The good and bad savages in the press

This article investigates the representations and discourse about Brazil's indigenous population in the press and their breakdown in the construction of an identity of these people in relation to national society. These representations become operative through the intense diffusion of cliche images, generalizations, and stereotypes that extend the gap between the real and the idealized. The media, especially the printed press, reflects the indigenous question based on the notion of a "generic Indian", ignoring the diversity that has always existed among these societies, treating them as if they were a one homogeneous whole and as if this generalization was the correct way to understand them.