1. Dr. Carolina Matos
Government Department
University of Essex
E-mail: cmatos@essex.ac.uk
Media democratization in Brazil and Latin America after
the 1980s
University of Helsinki, Finland

2. Core readings
Held, David. 1995. Democracy and the Global Order,
Cambridge: Polity Press, 1-23
Matos, C. (2012) Media and politics in Latin America:
globalization, democracy and identity, London: I.B. Tauris
Norris, P. (2004) “Global Political Communications: Good
Governance, Human Development and Mass Communication” in
Esser, Frank and Pfetsch, Barbara (eds.) Comparing Political
Communication: Theories, Cases and Challenges, NY:
Cambridge University Press, 115-151
Scammell, Margaret and Semetko, Holli (eds). 2000. The Media,
Journalism and Democracy, Hants: Dartmouth Publishing
Company
Voltmer, Katrin and Schmitt-Beck, Rudiger (2006) “New
democracies without citizens? Mass media and democratic
orientations – a four century comparison” in Mass Media and
Political Communications in New Democracies, London and
New York: Routledge, 199-211

3. Key points
Media and democracy in Latin America in comparative
perspective
Media systems and democratic governance
Media democratization debates revisited
Media and democracy in the US and UK in comparative
perspective
Democratic media and their duties
Comparing media systems: Southern Europe and Latin
America
Media and democracy in Brazil
Challenges for the further democratization of the media in
Brazil

4. The media, journalism and politics

5. Media and democracy in Latin America in a comparative
perspective
 Latin American countries have emerged at the dawn of the twenty-first
century with a series of challenges to confront, from coming to terms
with their authoritarian past to tackling economic and social inequality
and inserting themselves fully in the global economic and political
order.
 Latin America are only just beginning to get to grips with the notion of
freedom of speech in the context still for many of these countries of
weak institutions, political confrontation and clashes between different
elite groups and persistent poverty and inequality levels.
 Brazil is being confronted with a series of problems - among them
is the persistence of biased and manipulated information and
politicization of the media, in contrast to a slow growth in media
diversity and the availability of more ‘objective’ information due to
commitments established by the mainstream media to balance (Matos,
2008).

6. Media systems and democratic governance
 As Norris (2004, 1) correctly highlights, media systems can strengthen
good governance and promote positive development, especially if there
is a free and independent press which is capable of performing the
watchdog role, holding powerful people to account and acting as a
civic forum of debate between competing interests.
 The 2010 Unesco report, Media development indicators: a framework
for assessing media development, underlined the close relationship that
exists between the health, independence and quality of the media with
the development of a country
 I underscored in my last research (Matos, 2008) how the role of the
media in transitional, or emerging democracies like Brazil can be
understood as being a complex and even ‘schizophrenic’ process.
Throughout the twenty year period that the research focused open,
different sectors of the media acted and performed in contradictory
ways in different historical moments, and subject to various societal,
political and economic influences, pressures and constraints.

7. Media systems and democratic governance
 As various academics have nonetheless affirmed (i.e. Raboy, 1995; Voltmer, 2006),
the problems facing many media systems in the transition to democracy are often
the best example of the problems of democratization more generally.
 The pressures for wider media democratization in Brazil, and the various difficulties
of implementing a new regulatory framework for the media, are being compared
with the difficulties in advancing agrarian reform in the nation.
 What does media democratization involve?:
 Media democratization involves more than the transformation of media institutions,
a freer press and the rise of journalistic professionalism, or even the good intentions
of journalists. At its best, it involves a change of behavior in citizens’ understanding,
use and approach to the media. Thus the demands are placed on media systems to
provide better quality information and a commitment to representing political
diversity, giving voice to different groups in society and wider attention to
professional standards.

8. Media democratization debates revisited
• Norris (2004) has argued that there can only be a positive
relationship between democratic governance, human
development and media systems in countries that meet the
conditions of an independent press which permits the access to
pluralistic information to all
• Thus, a freer and more independent media and balanced press can
only operate if they are not subject to either political or economic
constraints (i.e. Hallin and Mancini, 2004), and if public service
media systems serve the public interest and are not misused...
• Last research (2008) showed how large sectors of the media were
biased and susceptible to ideological manipulation, in spite of the
growth of professionalism and objectivity in the last decades.
Partisanship and political constraints have continued to prevail,
manifesting themselves during the 2006 and 2010 presidential
elections

9. Media democratization revisited
 Political liberalization has thus not been enough to guarantee full media
democratization. The slow democratization of Brazil during the last three
decades has taken place not altogether disassociated from the authoritarian
legacy that has characterized the core formation of Brazilian society.
 As Voltmer and Schmitt-Beck (2006) affirm in the context of their
discussion of representative survey data of 4 new democracies, Bulgaria,
Hungary, Chile and Uruguay, the fact that many citizens in new
democracies lack the durable party identifications of the more established
democracies makes many vulnerable to media biases.
 Voltmer (2006) further argues that information quality and the need for
orientation is even more significant in new democracies in the context of
the breakdown of old regimes. Citizens in new or transitional democracies
need to make sense of information which comes from various sources
which are not only closely tied with political orientations…
 Literature on media democratization (i.e. Voltmer and Schmitt-Beck, 2006;
Curran and Myung-Jin, 2000; Sparks, 2007) has stressed how countries as
different as South Africa, Chile and China encountered various problems
when it came to the democratization of political communications.

10. Democratic media and their duties
 Multiple systems exist, with no uniform model, although the US liberal model is
considered the norm of democratic media
 Basic characteristics of democratic media:
 1) independence from the state;
 2) diversity of views;
 3) press freedom.
Duties of democratic media:
 1) To exercise the watchdog function and scrutinise governments;
 2) Supply accurate and sufficient information;
 3) To represent the diversity of the spectrum of public opinion
(Siebert, Peterson and Schramm’s Four Theories of the Press is considered a classic in the
field).

11. Media and Democracy in the UK and US
 Some problems detected in media systems since the 80’s:
1) Public broadcasting in decline versus expansion of commercial
broadcasting
2) Deregulation trends since the 80’s saw wider media
concentration and proliferation of multi-channel TV
3) Rise of television as political influence
4) Rise of cynicism and decline of interest in politics

12. Four dimensions to analyse media systems in North
Europe and America (in Hallin and Mancini, 2004)
Developed further from Blumler and Gurevitch (1975):
 1) the development of media markets – emphasis is given here on the strong or weak
development of mass circulation press;
 2) political parallelism – the degree and nature of the links between the media and
political parties, or the extent that the media system reflects political divisions.
Public broadcasting systems and the regulatory agencies have a significant
relationship to politics;
 3) the development of journalistic professionalism – refers to norms and codes of the
journalism profession, the tradition of neutrality, impartiality and objectivity against
militant and advocacy forms.
 4) the degree and nature of state intervention in the media system – the role that the state
has and its relationship to the media, and refers largely to governmental control or
media independence from the state.

13. Three Models of Media Systems
(Hallin and Mancini, 2000)
Mediterranean
(Southern Europe)
Democratic
Corporatist
(Northern Europe)
Liberal
(North America)
Newspaper Low circulation;
elite-oriented
High circulation Medium
Political parallelism High parallelism;
external pluralism;
politics/broadcast
External pluralism;
party press; PSB
autonomy
Neutral commercial
press; internal
pluralism
Professionalization Weak journalism
political activism
not differentiated
Strong
professionalization;
institutionalised self-
regulation
Strong
professionalization; non-
institutionalised
Role of the State Strong state intervention Strong state
intervention; strong PSB
Market dominated;
weak PSB

14. Comparing media systems: Southern Europe and
Latin America (Hallin and Mancini, 2000)
 Historical perspectives: State intervention in South America has reinforced
governmental power (Waisbord, 2000)
 But - Market liberalisation and political democratisation have assigned
new roles for state (more democratic participatory) and market (liberating
versus oppressive of debate)
 Similarities between Latin American media systems and Southern
European (Hallin and Papathanassopoulos (2002, 3):
 1) the low circulation of newspapers;
2) tradition of advocacy reporting;
3) instrumentalization (political use) of privately-owned media;
4) politicization of broadcasting and regulation;
5) limited development of journalism autonomy.

15. Democracy and the media in South America
 New approaches to how communications can reshape Latin American
politics (Waisbord, 1995)
 Recent research (Matos, 2008; Hughes, 2006) has highlighted the
complexity of the role of the market in the democratization process, how
journalism itself changed and how politicians, civil society representatives
can exercise pressure on media systems and how the push for change is a
contradictory process. These new studies are not grounded on purely
economic positions, but assess the relationship between political
institutions and the ways in which media actors can assist in the
development of democracy.
 As Voltmer (2006) points out, much of the literature in the comparative
research tradition on media systems has deliberated on how information
quality standards have been reworked in communication media after the
dictatorships. They have further looked at how political and economic
conditions can foster or inhibit the media’s capacity to fulfil their
democratic role (i.e. Curran and Park, 2000).

16. Media and democracy in Latin America (in Matos,
2012)
Comparative political communication research offers us a set of knowledge
that increases our intellectual sophistication and understanding of the
complexities of the world and of other cultures.
•It forces us not to be narrow-minded, obliging us to deal with other cultures
and ideas.
* Real, in depth knowledge is all about comparison
Triangulation methodology: online survey with segments of the audience in
Brazil in contrast to audience research done by Ofcom in the UK: textual
analysis of programmes from the public and commercial media; interviews
with journalists and policy-makers
PSBs in comparative perspective:
Public communications in Latin America have traditionally been
appropriated for the individual personal interests of politicians in contrast to
the public service and educational role in UK

17. Freedom House: Latin America, Western and Eastern
Europe and Middle East
Freedom House Survey on Press Freedom in 2007 – some clear
regional trends:
1) Western Europe – declines in Portugal, Malta and Turkey;
2) Central and Eastern Europe – Largest region-wide
setback (i.e. Russia and Georgia);
3) Americas – Mexico decline of three points;
4) Improvements in the Middle East and North Africa – the
case of Egypt

18. Liberty of the press in Brazil and issues of press freedom
 Although Brazil is now considered as having a relatively independent
press, key studies which have examined the role of the media in
democratization and the nature of the relationship between journalism and
government (i.e. Fox, 1998; Waisbord, 2000; Straubhaar, 2001; Skidmore,
1993; Matos, 2008) have underscored how the contemporary reality is still
embedded in an authoritarian legacy.
 Problems of media democratization in Brazil include constraints on the
media independence from both political and economic constraints
 Regional differences – media in the South of the country is stronger and
more “independent” than news organisations in the North
 Press law in Brazil (1967) versus current debates on expansion of press
freedom. According to the Decree no. 83.254 of 1970, during the
dictatorship years, only those professionals registered in the Labour
Ministry could legally exercise the journalism profession (Moreira and
Helal, 2009, 94). In the last years, the necessity of the university diploma
has been subject to heated debate amongst scholars and journalists.

19. Liberty of the press in Brazil and issues of press
freedom
 The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) affirmed in the 1990s that,
in spite of the fact that the 1988 Constitution prohibited any restrictions
on the press, the old press law, which dates back to 1967 and was
implemented during the dictatorship years, is still being used in Brazil
(Buckman, 1996, 15).
 In 2010, the country engaged in a series of debates concerning the
creation of a new press law.
 The Supreme Court of Justice in Brazil suspended most articles of the
old Lei de Imprensa (Press Law) in 2009. This included the articles that
established penalties for journalists for crimes of defamation, perjury,
the right of censorship of plays and public events and the article which
gave government powers to apprehend printed material which offended
‘good’ behaviour.
 Brazil has managed to be taken off the list of the countries which register
impunity in crimes against journalists, according to the Committee on the
Protection of Journalists (CPJ). Brazil reached the 13th
place in 2009

20. Challenges for the further democratization of the Brazilian
media: where do we go from here?
 In spite of a wider adherence to the classic prescriptions of liberal media
theory and the growth of the media’s role as a Fourth Estate, with
journalists assuming a more confrontational stance towards authority
following the impeachment of former president Collor in 1989, the fact of
the matter is that the Brazilian media are still politicised institutions.
 In the context of the fall of the old press law, many Brazilian media
organisations defended the adoption of self-regulation and a creation of a
code of conduct to regulate journalism practices.
 There are various problems concerning the strengthening of the public
communication platform in the country, including the politicization of
media institutions and of broadcasting, hierarchical social relations
between Brazil’s different groups based on class, race and regionalism,
and exclusion of certain segments of society from the mainstream media’s
public sphere.

21. Conclusions
 The democratization of the Brazilian media is still an on-going process
tightly connected with improvements in the social and economic
inequality levels of the country and with the growth of educational
levels in all sectors of the population
 The Brazilian media and journalism has lived a turbulent life in the last
three decades, with multiple journalism cultures proliferating in the
newsroom, from professionalism to a social responsibility ethos
 Since the re-democratization phase, civil society players, academics
and others have pressured for advancements in media reforms and
democratization, including the establishment of articles in the Brazilian
Constitution of 1988 on the creation of a complex media sector and of
a public media infra-structure
 Media reform and laws capable of undermining media concentration, a
wider commitment to transparency in the radio and TV public
concessions