Espetacularização da Amazônia e projeção de sentido em Isabelle Nogueira no Big Brother Brasil 24

Abstract

Over the years, Big Brother Brasil has introduced viewers to a variety of contestants, each bringing unique social experiences, personal histories, and cultural narratives. This article investigated the publicization of one such contestant, Isabelle Nogueira, and the culture she represented in the 24th edition of this reality show. Isabelle is part of the Parintins Folklore Festival, held in the city of Parintins, in the state of Amazonas, which celebrates the boi-bumbá tradition. She is widely recognized in the Amazon region as the Cunhã-Poranga of the boi Garantido, one of the competing groups in this festival. By entering the most-watched reality show in Brazil in 2024, Isabelle's image and culture were shaped and translated within the media narrative. She represents not only the state of Amazonas, but also the Amazon within the television landscape — a cultural text of great importance, not only environmentally, with its rich biodiversity, but also in terms of cultural expressions, such as the Parintins Festival. This study employed bibliographic research based on Gil (2002) and, to a lesser extent, Lotman’s (1996) semiotics of culture as its research methodology. The theoretical framework incorporated concepts such as spectacle by Guy Debord (1997) and Mario Vargas Llosa (2013); culture by Raymond Williams (2005); reality TV by Débora Cristina Rocha (2020); and domestication by Lima and Silva Júnior (2013), among others. In our research, we highlighted that the exposure of Isabelle Nogueira in BBB 24 contributed to the depletion of the historical and social meanings of Amazonian cultural expressions, reducing them to visual and symbolic elements adapted to the demands of the media spectacle.