edition-dw-akademie-in-the-service-of-the-public-functions-and-transformation-of-media-in-developing-countries-pdf

Culturally, Latin America is seen as one of the most diverse andeffervescent regions worldwide with high levels of social organization,as Nohra Rey de Marulanda and Francisco BernadiniTancredi found in a best practice survey on participative projects:“Latin America and the Caribbean explode in creativityand social innovation... The driving force behind most of theseinitiatives is non-governmental organizations or groups thatemerge from local communities.” 5Since the late 1990s, the region has been experiencing dynamiceconomic growth and considerable advancement inthe fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals. Aftermany years of unsuccessfully applied “neo-liberal” economicreforms, seeking privatization, deregulation, and open markets,several Latin American countries adopted a much morepragmatic economic approach, based on stronger state interventionand on social investment. These heterodox strategieshave yielded startlingly good results, reports the World Bank:“Steady growth and sound economic policies improved thelives of millions in the region over the past decade, with morethan 70 million people lifted out of poverty and 50 millionjoining the ranks of the middle class between 2003 and 2011.For the first time ever, the number of people belonging to themiddle class surpassed the number of poor, a sign that LatinAmerica and the Caribbean is progressing toward a middleclassregion.” 6The new Latin American left-wing presidents – for example,Evo Morales in Bolivia, Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, Rafael Correain Ecuador, Michelle Bachelet in Chile or José Mujica in Uruguay– are much more self-confident 7 and make explicit use oftheir right to national self-determination; this is also evidentwhen negotiating with development agencies. Many of theseleaders were persecuted and suffered torture during the yearsof dictatorship in the 1970s and contributed significantly tothe movement for democratization in the 1980s. They focuson national development issues, at least in discourse (whichis often interpreted as “populism”), reject US interference indomestic issues, and are skeptical about classical technical cooperation,seeking instead strategic partnerships at eye level.In spite of the positive changes mentioned, many structuralproblems related to social exclusion, the fragmentationof civil society and an informal workforce persist. After all, theeconomic boom is based on the massive extension of extractiveindustries with very low added value in the productionchains and with massive socio-economic and environmentalimpacts. Latin America is still the most unequal and most violentregion in the world. 8Additionally, new expressions of violence obstruct developmentand affect good governance, as a comprehensive bibliographicrevision on this topic concludes: “No other regionof the world knows higher homicide rates nor has it such a varietyof violence as the Latin American countries. Political violence,guerilla movements and civil wars, bloody revolutions,brutal dictatorships, domestic violence, criminal violence, andyouth violence are all well known throughout history.” 9Media LandscapeContrasting with the great cultural diversity and the manysocial and institutional challenges the region is addressing,Latin America’s media landscape appears to be poorly differentiated,with a reduced variety of only a few formats and onlysome mainstream communication channels: Conventionalmedia like TV and radio still dominate the consumer’s preferencesin most countries, and only recently has a rising middleclass begun to use internet-based platforms to access informationor to use their cultural consumer goods. Because of thepersistence of illiteracy and an undeveloped culture of reading,the print media have small print runs and their use is confinedto a rather limited group of urban readers – a fact thathas been analyzed for many years and is still valid today, asPhilip Kitzberger confirms: “Despite the growing importanceof new media and information technologies, the traditionalmedia, especially television, are predominant in forming publicopinion.” 10 Media consumption on digital platforms is nowincreasing considerably in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, andMexico, including online viewing of TV shows, radio listening,and reading of online magazines. 11In addition to the concentration of media and the oversimplificationand depoliticization of complex and multifacetedsocial realities, another key problem is the restriction ofthe right of access to information and the recurrent violationof freedom of expression. In the last decade, Latin Americancountries have been adapting rapidly advanced legislationbased on international standards for the right of access toinformation. This legislation relates mainly to proactive publicationobligations of the state, to procedural arrangementsto exercise this right, and to legal ways to appeal breaches ofthe rule. 12 Nevertheless, in practice, the implementation of thismodern legislation is still embryonic, and even when journalistsfinally get the access to relevant information, they oftencannot analyze and publish it without personal risks: 670 journalistshave been killed in the region in the last 20 years witha very low detection and prosecution rate; death threats andjudicial complaints against journalists are very common, especiallyin Colombia, Honduras, and Mexico, a recent reportreveals:“On the one hand, there is total impunity for serious violationsof freedom of expression, and an environment wherelow intensity physical violence is not actively prosecuted bythe states. On the other hand, impunity is manifested in newmechanisms of indirect censorship with a severe chilling effecton free expression.” 13For this chapter it is important to consider the nationalcontexts in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia: In Bolivia the medialandscape has been changing dramatically since the rise ofa popular peasant and indigenous movement in recent years.The new Constitution of 2008, which is one of the most participativeelaborated legal documents worldwide, guaranteesnot only the right of access to information, but also the right232