The Media Activism of Latin America's Leftist Governments: Does Ideology Matter?

A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Kitzberger, Philip Working Paper The Media Activism of Latin America's Leftist Governments: Does Ideology Matter? GIGA Working Papers, No. 151 Provided in Cooperation with: GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies Suggested Citation: Kitzberger, Philip (2010) : The Media Activism of Latin America's Leftist Governments: Does Ideology Matter?, GIGA Working Papers, No. 151, German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/47769 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. 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Copyright remains with the authors. the with remains Copyright venue. other any in publication limit not should and debate. publication academic constitute and not ideas does of series exchange Papers the Working encourage the to in paper a publicaton of to prior Inclusion progress in work of results research the disseminate to serve Papers Working GIGA GIGA Research Unit: Institute of Latin American Studies ___________________________ The Media Activism of Latin America’s Leftist Governments: Does Ideology Matter? Philip Kitzberger No 151 November 2010 www.giga-hamburg.de/workingpapers GIGA WP 151/2010 GIGA Working Papers Edited by the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien The GIGA Working Papers series serves to disseminate the research results of work in progress prior to publication in order to encourage the exchange of ideas and academic debate. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. Inclusion of a paper in the GIGA Working Papers series does not constitute publication and should not limit publication in any other venue. Copyright remains with the authors. When working papers are eventually accepted by or published in a journal or book, the correct citation reference and, if possible, the corresponding link will then be in- cluded on the GIGA Working Papers website at <www.giga-hamburg.de/workingpapers>. GIGA research unit responsible for this issue: Institute of Latin American Studies Editor of the GIGA Working Papers series: Bert Hoffmann <[email protected]> Copyright for this issue: © Philip Kitzberger English copy editor: Melissa Nelson Editorial assistant and production: Vera Rathje All GIGA Working Papers are available online and free of charge on the website <www.giga-hamburg.de/workingpapers>. For any requests please contact: E-mail: [email protected] Phone: ++49 (0)40 - 4 28 25 - 548 The GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies cannot be held responsible for errors or any consequences arising from the use of information contained in this Working Paper; the views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author or authors and do not neces- sarily reflect those of the Institute. GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien Neuer Jungfernstieg 21 20354 Hamburg Germany E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.giga-hamburg.de GIGA WP 151/2010 The Media Activism of Latin America’s Leftist Governments: Does Ideology Matter? Abstract Has Latin America’s left turn mattered in media politics? Does ideology impact governments’ practices and policies regarding media and journalistic institutions? Through an empirical assessment of discourses on the media, of direct-communication practices, and of media regulation policies on the part of the recent leftist governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela, this paper stresses the existence of a specific media activism on the part of leftist governments in Latin America. While showing that the current binary distinctions that stress the existence of two lefts—“populist” and “nonpopulist”— obscure important commonalities and continuities, the author also demonstrates that it is the existence of certain institutional and structural constraints that best accounts for the differ- ences among the various leftist governments in Latin America. In sum, the paper challenges the prevailing neglect of ideology as a relevant factor in explaining developments in government–media relationships in the region. Keywords: media, journalism, Latin America, government, ideology, leftism Philip Kitzberger is a political science professor at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires and a re- searcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) of Ar- gentina. This paper was written during a stay at the GIGA Institute of Latin American Stud- ies in 2010 that was funded by a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Contact: [email protected] Website: http://staff.en.giga-hamburg.de/kitzberger GIGA WP 151/2010 Zusammenfassung Der mediale Aktivismus der lateinamerikanischen Linksregierungen: Hat Ideologie einen Einfluss? Hat sich Lateinamerikas Linksruck auf die Medienpolitik ausgewirkt? Hat Ideologie auf die Politik und Einstellung der Regierungen gegenüber Medien und Presse einen Einfluss? Durch eine empirische Feststellung von öffentlichen Regierungsmediendiskursen, direkten Kommunikationsvorrichtungen und Medienregulierungspolitik in den jüngsten linksorien- tierten Regierungen in Argentinien, Bolivien, Brasilien, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay und Vene- zuela, hebt diese Arbeit die Existenz eines spezifischen Medienaktivismus der regionalen Linksregierungen hervor. Während gezeigt wird, dass binarische Unterscheidungen zwischen einer „populistischen“ und einer „nichtpopulistischen“ Linken wichtige Gemeinsam- keiten und Kontinuitäten verdunkeln, belegt die Arbeit, dass, jenseits der Gemeinsamkeiten, das Vorhandensein gewisser Zwangskontexte die Unterschiede zwischen den verschiedenen linken Regierungserfahrungen in Lateinamerika besser erklärt. Diese Arbeit stellt somit die herrschende Vernachlässigung von Ideologie als relevantem Faktor für die Erklärung der regionalen Verhältnisse zwischen Regierungen und Medien in Frage. The Media Activism of Latin America’s Leftist Governments: Does Ideology Matter? Philip Kitzberger Article 1. Introduction 2. Assessing and Explaining Media Activism on the Part of Leftist Latin American Governments 3. The Country Experiences 4. Conclusion: The Media Activism of Latin America’s Leftist Governments in Context 1. Introduction In recent years Latin America has witnessed a wave of leftist governments. In spite of their common self-identification as part of a new regional left and their egalitarian claims of social justice and political inclusion, these governments differ in terms of leadership, mobilization, and policy orientation. Among the most noteworthy features of these new political experiences has been the rise in news media–government conflict and oppositional polarization. These “media wars” have been fought openly in front of the public. But rather than the governments’ leftist orientation, the cause has predominantly been said to be the populist or au- 6 Kitzberger: The Media Activism of Latin America’s Leftist Governments thoritarian character of the heads of government—Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, Néstor Kirchner or Rafael Correa—which is seen as inimical to Western standards of press freedom. Though the two leaders are not that radical, the rapport between Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva and Tabaré Vázquez, both of whose governments are viewed as “moderate” or “nonpopulist” leftist, and the media institutions in their respective countries has also been uneasy. Nevertheless, their governments’ conflicts with the media—in contrast to those of the for- merly mentioned leaders—been deemed “normal” and within liberal-democratic parameters (Petkoff 2005, Castañeda 2006).1 In fact, little attention has been paid to ideology as a factor which might account for recent changes in media–government relations in the region and overall.2 Ideological identities aside, the growing confrontation between governments and the media, in Latin America and elsewhere, has been seen as part of a trend of increasing media proactivity on the part of governments’ executive branches. This proactivity has been seen as a response to the chal- lenge of a political field colonized by an autonomous and powerful media logic (Gaber

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