tBy MIKE STRICKLIN
News-editorial professor
Brazilians like to say theirs is a society of contrasts and a land with a destiny.
They may be correct on both counts, as a few facts suggest: population, 160 million, with 103 million between ages 15 and 64 (1995); gross domestic product, $884 billion (1996); functionally illiterate, as high as 35 million (1995 est.); newspaper readers, fewer than 40 million (1995); households with televisions: 87 per cent (1996 est.); real growth rate, 05.53 per cent (1995). Freedom of the press and of expression became part of the federal constitution only 11 years ago, in 1987.
In that sprawling, fast-growing country journalism and mass communications professionals are in demand everywhere. Recognizing an opportunity to add to the training, the faculty of the Department of Social Communication at the Federal University of Piaui (UFPI) offers a new specialization in advertising, public relations and marketing for holders of the bachelor’s degree. At completion, a student is awarded a diploma of specialization, but the diploma is not equivalent to an M.A. degree.
In June, my colleague George Tuck and I presented a course in how to design photographic images for advertising and then taught eight students to copy test magazine advertisements. (Thank you, Linda Shipley, Nancy Mitchell, Mike Greene and M.A. student Frauke Hachtmann for your invaluable help on short notice.)
George and I spent mornings planning for class, and, yes, we did rest in the afternoons. We conversed in English; then I paraphrased for the eight students in Portuguese. Their conversations were translated back into English. After class we would all go have a late supper.
It must have worked. We both have been invited back.