ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the implications of developments in Brazilian digital culture for the representation of marginalized urban areas in the country, and outlines ongoing representational challenges facing favelas, as well as some ways in which these are being overcome. It provides an overview of key projects producing digital content about favelas, from the established to the more recent, and presents data from research into blogging by residents of one favela in Rio de Janeiro, arguing that the contestatory nature of such content lies in explicitly positioning favelas as part of the city, countering dominant discourses that have long posited the opposite. The chapter also focuses on how bloggers responded to external or mainstream representations of favelas and the notable territorial affirmation of favelas, both in their own right and as part of the city through textual and visual references on blogs.
