At this point in the analysis of the data, an attempt

was made to ascertain what part kinship played in the ob-

*_

evaluating the probabilities of the various differences.
FD? a discussion of this statistic see Kruskal and Wallis,
113$. , pp. 590-95. The authors do not assign a symbol to

Following Joel Smith, Organization of the

g 8 statistic.
tfi-E‘ui'2_€=lnd Mass Communication (unpublished doctoral disserta-
lon) 9 Northwesternmhiversity, 1954, p. 42, footnote, it

ha? been referred to as "z" since it is evaluated with a
unit curve table. . .

( ) 19The differences between the average ranks were:
0131.. factory and office workers p = .0055, agricultural and
lce workers :9 = .0455, and (c) agricultural and factory

workers P 3 .1635.

served intra—occupational group visiting patterns.20 The
research findings are presented under hypothesis seven
(visiting of kin in the same occupational group) and hy—
,pothesis eight (visiting non-kin in the same occupational
group) .

(7) Visiting of kin in the same occupational group.
Enable 11 indicates that persons visited who were kin tended
The

to be in the same occupational group as the respondent.

differences between the average ranks of agricultural, fac-

 

20The data presented in Table 9 were analyzed further

‘t<> cietermine the role of kinship in intra-occupational vis-
1111118. The following procedures were utilized to organize
the data. For each of the three occupational groups, per-
sons visited were separated into two categories: (a) per-
sons who were kin, and (b) persons who were not kin, i.e.,
friends. Then the occupational affiliation of the persons
‘vissixted was ascertained and cross-tabulated against the
three original occupational groups. In this manner two
t§1>lxas were derived, one showing the occupational distribu—
tixorl of related persons visited by each of the three origi—
zna]. (occupational groups (see Table 11); the other showing
thfi? (Docu ational distribution of non-related persons
(friends visited by each of the original groups (see Table
_ .A.problem arises concerning hypotheses seven and eight,
in <3annection with Tables 11 and 12. It was stated earlier
thfrt 'the Operational hypotheses were developed as independ-
ant iJndices of their related categories. Hypotheses seven
and. eright are not entirely independent of each other, since
we data used in testing each (Tables 11 and 12) are de-
lflved from Table 9, and are not independent. If one table
18 established it is possible to predict the other. How-
§v91?, ihypothesis seven and eight are both independent of
typothesis five (Table 9) and six (Table 10) and thus serve
to refine, clarify, and augment our knowledge of the pat-
erns of social visiting among the occupational groups in

the Seuznple population.

[\J
I.

 

79

TABLE 11. OCCUPATIONS OF RELATED PERSONS VISITED MOST
OFTEN BY AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERSa

_—‘-
__-

Occupational Group

 

Oc cupations of

 

 

kin vi sited Agricultural Factory Office Total
workers workers workers
Agricultural 11 6 - 17
Factory - 12 4 16
Office 1 8 6 15
Totals 12 26 IO 48
Av. Rank 11.6 26.5 55.8

H = 15.73 ~ p<.01; (d. r. 2)

" aBased on cross tabulation of responses to question 1w.
Who are the three persons you visit most often in this 4* pp
Community?" Reapondents were asked to state the occupation ‘
and relationship of the three persons mentioned.

I'll!

80

TABLE 12. OCCUPATIONS OF NON-RELATED PERSONS VISITED
MOST OFTEN BY AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY
AND OFFICE WORKERS

W
Occupational Group

 

Occupations of

 

 

non—kin visited Agricultural Factory Office Total
workers workers workers
Agricultural 6 2 -‘ 8
Factory -- 5 - 3
Office - l 15 14
Totals 6 6 15 25
Av. Rank 4.5 9.6 18.5

H = 12.41 - p<.Ol; (d. r. =- 2)

 

 

81
tory, and office workers were in the expected direction and
were significant.

Further investigation was carried on to find out (a) to
what extent workers in each of the occupational groups vis-
ited kin who were also in the same occupational group, and
(b) to what extent the intra-group patterns of visiting kin
were significant in terms of the estimate of the total dis-
tribution of such visiting for the total population. The
question was: Given the estimate of the extent of visiting
of kin by all members of the sample, what is the probabili—
ty that the pattern shown by agricultural, by factory”, and
by office workers will differ from it as a consequence of
chance factors? (Sixty-four point four per cent of all vis-
iting was with persons who were kin, i.e., members of the:
immediate family and/or relatives.) As before, the null
hypothesis was invoked for each occupational group. To
test the null hypothesis the Chi-square goodness-of-fit
test was used. The results of the testszl indicated that
agricultural workers did more visiting with kin who were
fellow workers than would be expected, given knowledge of
the estimate of such visiting for the total sample. Fac-

tory workers did far less visiting of kin who were fellow

¥

21The results were: agricultural workers .O5>p ).O25,
factory workers .25)p ).10, and office workers, .99<P-

 

82

workers than would be expected, and office workers approx-

imated the expected patterns.‘22

From the analysis of materials relating to visiting
kin who were fellow workers we may conclude that:

(a) visiting of kin who were fellow workers was common
among all groups;

(b) the degree to which a worker visited kin who were
fellow workers varied by occupational groups (see footnote
22) ;

(c) where visiting of kin who were Egg fellow workers
occurred, agricultural workers visited office workers,25
factory workers visited both agricultural and office workers,

and office workers visited only factory workers;

(d) the degree to which visiting kin who were not fel—
low workers occurred varied: factory workers exhibited

such behavior to a greater degree than did either agricul-

tural or office workers.

(8) Visiting unrelated persons in the same occupation-
21 group. The same procedures used above were also uti-

lized to investigate the relationship between visiting of

—_-

22The derived estimates of visiting kin who were fel-
low workers for each of the three groups were: agricultur-
al workers 91.6 per cent, factory workers 46.1 per cent,

and office workers 60 per cent. For the total sample it
was 60.4 per cent.

523

Only one case.

85

unrelated persons and occupational position. It was found
that visiting of unrelated persons also followed occupa-
tional group lines. Table 12 indicates that the observed
patterns were in the expected direction and that the dif-
ferences between the ranks were significant.

Eighty-eight per cent of the visiting among unrelated
persons was with fellow workers, somewhat higher than that
observed for kin visiting. To what extent were the intra-
group visiting patterns with unrelated persons significant,
for agricultural, factory, and office workers, in terms of
the percentage of intra-group visiting with unrelated per-
sons estimated for the total pOpulation. It was found that
all agricultural and office workers who visited unrelated
persons did so with fellow workers; this occurred to a
greater degree than would be expected from the estimate for
the total sample.24 Factory workers who visited unrelated
Persons, contrary to the other two groups, visited across
group lines with both agricultural and office workers; this
occurred less than would have been expected from the total

estimate. ‘We may conclude that (a) visiting unrelated per-

—._

2“The probabilities for the patterns were: agricul-

tural workers .5>p).5, factory workers .O5)p ).O2, and
office workers .5)p ).5. A limitation is placed on the
conclusiveness of these results since, in some instances,

Eeii‘e were fewer than five cases in the expected frequency
8.

84
sons who are fellow workers is common among individuals in
all three occupational groups, and (b) agricultural and of-
fice workers are alike in their patterns but factory work-

ers differ from both.

Profile Of the three groups' exposure to information
through social visiting.25 The analysis suggested that the
three occupational groups showed differences in patterns of
information exposure through social visiting. A summary of
the tests of the Operational hypotheses appears in Table 15
at the end of this section.

A. Agricultural workers. Agricultural workers most
frequently visit workers within their own occupational
group and such visiting is most often done with relatives.
It is apparent therefore that not only are agricultural
workers unexposed to information through mass media, but A A. 2
they are also unexposed to new information through social
Visiting since the persons they visit (fellow workers) are
no more exposed than themselves. One important source of
exIND-sure, however, does come from factory workers whovisit
them occasionally.

B. Factory workers. Factory workers consistently vis-
ited across occupational lines. More than half of all via--

g

. 25A summary of the tests Of Operational hypotheses re-
lating to exposure to information through social visiting
appears at the end of this section.

its made by them were to either agricultural or Office
workers. This cross-occupational visiting occurred with
persons who were unrelated to them as well as with kin.
Thus, the social visiting of factory workers differed from
that of agricultural workers in that factory workers visit-
ed across occupational lines and visited regardless of fam-
ily ties.

These findings suggest that factory workers, already
shown to be exposed often to newspapers and radio, may have
their information exposure reinforced or expanded by their
frequent contacts with all groups. In addition, they may
serve as transmitters Of information, news, and opinions.
Information they get through mass media may be passed up and
down the communications ladder; and especially what they
learn from Office workers may be transmitted to agricultur-
al workers with whom they frequently visit. This cross-
occupational group visiting is an outstanding characteris-
tic of the social visiting patterns among factory workers
and is, of course, an important aspect of the process of
information exposure in the rural town community.

C. Office workers. Office workers restricted their
Visiting to workers within their own occupational group.
This Pattern was more in common with agricultural workers
than With factory workers; however, in contrast to agricul-

tural workers, office workers visited workers who were not

86
15111. Where inter-occupational group visiting did occur it
was only with factory workers who were kin. Thus, Office
workers may have their high rate of exposure to information
through mass media reinforced in social visiting with fellow
wo rkers. In addition, their high media exposure and their
frequent contact with factory workers makes them an impor-
tant source Of the information to which other workers are
exposed.

For the total sample population it is apparent that
workers tended to visit fellow workers and to visit kin.
However, workers who visited kin tended to do so with work-
ers on the same occupational level; and workers who visited
unrelated persons tended also to do so with fellow workers.
Several things seem apparent; first, much of the informa—
ti on to which persons are exposed is transmitted to them by
other persons and most Often by members of their own inti-
mate face to face groups. Of these, face to face situations
inVOlving fellow workers and friends seem to be Of greater
Significance as areas for Obtaining new information and for
transmitting information than do family groups alone. Fur-
thermore, groups made up of "kin who are fellow workers" are
probably the most dynamic source of information exposure,
es far as oral transmission of information is concerned. It
is hi ghly probable that information transmitted in these

Ways may be modified in language form, content, and empha-

{TABLE 15.

87

SUMMARY OF TESTS OF OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESES

RELATING TO EXPOSURE TO INFORMATION THROUGH
SOCIAL VISITING

 

 

Direction of

 

Hypothesis difference Significance
(5) Visiting patterns: . .Ol)p
occupation Hypothes1zed (A-F-O) (df 3 2)
(6) Visiting of kin Contrary (F—A-O) .05 )p>.O2
(df = 2)
('7) Visiting of kin in 01)
same °°°upati°nal H othesized (A-F-O) (dr = 3)
group yp
(8) Visiting of those

‘who are not kin in
same occupational
group

Hypothesi zed (A-F—O) (£13 1??)

88

sis to meet the level of comprehension of workers in the

lower economic strata and/or to serve the purposes of the

transmitters.
Contact with Persons from Outside

the Local Community

Contact with persons from outside the local community

provides an important source of general information, news,

ideas, and Opinions. In this section the author examines

the frequency of contact Of agricultural, factory, and of-
fice workers with persons from other rural town communi-

ties, the capital city of Porto Alegre, other states, and

other countries.

(9) Frequency of contact with persons from other rural

_t_own localities. Table 14 indicates that differences in

the frequency of contact of the three groups with persons

from other rural town communities did exist. The pattern,

however, was not in the expected direction. Factory work-
81‘8 had a higher frequency of contact with persons from
Other localities than did Office workers, who, in turn, had

a higher frequency of contact with persons from other local-

ities than did agricultural workers.26 There was reason to

believe that .factors related to the type and location of

Work might have accounted for this result. This point will

be discussed in the final chapter.

\

1 26Deviations of this order were tested further.
ater section on further analysis.

See

89

TABLE 14. FREQUENCY OF CONTACT OF AGRICULTURAL,
FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS WITH PERSONS FROM

OTHER RURAL LOCALITIES

 

 

Frequency
of contact

Occupational Group

 

Agricultural Factory Office Total

 

 

workers workers‘ workers
bhewrer l - - l
Often in your life 6 - - 6
Often in a year 12 5 5 22
Once a week 1 3 3 7
Daily - 12 2 14
{Totals 20 20 10 50

.Av. Rank 14.3 55.5 27.2

71" = 5.39 - .lO>p>.OS; (d. r. = 2)

zf0 = 1.5; p = .1556

90

(10) Frequency of contact with persons from the capi—
gal city. The pattern observed in the case of other rural
town communities also held for contact with persons from
the capital city. Table 15 shows that differences existed
but that the pattern of differences was not in the expected
direction. Factory workers had a higher frequency of con-
tact with persons from Porto Alegre than office workers
who, in turn, had a higher frequency of contact than agri-
cultural workers.

(11) Frequency of contact with persons from other
states. The pattern of differences in frequency of contact
with persons from other states among agricultural, factory,
and office workers was not in the expected direction (see
Table 16).

(12) Frequency of contact with persons from other

gountries. Table 17 indicates that the pattern of differ-

 

ences between the average ranks of agricultural, factory,
and office workers was in the expected direction and was
Significant.

(13) Most distant place from which persons were con-
W. A glance at the tables relating to frequency of
cGmtact with other rural town communities, with the capital
city, with other states, and with other countries, discloses

that the greater the distance away from Tapes the less fre-

quent was the contact of all workers with persons from

TABLE 15. FREQUENCY OF CONTACT F AGRICULTURAL,
FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS WITH PERSONS FROM

PORTO ALEGRE (CAPITAL CITY)

91

 

 

Occupational Group

 

 

 

Frequency

of contact Agricultural Factory Office Total

workers workers workers
Dhewrer' 4 — - 4
Often in your life 11 l l 15
Often in a year 4 3 10
Once a week 1 6 4 11
Daily — lO 2 12
(Totals ‘ 2O 2O 10 50

.Av. Rank 12.7 36.5 29.9

H = 55.4 - p<.Ol; (d. r. = 2)

zf0 = 1.5845; p = .1140

92

TABLE 16. FREQUENCY OF CONTACT OF AGRICULTURAL,
FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS WITH PERSONS FROM
OTHER STATES

 

 

Occupational Group

 

 

 

Frequency

of contact Agricultural Factory Office Total

workers workers workers
Never 18 5 5 26
Often in your life 2 6 5 ll
Often in a year - 9 5 12
Once a week - - l 1
{Potals 2O 2O 10 5O

Itv. Rank 15.5 52.1 51.5

H = 18.685 - p<.Ol; (d. r. = 2)

zfo = -.O252; p a .8180

93

TABLE 17. FREQUENCY OF CONTACT OF AGRICULTURAL,
FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS WITH PERSONS FROM
OTHER COUNTRIES

 

Occupational Group

 

 

 

Frequency

of contact Agricultural Factory Office Total

workers workers workers
Never 38 25 12 '73
Often in your life 2 14 4 2O
Often in a year - 3 4 7
Totals 40 4o 20 1008‘

lav. Rank 59.5 57.7 58.5

H = 140397 ~ p<oOl; (do f. 3 2)
zfo = -.8552; p = -5954
aResponses from a related question on frequency of

Contact with persons from the United States were included.
T111.£s accounts for N of 100 instead of 50.

94
these areas. What is the pattern of the differences in the
most distant place from which persons have been contacted
for the three occupational groups? Table 18 shows that all
groups had at least some contact with persons from other
places, but the degree to which such contact was made
varied among the occupational groups. Agricultural workers
were less exposed than Office workers who, in turn, were
less exposed than factory workers. This pattern was not in
the expected direction but was significant.

Further analysis. Analysis of contacts with persons
from outside the community showed the pattern A-O-F (i.e.,
that agricultural workers were less exposed than office
workers, who were less exposed than factory workers) re-
curred. Further investigation was carried on to ascertain
whether the total pattern (A-O-F) was significant or
Whether only one or two pairs was the major contributing
faCtor.27 The findings indicated that agricultural workers
(least exposed) differed significantly from factory and of-
fiCe workers (highly exposed) with respect to contact with

Persons from outside the community.

 

\

27One pair of average ranks (F-O) was investigated for
gach table by use of the "z" test. The question posed was:
that is the probability of getting a difference as great as
fhe one obtained in the case where there really is no dif-
aerence between the average ranks for F (factory workers)
tfid 0 (office workers)? It was found that, for each table,
(Fe differences between the average ranks of the two groups
r ‘0) was not significant. Therefore, it was not the F-0
gelationship which was the contributing factor to the ob-
erved pattern A-O-F but either the A-F and/or the A-O rela-

tionship.

95

TABLE 18. MOST DISTANT PLACE FROM WHICH PERSONS
HAVE BEEN CONTACTED BY AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY
AND OFFICE WORKERS

 

 

Most distant Occupational Group

jplace of origin of
places contacted

 

Agricultural Factory Office Total

 

 

workers workers workers
(Iontacts all local 1 - - l
C)ther localities 2 - — 2
(Zapital city 14 5 2» l9
CTther states 1 4 5 8
Otflner countries 2 ‘ 15 5 20
Totals 20 2O 10 50

.Av; Rank 18.5 40.7 57.6

E = 52.3 - p<.o1; (d. r. = 2)
zf0 = .7279; p = .4654

96

Profile of the three groups' exposure to information
through contact with persons from outside the community.
The analysis suggested that the three groups showed differ-

ences in patterns of exposure through contact with persons

from outside. A summary of the tests Of the Operational

hypotheses appears in Table 19.

A. Agricultural workers. Agricultural workers are in

contact with persons from (a) other rural town localities‘
"often in a year," (b)the capitalcity a few times in their
lives, and (c) from other states and other countries gener-

zally "never." The capital city of Porto Alegre is the most

ciistant place of origin of persons who have been contacted

byr agricultural workers. Agricultural workers have only

iiifrequent contacts with persons from the outside world--
even neighboring rural town localities--who might introduce
nevv ideas, attitudes, opinions and information into their
lives. They have met persons from as far away as Porto
Alemgre which indicates that in their lifetimes their direct
eXposure to bearers of information and their vicarious ex-
Posure to new information has extended beyond the planta-

tiozi.

13. Factory workers. Factory workers are in contact

wittl 13ersons from (a) other rural town localities and the

capital city "daily," (b) other states "often in a year,"

and (C) other countries rarely. Other countries are the

97

 

 

 

TABLE 19. SUNTARY OF TESTS OF OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESES
RELATING TO CONTACT WITH PERSONS FROM OUTSIDE
THE COMMUNITY
. Direction of 'Q. . .
Hypothes1zed Difference Significance
(9) Frequency of con-

tact with persons _ .lO)p>.O5
from other local- Contrary (A-O F) (df = 2)
ities

(10) Frequency of con- 01)
tact with persons Contrary (A—O-F) (df = g)
from capital city

(11) Frequency of con- 01>
tact with persons Contrary (A-O-F) (df = g,
from other stateS' ’

(12) Frequency of con- >
tact with persons . _ _ .01 p
from other coun- Hypothe51zed (A F 0) (df = 2)
tries

(15) Most distant place 01)
from which persons Contrary (A-O-F) (Ar = B)

have been contacted

98

most distant places from which persons have been met by the
majority of factory workers. Factory workers have a high

rate of exposure to persons from the outside world who

might serve as sources of new social knowledge. In compari—

son to agricultural and office workers they (the factory

workers) have the highest amount of such exposure. This

point will be taken up again in the final chapter.

C. Office workers. Office workers contact persons

from other rural town localities "often in a year," from
the capital city "once a week" or "often in a year," from
other states "often in a year," and from other countries

rarely. For half of the Office workers studied, "other

countries" were the most distant places of origin of per-

sons who had been met. Office workers fairly frequently

exqoerience contacts with persons from the outside world.
Thexy are much more exposed than agricultural workers and
onlgr somewhat less exposed than factory wOrkers. The range
of contact for individuals in the Office worker group is
Wide and there exist all degrees of contact with persons
fitnn the outside rather than the pattern characteristic of
‘Hue crther two groups, in which only the extremes of high or
1'10 contact with outsiders were found.

For the total sample of occupational groups it maybe

concluded:

99

(1) Information exposure of workers in the rural town

community is structured. Whether or not an individual work-

er is exposed to bearers of information from the outside,

and the frequency and type of such exposure depends on the
occupational group to which the individual belongs. It is
probable that several other factors in the life experiences
of certain groups of workers are also significant in this

:reSpect. These factors are identified at the conclusion of

‘this chapter and discussed in the concluding chapter.
(2) Most workers are isolated from frequent contact
vvith persons from the outside world (factory workers differ

ffirom this pattern more often than any other occupational

However, all groups contain individuals who have
The most

group) .
must outside persons at least once in their lives.

disstant place of origin of such persons does not extend be- H

yornd the capital city for most workers. Agricultural work—

ers; are almost totally isolated from outside contacts even

witfli persons from neighboring communities. It is apparent

thsrt,.for most workers, what they know about the outside

worfildl is obtained indirectly through other agents within

the c ommunications process .

(30 For factory and office workers the greater the “‘
\

distance between Tapes and another place the more frequent—
‘\‘

1y GI) ‘they mention it as a place from which persois havei
1 -

v .

lOO

been contacted.28 Their contact patterns obviously involve
them in the affairs of the wider society and expose them to
sources Of information about state, national, and interna-
tional occurrences. For example, one office worker regu-
larly went to Porto Alegre to meet with friends who, he
felt, could inform him of important national issues. In
the case of the Rosenberg trial, the death of Stalin, and
'the prisoner of war riots in Korea, the Opinions that the
lRosenbergs may not have been guilty, that Stalin was a
ggreat statesman, and that maybe there was something wrong
vvith the treatment of Communist prisoners by American
txroops were first introduced by a factory worker who at-

twanded monthly trade union meetings in Porto Alegre.

Summary of the Results
Agricultural workers have a low degree of potential
expnosure to new ideas, information, attitudes, and Opinions
because: (a) they do not possess the necessary prerequi-
siteas (e.g., literacy and money) for use of mass media;
(b) those who are exposed are limited to an infrequent
reatliaag of newspapers; (0) they are not exposed to new in-

¥

228Agricultural workers showed a tendency toward the
reverse pattern, though any attempt at generalization is
complicated by the fact that fewer persons (two) mentioned
OtheI? :rural communities than mentioned the capital city
(fOUJTtteen) as the most distant place from which outsiders

had. been met a

lOl
formation in their social visiting since the persons they
visit are fellow workers as unexposed as themselves; and (d)
they have extremely infrequent contacts with bearers of in-
formation from the outside world.

Factory;workers have a greater degree of potential ex-
posure than agricultural workers because (a) some possess
the necessary prerequisites for use of mass media; (b) those
who are exposed Often use both newspapers and radio;

(c) they have their information exposure reinforced by fre—
quent social visiting with fellow workers and with office
workers who are highly exposed to conventional sources of
information; and (d) they have a high rate of contact with
bearers of information from the outside world.

Office workers have the highest degree of potential
exposure to new social knowledge because (a) they are all
able to read and write, and have a high purchasing power;
(b) they are frequently exposed to both principal mass me—
dia; (c) they have their high exposure frequently rein-
forced in social visits with fellow workers; and (d) they
have wide contacts with persons from outside localities.

These findings suggest that among agricultural, fac-
tory, and Office workers in the agro-industrial structure
Of a rural town community in Brazil variations in informa—
tion exposure are at least in part a function of occupa-

tional position. Variations in information exposure occur

102
in statistically significant patterned directions for elev-
en out of the 15 tests; and in more than half of these
tests the direction of the patterns of variations were as
hypothesized (see Table 20). However, the results of the
tests indicated that the research hypothesis required some
revision in order to take into account several other relat-
ed factors not specified in the original statement.

Through this revision the hypothesis may have greater util-
ity for future research on this and related problems.

At the outset of the study a general principle was of-
fered to explain differential accessibility to information
among members of the labor force of an agro-industrial
rural town community. This principle stated that the eco-
nomic organization Of the rural town community in Brazil ex-
poses (to a greater or less degree) varying groups of work-
ers to different environments (more or less uniform for
each) which affect the probabilities that they will possess
a given pattern of exposure to new social knowledge.

One Specific testable hypothesis was developed to i1-
luminate the general principle. This stated that the form
and character of information exposure, as expressed in:

(a) use Of mass media Of communication, (b) social visiting
with persons within the community, and (c) contact with

persons from outside the community, will vary according to

")
\N

F‘J

TAB IE PO. SUTEJ ZY OF TLS1S CF IRTEEN CP"RATIONA
HYP"RHLJSO CLXNJERNIDVS TEE} YFIERNAATIE ITFKIF'“TI1.. {IC"UF“
ALONG F FTY AIRTCLLTLR L, CFACTCRY, AN O‘F CE

WORKERS IN A RLRAI TONY

TIU"ITY IN BRAZIL

 

Significant

_ *— «.- -..-

Non-significant

 

 

Pattern Difference Difference
(p = .05 or less) (p = greater than .35)
'Hypothesized:
A-F-Oa (1), <2), (5), (5) (4)
(7), (8), (12)
Non-hypothesized:
F-A-O (6)
A-C-F (10), (ll), (13) (9)
8letters in the table refer to a ricultural (A), fac-
tory (F), and office (O) we orlzers. Numbers in the chart re-
fer to the thirteen hypotheses (see pp. 48—49). They were:
(1) Literacy and newspaper readership (see Table 4)
(2) Frequency of newspaper reading (see Table 5).

AA
42W
vv

Cosmopolitan character
by radio owners (see Ta

(5) Visiting patterns: occ
(6) Visiting of kin (see Ta
(7) Visiting of kin in the
Table 11).
(8) Visiting of non-kin in
(seeT able l2).
(9) Freque ncy of contact:
ties (see Table 14).
(13) Frequ uency of contact:
(see iable 1:7) 0
(11) Frequency of contact'
(see Table 13).
(12) Frequency of contact:
’ (see Table 17?.
L13) Most distant rlace fr‘"
(see Table 18‘.

Nevspaper reading anl radio ownership (see

Table 6).

of radio stations listened to

ble 7).

uration (see Table 9).

ble 13)

same occupational group (see

th e sane occupatior a] group

persons from other locali-

pe ens from capital City

rersons from other states

oerscns fr-m other c untries
w.hicn pers)ns-Nere cunts ted

104

the occupational position of the worker in the agro-
industrial structure.
Thirteen Operational hypotheses derived from thirteen

independent situations in which the hypothesis should have

applied were examined. It was expected that if the general

hypothesis was valid, the patterns predicted would be Ob-
served in a certain number of these specific test cases.
Since six of the thirteen tests did not provide supporting
evidence for the research hypothesis, one might choose to
come to one of the following conclusions:

(a) the non-conforming situations were not really situ-
ations in which the research hypothesis applied; therefore
(11 sregard them;

(b) the non-conforming tests were randomly distributed
and seemed to have nothing in common; therefore discard the
hypothesis and replace it with a new one;

(o) the general hypothesis needs expansion, so as to
indicate the causal efficacy of factors in addition to
Stratification differences among the occupational groups
stEldied.

The third alternative was accepted because there were

explanations for the non-conforming tests. Of the six non-

conforming tests, four (three significant and one not sig-
ni ficant) concerned contact with persons from outside the

Community. In the case of these three significant non-

105

conforming situations (hypotheses 10, 11, and 15) there was
reason to believe that factory workers had a greater degree
of contact with outsiders as a function of their job loca-

tion (i.e., visiting technicians and officials come into

t he factory proper).
The unexpected finding that factory workers visited

kin more often than other groups may be explained by the

fact that they are Old timers in the town, are older than

other occupational groups, and have large numbers of chil-

dren.29 Thus, they have the opportunity to visit their kin

in their off hours and on Sunday, and to meet them in pub-

110 places frequented by family groups. Pressure toward

visiting kin is exerted by the norms governing social prac-
Such norms usually give positive

tices in rural Brazil.

sanction to visiting among family relations. These norms

Stem from a family structure which emphasizes filial love,

and the Catholic church which emphasizes the family as an

important unit of worship. Under these conditions family

Visiting among factory workers might be expected to be

higher than other groups.
In contrast to factory workers, more office workers

are young and single. Though they have kin residing in the

Community, their interests are in courting, excursions to

-\
29See Appendix B, "Some Characteristics of theOStudy
Sam131e," for data introduced in this and the follow1ng para-

graph 8 .

106
Porto Alegre, and in the search for new adventure. Agri—
cultural workers may not visit kin simply because they are
mainly migrant laborers who have come to Tapes alone or
with only their wives and children. This explanation is
supported by the fact that agricultural laborers had the
greatest number of "newcomers" to Tapes of any of the
groups.

As a result of these plausible explanations for the
non-conforming situationsao there is reason to believe
that if (a) the location of work, and (b) the worker's po-
sition in the family life cycle, had also been predicated
as significantly related to information exposure, then,
perhaps, eleven or twelve of the thirteen tests would have
supported the research hypothesis. A revised statement of
the research hypothesis would indicate that the form and
Character of information exposure, expressed in terms of
(a) use of mass media of communication, (b) Social visiting
With persons. in the community, and (c) Contact with persons
from outside the community, will vary as the occupational
P081 tion,.‘10cation of work, and position in the family life
Cycle vary.

___\

30Hypotheses 10, ll, and 15, and hypothesis 6 were
considered the major non-conforming situations since they
8.11. c>6curred°in a non-hypothesized direction and were sig-
nificant. Hypothesis 9 was related to 10, 11, and 15, was
In the same direction, but was not significant. Hypothesis
Was in the hypothesized direction but was not significant.

lO7

The author recognizes that there are major difficul-
ties involved in using many-faceted predictive variables
simultaneously. The variables may not be perfectly corre—
lated and knowledge of only one variable may not provide a
firm basis for prediction of all situations. Varieties of
combinations of the variables may be found. In the present
research, occupational position alone did not adequately
explain the patterns observed in the tests of thirteen in—
dependent situations. It is probable that in some of the
cases occupational position, structure of the job situation,
and position in the family life cycle, all Operate together
to produce a given pattern of exposure; in others, only one
or two of the variables may contribute to the observed pat-
terns.

The revision of the original research hypothesis has 3
served to sharpen the author's knowledge of some identifi- 1,.
able factors which affect the probability that agricultural,
factory, and office workers will possess a given pattern of
exposure to information, ideas, Opinions and news. Further—
more, the simultaneous (not successive) analysis of break-
downs Of "simple" patterns provided additional knowledge of
why a certain percentage was as high or low as found. The
data on social visiting provide an illustration of this
point. More than fifty per cent Of the social visiting in

the sample pOpulation occurred where the respondent and the

108

person visited were in the same occupational group. It was
suspected that the relationship between the workers might
be a factor influencing the observed pattern. Further
analysis, breaking down visiting into two categories--vis-
iting with kin and visiting with unrelated persons--demon—
strated that the size of the percentage of intra—occupation—
al visiting was larger among fellow workers who were unre-
lated (88 per cent) than among related persons (60.4 per
cent). It was possible to conclude that a major increase
in intra-occupational visiting came where visiting occurs
among unrelated fellow workers. Thus, information exposure
is structured along occupational and friendship lines. In
addition, the discovery that inter-occupational visiting
increases when it occurs among relatives refined our
knowledge of the communications process. Visiting among
related persons serves to Obscure stratification differ-
ences among different occupational groups. Such visiting,
therefore, facilitates the transmission of information from
the members of one occupational group to those in another.
The present study has illustrated one method for the
study of information exposure in rural town communities
like Tapes. The author has attempted to use empirically
derived hypotheses framed operationally in such a way that
the values of the variables concerned were immediate prod-

ucts of Observational procedures. This method provided a

109

means of classifying, ordering, measuring, and evaluating

the data; it also illustrated procedures for systematic

treatment of comparable data. Chapter VI essays an attempt

to make inferences about the research findings in relation

to the structural. and situational factors found to account

for variations in the information exposure of the pOpula-

ti ons studied.

VI. CONCLUSIONS: SOME FACTORS AFFECTING INFORMATION
EXPOSURE AMONG WORKERS IN A RURAL TOWN COMMUNITY

.—

Occupational Position

The research findings reflected a basic occupational
stratification. The broad limits of information exposure
were set, in part, by the individual's occupational posi-
tion in the social organization of production in the rural
town community. The worker's occupational situation was a
major source of "enlightenment" and a pathway for exposure
to new social knowledge. Utilizing information gained
through field observation and interviews, it was possible
to outline the~general boundaries of the differing occupa-

‘ tional environments affecting information exposure. 'm“

 

1Many investigators have developed schema relating to
the stratification aspects Of Brazilian society. See pre-
viously cited works by Gilberto Freyre, T. Lynn Smith, Fer-
nando Azevedo, T. Lynn Smith and Alexander Marchant, and
Charles Wagley. For ethnic—class aspects see Arthur Ramos,
The Negro in Brazil, Richard Pattee (tr.), Washington,
D. C.:_ The Associated Publishers), 1959; Artur Ramos, In-
trodugao a Antropologia Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, BraETI:
COIecao Estudos Barailsiros), 1947, Vols. I, II, III; Donald
Pierson, Negroes in Brazil (Chicago, Ill.: The University
Of Chicago Press), 1942; Emilio Willems, "Immigrants and
Their Assimilation in Brazil," T. Lynn Smith and Alexander
Merchant (eds.), Brazil: Portrait of Half a Continent (New
York: Dryden Press), I951, pp. 209-25; and Thomas L.
Blair, "The Negro Worker in Urban Brazil," Crisis, Vol. 61,

No. 10, December 1954.

111

The plantation. The organization of the Fazenda Rosa

 

Arroziera Brasileira is somewhat typical of the working
conditions of agricultural laborers in the municipio Of
Tapes. The Fazenda is a 14,000 acre rice plantation locat—
ed several miles outside of Tapes; it is owned by a corpo-
ration having large landholdings throughout the state and

general offices in Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande

 

do Sul. Plantation personnel include: a director, who

supervises rice production; a foreman; a number of artisans,

machine drivers, and small renters (parceiros);2 and ap-

proximately one hundred resident unskilled laborers. This

latter group constitutes the bulk of the working pOpulation

and includes several job categories. Among these are

(a) the aguador, who waters the rice fields; (b) the Egg; 4

balhador de pas, who forms the mud-walls and digs the irri-

 

 

2In Rio Grande do Sul a parceiro is one who enters in-
to a contract, verbal or written, to cultivate a piece of
land belonging to a large landholder under conditions that
the owner provide water and tools and that the individual
turn over forty per cent of the crOp, more or less, to the
landowner. Parceiros tend to be independent in spirit and
occupy a social status somewhat higher than that Of the
agricultural laborer. For other definitions of parceiro
see T. Lynn Smith, Brazil: People and Institutions (Baton
Rouge, La.: NLouisiana State University Press), 1946, p.
808, and Smith and Marchant, pp. 233., p. 166. For compar-
able terms in use in Latin America see Sam Schulman, "The
Colono System in Latin America," Rural Sociology, Vol. 20,
No. 1, March 1955, and Beate R. Salz, The Human Element in
Industrialization (Chicago, 111.: American Anthropological
Association and the University of Chicago), 1955, Vol. 57,
No. 6, Part 2, Memoir 85, pp. 57-58.

 

 

 

112
gation ditches that carry water to the fields; (0) the

pegador de percevejos, who hunts the insects which attack

 

the rice buds when the fields lie deep in water; (d) the
trabalhador de cerca de arame, who erects and maintains the
fences which line the fields; the vagueiro, who rides herd
on the cattle owned by the plantation; the boieiro, who
drives the oxen transport carts; and the peso de campg, the
lowly field hand who does general work wherever he is need-
ed.

Eighmypercent of the labor on the plantation is done
by hand. The work tasks performed by unskilled workers are
traditional, and were performed by them in the past, and by
their fathers before them. Their work is arduous and long,
and is usually done in work gangs under the supervision of
a straw—boss. Each job can easily be performed by another
worker and as a result there are widespread feelings of in-
security. Job performance does not require, nor does it
lead to, literacy, intellectual ability, technical compe-
tence, or specialization. Unskilled workers have, as a re-

‘sult, little opportunity to develop skills which might be

used in the acquisition of new information and social knowl-

edge.
Economic rewards and incentives are lacking. The la—
borer works from sunrise to sunset for 25 cruzeiros a day

(U. S. $1.20). There is no work on Sundays or on rainy

115

days; thus a worker averages 505 cruzeiros (U. S. $25.00)

 

per month. Workers are paid once a month in company money
(fichas) which can only be spent at the company store where
prices are high. Debt bondage is common among workers.
Some workers are not paid at all, but receive, in lieu of
cash wages, a small plot of land (guintal) on which to
raise subsistence crOps.

There is one small school building on the plantation
which has not been in use for many years. There is no
electricity and agricultural workers do not own any instru—
ments of mass media communication. In addition, they are
not encouraged to "know." In the words of one office work—
er: "Why do they need to know anything? . . . Better to
leave sleeping dogs lie." As in the past, the life of the
agricultural worker is rooted in the soil. There is a great
dependency on the slow changes of nature and these color
the life cycle of the peOple. Religious beliefs dominate
the values of men, and kinship and friendship are signifi-
cant factors in social interaction. llliteracy, disease,
low standards of living, disenfranchisement, geographical
and informational isolation, and dependence on the will of
the foreman and the director are ever-present influences in
the lives of workers.

The ebb ani flow of life ani labor on the plantation

follows that of the rice crop. During the planting season

114
there is work enough for all; while the fields are culti-
vated only a few men are employed. At harvest time, the
fields are dotted with men, wages are steely, anl life is
pleasant; but, when the fields lie fallow in the summer,
employment subsides ani the worker and his family must live
on credit at the company store. 0n the plantation, where
laborers are constantly faced with the problem of obtaining
the barest necessities of life-~food, clothing and shelter
-—information eXposure is, at best, an indirect and infre-
quent process.

The rice mill. The rural town community engenho de

 

2339; (rice mill or factory) is an important link in the
transformation of the raw product. The function of the en:
ggnhg is to transform raw rice into an edible product by
husking, milling and polishing the rice grain. These 22‘
genhos, characteristically, own and control vast planta-
tions which supply them with rice. Where there is no plan-
ning, life and labor in the engenho, as life.on the planta-
tion, is geared to the cycle of land use.

In the engenho there are: a director, office workers,
factory technicians, foremen, mechanics and artisans, semi-
skilled machine tenders, drivers, and unskilled laborers.
The latter groups constitute the bulk of the working popula-
tion. In these groups may be found: (a) the cabeceador,

who transports the rice sacks on his head from one place to

115

another; (b) the operario comum who toils in a work gang

 

wherever needed; (c) the empilhador do arroz who shovels the

rice into the bins; (d) the ensacador do farelo who fills

 

the sacks with rice after it has been polished and classi-

fied; (e) the tirador do farelo who tends the machine which

 

separates the husk from the grain; (f) the secadores who

 

tend the drying machines; and (g) the motorista who drives

 

the trucks which transport the rice sacks to the waterfront
pier.

Factory laborers are long-time residents of the town
who were originally agricultural laborers. Many are now
holding jobs which are more highly paid and socially valued
than those in which they started their occupational careers.
Thus, a segment of the factory workers are upwardly mobile
in the agro-industrial socio-economic structure.

The average mill worker receives 740 cruzeiros (U. S.

 

$57.00) per month and works a ten—hour day, five and a half

day week. I'll'orkers possessing a carteira profissional re-

 

ceive higher wages than do other workers. The carteira is

 

an occupational identification card issued by the national
ministry of labor which must be held by all literate, gain-
fully employed workers 16 years of age and older. This
card establishes literate factory workers throughout Brazil

as one special group protected by national labor legisla-

116
5

tion. They are, therefore, aware of their rights and of
the conditions of labor beyond the limits of their own com-
munity.

In general, the workers at Mercantil Arroz feel that
the director is interested in their welfare. He lends them

money when they are in need and serves occasionally as the

compadre (god—father) of a worker's child. However, in re-

 

cent years the workers have grown increasingly critical of
the internal Operation of the rice mill. They have pro-
tested against the working conditions, the system or lack
of a system of up-grading, and the discriminatory wage
scale; ani they have criticized the office workers for
their snobbish attitude toward the mill workers. In 1950
the factory workers attempted to organize a local of a
state union, Centro Sindical mstadual de Operarias de In-
dustria. They were fought with all the power of the mill
owners. The owners claimed that the organization of a
union was a communist plot and succeeded in thwarting the
workers' plans. By 1953 the workers had grown more vocif—

erous in their demands and a union was established.

 

5For additional information on workers' rights in Bra-
zil and the labor legislation affecting them, see J. V.
Freitas Marcondes, "Social Legislation in Brazil," Smith
and Merchant, ibid., Chapter 17; and José de Segadas-Vianna,
O Sindicato no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Grafica
Olympica Editoraj, 1955.

 

 

 

 

117

The status quo at the mill was further threatened by

 

the announcement that a new mill was to be constructed.
The source of capital for this new mill was to come from
the Bank of Brazil and its principal stockholders were 10-
cal plantation owners who had been customers of ivlercantil
Arroz. This not only meant a loss of business for the old
mill, but meant that the new mill would be in competition
for the small available supply of workers. Most people in
the town felt that ,the establishment of the new mill, bar-
ring an agreement between the two owners, would mean a rise
in wage levels.

These dynamic factors in the life of the rural town
factory worker play a part in his acquisition of educatiOn
and the instruments of mass communication. He becomes in-
creasingly aware of the role that his class plays in the
life of the community and the nation, and aspires to achieve

a better position in life.

The mill office. The mill office is separated from

 

the factory preper. In the office there is an air of effi-
ciency and dispatch. Office workers, generally speaking,
are the sons of established and important town families.
Their fathers are small land-owners, professional, or of-
fice workers. The first jobs held by office workers tend
to have been white-collar jobs, such as store clerks, sales-
men, or municipal employees. In the office they wear white

shirts, dress pants and polished shoes.

118

Office workers arrive at work at 8 A. M. and generally

wofl<rfine hours a day for five and a half days. For this

they receive a wage of 1,400 cruzeiros (U. S. $70.00) per

 

nmnth. This sum is augmented occasionally by gratificacoes

(bonuses) of from one to five thousand cruzeiros. Twice a

 

day work is stopped for café (a morning and afternoon cof-

fee break). Office workers may also receive time off during

the day to perform family or personal duties.

Office workers, by the nature of their high position

in the life of the community, are expected by other towns-

people to be well-informed. They own radios, and frequent-

ly read many newspapers and often attend movie showings.
Subjective sentiments. Subjectively, workers look at

the world around them in different ways. Agricultural

workers are caught in a web of isolation, ignorance, and
apathy. Those few agricultural workers who do aspire to a
better economic situation, who would like to change their
jobs, and who hope that their children will own their own
businesses, or be white-collar workers or professionals, do
not knOW'hOW’tO achieve this "better life"; and in their
everyday situations there are barriers and antipathies
which prevent attainment of the means for making their
hopes come true.

Factory and office workers have high aspirations for

themselves and their children; they are aware of the modern

 

119
facilities and institutions which can help them better
their lot in life; they are aware that education helps them
to get ahead in the world. They do differ on how a worker
should go about utilizing his knowledge. An illustrative
situation occurred during the field research: The company
proposed a program of benefits (especially educational) to
counter the workers' demands for a union. The Opinion was
common among factory workers that "a worker should increase
his knowledge in order to have a greater Opportunity for in-
dependent action . . . but it would be better to use our
education to organize @ union)for a better distribution of

the means of life." Office workers, on the other hand, were

 

more prone to say, "I am against the union. it does not
have any value. Education was not meant to be used against

those who gave it to you."

Variations in Information Exposure Related to
Location of Work, Occupational Position,
and Position in the Family Life Cycle

Occupational position, location of work, and position
in the family cycle are three related factors which have
been found to affect the patterns of information exposure
investigated in the present research. The following is a
discussion of the relative importance of these factors and

the circumstances under which each takes precedence in the

information exposure of workers.

120

Availability of mass media. The exposure of agricul—
tural, factory, and office workers to information was high~
ly influenced by what media were available and how widely
they were distributed. In the rural town community the
diffusion of information through mass media is handicapped
by a lack of availability and poor distribution of the in-
struments of mass communication.4 These factors increas-
ingly handicapped mass communication as one descended the
class hierarchy.

In Tapes, newspapers, radios, and films were avail-
able, in varying degrees, though their distribution was not
widespread beyond the town limits. Every evening approxi—
mately Sixty COpies of two Porto Alegre dailies, Diario de
‘flgitg and Correio do Povo, arrived by bus. One-half of
these newspapers were delivered personally to the mill su-
pervisors, the mayor and officials, the plant foremen, the
priest, and some teachers and white-collar workers. The
rest were sold on the streets and in cafes. All other
reading matter had to be purchased by individuals on trips
to other localities and the state capital.

There were about eighty radios in Tapes, a quarter of

'which were located in cafes. The ownership of radios was

 

4This problem is common throughout Brazil. See Appen-
dix C, "Note on the Existence, Accessibility, and Limita-
tions of Information Exposure through Mass Media in Brazil."
For pertinent information on media available in TapesznxiRio
Grande do Sul see tables at end of Appendix C.

121

not limited to places having electricity since many persons
possessed battery sets. The use of battery radios was re-
stricted, however, since they could not be played for long
periods of time. The local cinema had a capacity of five
hundred persons and showed films three times a week. Ad-
mission was five cruzeiros (U. S. $0.20); and there were
never more than one hundred persons in the theater at one
showing.

The availability of media decreased as the distance
from the town increased. On the plantation, media instru-
ments were not readily available to the working populations.
Battery sets were owned by the supervisor,tduaforeman, and

one small renter (parceiro). There was no established pa—

 

per route extending to the plantation, and no motion pic—
tures had ever been shown. Workers did not use mass media
available in the town, since this would require absence
from work and a long journey by horse or by foot. The fact
that mass media were only available in town made the loca-
tion of the worker's occupation an important factor in in-
formation exposure. For the plantation worker, media
availability was low; for the town worker it was greater.
While nmdia were available to both factory and office work-
ears, they were not equally accessible, thus serving to

'bring about different exposure patterns for the two groups.

122
Recent communications investigations indicate that un-
availability and poor distribution of mass media instru-
ments are common problems in underdeveloped areas of the
world. .They also corroborate the present finding that the
available media are limited to urban areas. Lerner,5 in a
study of communication behavior in Turkey and the Middle
East,found that mass media were concentrated in three cities
and that there were few theaters, radios, and newspapers in
the rural hamlets and villages of this world area. Keesing
and Kessing,6 in an experimental case study of "elite com-
munication" in Samoa,found that mass media were relatively

unavailable to large segments of the population outside the

urban centers. In 1952-53, Y. B. Damle,7 studying seven

 

5Daniel Lerner, "A Scale Pattern of Opinion Correlates:
Communication Networks, Media Exposure, and Concomitant Re-
sponses," reprint from Sociometgy, Vol. XVI, No. 3, pp. 266-
271, August 1955. See also Daniel Lerner (with Paul Berk-
man and Lucille Pevsner), Modernizing the Middle East:
Studies in Communication and Social Change (Cambridge, Mass.,
Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology), 1955, unpublished manuscript, Chapter 45.
Through the kind auspices of Dr. Ithiel de Sola Pool, direc-
tor of the Center for International Studies, several recent
international communication studies were made available to

the author.

6Felix K. and Marie M. Keesing, Elite Communication in
a Non-Western Society: A Study of Leadership in Samoa
'(California: Committee for AnthrOpological Research, De-
partment of Sociolory and AnthrOpology, Stanford University,
undated manuscript circa 1954), Vol. II, Chapter VI.

7Y. B. Damle, Communication of Modern Ideas and Knowl-
edge in Indian Villages (Cambridge, Mass.: Center for In-
‘EErnational Studies, Wassachusetts Institute of Technology,

1955-

125
Indian villages with a scale along a continuum of distance
from an urban center, found that availability of media in-
struments decreased as distance from an urban area in—
creased.8 In studies of information exposure in underde-
veloped areas, especially where comparisons are to be made,
it is of primary importance that basic knowledge be acquired
concerning the existence, availability, and distribution of
9

mass media.

Access to information. In the rural town agro-

 

industrial community there were essentially two modes of

access to information; one mode involved direct exposure to

 

8The work of G. K. Zipf and his followers indicates
that in the United States the farther the distance from a
large pOpulation center the less facilities and use of fa—
cilities exist. Relevant works by G. K. Zipf include: "On
the Number, Correlation-Sizes, and the Probable Purchasers
of Newspapers," American Journal of Psychology, Vol. LXI,
1948, pp. 85-92; "On the Frequency and Diversity of Busi—
ness Establishments and Personal Occupations: A Study of
Social Stereotypes and Cultural Roles," Journal of Psyghol-
ggy, Vol. 24, 1947, pp. 159-48; and Human Behavior and the
Pginciple of Least Effort (Addison-Wesley Press: Cambridge,
Massachusetts), 1949, pp. 586-415. See also J. P. Boland,
"On the Number and Sizes of Radio-Stations in Relation to
the Populations of their Cities," Sociometry, Vol. XI,
February-May, 1948, Numbers 1-2; and J. M. Conant and Allen
Davis, "A Measurement of the Number and Diversity of Peri-
odicals in Ninety-Two American Cities," Sociometry, Vol. 11,
1948, pp. 117-20.

 

 

9See Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Genevieve Knupfer, "Commu-
nications Research and International COOperation," Ralph
Linton (ed.), The Science of Man in the World Crisis (New
York: Columbia University Press), 1945, pp. 477-78; and
Charles Y. Clock, "The Comparative Study of Communication
and Opinion Formation," Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 16,
N0. 4, Winter 1952-55.

124

media instruments, the other was basically indirect. Di-
rect exposure occurred through personal ownership, or use
of, media instruments or through collective radio listening
and newspaper reading. Indirectly, persons were exposed to
information through informal, oral, face-to-face communica—
tion with carriers of media information. These carriers of
news included kin, fellow workers, and visitors from the
outside.10

Frequent access to direct means of information expo-
sure was most common among Office workers, while access to
the indirect means was common among agricultural workers.

Factory workers exhibited patterns which fall between these

two polar types. Accessibility to direct means of informa-

;' .A)

tion exposure was related to the life situation of individ-
uals as this involves such factors as residence, education, 5
income, and attitudes. In general, the more urban, educat— ”M
ed, economically secure, and mentally emancipated the indi-
vidual the greater the accessibility to direct means of in-

formation exposure.

 

10Other persons of importance in the communications
process, but not included in this research, were the priest,
teachers, the boss and supervisors. They have positions of
authority and were more important as clarifiers of the news,
and Opinion—givers, than mere transmitters of information.
(A worker might go to the priest, for example, and say,
"Padre, John (fellow worker or kin) tells me that the Amer-
icans are experimenting with a big bomb, do you think that
the world will be blown up?")

125
Where media were located, their availability and dis-
tribution affected the accessibility of direct information
to different segments of the working population. Mass me-
dia and their related facility, electricity, were available
only in the town. Thus townspeople had a greater degree of
physical access to these instruments than did non—urbanites.
Access to media was further limited for rural workers by
the exigencies Of travel and absence fromwork. Access to
popular events, e.g., a film showing by an United States
Information Service mobile cinema unit, was curtailed since
news of current events did not travel fast to outlying dis-
tricts. A study of film distribution and reception in six

11 showed that distance

. rural town communities in Brazil
from the projection center located in the town square was a
contributing factor in attendance at film showings. Those
who worked in town were more 1ikelytx>attend showings than
those persons at greater distances from the center Of town.
The investigators also observed that despite many publi-
cized announcements almost half of the agricultural and

factory workers in the communities did not know of the

event. The works of Keesing and Keesing, Damle, Lerner,

 

11Raymond L. Scheele and Thomas L. Blair, Report on
Distribution and Reception of United States Information
Service Films in Brazil (East Lansing, iichigan: Area Re-
Search Center, Department of Sociology and AnthrOpology,
Michigan State College), 1955, pp. 85-97.

126

and Rossi and Bauerl2 also indicate that accessibility to,

and use of, direct means of exposure decrease as the dis-
13

tance from urban centers increases.

Consumption of media. Some literacy is a necessary

 

requirement for consumption of mass media information; lack
of literacy makes the media virtually useless to individu-
als in any direct form. How much literacy is necessary for
use of media? In the present study the author found that
the attainment of at least one year or more of primary
school education was a basic requirement for use of mass
media. Bonilla,14 in a study of the audience of mass media
in three Latin American capitals-~Santiago de Chile, Mexico

City, and Panama City, found that a secondary education

 

12Peter H. Rossi and Raymond Bauer, "Some Patterns of ,L
Soviet Communications Behavior," Leo Lowenthal (ed.), Spe- i
cial Issue on International Communications Researchi_Public -
gginion Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 4, Winter 1952-53, pp. 653-

0.

15Accessibility to facilities is related to their use.
Zipf reports data which show that use of facilities de-
creases as population size decreases and as distance from a
large center increases (see Human Behavior . . . , p. 592ff).
C. P. Loomis and J. A. Beegle, analyzing the ecology of li-
brary service, make essentially the same statement; see
Egral Social Systems (Prentice-Hall: New York), 1950, pp.
524-33. Babette Kass, "Overlapping Magazine Reading: A
New Method of Determining the Cultural Levels of Magazines,"
Paul F. Lazarsfeld and F. N. Stanton, Communications Re-
§§arch 1948-1949 (Harper: New York), 1949, suggests that
the place of publication of a magazine<§n her case it in-
volved proximity to the reader) affects the use of maga-
Zines (p. 151).

14Frank Bonilla, A Comparative Study of the Audience
for Mass Media in Three Latin American Ua itals (New York:
ew ork University , unpub ished master 3 thesis, l955,pt§0.

 

127
provided the basic skills for use of media. Bonilla re-
ports that the differences in exposure between university-
trained persons and those who had a high school education
were not easily discernible; however, both groups were more
exposed than those who had not attained a high school edu-
cation. In all three capitals studied he found that use of
media dropped off sharply as education decreased; and that
radio listening was least affected by differences in formal
schooling.

In Tapes, related factors of illiteracy and impoverish-
ment placed definite limits on the use of media by agricul-
tural and some factory workers. The ability to afford a
radio, a daily newspaper, or an occasional visit to the
cinema decreased as one descended the class hierarchy. For pt
many literate persons the consumption of media was restrict- it

16

ed by lack of money. Attitudinal factors Operated to re-

 

15This was true in the present study. By contrast,‘
Loomis and Beegle report that in rural areas of the United
States, as income and education decrease radio ownership
decreases; see 9p. cit.” pp. 553-54.

5iki€iafliix,ig,;r;g?;n,fi'gs'fllifi ¢,-;,, 1,{g-

lQThis, however, does not explain why some persons who
have the social skills and the money do not report use of
mass media. For example, three literate factory workers in
the study said they did not read newspapers. Unfortunate-
1y, there was no follOw—up information obtained on why they
did not read newspapers. It is probable that the answer to
this question involves social psychological, cultural and
personality factors, e.g., lack of "ego involvement in the
system" and lack of "mobile sensibility."

Concerning lack of "ego involvement in the system" as
a factor in information exposure, see Rossi and Bauer, pp.

128
strict use of mass media, eSpecially among agricultural and
factory workers. Uneducated persons were mystified by and
had a fear of the radio and cinema; they felt that modern
means of communication were the "devil's work."17 Some had
no interest in material communicated through mass media;18

others appeared more sophisticated and said that "It's all

prOpaganda."19 The traditional geographical and mental

 

cit., pp. 65ff.; and Wilbert E. Moore, Industrialization and
Labor (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press), 1951, pp.
55-41. "Mobile sensibility" is a term introduced by Daniel
Lerner and David Riesman, Self and Society: Reflections on
Some Turks in Transition, reprint from Explorations, No. 5,
June 1955, published by the Center for International Studies,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachu-
setts. The authors define "mobile sensibility" as "the
personality so adaptive to changes through time, space, and
empathy that displacement is its permanent mode." They
suggest that "mobile sensibility" is a necessary psycho-
logical factor enhancing the acquisition of information and
new ideas. It precedes occupational mobility and functions
as a type of "anticipatory socialization." ,“
Relevant discussions of some factors which play a part
in the information exposure of people in underdeveloped
areas may be found in Ralph Linton, "Cultural and Personal-
ity Factors Affecting Economic Growth"; Melville J. Hersko-
vits, "The Problem of Adapting Societies to New Tasks"; and
Samuel P. Hayes, "Personalit and Culture Problems of Point
Four," in Bert Hoselitz (ed. , The Progress of Underdevel—
Oped Areas (Chicago, 111.: University of Chicago Press),

1952.
17Lerner, Modernizing the Middle East, 2p. cit., p. 14.

 

 

18Lerner, ibid., p. 28.

19This type of response often masks a popular senti-
ment against the excessive control by government agencies
Of the content of news. Most peOple agree with one re-
spondent who said, "Seven-thirty to eight P. M. (the night-
ly broadcasting time of the government program, "Brazilian
Hour") is the best time to shut off your radio!" See also
Keesing and Keesing, 9p. g;£., Chapter VI.

129
isolation of the peasant crippled his imagination, leaving
him incurious, apathetic, and undesirous of knowing more
about the world outside hisfamily, neighborhood, and place
of work.

Direct access through social innovations. Where there
existed restricted accessibility to exposure to new informa—
tion by direct means, social innovations were found which
extended direct exposure to the excluded populations. In
every cafe in Tapes there was usually a radio in operation
at full vOlume during the day and evening. Visiting cafes
was a widely accepted custom among factory workers, and
they were, as a result, frequently exposed to information
broadcast by radio. There was also wideSpread collective
radio listening in the homes of kin and fellow workers. In {:5
addition, the oral reading of newspapers, and other printed ,,L-
material, was common among groups of factory workers. Ac-
cessibility to public and private places where media in—
struments were available supplemented, and in some cases,
substituted for, direct accessibility through personal own-
ership.2O

Town workers were also exposed to information while

sitting in the public square, another traditional pastime.

2OSee Lerner, Modernizing the Middle East, pp. 14-15,
and Keesing and Keesing, ibid.

130
Recently some local businessmen formed a group called the

Alto-Falantes. They erected a public address system, with

 

loudspeakers distributed around the square, and each night
broadcast commerical advertisements, music and news reports
from 7:30 to 10:30 P. M. There was a paid announcer (an
office worker); on a typical night he would broadcast com-
mercials for the local cinema and the main grocery stores,
read public announcements, summarize the day's news, and
play Brazilian, Spanish (Argentinian), and American records.
These social innovations were restricted to the urban
area of the rural town community. Despite these social in-
novations which increased the direct exposure of factory
workers eSpecially, office workers always made the most fre-
quent use of direct means and had, therefore, a higher de-
gree of information exposure, than all other occupational ll
lgroups.

Oral communication. In the rural town community much

 

of what is communicated is never channeled through mass me-
dia. In Tapes, the most important means of access to news
and information was through indirect, informal, oral, face-
to-face communication in a social situation. For agricul-
tural workers, oral communication was the only means of ac-
cess to new information and functioned as a substitute for
direct access to media. For factory workers, oral communi-

cation served as a supplement to their direct, but not too

131
frequent, exposure to media. It was a means of obtaining,
the "news behind the news," or of finding out what posi-
tions, Opinions, and interpretations others had about the
news. Office workers made the greatest use of direct means
of media exposure and when engaged in oral communication
were mainly transmitters of news.

One important setting for the oral transmission of
news occurred during visits between friends, fellow workers
and relatives.21 In Tapes, social visiting occurred on an

. . 22 . .
intra-class baSlS; the exchange of news occurring prima-

 

21Charles P. Loomis, J. Allan Beegle, and Olen E.
Leonard have made contributions to the identification and
analysis of rural collectivities. See Charles P. Loomis,
Studies of Rural Social Organization (East Lansing, Michi—
gan: State College Book Store), 1945, Chapters 16 and 37;
and his Studies in Applied and Theoretical Social Science
(East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State College Press),
1950, Chapter 6; Charles P. Loomis and J. Allan Beegle,
Rural Social Systems (New York: Prentice-Hall), 1950,
Chapter 5, and Appendices A and B (by Paul Honigsheim);
Charles P. Loomis, Julio O. Morales, Roy A. Clifford and
Olen E. Leonard, Turrialba: Social Syptems and the Intro-
duction of Change (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press), 1953,
pp. 183-203; Olen E. Leonard, Problems of Rural Housing in
Pernambuco (New York: United Nations Technical Assistance
Program), 1952, pp. 49-52; and Charles P. Loomis (tr.),
Ferdinand Tennies, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (Fundamen-
tal Concepts of Sociology), (New York: American Book Com-
pany), 1940, p. 21ff.

221n Turrialba it was found that most of the visiting
among the families in two communities, Atirro (a hacienda
community) and Aquiares (a community of family-sized hold-
ings), took place within "family-friendship groups" which
appeared to be closed systems as far as visiting was con-
cerned. The authors found that "family-friendship" group
visiting most often occurred within the same class, though
it varied somewhat by communities. See Turrialba, 9p. g;3.,
pp. 40 and 62. These findings were confirmed by Loomis pp

 

 

 

 

 

152
rily among members of the same class.23 For factory and
agricultural workers, visiting with relatives in one's own
social class played the most important role in the oral

24 Important reasons

transmission of news and information.
for the high frequency of visiting with kin among factory
workers were that (a) they were generally older and had
large numbers of children and relatives residing in Tapes,
and (b) the general norms of the society emphasized intra-
familial interaction. The norms of the society also ap-
plied to other workers, but agricultural workers did not
have relatives in residence in Tapes and office workers
were young.

The social visiting patterns of factory workers aided
their exposure to information. Members were moderately ex-
posed to media and had something to transmit orally; the

receivers had enough media literacy to absorb any new in-

formation received. Agricultural workers, when visiting

 

gl. in "Social Status and Communication in Costa Rican Com-
munities," Olen E. Leonard and Charles P. Loomis, ibid.,

23For example, Scheele and Blair, pp. gi§., found that
peOple who saw United States Information Service films dis-
cussed them with other persons in their same occupational
group. See their "Findings and Conclusions."

24With reference to the visiting of kin as a cultural
orientation of persons in "traditional" societies, the works
of Loomis, and Loomis and Beegle are standard sources. Con—
cerning Brazil see previously mentioned works of Azevedo,
Smith, Freyre, and Smith and Marchant, for discussions of
the role of kinship in social life.

 

 

153
kin, did not have access to persons highly exposed to media,
since the persons-visited were exposed to media as little
as they.

The intra-class visiting patterns of each occupational
group limited the effective transmission of news and infor-
mation across occupations. Significantly enough, some
inter-class visiting did occur and facilitated the trans-
mission of information from one class to another. In inter-
class visiting kinship was important. Factory workers were
the chief inter-class visitors, visiting both of the other
occupational groups. Agricultural and office workers, on
the other hand, visited factory workers only, and never
each other.

The oral communication of information across class
lines also occurred when an exposed person of a higher
class engaged in conversation with several members of a
lower class in a group situation, e.g., during a coffee
break or the noon hour. On the plantation the parceiro was
extremely important in this regard. In town, the priest,
teachers, mayor, the mill director and supervisors performed
this function for factory and office workers.

Oral exposure to information further occurred when
workers came in contact with persons from outside the com—
munity. The job situation of factory workers placed them

in easy accesstx>bearers of information from the outside.

154
Technicians from Porto Alegre, the state capital, period-
ically visited the factory. The exposure of factory work-
ers also occurred during chats with company truck drivers
who transportei cargo to the piers. Ihe drivers transmit—
ted news they received from seamen who worked on boats
shuttling between Tapes and the capital city. Salesmen,
bus drivers, soldiers, and migratory persons often stayed
at boarding houses and ate in cafes frequented by factory
workers, and this afforded an opportunity for the oral
transmission of news, Opinions and information.

The patterns of access to information eXposure found
among agricultural, factory, and office workers in Tapes
suggest that the transmission of information in the rural
town community cannot be simply viewed as flowing from the
tOp of a class hierarchy to the bottom. While it is true
that the communication process was, in part, vertical, in-
formation does go up the occupational ladder as well as
down. Furthermore, the horizontal, intra-class and intra-
familial, aspects of the process cannot be overlooked. In
Tapes, the communication of new information is a multi-

dimensional process.

Audience for new information. The present study re-

 

vealed three specific types of audiences on the basis of

eXposure to new information:

155

Primacy of inter-personal information exposure.
Exposure to new information infrequent.

Content of information received: local and
provincial.

. Persons typically rural illiterate agricul—
tural workers.

. Oriented toward traditional ”folk" values and
patterns.

v1 $= \NRHA >

Type B.

1. Primacy of oral and direct eXposure to mass
media; oral exposure supportive of direct ex—
posure.

2. Exposure to new information more frequent than
Type A.

5. Cont nt of information received: often about
non-local occurrences.

4. Persons typically urban semi-literate factory
workers.

5. Transitional between traditional folk values
and those of modern society.

Type

Primacy of direct exposure to mass media. 1*
Exposure to new information a daily occurrence.
Content of information received: urbane and
cosmopolitan.

Persons typically urban literate office work-
ers.

. Oriented toward modern values common in large
Brazilian cities.

\fi P OHOPJ (3

These findings coincide with those of another recent

25

investigation. Lerner, in his study of communications

behavior in the Middle East, located three groups of Turks

in terms of their exposure to media: "moderns,' who regu-

 

25Lerner, Modernizing the Middle East, pp. cit.

 

156
larly consumed media, "traditionals," who did so occasion-

ally, and "traditionals,' who were rarely directly exposed
to media and relied on work-of-mouth networks. His find-
ings concerning the frequency of use of mass media were
identical with the present study, i.e., use of direct chan-
nels of information increased and varied directly with so—
cial position. The characteristics of the three groups de-
lineated by J"erner were similar to those found in the pres—
ent study. In essence, then, office, factory,and agricul-
tural workers in Tapes exhibited the same patterns of in-
formation exposure as Lerner's "moderns," "transitionals,"
26

and "traditionals."

Control over exposure. The great dependence of work-

 

ers on other persons, rather than on the mass media direct—
ly, as a means of information exposure placed the directly
and frequently exposed individual into a position of dom-
inance and control over the transmission and interpretation
of information. Office workers, in the sample population,
exercised the greatest degree of control over information:
They were highly exposed and were thus in a position to

give or withhold information, or interpret the content as

26Communication studies in India, Samoa, the Soviet
Union, and Latin America have reported similar findings.
See publications of Damle, Keesing and Keesing, Rossi and
Bauer, and Bonilla mentioned previously.

137
they saw fit.2l7 Respected persons of lower statuses (e.g.,
factory workers), also exercised control over the transmis—
sion of information. This was possible because, when class
is not considered, the worker having the greatest direct
access and exposure to information exercised the greatest
degree of dominance over the exposure of other persons.
Such dominance placed immense power in the hands of such
individuals. The fact that highly exposed persons had
higher positions in the agro-industrial structure than
those to whom the news was carried influenced the accept-
ance of the information transmitted. Notes from field rec—
ords illustrate this point:

After lunch Joao (the Brazilian interviewer) and I
returned to the company store to interview the planta—
tion workers. While he was inside interviewing I Hf
talked with some workers outside under a tall figueira a
de mato tree. It was about one o'clock and the sun
was high . . . under the tree it was cool. The men,
about twenty of them, had placed some broad tree
leaves on the ground, and were laying about, talking,
and enjoying their lunch hour . . . . One of the men
knows quite a lot about the war in Korea. He is one
of the few persons here who knows anything about
what's happening in the world. He is a parceiro (small

independent land renter); he owns a radio and says he
is literate.

 

He has a lot of hostility toward American participa—
tion in the war. He is very outspoken in his attitudes

27Keesing and Keesing, o . 233., p. 170, note that in
3amoa "a great temptation eXists for the elite person to
Impose idiosyncratic interpretations deliberately upon mes-
sages in the interests of facilitating communication or ad-
vancing other goals and values." See also Lerner, Modern-
izing the Middle East, Chapter III.

138

and says that "The war in Korea is useless and illogi-
cal." "Why are there so many men being killed over
there? Some peOple'(said looking at me) care to con-
tinue to fight over nothing when there are really so
many problems in the world, and in Brazil, that can be
attacked without guns!" He knows what the stated pur-
poses of the United Nations and the United States are
but he believes that the war in Korea was provoked by
the U. S. to further its war against communism. He
says he doesn't think Brazilians are, or should be in-
terested in fighting anybody else's war-~not against
communism any way--which "may not be as big a threat
as they (the U. S.) say it is." Brazilians are more
interested in women and the samba, and Will only fight
if someone starts a war on the their home ground, says
he. All the while he is talking he is being listened
to attentively by all the others. There are many rea—
sons why. He has a strong personality, a loud voice,
he is fairly independent, and a class above these fel-
lows, what he says sounds true. But most important is
the fact pointed out by one worker: "He gets his in-
formation straight from the radio and newspaper, doesn't
he . . . why should he lie?"

The naiveté of agricultural workers as compared to the
communicators of information is not shared by factory work-
ers. They were more often aware of the orientations and
interests of upper-class communicators and denied the va-
lidity of the information transmitted if it was not deemed
to be in their own best interests. For factory workers
certain kinds of information were more favored, depending
on whether they were thought of as means of bringing about
some desired future state of affairs.

Class and information exposure: statics and dynamics.
In the analysis of information exposure among workers in
the rural town agro-industrial community it is necessary to

take into account the class situations of workers and the

159
concrete causes and conditions of the historically based
class structure. Class, however, is not without its status
correlates. In Tapes the values of the older feudal planta-
tion order served as an additional means of status-fixing
and patterning of social relations. An individual's con—
tact with other persons, and with the objects of the modern
agro—industrial society, was limited by such factors as his
family background and inherited work-status group. Agri—
cultural, factory, and office workers were not socially
valued in the same manner and were not equally stigma-

tized.28

Higher status was given to urban persons of
"good" family and educational background engaged in profes—
sions not requiring manual work.29 Higher class, status,
and power positions were universally held by, or given to, {it

such persons, and systematically denied other persons. The {”

 

28Several authors cited previously have dealt with the
effects on rural persons of such historical social values
and patterns as ethnic discrimination, family nepotism,
latifundism, unfavorable sentiments toward manual work, and
the lack of reward for individual merit, experience, abili-
ty and education. See Azevedo, Wagley, Freyre, and T. Lynn
Smith.

29This observation is generally true for Brazil (with
the exception of Sao Paulo) as a whole. One investigator
suggests that this is true fer Latin America in general.
See Kingsley Davis, "Political Ambivalence in Latin Amer-
ica," Journal of Legal and Political Sociology, Vol. I,
No. 1-2, October 19R2. Negative attitudes toward manual
work is by no means an exclusively Latin American trait; it
is also prominent in American occupational attitudes. See
Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (Glen-
coe, Ill.: The Free Press), 1949, p. 136*and footnote l7.

140
three groups occupied different positions in the productive
system and did not share equally in the distribution of the
goods of the society. Office workers had decidedly better
"life chances" than factory and agricultural workers; and
the "dead hand of the past" functioned to discourage indi—
vidual and group mobility and to maintain the social pat—
terns of centuries ago. In the rural town community the
class-status position of workers structured their interac-
tion and their information exposure.

What is described here is not, however, a fully closed
system. Manifold internal and external factors associated
with the develOpment of agro—industrial enterprise have
caused tensions and changes in the class structure of the
rural town community. The develOpment of new jobs requir—

BO

ing specialization and literacy, the displacement of old

jobs and skills, an} the purposive recruitment of agricul- gm

tural workers into the factory system,51 all created ten-

50Increases in literacy are correlated with technical
change in underdevelOped areas. Relevant discussions ap-
pear in Hilda nertz Golden, "Literacy and Social Change in
Underdeveloped Countries," Rural Sociology, Vol. 20, No. 1,
March 1955; Margaret Mead, Cultural Patterns and Technical
Change (Paris, France: UNESCO), 1253, pp. 263-78; Wilbert
E. Moore, Industrialization and Labor, pp. 15—20; Charles
P. Loomis pp al. (eds.), Turrialba, pp. 171-92, and pp.
268-69; Beate’R. Salz, pp. pi§., pp. 64-67.

 

 

51This is itself a source of tension since the habits
Of work in agriculture and in factory work are radically
different. See Wilbert E. Moore, ibid., Chapters III, Va
and VI.

141
sions in the class structure. In the ensuing upheavals the
social order underwent changes as individuals advanced or

52

descended from one class to another. A factory class
emerged, and its members interacted, individually and in
combinations, with persons from other social classes in dy-
namic life situations. In these dynamic life situations
individuals acquired the necessary skills for information
exposure, or, already possessing these skills, became in-
creasingly exposed. The desire for a more satisfactory
life, for higher wages and standards of living, for new ex-
periences, for class mobility-—all imperatives for effec-

35

tive participation in the new situation --served to moti-
vate persons toward greater knowledge of the world around
them. In the rural town community factory workers are an
emergent class and their patterns of information eXposure,
as they result from occupational position and other fac—

tors, represent a transition away from the traditional ex-

posure patterns of agricultural workers toward the more

modern eXposure patterns of office workers.

 

32Changes in technolory affect class relations and
"changes in class (in turn affect the individual's posi-
tion in his family, work group, and community in an inti-
mate, personal way." See Delbert C. Miller and William H.
Form, Industrial Sociology: An Introduction to the Sociol-
ogy of Work RElations (New York: Harper Brothers), 1951,

pp. 799-803, and p. 394.
55Moore, pp. cit., Chapter VIII.

 

142
Summary

The information exposure of workers in the rural town
agro-industrial community is structured by the life—
situations common among specific occupational groups. Who
talks to whom, how often, on what subjects, with what in-
fluences, and the ways in which persons are exposed, when,
and how frequently are all affected by position in the
socio-economic structure. Information exposure takes place
within a complex network of local social activity. Such
behavior patterns as collective radio listening and neWSpa-
per reading, social visiting and exchanging of information
among kin, attendance at movies with friends and fellow
workers suggest that there is a well-developed web of or-
ganized social relationships which influences the exposure 3;;
of individuals. There are socially approved media and chan- rm
nels of exposure, and as a result, shared selections. So- 3
cial circumstances pre-dispose groups toward certain pat—
terns of exposure and within broad limits of life condi-
tions differential exposure occurs as a part of social ac—
tivities.

In the rural town community, there appears little jus-
tification for studying audiences for new information as
simple aggregations of discrete individuals. Members of
audiences belong to distinct social groups which differ in

origin, occupational position and location of work, styles

 

s - it'll! {Ill.i {.lilllllu. l-‘Ilt,llllllll (III?! III.I[L

145
of life, family structure, and age grade. In sum, the
"audience" for new information in the rural town agro—
industrial community is, in reality, a number of varying

audiences centering around disparate social groups.

APPEN DI C ES

145

APIENDIX A
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POPULATION AND ECONOMY
OF THE STATE OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL

Presented below is a brief review of some pertinent
characteristics of the pOpulation and economy of the state
of Rio Grande do Sul.

(a) Geographical location. The state of Rio Grande do
Sul extends over a territory 267,455 kilometers square. It
is bordered on the south by Uruguay, on the west by Argen-
tine, on the north by the state of Santa Catarina, and on
the east by Lagoa hirim and Lagoa dos Patos and the Atlan-
tic Ocean. (For a map of Brazil showing Rio Grande do Sul
and for a short discussion of the geography, culture, his—
tory, government, and economy of Brazil, see Figure I at
end of Appendix A.)

(b) Population. The population of Rio Grande do Sul,
according to the 1950 census, was 4,164,821. The largest
concentration of persons centered around the capital city
of Porto Alegre, on the East coast, and the adjacent north-

western portions of the state.1

 

1Source: Censo Demografico (10 de Julho de 1950), Es-
tado do RioJGrande do Sul1 Recenseamento Geral do Brasil,
Servico Grafico do InstitutE Brasileiro de Geografia e
Estatistica (IBGE), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1952.

i ’ {"u'
I:

146

(0) Residence. More than sixty per cent of the popu-
lation live in rural places.2

(d) Agp. The largest numbers of persons are concen—
trated in the age category 0-19 years of age. This is par-
ticularly true in the rural areas of the state (see Tables
21 and 22; all tables may be found at the end of Appendix A.)

(e) Cplpg. Almost ninety per cent of the pOpulation
is white (see Table 25).

(f) Nationality. The majority of the population is

 

native-born (see Table 24). However, a small but signifi-
cant number of the population, in comparison to most Bra-
zilian states, are foreign-born persons and their offspring.

(g) Religion. Catholicism is the official religion in

 

Brazil. Census materials indicate that most peOple in Rio
Grande do Sul are Catholics (see Table 25). Ten per cent
of the pOpulation is Protestant. Rio Grande do Sul is one
of the few Brazilian states having such a large percentage
of non—Catholics within its pOpulation. The major Protes-
tant group is the Lutheran church. Other Protestant reli-
gions include Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal, Method-
ist, Episc0pal, Baptist, and the Salvation Army. The Lu;

theran church claims a membership which is larger than all

 

21bid.

N

‘ ‘: L" C ‘r

147
other Protestant groups combined.5 The nationality back-
ground of its membership is almost one hundred per cent
German-Brazilian.

(h) Literacy. Two-thirds of all persons 15 years of

 

age and over and 58.6 per cent of all persons 5 years and
over are able to read and write (see Table 26). Literacy
appears to be related to urban residence (see Table 27).

(i) Education.4 In 1949 there were 507,576 persons of
a total population of 4,162,505, enrolled in 7,541 schools
throughout the state. More than 80 per cent of these
schools were located in rural areas.

(j) Industry or occupation. The largest numbers of
persons are employed in some phase of agriculture (see
Table 28). Manufacturing and domestic employment follow in (N:
that order. For males, agriculture is the overwhelming
source of employment. Housewives and school children it;
represent 45.4 of the total pOpulation 10 years of age and I)
older. If we add to this figure the 7.1 per cent who are
unemployed or inactive it appears that for every employed
worker there is one person who is unemployed. This factor

places limitations on the standard of living that might be

 

5Source: Anuario de Estatistica Educacionais e Cul-
turais, IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1949.

4Ibid.

148
achieved by the worker in Rio Grande do Sul even though his
present standard of living is among the highest in Brazil.

(k) The economy. The economy of Rio Grande do Sul is

 

based on agricultural production. Other economic pursuits
include the raising of cattle, the extraction of minerals
and agro-industrial production. The three main agricul-
tural crops are rice, corn and wheat. Rice is the state's
most important cash crOp and is produced intensively on a
smaller total area of cultivated land (254,595 hectares)
than corn (885,757 hectares) or wheat (557,140 hectares).5
The real monetary value of all agricultural establish-

ments was 400 millions of dollars. Seventy-two per cent of

all establishments were 10 to 103 hectares in size and oc—

 

cupied one-quarter of all the cultivated land. The value \s“
of these farms represented seven-tenths of the total value _th
of all establishments. Establishments of from 100 to 1000 :w]

hectares accounted for one-third of all cultivated land and

 

for one-tenth of the total value of all farms. The smaller
farms tend to be located in the inland mountainous areas
and the large rice plantations are located on the coastal

lowlands. Small farms are owned and operated, in the main,

 

5Source: Anuario Estatistica do Arroz, Safra 1950/51,
Institute Rio Grandense do Arroz, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande
do Sul, Brasil, 1952. A hectare is a standard Brazilian
land unit and is approximately two and one-half acres
(U. S. A.) in size.

149
by private persons, but large establishments and especially

rice plantations tend to be owned by corporations and man-

aged by paid administrators.

TABLE 21.

POPULATICH GB C

ouroslrion,

RIO GRANDE D0 SUL, 19508

150

 

 

 

 

Age Number Per Cent
l-l9 years 2,176,686 52.2
20-49 years 1,575,418 57.7
50—80 years 406,508 9.7
Age unknown 8,209 .4

Totals 4,164,821 100.

 

aDerived from Censo Demografico (10 de Julho de 1350),

 

Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil,

 

1952.

151

2. 7 ,
,-_,-—_ -

 

.mm6H .Haeesm .ceaeees ea cam .memH .Ham ce
seesaw cam op oempmm «Aowma op onHSS mp oHv oofimmmmosmm omcoo Bonn Ue>wnmgw

 

.ooH Hmw.sea.s .ooa Hem.mss.m .ooa maa.oos .ooa www.mao.a masses

 

 

 

s. oom.w a. eem.m s. mmw m. maa.m seems ses
s.m mom.eos s.m oss.aem e.o sam.em s.ma Hmo.ema omuom
s.sm was.msm.a H.mm omm.¢em H.mm mma.oma m.as oom.oss meuom
m.mm cme.eea.m m.mm mes.amm.a 0.0m Hos.eom H.ms mms.mms mauo

& pmpadz & nonssz & sepsdz & nonasz nymph
proe Hausa amondnsm dmppb Ga mwd

 

 

_eomma .asm on mazsme OHm
.onssqsmom so mommaHmma so seams ass was .mm mamas

 

152

TABLE 25. DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION BY COLOR,
RIO GRATDB D0 SUL, 1950a

 

 

 

 

Color Number Per Cent
White 5,712,259 89.2
Negro 217,520 5.2
Yellow 495 .0
Mixed 226,174 5.4
Undeclared 8,595 .2

Totals 4,164,821 100.0

 

8Derived from Censo Demografico (10 de Julho de 1950),
Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, BrasiI,

1952.

 

 

TABLE 24. CIVIL STATUS COMPOSITION or POPULATION,
RIO GRANDE D0 SUL, 19503

L

 

 

 

 

Civil Status Number Per Cent
Native-born 4,086,575 98.1
Naturalized 14,679 .4
Foreigners 65,459 1.5
Undeclared 510 .0

Totals 4,164,821 100.0

 

aDerived from Censo Demografico (lo de Julho de 1950)i
Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, IBGE, Rio de Janeiro,IBrasi1,
1952.

 

155

TABLE 25. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION 0F POPULATION,
RIO GRANDE DO SUL, 1950a

 

 

 

 

 

1L1 1., “

Religious
Affiliation Number Per Cent
Catholic 5,507,559 84.2
Protestant 442.242 10.6
Spiritualistsb 115,552 2.7
OrthodoxC 5,255 .1
Jewish 8,048 .2
Other Religions 14,859 .4
Undeclared 73,306 1.8
Totals 4,164,821 100.0 3;;
ii~
- 8Derived from Censo Demografico (1° de Julho de 195011 e

 

Estado do Rio Grande do‘Sul, IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, ?TY*
1952. GT?

bThe official source does not define these groups.
Spiritualists are a small sect not recognized by the Catho-
lic or Lutheran Church.

 

C"Orthodox" probably refers to both the Russian and
Greek Orthodox Churches.

154

TABLE 26. LITERACY OF POPULATION (15 YEARS AND 0 ER),

RIO GRANDE DO SUL, 1950a

 

 

Literacy Number Per Cent

Read and write 1,616,990 66.2
Cannot read and write 820,659 55.6
Undeclared 5,845 .2
Totals 5 2,441,282 100.0

 

8Derived from Censo Demografico (lo de Julho de 1950)1

 

Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil,

I952}

TABLE 27. DISTRIBUTION OF POPUJATION 5 YEARS OF AGE
AND OVER BY PLACE OF RESIDENCE AND ABILITY TO READ
AND WRITE, RIO GRANDE DO SUL, 1950a

 

 

 

 

. . Do Not
Read and Write . Total
Place of Read and Write
Residence
Per Per Per
Number Cent Number Cent Number Cent
Urban 701,408 78.6 190,949 21.4 892,357 100.0

Suburban 219,655 64.2 122,585 55.8
Rural 1,125,770 49.8 1,150,659 50.2

542,058 100.0
2,254,429 100.0

 

Totals 2,044,851 58.6 1,445,995 41.4

5,488,824 100.0

 

8Derived from Censo Demografico (10 de Julho de 1950),

 

Estado do Rio Grande do SuI,IIBGE, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil,

1952.

 

ill id!!!“ Ill'llll‘li

 

155

TABLE 28. INDUSTRY OF OCCUPATION OF POPULATION 10 YEARS OF
AGE AND OLDER, RIO GRANDE DO SUL, 1950a

 

Male Population

 

Total Population

 

 

 

Industry. Only
0f Occupation Total Total 0:3:
Agriculture 727,819 824,629 28.1
Extractive. 19,794 19,985 .7
Manufacturing 141,575 162,699 5.5
Commerce 78,826 89,952 5.1
Domestic Workers 56,455 155,647 4.5
Transport and Com-
munication 52,174 54,191 1.8
Liberal Professions 5,161 6,667 .2
Governmental Workers 67,198 95,662 5.2
Domestic(Non-Remunerated)
and School Children 166,751 1,555,456 45.4
All Others 6,814 7,757 .5
Unemployed and Inactive 155,908 210,596 7.2
Totals 1,458,255 2,959,001 100.0

 

aDerived frOm Censo Demografico (1° de Julho de 1950);
Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil,

1952.

FIGURE I.

"__3 TERRIYDRY

I
9““ MERIT!
fi‘. fi.

flog—ICE -

. OH"
\ /
\ 8101' BRAND"

.
[— Iilul'ol
,1; _

Isaanoavl

Inn":
0 F

Mmu/ ‘7‘
Ep‘fléclo '

 

156

MAP AND PERTINENT INFORMATION ON BRAZIL

MYIOIAL CAHYAL
CMYALJ 0' I'MYD (I TIRIIYORIES
IYM‘K OI YIRIIYOR‘I IWIDMIIS _-
INTIIUAYIOIAL ”UIDAmu
PAN IIIIKIAI H'O‘IAY
RAILROAD,
Scale I. UN"
(‘ no ,"° no __ no. no

on. .4,- ~monnn I”.

 

 

 

.RIG
\RA
c\LJLO
IO

)OU vs
RNOPOUE
RHIBA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

158

APPENDIX B
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY SAMPLE

5gp. In general, the respondents were concentrated in
the age categories 20—59 years. {owever, agricultural and
office workers tended to be concentrated nearer the younger
ages and factory workers were Spread out through the middle
and older age categories. The mean ages for agricultural,
factory, and office workers were 28.9, 59.5, and 26.4, re-
spectively (see Table 29; all tables may be found at end of
Appendix B). This suggests that factory workers may have
been agricultural workers and that office workers enter
their occupation directly.

Ethnic affiliation. Brazilian society represents a
'unique racial and cultural intermixture of three human
egroups: the Indian, the Negro, and the white—European.
lPhe traditional classification of the Brazilian population
-swhite, Negro, Indian and their respective crosses--is
tuased on physical traits. Thus brancos (whites) include
DIVE only peOple whose ancestry is white European but also
INirsons possessing the physical traits attributed to whites:
Eflflifigg (blacks) include not only the descendants of African
slerves but also persons who exhibit physical traits attrib-
uted to "Negroids," i.e., black skin, kinky hair, thick

llINS, broad nose, etc.; mulatos (mixed bloods) are persons

159

who result from preto-branco crossings and who do not ap-

 

pear as either branco or ppppp. In the present sample na—
tive white Brazilians constituted more than one—half of the
total number of respondents; mulatos comprised the next
.1argest group and non-native white persons are the third
largest group (see Table 50).

Religion. All respondents were asked to report their

 

religious affiliation. The majority were Catholic which is
not surprising since Brazil is Catholic country. However,
there were ten respondents who did not claim affiliation
with the Catholic church and three of these were Protes-
tants (Lutheran). (See Table 51.)

Educational attainment. Each respondent was asked to

 

state.the last grade he attended in school. Reaponses
ranged from "never attended school" to "attended high
school, but did not complete." N0 respondent reported at-
taining education beyond the high school level. Office
workers tended to have completed primary school and three
had attended high school. The largest number of factory
worker respondents had attended primary school for more than
one year, but not completed. Almost half of the agricul—
tural workers never attended school; some had completed one
year or more of primary school, and one had attended high
school. In general the educational level attained by the

largest number of all respondents was one year or more of

160
primary school education but without completion of the pri—
mary school curricula (see Table 52).

High educational attainment was generally related to
ability to read; and low educational attainment was related
to inability to read. This was especially true for office
and agricultural workers. However, among factory workers
there were some persons who, according to a local teacher
informant, had less formal education than would be required
to be able to read but who reported that they were able to
read. This latter fact suggests that persons who aspire to
factory work learn to read in order to get a job and/or once
on the factory job, they learn to read as a consequence of
having the job.

Income. An idea of the relative economic position of
respondents was obtained by asking the question "How much
money enters your household during one year?" Agricultural
workers had the lowest incomes (3250-3499), and factory and
office workers were generally in the category 3625-3l,999.
The respondent reporting the highest yearly income ($2,300-
35,000) was an office worker. The mean incomes for agricul-
tural, factory, and office workers were $515.61, $1,125.14,
and 31,049.99, respectively, and indicated that in terms of
mean yearly income, factory workers ranked higher than of-
fice workers (see Table 55).

That some types of factory workers, especially skilled

artisans, receive higher monthly wages than office workers

161
is indicated by Table 54. However, yearly income alone
does not give an adequate picture of the true economic po—
sition of the reapondents; the number of persons supported
by workers must also be taken into account. Office workers
tended to be young men and did not report supporting many
persons other than themselves. Thus they have an opportu—
nity to develOp surpluses of cash beyond that required for
basic needs. Factory workers, on the average, support more
people than any other group. In general, there was a ten-
dency for workers with low incomes to support the largest
number of dependent persons (see Table 55). When the re-
ported yearly incomes for agricultural, factory, and office
workers were re-computed, in terms of the number of persons
supported by each group, office workers had twice as many
dbllars available per consumption unit as factory and agri-
cultural workers (see Table 56).

This latter observation indicates that agricultural
and factory workers, in comparison to office workers have
relatively small sums of money (less than a dollar per day
per person) available to provide food, clothing and shelter
for themselves and their dependents. This situation is off-
set somewhat by the fact that agricultural workers, for ex-
ample, live in company-owned houses and do not pay rent and,
in addition, they can.grow subsistence crOps on the land

provided for them by the plantation owners. Factory work-

162
ers, on the whole, do not share these benefits; they, like
the office workers, must purchase the necessities of life
on the open market. This situation, because of their low
ratio of dollars to persons supported, puts factory workers
at an obvious disadvantage. Tables 57 and 58 indicate the
prices for basic food and clothing items, and building ma-
terials in 1951 and 1952.

Home ownership-land ownership. Agricultural workers

 

live, rent free, in company-owned houses on the plantation.
Almost half of the factory workers owned their homes; and
office workers tended to either rent or own their homes
(see Table 59). In general the workers studied did not own
land. The greatest degree of land ownership was reported
among factory workers, one—third of them owned land (see
Table 40). The amount of land owned ranged from small kit-
chen gardens to Sl-lOO acres. Office workers owned the
largest single plots of land.

Concerning home and land ownership, of a total of
eleven workers who reported they owned their own nomes,
seven reported ownership of land also. In general, home
ownership and land ownership go together. Factory workers
to a greater extent than any other group report high de-
grees of home and land ownership (see Table 40). The land

which factory workers reported they owned was actually in

the form of small kitchen gardens. The ownership of large

165
tracts of land is basically a characteristic of the office
workers and others higher up in the social structure.

Length of residence in the community. Respondents

 

from all three occupational groups tended to be long—time
residents—-15 years or more--of Tapes. Agricultural work-
ers have the largest number of "newcomers" to the community
and have also lived in more places, prior to residence in
Tapes, than any other group. Factory workers are "old-
timers" and half have lived in no other place than Tapes.
Office workers are also long-time residents, but they have

lived in other places (see Tables 41 and 42).

164

TABLE 29. was or AGRICUITURAL, FACTORY AND OFFICE
WORKERS, TAPES

 

 

 

 

 

 

Age Agricultural Factory Office Total
in Years workers workers workers
19 or less 4 - 2 6
20-29 9 4 6 19
30-59 5 7 1 15
40-49 ‘ - 6 1
50-59 2 2 — 4
60 or more - 1 — 1
Totals 20 2O 10 50
Mean Age 28.9 59.5 26.4
TABLE 50. ETHNICITY OF AGRICFITURAL, FACTORY
AND OFFICE WORKERS, TAPES
. . Agricultural Factory Office
Ethnic1ty workers workers workers Total
Hulatto 7 5 - l2
Preto - . 2 - 2
Italian - 2 l 5
non-
German native 2 1 2 5
white
Syrian . - - 1 1
White native ll 10 6 27

Totals 20 2O 10 50

TABLE 51. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATIOH CF

’
n

FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS, TAPES

~GRICULTURAL,

165

 

 

Religious

Agricultural Factory

Office

 

 

Affiliation Workers Workers Workers Total
Catholic 15 18 7 4O
Protestant 1 1 1 5
Spiritualist — l l 2
No religion
professed 4 _ 1 5
Totals 20 2O 10 50

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE 52. EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMMNT OF AGRICULTURAL,
FACTORY AID OFFICE WOTKERS, TAPES
Educational Agricultural Factory Office Total
Attainment Workers Workers Workers
Never attended school 8 2 - lO
Primary--1ess than
one year 6 1 - 7
Primary—-one year or
more 5 l4 5 22
Primary—-completed l 2 4 6
High School--not
completed 1 1 3 5
Totals 20 2O 10 50

 

TABLE 55. TOTAL INOONE PER YEAR IN DOLLARS FOR
AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS,

 

 

 

 

 

 

TAPESa
Agricultural Factory Office

Income Workers Workers Workers Total
fi250-3499.99 12 1 - 15
8500—3624.99 2 2 5 7
3625’3749.99 5 4 1 8
$750-$999.99 3 6 3 ll
31000-31999.99 — 7 2 9
$2000-A5000.00 - - l 1
Totals 23 23 10 50

Mean income $515.61 31125.14 31049.99

 

8The official Brazilian monetary unit is the cruzeiro.
It was worth approximately five cents in U. S. currency.
The above categories were originally stated in terms of the
cruzeiro and have been computed in dollars for presentation
here.

167

TA BI LE 54. RH 'II’ '31) AV;3'ZA3.'3 I'OITIIIL’ «VA3—E I‘D? VATIOUS
JInc'-.I3.3 O'.‘ ESQII‘TTZRS IT’. TAJiORIES AIID
IIATTATIOTS, LUJICIIIO O? TAPESa

 

 

 

 

Factory Plantation
may saw

Carpenter 390 Foremen 360
Blacksmith 9O Carpenter 48
Mason 93 Mason 48
Driver 75 Driver 75
Office worker 73 Bookkeeper 55
Mechanic 6O Mechanic 5O
Electrician 50 Laborer 25
Artisan's helpers 45

Mill workers 37

aDerived from Inquerito Municipal, Tapes, 195g, Depar-
tamento Estadual de Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, IBGE, 1952.

168

TABLE 55. NUMBER OF PERSONS SUPPORTED BY
AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS
INTERVIEWED IN TAPES

 

Number of Agricultural Factory Office

 

 

Persons Supported Workers Workers Workers Total
Nine 2 - _ 2
Eight - 1 - 1
Seven 1 1 - 2
Six 5 2 5 8
Five 1 5 - 6
Four 3 4 1 8
Three 3 5 2 10
TWO 4 2 1 7
One 3 _ 5 5

Totals 20 2O 10 50

Average number
of children 4.0 4.5

\N
\N

 

169

TABLE 56. COMPUTED AVERAGE YEATLY NUMBER OF DOLLARS IER
CONSUMPTION UN T FOR IERSONS SUFIOTTED BY AGRICULTURAL,
FACTORY AND OFFIC NORKERS INTERVIEWED IN TAPES

 

 

Agricultural Factory Office Total

 

 

Dollars Workers Workers Workers
350- 374.99 - l - 1
375- 399-99 4 2 - 6
3100-3124.09 1 - - l
3125-3149.99 2 - - 1
3150-3199.99 2 7 - 9
$200-$249.99 2 5 2 9
$250—$499.99 7 5 2 12
3500-3749.99 - 2 4 6
$750-$999.99 - - 2 2
No response 5 - - 3
Totals 20 2O 10 50

Average yearly no.
of dollars per
consumptiontufids 3201.5 $248.1 $544.9

 

170

 

TABLE 57. AVERAGE OUTREHT IRICES AT RETAIL LEVEL
FOR BASIC FOOD ITEMS, MUHICIPIO OF TAPESa
Item Unit 1951 1952
Sugar kg .25 .29
Alcohol (heating) gf .25 .27
Rice kg .20 .25
Oil for cooking 1t 5.00 5.10
Bananas (fresh) dz .25 .28
Bananas (refrigerated) kg .80 .85
Potatoes (English) kg .10 .15
Coffee kg 1.60 1.70
Meat (beef with bones) kg .27 .54
Meat (pork) kg .40 .42
Meat (sheep) kg .43 .42
Coal kg .02 .04
Onion kg .10 .12
Dry salted beef kg .50 .52
Mate herb (tea) kg .22 .25
Mandioca meal kg .11 .15
Corn meal kg .11 .15
Wheat meal kg .20 .27
Black beans kg .19 .21
Milk 1t .11 '.15
Linguica (sausage) kg .75 .80
Butter kg 1.50 1.55
Honey kg .40 .45
Cooking oil 1t 1.25 1.50
Eggs dz .28 .48
Bread kg .25 .5O
Kerosene 1t .10 .12
Soap kg .45 .49
Salt kg .16 .17
Salami kg .80 .85
Vinegar gf .10 .12
Wood m5 1.80 2.00
Clothing:
Pants (cheapest quality) 2.20 2.40
Shirt (cheapest quality) 1.75 1.90
Wooden slippers 1.25 1.50
Alpargatas (a type of slipper) .60 .75
Shoes 5.00 5.50

One clothing outfit (less hat

7.50 17.50

Definitions of abbreviations: kg is kilogram, 2.2 lbs.;
gf is grama-forca (no English equivalent); 1t is liter,
1.0567 liquid quarts; dz is dozen; m5 is one cubic meter.

and shoes)

 

 

8Derived from Departamento Estadual de Estatistica,
IBGE, Rio Grande do Sul, 1952.

171

TABIE 58. AVERAGE CURRENT PRICES FOR HOUSE -ENT AND
FOR CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS, MUNICIIIO OF TAPESa

 

 

Item 1951 1952

 

House rent-~for workers:
In zone without electricity 34.00 . 35.00
In zone with electricity 5.00 7.50

In zone with electricity and
canalized water 7.50 9.00

House rent--for middle classes:
In zone without electricity 7.50 -
In zone with electricity 12.50 15.00

In zone with electricity and
canalized water 15.00 17.50

Construction materials:

One thousand bricks 16.50 19.00
One thousand roof tiles 60.00 65.00
One kg of white—wash .05 .06
One sack of cement (50 kg) 5.50 4.50

One worker's house (cheapest
material) 1,250.00 1,400.00

 

aDerived from Departamento Estadual de Estatistica,
IBGE, Rio Grande do Sul, 1952.

172

TABLE 59. TYPE OF HOME TENURE OF AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY
AND OFFICE WORKERS INTERVIEWED IN TAPES

 

 

 

 

a
Agricultural Factory Office

Home Tenure Workers Workers Workers Total
Company owned 19 5 — 22
Rented - 5 4 9
Self-owned — 9 2 11
No response 1 5 4 8

Totals 20 2O 10 50

 

TABLE 40. TYPE OF HOKE TENURE AND LAND TENURE FOR
AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS
INTERVIEWED IN TAPES

 

 

Agricultural Factory Office

W r r W rk rs Workers
Home Tenure O ke S 0 e

 

Land No Land Land No Land Land No Land

¥

Company owned 28 l7 - 5 - -
Rented - - 2a 3 1b 5
Self-owned - - 53 4 1C 1
No response - l - 5 - 4

 

aQuintal (small kitchen garden)
b51-100 hectares

C21-50 hectares

lfr".l"|}lfl :-

U
. I. Elli-{I'll

‘5 1

173

TABLE 41. LENGTH OF RESIDENCE FOR AGRICULTURAL, FACTORY
AND OFFICE WORKERS INTERVIEWED IN TAPES

 

 

 

 

Years . .
. Agricultural Factory Office
of ReSidence , m b , Total
in Tapes Workers workers Workers
1-14 years 9 2 2 15
15 years or more ll 18 8 57
Totals 20 20 10 5O

 

TABLE 42. NUMBER OF PLACES LIVED IN FOR AGRICULTURAL,
FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS INTERVIEWED IN TAPES

 

 

 

Past Place Agricultural Factory Office Total
of Re31dence Workers Workers Workers
Tapes only 6 10 5 l9
Tapes and one other 6 5 14
Three or more' 8 4 3 15
No response - l 1 2

 

Totals 20 2O 10 50

 

. Itxsb .IC.‘I 41’.

.j
f
‘ f- 1

I. p

174

APPENDIX 0

NOTE ON THE EXISTENCE, ACCESSIBILITY AND LIMITATIONS OF

INFOINATION EXPOSURE THROUGH MASS MEDIA IN BRAZIL1

Today the press, the cinema, the radio and television
are playing an ever-increasing role in transmitting news,
information, attitudes, Opinions, in short, social knowledge,
from one country to another, from region to region, and from
city to hamlet. In any study of information exposure it is
important to know what are the gross physical resources for
communication among the population studied. The following
is a brief examination of available data on the physical

facilities for mass communication in Brazil and in the area

 

1In preparing this section the investigator has made
use of the following publications:

World Communications: Press, Radio, Film and Televi-
vision (Paris, France: U ESCO), 1951; The Use of Nobile
Cinema and Radio Vans in Fundamental Education (London,
England: Film Centre), 1949; Peter Baechlin and M. Muller-
Strauss, Newsreels Across the World (Paris, France: UNESCO),
1952; J. H. Grenfell Williams, Radio in Fundamental Educa-
tion in Under-developed Areas (Paris, France: UNESCO),
1950; Frances Williams, Transmitting World News: A Study of
Telecommunications and the Press (Paris, France: UNESCO),
1955; Press, Film, Radio (Paris, France: UNESCO), 1949;
Fernand Terrou andTLucien Solal, Legislation for Press, Film,
and Radio (Paris, France: UIESCO), 1951; Television, A
World Survgy (Paris, France: UNESCO), 1954; Television, A
World Survey, Supplement (Paris, France: UNESCO), 1950;
Claude Mercier, Low-Cost Radio Reception (Paris, France:
UNESCO), 1950; J. C. Ribeiro Penna, "Brasil's Press Today:
Progress of Daily News_apers," Latin-American Worldg(E1
Mundo Latino-Americanog, London, June, 1946, pp. 21-25;
Unsigned article, T'Brasil Reads and Listens," Brasil, Novem-
ber, 1945, pp. 15—14.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

175
studied. Tables 45—47,p1aced at the end of this appendix,
give some picture of the mass media situation in Rio Grande
do Sul and Tapes.

News agencies. News agencies have been active in

 

Brazil since the beginning of the Twentieth Century. At
present the distribution and collection of news in Brazil
is divided among two types of organizations: (a) several
small national news agencies, and (b) five large interna-
tional agencies.

There are three small national news agencies. They do
not have correspondents abroad and serve primarily as pur—
veyors of local news. Agencia Nacional is a government-
owned information bureau located in Rio de Janeiro. lts
services are available free of charge. Agencia Sul Ameri-
cana de i‘oticias (Asapress) is a private company, located
in Sao Paulo, which limits its services to 100 subscribers
throughout the country. 1t is the most important national
news agency. Agencia Meridional is a private-owned agency
serving only newspapers belonging to the group known as
Diarios Associados. These agencies have their greatest in-
fluence in urban areas and service in the rural areas is
poor.

Foreign news agencies in Brazil concentrate on foreign
and international news. They include: United Press (NY),

Agence France Presse (Paris), Reuters (London), Associated

 

 

 

176
Press (NY), and the International News Service (NY). In
contrast to the local news agencies the international agen-
cies are large and efficient; and as a result urban Brazil-
ians are better informed of events abroad than those in
their own country. News between Brazilian state capitals,
and between Brazil and other countries is to a great extent
the product of the presence of international news agencies.
Within Brazil, the transmission of news is best along the
coast and between its two largest cities, Rio de Janeiro,
the nation's capital, and Sao Paulo, the nation's most in-
dustrialized city.

The work of news agencies is closely related to the
use of telecommunications. The first cable system in Bra-
zil was opened in 1874 between Europe and Brazil. By 1955
there were four cable services, one each from Italy and the
United States and two from England. In addition, there is
a telephoto service between Brazil and England, the United
States (two), and Argentina. The effective transmission of
information to Brazil is affected by the high cost of
cabling news. Within the country the lack of adequate tele-
communications facilities hinders the effective develOpment

of national news distribution.

The Press in Brazil
There has been a steady growth in the sc0pe of press

activities in Brazil since the founding, in Recife, Pernam-

illl' ]

t 4...!!1", I ,. .v

 

I All": I)

177
buco, of the first neWSpaper in South America. Newspapers
in Brazil are urban phenomena and tend to be concentrated
along the Atlantic coast where some 88 per cent of the pOp-
ulation reside. Literacy rates in these centers are much
higher than in rural and inland areas.

There are approximately 220 daily and 658 weekly news-
papers in Brazil with a total circulation of 1,500,000.
There are thirty cities with daily newspapers. The two
largest press concentrations are in Rio de Janeiro and Sao
Paulo. Newspapers published in these cities comprise
three—quarters of the total national circulation. The
newspaper O Globo (Rio de Janeiro) publishes an average of
145,000 COpies daily and has the highest newspaper circula-

tion in Brazil. Two Rio newspapers, Diario da Noite and

 

A Noite, have two daily editions. Sao Paulo has, probably,
the largest single press concentration with an estimated
twenty dailies in operation.

There are several foreign language newspapers printed

in Brazil. Fanfulla (Italian) and Deutsche Nachrichten

 

 

(German) printed in Sao Paulo have an estimated daily cir-

culation of 20,000 each. The Brazil Herald (American) is

 

the only English language newspaper printed in Brazil. It
has a daily circulation of 5,000.
The presence of a large number of newspapers in Brazil

is partially due to a law which requires the publication in

178
local neWSpapers of editorials issued by the local govern-
ment. Thus a large amount of space is devoted to the pub-
lication of these editorials. There has been a wideSpread
expansion of press activities in recent years because of
the establishment of a regional press located in the cap-
ital cities of various states. As a result, newspapers are
printed in the urban center and distributed on the same day
in many parts of the state. There has been, however, no
development of a system whereby an issue of a newspaper is
printed simultaneously in different locations.

Distribution is at present a difficult problem facing
newspapers in Brazil. There are no news distribution agen-
cies agencies and as a consequence in Sao Paulo less than
18 per cent of the newspapers printed every day are deliv-
ered to the customer's door. The large majority of papers
are sold on the street. The reading of a newspaper is,
however, not reserved only for buyers as news-stands post
Copies of papers and allow passersby to gather and read
them.

Some further restrictions on the develOpment of a na—
tixonal press are the tremendous size of the country, the
c=Oncentration of newspapers in a few large cities, the lack
Of‘ adequate means of transport, the low number of potential
Peeriers because of high rates of illiteracy, and the low

eccnnomic status of the general pOpulation. In addition,

 

1‘.

Vini-

4 .. . Ill.:].-.ru
.g

179

no single Brazil newspaper possesses a teleprinter and as a
result the distribution of news is delayed. There is some
governmental control over the press and over the import of
newsprint and printing machinery. At one time even adver—
tisements had to be submitted for the approval of the gov—
ernment press bureau. Finally, there is little "on-the-
Spot" news coverage, since there are few correspondents and
news is almost entirely supplied by news agencies.

Brazilian newspapers give exceptional coverage to in—
ternational affairs. Daily papers have literary sections
and Sunday supplements. Such United States magazines as

Life, Time, Look, Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping,

 

 

 

 

and the Ladies Home Journal are available on news-stands
for Brazilians who are acquainted with the English language.

The Readers Digest has a Portuguese edition called Selecoes

 

 

with an average monthly circulation of 550,000.

Radio in Brazil
Radio broadcasting began in 1922 under the aegis of a
group of social scientists led by Professor Roquette Pinto.
There are at present 254 radio transmitters in operation.
Seven of these are government owned. There were an esti-
mated 2,500,000 radio receiving sets in existence in 1948-
50-—an average of 51 sets per 1,000 inhabitants (or one per

twenty persons).

180

There are four types of broadcasting companies:

(a) official organizations subsidized by municipal, state
and federal authorities, such as the educational stations
Radio Educativa anl Radio Roquette Pinto; (b) official com—
panies deriving their revenue from commercial advertising,
e.g., Radio Nacional (federal government) and Radio Naua
(Ministry of Labor), the workers' station; (c) private
broadcasting companies organized as networks and deriving
their income from advertising; and (d) private independent
companies whose main source of income is advertising.

The vast majority of daily radio program time is taken
up with musical recordings (as high as 94 per cent for some
stations), Sports broadcasting and advertising. This is
especially true among smaller stations. The quality of
programs and their content vary by the size of the station.

During the day stations broadcast news bulletins sup—
plied by national and foreign news agencies. Small sta-
tions compile their own bulletins from newspaper information.
From 7:50 P. N. to 8 P. M. all stations must carry the

Brazilian Hour, a news service broadcast from Radio Nacional

 

and prepared by the government information bureau Agencia
Nacional. Foreign broadcasts are heard every evening. At
9 P. M. BBC news bulletins are relayed by Radio Educativa
and at 10:55 P. M. Radio Nacional relays the news bulletins
of NBC. In addition, especially prepared records sent by

the United States Information Service are used.

181

The primary function of Radio Educativa and Radio Ro-
quette Pinto is to transmit educational and cultural pro-
grams. Radio Roquette Pinto transmits for one-quarter hour
daily and Radio Educativa is on the air fourteen hours
daily. The content of educational broadcasts are dramas,
novelas (short day-time stories), adult education courses;
and programs for women, children, farmers and rural resi-
dents. A pOpular program called "This fionderful World"
presents the lives of persons who have contributed to the
welfare of humanity. In the past, this program has pre-
sented programs on the peace theories of Gandhi, the life
of Einstein, the struggle for human rights, the racial
problem in the United States and the problem of hunger
throughout the world. In a country where more than 70 per
cent of the population live in rural areas, and in communi—
ties of less than 5,000 inhabitants, the use of radio as a
means of education augments that of established institutions'
of learning.

The diffusion of radio listening is not without tre-
mendous handicaps. There is a tax of 10 cruzeiros (approx-
imately U. S. $0.50) plus an eight per cent purchase tax on
the price of every radio set. In 1948 the average price
for a radio was U. S. 3157. In addition, the names and ad-
dresses of all radio owners are required to be registered

with the Postal Department and there is a punishment for

182
failure to comply with this regulation. In 1948 there were
an estimated 2,500,000 sets in Operation and only 800,000
were actually registered. The majority of sets were owned
by urban literate persons.

Radio diffusion is further handicapped by the lack of
widespread distribution of radio sets, the high cost of
maintenance and repair, the lack of money to buy sets or
the verbal literacy to use them, the lack of electricity in
rural areas, the lack of community collective listening,
and the fact that most stations are urban located, with
low-powered transmitters and covering relatively small geo-

graphical areas.

The Cinema in Brazil

Brazil has six feature film studios which produce 15—
20 full-length films a year. They are Cinedia, S. A.,
Brasil Vila, Atlantida, Sol, Gibi and Tupi. There are 50
companies which produce film shorts and a majority of these
are located in Porto Alegre. Several governmental and
semi-governmental agencies also produce films. In addition
to these national film producers, pOpular movies are im-
ported from foreign countries and have become standard film
fare. Of all the pOpular films shown in Brazil in 1951, 70
per cent were from the United States, 10 per cent were na-
tionally produced and the rest were distributed among Italy,

Mexico and France, the United Kingdom, and Portugal. For-

lull.
[‘5' .vlfi-‘g‘

«.4.

t 1!§I.Y§Jmlf .
litter! I 1‘ 11 t

185

eign business, cultural and governmental organizations have
developed mobile cinema to urban and rural populations.

Movies are shown mainly in cine-theaters, i.e., thea—
ters equipped for the showing of both films and plays, and
cinemas, i.e., standard movie houses. In 1946 Brazil had
1606 cine—theaters and cinemas with a total seating capacity
of 1,000,000. Small theaters with a seating capacity of
less than 500 seats predominated. There was a national av-
erage of one showing per day but theaters in large cities
generally have four showings per day every day and small
rural theaters have one showing per day three times a week.
In Brazil as a whole there were about 20 cinema seats
available per 1,000 inhabitants.

In round figures there were nearly 150,000,000 paid
attendance at movies in 1946. The average percentage of
seats occupied was very low (28 per cent). Admission
prices average five cruzeiros (U. S. $0.20) and attendance
per capita was three times a year.

The development of a thriving film industry is aided
by a governmental provision that every cinema prOgram must
contain a national film of good quality. However, this po-
tential development is hindered by the close supervision
and control of the government censorship bureau. Further-
more, the distribution of films is hindered by the high
cost of rental, i.e., five times the price of every seat in

the cinema.

 

 

 

1.!E
.. r
f.

t I. if

,.. V

 

‘7‘

184

In Brazil, the Agencia Nacional, attached to the Min-
istry of Justice has regularly produced newsreels since
1946. These are generally aVailable free of charge. Other
newsreels are infrequently produced by national film com-
panies. News films are also imported from the United
States, United Kingdom, France, Portugal and Spain. There
are approximately 180 newsreel issues shown per year.

The general difficulties with newsreels in Brazil are:
(a) sound and commentary are added after the film is taken
and there is a great use of stock cliches; (b) they are se-
verely edited by private and government censorship; (0) cur-
rent events do not receive competing coverage; often only
one company makes a coverage on a rotating basis; and
(d) there is little social responsibility on the part of

newsreel companies.

Television

Brazil is one of the 52 countries that had television
in 1955. Telecasting was initiated in 1950 and at present
there are three privately owned television stations lo-
cated in Rio and the other half in Sao Paulo. There is a
potential audience of 700,000 or 14 per cent of the total
population.

The service area of these stations generally extend no
further than the immediate rural periphery. Programs are

patterned after the United States. Sports are pOpular and

185
there are Monday night musicals and variety shows. Radio
Roquette Pinto is preparing to install an educational tele-
vision station. The ownership of television sets is en-
tirely beyond the reach of the masses of Brazilians. Small
sets are sold for 10,000 cruzeiros (U. S. 3550) and 16-inch
models sell for U. S. 3750. Collective television viewing
has not been developed, thus making the content of televi-

sion programs available only to the wealthier classes.

Conclusion

Material presented here on the existence of mass media
in Brazil serves more or less to establish general limits
but does not tell anything conclusive about information ex-
posure. For example, many theater seats go unoccupied and
many newspapers are never read. It should be kept in mind
that these figures are presented for the country as a whole
and that there are sharp distinctions between regions in
terms of availability and accessibility of information
sources. The sharpest distinctions are, of course, between
coastal and inland areas, between urban and rural areas,
and generally between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo and the
rest of Brazil. It is in these two cities that the bulk of
the communications facilities in Brazil are located. Even
within these cities it has not been established that many
groups other than the wealthier classes are highly exposed;

and in the rural areas, even those adjacent to Rio and $50

186
Paulo, there are persons who have never read a newspaper

or heard a radio braodcast or even seen a movie.

187

TABLE 43. GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN OF PUBLICATIONa AND
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF THE NUMBER OF MENTIONSb GIVEN TO
SEVEN BRAZILIAN NEWSPAPERSC READ BY 3} AGRICULTURAL,
FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS, TAPES

 

1

Name of Publication
and Location Number Per Cent

 

State Capital (Porto Alegre)

Estado do Rio Grande 1 2.8
Diario de Noticias 12 34.2
Correio do Povo 18 51.4
Folha da Tarde l 2.8
Revista do Globo l 2.8

National Capital (Rio de Janeiro)

 

A Cigarra (magazine) 1 . 2.8
0 Cruzeiro (magazine) 1 2.8
Total number of mentions (base) 35 100.0

Total numbea of respondents
answering

33

 

8The town of Tapes does not have a newspaper. Other
nearby towns do have newspapers but none of these were men-
tioned.

bSome respondents gave multiple mentions.

0Two of the newspapers mentioned, 0 Cruzeiro and A Ci-
garra, are actually weekly magazines.

dFourteen respondents reported they could not read and
three reported they could read but did not read newspapers.

188

.pnos

Innm>om mumpm Ham on occmno 0am map mo pommgmsoa HmHOmeo am ma Hmflowmo oanwfim oneo

 

.Honmflanfia 09mm on» hp donso
Haw mum w>flpuoamm magma mo anaom cam .odnwe mu snack .obom ow oflopuoo mnomwmmson ones

 

.Hmm .m .mmmH massages .oH .oz .mm .Ho> .nmmmav soonnwm»

HomoapquopaH nonmwansm cam powwow map was .mmwa mamscmh .ovaso mmmnm HmeonpQOOIHoan on»

Soak vo>wnop mw manmp wasp a“ dopommona Hmmnopwa one

 

.nmnOfluwdmnp 0505mm mo aoapwnoaoaaoo

 

onp op copwowoov osflnmwws my w>oz owwvH mpmfi>om mow .oncowOmm op wwoafi>onm .Ahaodmom huwno
Ipaa m.qoaoB on» 90 gownov mfioaopd .Aoaom opp paw noaoav nag o o ponada 4 .mm £05m .mawoaco
aanog HmafipHSo cam HmGOflpmondo name you aoflpwooa mownmwapsm on» omam ma onmoad oppomm

 

 

opwbwnm Hmnmnoo us I: am I: opaoz ow oaonnoo
mpm>wnm Hmanow II ooo.om dam on 24 Is man 06 awaken
mpa>npm manomm .. ooo.mm new oHH am mama lm>flpnosmm menus as «sacs
paoaano>ou Hmfloaomo u- oom.m new a 24 mmmfl ;:I;,uaanwamaoaoo catwan
opw>flnm Hmnonoo ooo.dm ooo.m¢ mom a 24 u: s mmwoapoz mu oanmflol.
opw>anm Hmnmaow ooo.mo ooo.m¢ new a am nu smegma we anaom
opm>flnm Hmumnmu ooo.om ooo.mm dam w 24 mama wino>om ow owonnooa
a owmno>oo deflpmHSonHo downwadoafio
wnmpoqso mama MMMMMM4 owwno>4 dogmaapsm voodfiom oawz

eases

HI

wmmumq4 OBmOm zH

mmmmdmmamz MHHdQ Bz<emomEH zm>mm mo QOHamHmmao<m<mo BzmzHemmm .¢¢ mgmde

189

TABLE 45. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF3 AND FREQUENCY
DISTRIBUTION OF THE NUMBER OF MENTIONSb GIVEN TO ELEVEN
RADIO STATIONS LISTENED TO BY NINETEEN AGRICULTURAL,

FACTORY AND OFFICE WORKERS, TAPES

 

 

Name of Radio Station

 

 

and Location Number Per Cent

Local (other)

Radio Cultura (Pelotas) 2 5-2

Radio Progresso (Novo Hamburgo) 1 2.6
State Capital (Porto Alegre)

Radio Farroupilha 93 - 11 28.9

Radio Gaucha _; 7 18.4

Radio Difusora 5 3 7.8
National Capital (Rio de Janeiro)

Radio Nacional 4 10.5

Radio Tamoia l 2.6

Radio Marinck Viega 2 5.2
Other Cities in_Brazil

Radio Tupi (Sao Paulo) 4 10.5
Foreign Capitals

Radio El Mundo (Buenos Aires) 2 5.2

B. B. C. (London) 1 2.6
Total number of mentions (Base) 38 100.0
Total respondents reporting 19

 

aThe town of Tapes does not have a radio station.

bSome respondents gave multiple mentions.

TABLE 46. MAJOR RADIO STATIONS IN
RIO GRANDE D0 SUL, 1948a

190

 

 

 

 

Name Location P(::)
Sociedade Difusao Radio Cultura Pelotas 1
Radio Sociedade Farroupilha, Ltda. Porto Alegre 25
Radio Sociedade Gaucha Porto Alegre 5
Radio Difusao Porto Alegrense Porto Alegre 5
8There were also 10 stations of 0.1 kw, and ten sta-

tions of 0.25 kw.

‘1'!!!

“iii!

191

TABLE 47. SOME POPULAR FILMS SHOWN IN LOCAL MOVIE HOUSE
(1952-55) BY NATIONALITY OF ORIGIN AND NAME, TAPESa

 

 

NationziétyigieOrigin Type of Film
America
Real Policia Montanda outdoor adventure
Traidor Inesperado urban cops and robbers
Porto de Nova York urban c0ps and robbers
Armadilha de Morte urban cops and robbers
Calunia mystery I
Terra de Desordeiros Western
Argentina

 

0 Homem e A Besta

England

Jornada Interrompida mystery
German

0 Grande Amores de Schubert life of Schubert
Italian

0 Diabo a Poma mystery

0 Lobo da Montanha mystery

Sem Piedade Negro-white amity

 

8The United States Information Service Bureau attached
‘to the United States Consulate at Porto Alegre has shown
'two movie programs in Tapes. The first was an Open air
shown April 16, 1952. The program consisted of the follow-

:Lng short films: News Magazine, Children's Zoo, Navajoland,

,A Boy at Court, Rodeo, and a propaganda film, One Year in
Korea. The second film showing, early in 1955, was indoors
and.inc1uded three short films: Portrait of an American
:Family, The Union in the Community and the propaganda film,
Prisoners of War.

0

192

APPENDIX D
QUESTIONS RELATING TO BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS AND
INFORMATION EXPOSURE OF WORKERS IN THE RURAL
TOWN COMMUNITY OF TAPEsl
1. Age
2. Ethnic affiliation or nationality.
5. Religion.
4 Education.
5. Can you read?

6. Do you read a newspaper? (If "yes", then ask ques-
tion 7)

7. How frequently do you read a newspaper?

8. Which are the neWSpapers you read most frequently?
(List by name and locality)

9. Do you have a radio? (If "yes", ask question 10)
10. What stations do you listen to most often?
11. What was your father's occupation?
12. What is your occupation?
13. In what industry do you work?
14. For whom do you work?

15. How many months a year do you work paid by another
person?

1These questions originally appeared in the interview
schedules of the United States Information Service study.
Only those questions directly utilized in the present study
are included here. They have been translated by the author
from Portuguese into English. All original materials are
on file at the AreaResearch Center, Department of Sociology
and Anthropology, Michigan State University.

16.
17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.
25.
24.

25.
26.
27.

28.

29.
30.

51.

52.

193
For how many years have you worked full time?
How much money enters your household in one year?
(Include: salary, bonuses, sales of home-grown vege-
tables, etc.) ‘
How many peOple do you support with this sum?

If you have children over 16 years of age what are
their occupations? (List and describe)

The house in which you live is:

l. owned by you

2. rented by you

5. lent to you by the company

If you have another house, is it:

1. owned by you

2. rented by you

3. lent to you by the company?

Do you have land to work? (If "yes", ask question 25)
How much land do you have? (If "yes", ask question 24)

Do you rent some of this land? (If "yes", ask ques-
tion 25)

How much of this land do you rent out?
How long have you lived in this community?

In how many places have you lived since you were grown
up?

What jobs have you held?

What was your father's occupation when you were a boy?
In yourOpinion, are you now, economically speaking,
better off than, worse off than, equal to you your
parents' situation when you were a boy?

Do you expect to change your job in the future? (If
"yes", ask question 52)

To what job do you expect to change?

35.

54.

35.

194

For the future do you think you will be economically
better off than, worse off than, equal to your situa-
tion at present?

What jobs do you think your children will have when
they are grown up?

What do you think can better your life and the life of
your children?

Who are the three persons you visit most often at
home? (List name, address, occupation, and relation-
ship to respondent.)

How often do you meet persons from:

1. other localities

2. the capital city (Porto Alegre)
5. other states

4. the United States of America

5. other countries?

(For each statement: Does he meet these persons daily,
once a week, often in a year, often in life, or never?)

BI BLI OGRAPHY

v 11141:»! Ilw" I

196
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