Abstract, Digital Storytelling and the Dispute over Representation in the Ayotzinapa Case

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Digital Storytelling and the Dispute over Representation in the Ayotzinapa Case
by María Elena Meneses and María Concepción Castillo-González

Comparison of the narratives of civil society and the federal government on YouTube and Twitter in the case of the disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, allows the identification of the codes of representation being disputed in this emblematic case of violation of fundamental rights. Digital storytelling that goes viral and across media offers the possibility of organizing protest in the offline world. Its reflective attributes favor the visibility of injustice and permanence on the local and global agenda and in some cases exert pressure on social actors and authorities to establish mechanisms to resolve the conflict.

Abstract, The Financing of TV Brasil: Limitation of Resources or Political Choice?

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The Financing of TV Brasil: Limitation of Resources or Political Choice?
by Sales Augusto dos Santos and Ivonete da Silva Lopes

The federal funds allocated to Brazilian public television are insufficient for its adequate maintenance and could be increased. Instead of advertising on public television, which was the flagship of the Brazilian public communication system, the Lula and Rousseff administrations turned to private broadcasting systems in the hope of co-opting them. In addition to robbing public television of critical funding, this proved a political mistake when TV Globo became one of their harshest critics.

Abstract, Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Communication with Identity in Argentina, 2009–2017

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Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Communication with Identity in Argentina, 2009–2017
 by María Magdalena Doyle and Emilse Siares

Argentine Law 26.522 on Audiovisual Communication Services recognized, among other things, the right to communication for indigenous peoples. The cases of three indigenous radio stations in northern Argentina reveal the limits and possibilities of this normative transformation and the challenges to indigenous media posed by the changes in communications policy since the 2015 change of government.

Abstract, Communications Policies and the Production of Audiovisual Content in Argentina

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Communications Policies and the Production of Audiovisual Content in Argentina
By Carla Rodríguez Miranda and Ornela Carboni

The introduction of digital terrestrial television and the passage of the Audiovisual Communications Services Act in Argentina in 2009 led to a series of competitions to stimulate the production of new content and help dismantle the prevailing center-periphery logic in Argentine television. An examination from the perspective of the political economy of communications of these efforts in 2011–2013 indicates that they were small steps in the right direction. Further progress will require a stable source of funding, a stronger role for public televisión, and new strategies for capturing viewers.

Abstract, Between Public and Private Media: Toward a Definition of “Community Media”

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Between Public and Private Media: Toward a Definition of “Community Media”
By Mauro Cerbino and Francesca Belotti


Constitutional reforms in Ecuador and Bolivia and the subsequent laws on communications have opened up the media space to new social and political actors: public and community media. While the former tend to be associated with the state in form and with governments in substance, the latter are not clearly defined and occupy a place in the midst of the hegemonic struggle between the public and private sectors to enable citizens to actively intervene in the competition for shaping public opinion. It is therefore necessary to lay the groundwork for a definition of “community media” that includes both its legal and sociopolitical dimensions. Indeed, operationalizing such a definition might allow community media to recognize themselves in it and to take the measures required to fully project themselves as subjects of the law.

NEW LAP Issue! Media, Politics, and Democratization in Latin America

Edited by: Javier Campo and Tomás Crowder-Taraborrelli

Issue 220 | Volume 45 | Number 3 | May 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

This special issue of Latin American Perspectives investigates a matter that has undergone critical transformations in recent years. From the period of progressive governments to the current neoliberal restoration, the media went from being thought of as a public service to a private business. This issue features articles on Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and Argentina and covers a broad disciplinary spectrum of studies: from the laws of communication put into practice or projected, to the deregulation of the most advanced legislations of Latin America, to communication rights, audiovisual analysis, memory studies and historiographies of the Latin American left.

The editors were committed to organizing a special issue about the favorable democratization of the media, but in the process, the media landscape was transformed into a reactionary onslaught of the monopolies of information and communication; a process that ended in the electoral victories of right-wing corporatists.

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