Mauro Porto

Professor Porto is a political communication scholar who studies the linkages between media and democratization, with a focus on Brazil. His research has examined the political dimensions of communication practices and genres, including journalism, telenovelas, political advertising, presidential debates, and social media. His most recent book Mirrors of Whiteness: Media, Middle-Class Resentment, and the Rise of the Far Right in Brazil (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023) analyzes the role of media representations in fostering a status panic in the white middle class, which in turn played a key role in the conservative revolt that took place in Brazil between 2013 and 2018.

Selected Publications

Mirrors of Whiteness: Media, Middle-Class Resentment, and the Rise of the Far Right in Brazil. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023.

Media Power and Democratization in Brazil: TV Globo and the Dilemmas of Political Accountability. New York: Routledge, 2012.

With João Brant: “Social media and the 2013 protests in Brazil: The contradictory nature of political mobilization in the digital era”. In Lina Dencik; Oliver Leistert (eds.). Critical perspectives on social media and protest. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, pp. 181-199.

With Fabio Vaconcellos: “Televised presidential debates in Brazil”. In: Julio Juárez-Gámiz, Christina Holtz-Bacha, Alan Schroeder (eds.), Routledge international handbook on electoral debates. New York: Routledge, 2020, pp. 103-113.