Media Systems and Communication Policies in Latin America

Media Systems and Communication Policies in Latin America analyzes the conflicting roles that global, regional, and local forces play in the shaping of media systems, policies, and industries in Latin America. These forces have developed what is called a captured liberal model, which is used as a theoretical concept to explain the communication policies, the configuration of media systems, the realities of journalism or the contexts of cultural industries in the region. The intentional lack of regulation enforcement, the pragmatic exercise of power, and the configuration of alliances between media barons and political elites all help to explain why private media developed early and why its concentration is so high in Latin America. Moreover, the fact that media conglomerates emerged under the auspices of dictatorships and authoritarian rule clashes with the existing assumptions that

private ownership entails distance and autonomy from the state. Their emergence also dispels the assumption that authoritarian states need to employ harsh regulation and secure administration or control of the media to better exert and legitimize power. This collection aims to offer fresh perspectives on old issues that have long preoccupied the academic community in Latin America.

Media Systems and Communication Policies in Latin America proposes, tests and analyses the liberal captured model. It explores to what extent to which globalisation, marketization, commercialism, regional bodies and the nation State redefine the media's role in Latin American societies.

Manuel Alejandro Guerrero is a professor of communications at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City. He is an executive board member of ORBICOM of the UNESCO International Chairs in Communication. His research has focused on the role of media in new democracies, especially on the framing of political issues, and on the media in relation to political attitudes and electoral behavior.

 

Mireya Márquez-Ramírez is an assistant professor of journalism studies and media theory at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. Her research interests include the critical study of journalism's normative values and comparative cultures; and the media's production, comparative systems, and digital practices, and professional identities in post-authoritarian societies.

Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Notes on Contributors
Preface
Introduction: Communications Policies and Media Systems in the Age of (anti) Neoliberal Politics; Mireya Márquez-Ramírez and Manuel Alejandro Guerrero
1. Latin America Media and the Limitations of the 'Globalization' Paradigm; Silvio Waisbord
2. The 'Liberal-Captured' Model of Media Systems in Latin America; Manuel Alejandro Guerrero
3. In Search of a model for the Colombian Media System Today; Catalina Montoya Londoño
4. Media Systems and Political Action in Peru; Javier Protzel
5. The Complex Relationship Between the Media and the Political System in Argentina: From Co-Option to Polarization; Jorge Liotti
6. Pluralism, Digitalization and the Contemporary Challenges of Media Policy in El Salvador; José Luis Benítez
7. Media and Politicians in Guatemala: A Marriage That Will Last Until Money Do Them Part; Silvio René Gramajo
8. The State in Pursuit of Hegemony over the Media: The Chávez Model; Andrés Cañizález
9. Clashing Powers in Bolivia: The Tensions Between Evo Morales' Government and the Private Media in Bolivia; Víctor Quintanilla
10. State Intervention and Market Structures: the New Overview of Argentinian Audio-Visual Sector; Guillermo Mastrini, Martín Becerra and Santiago Marino
11. Public Service Broadcasting and Media Reform in Brazil in Comparative Perspective; Carolina Matos
12. Globalization and History in Brazil: Communication, Culture and Development Policies at the Crossroads; César Bolaño
13. The Publishing Industries in Ibero-America: Challenges and Diversity in the Digital World; Stella Puente
14. The Global Notion of Journalism: a Hindrance to the Democratization of the Public Space in Chile; Rodrigo Araya
15. Post-Authoritarian Politics in Neoliberal Days: Revising Media and Journalism Transition in Mexico; Mireya Márquez-Ramírez
16. The 'Capture' of Media Systems, Policies and Industries in Latin America: Concluding Remarks; Manuel Alejandro Guerrero and Mireya Márquez-Ramírez