Professor Vinícius Mariano de Carvalho, a specialist in Strategic Communication and Defense, evaluates the Force’s institutional campaigns as positive
By Second Lieutenant (RM2-T) João Stilben – Brasília, DF
One of Brazil’s most renowned communication researchers, Professor Margarida Kunsch, says that “there is no longer any room in society for merely instrumental, technical and tactical communication”, and that the dialog between institutions and the population must be maintained through interaction.
In this modern context of fast communication, with a diversity of platforms and audiences, the Brazilian Navy (MB – Marinha do Brasil) has sought to get closer to Brazilian society every day through interactive campaigns, such as those that took place last year, on June 11, with Navy Day, and on December 13, with Sailor’s Day. The positive diagnosis comes from Dr. Vinícius de Carvalho, a professor on the Master’s Degree in Strategic Communications at the Department of War Studies at King’s College (UK).
“It is essential that the Armed Forces and the Navy, in particular, are able to maintain a channel of dialogue with Brazilian society, in all its aspects and nuances. And to understand that the MB is not simply speaking to a target audience, but also interacting, like other people and entities that are producers of knowledge and communication,” said the researcher, during an interview with Rádio Marinha.
According to him, the dialogic nature of the Force in recent years shows that it has adapted to the modern and necessary concept of communicating, where you don’t just “talk”, you also “let people talk”. “This is a very important point that the Navy’s Social Communication Center has managed to establish: not simply sending messages or trying to convince people of something. We are no longer in a world of this kind of convincing, but in a world of interlocution,” he said.
Check out an excerpt from Prof. Dr. Vinícius de Carvalho’s interview below
Rádio Marinha – How can we develop communication so that it is strategic, in order to improve the country’s defense and promote a better perception of the Armed Forces in society?
Prof. Dr. Vinícius Carvalho – I would say that we don’t have to worry about the image of the Force. It already has an established image in Brazilian society and the task of strategic communication goes far beyond that. The key is for strategic communication to be able to demonstrate to all those national and international players what the role of the Armed Forces is for Brazil today. What are the threats that the country faces and that necessarily require forces trained to respond to them, whether they are of a broader nature, taking into account both the relations between states, as well as threats that occur within countries, with non-state actors, in particular transnational organized crime.
Rádio Marinha – Regarding the maritime mentality, concerned about the Blue Amazon, the importance of the sea for our economy and the more than 20 million jobs that depend directly or indirectly on the sea, do you think that Brazil has come closer to this perception?
Prof. Dr. Vinícius Carvalho – Well, I’ll make a small comparison with the United Kingdom, where I live, and where there is a great naval tradition. The UK doesn’t define itself as the island it is, but as a maritime nation. In the Brazilian context, due to such a large and vast territory, it is very easy to forget about the vastness of the sea. We must understand this vastness not only geographically, with millions of kilometers of territorial sea, but also how the sea is fundamental to a national identity and a national economy.
The process of building this awareness will obviously be long and time-consuming, despite the fact that we have always been a maritime nation, due to all the historical events we have had to live through, from the Portuguese colonization process to the processes of independence and consolidation of the nation state, which has a giant link with the sea. We have to understand that these consciences have to be constantly cultivated. We can’t forget the sea in this sense.
And the Brazilian Navy has been working on this concept (of the Blue Amazon), drawing attention to the potential that the sea has for the future, and also the importance it has in the present. This dialog is important if we think about strategy: looking at the past, looking at what history has been to date, and having a clear vision of how we want to get there. To have this awareness in the future.
Rádio Marinha – And do you think that this relationship between the past, present and future within the Navy’s strategic communication has taken place?
Prof. Dr. Vinícius Carvalho – It has and, more than that, communication has drawn attention by combining these two dates – June 11 and December 13 – as a single communication process. The Brazilian Navy is drawing attention to a very important factor that is specific to Brazil: in addition to all this great sea of our Blue Amazon, we have a great river capacity and a great river need, with the Amazon basin and the Prata basin in particular.
And it’s worth remembering that the Battle of Riachuelo was a river battle, it took place in the country’s river domains. So we can see very well that this link between a Navy that is required for inland waters, for the basins – the Platine, in the case of the Battle of Riachuelo, and today, with a giant presence on our Amazonian rivers, in the Amazon Basin – also connects with this other side, with the date of Sailor’s Day.
The population is beginning to look at another Navy, one that is at sea, present in this Blue Amazon, which is fundamental to guaranteeing national security and defense.
*** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team ***