This document discusses challenges for media democratization in Brazil and Latin America. It provides context on the history of media in Brazil under dictatorship from 1964-1985 and its evolution today. It examines debates around public service broadcasting and regulation models in Europe and their potential relevance for Latin America. The document outlines challenges for public media and media democratization in providing an independent source that serves public interests rather than commercial or state interests. It proposes a comparative analysis of models could help advance debate and inclusion.

1. CHALLENGES FOR MEDIA
DEMOCRATIZATION IN BRAZIL AND LATIN
AMERICA
Dr. Carolina Matos
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of
Oxford

2. Key points
• Introduction: a brief look at the Brazilian media
• Media democratization debates revisited and intellectual
framework for comparative research
• European public service broadcasting and regulation
• Latin American media: a history of neglect of public
communication structures
• TV Cultura versus TV Brasil: quotes from interviews and
issues raised
• Challenges for public media and media democratization

3. The Brazilian media system during the
dictatorship
• Authoritarian regimes in Latin America
• Brazilian media (1964-1985):
a) Militant journalism and resistance in the
alternative media
b) Era of “enlightened” debate?
c) Alignments of the mainstream media versus
resistance of certain journalists and newspapers during
specific periods (Matos, 2008)

4. Brazilian media today
• Journalism of the 1990’s – Blurring of the boundaries
between newsrooms and commercial departments
• The expansion of professionalism and objectivity
• The decline of partisanship and militant journalism -
romantic journalism of the 1970’s versus pragmatism of
the 1990’s.
• 90’s - multiple journalism identities (increase of public
debate x decline of public sphere (Habermas)
• Rise of watchdog journalism and investigative reporting as
a contemporary genre of the 1990’s (Waisbord, 2000)

5. Journalism in Latin America and Brazil

6. Latin American broadcasting has adopted US model
• TV in many Latin American countries has developed following the US
commercial model
• I.e. Development of Brazilian television by military planners in the
60’s onwards contributed for the formation of what Straubhaar (2001;
138) has defined as the “nationalizing vocation”, and the creation of a
consumer culture and engagement of Brazilians in the market
economy (Matos, 2008).
• Television has taken on a central role in political life, in the country’s
democratisation process and in the construction of various identities.
It is possible to say that in this sense TV Globo carries some
resemblance with the role played by the BBC in the UK.

7. Four lines of research inquiry in Media and politics in Latin
America (IB Tauris, 2012)
Examination here has been done not by dividing nations
into different chapters, but with a focus on the particular
themes, which I have chosen to call:
Four lines of inquiry:
•An evaluation of the historical evolution and the public
broadcasting tradition of countries like the UK and Brazil;
•The relationship established between the public media
with the state, public sphere and the public interest;
•The debates on what constitutes ‘quality’ programming
and information in both the private and public media;
•An examination of the ‘crisis’ of civic forms of
communication, and how they can still be relevant.

8. Parts of Media and politics in Latin America
• Frameworks of comparison for public service media
• Public communications and regulation in Latin America
• European public service broadcasting revisited
• Journalism for the public interest: the crisis of civic communications
and journalism in Latin America
• Television, entertainment and the public interest
• Audience perceptions of quality programming and the public media
• Television, popular culture and Latin America and Brazilian identity
• Internet for the public interest
• Political cynicism and the digital divide
• Mediated politics in the 2010 Brazilian elections
• Media democratisation in Latin America: towards a politics for
national development

9. Methodological issues
* Triangulation approach is considered to largely avoid the
biases of a single method, working towards providing a
thick description (Jick, 1979: 608-9 in Jankowski and
Wester, 1991)
* Online survey applied to 149 communication students at
UFRJ
* Conduction of in depth interviews with 12 journalists and
policy-makers
•Programmes and genres have become increasingly
blurred and are shown on both
•Hypotheses – that the public media differs from the private
(i.e. quality programming); differences are subtle

10. Empirical work and survey: multi-
triangulation method
 Discussion of programmes from the public media, mainly
TV Brasil, but also soap operas and Jornal Nacional (O
Globo)
 Compared the programmes offered during peak time on
TV Brasil with those offered on TV Globo
 Contrasted the subtle differences between the themes
and topics explored and choice of programmes
 Analyse of the uses of the Internet in political
campaigning and blogging in the 2010 elections:
a) new media as a counter-public sphere;
b) gender politics and representation

11. Some survey results
Survey revealed a lack of knowledge of the public
media
Most watch TV Globo and cable and satellite TV
That said, 71% of students defended the public
media, stating that it could have a role in
correcting market failure and contributing to
democratization
Most however saw little difference in regards to
the type of information broadcast in commercial
and public TV stations
Differences however are subtle, regarding style
and choice of programmes, such as emphasis on
“serious” programmes over heavy entertainment

12. 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
• 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

13. Media democratization revisited
• 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
• 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.
• As Voltmer and Schmitt-Beck (2006) state nonetheless, some
countries in Eastern Europe however did manage to implement PSBs
with some degree of independence from both the State and from
market competition – this is the current challenge in Brazil and Latin
America

14. Comparative research in a changing world
*Esser and Pfetsch (2004; 384) argue that it is mainly through
comparative research that one is aware of other political and
communications systems, being able to assess the merits and
limitations of one’s own system and acquiring a whole new wealth of
knowledge of other political and cultural models.
*As Gurevitch and Blumler (2004: 335) state, good comparative
political communication research can be characterised as being an
investigation of the impact of political cultures on political
communications in different societies
*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

15. Intellectual framework for comparative analysis
• Norris (2009) contends that comparative political communication
research should focus instead on articulating imaginative hypotheses,
generating interesting observations for comparison
• My aim has been to expand the available knowledge on the media
and political systems of Latin America/Brazil, providing interesting
observations of the region and of more advanced democracies
PSB in comparative perspective
– 1) it assists in the evaluation of the achievements of public
service broadcasting in European countries and its future challenges;
- 2) it can also provide a framework for the development of the PSB
platform in emerging democracies which are seeking to deepen
political democratisation and reduce economic inequalities, thus
contributing to expand debate and to promote wider social and
cultural inclusion (Matos, 2008)

16. Future role for PSB in old and new
democracies
 In the UK, PSB has emerged as vehicle for
strengthening debate.
 Talk became more spontaneous and less
constrained (Scannell, 1995)
 As a vehicle for cultural and educational emancipation;
boost of political diversity as well as both regional and
national integration
 Functioning as a counterweight to the market – the
necessity of multiple public spheres and media to attend
to both citizen and consumer demands
 Is a truly independent public media possible?

17. Broadcasting in the UK and regulation
• Regulation in the UK has also been supported by various regulation
bodies who have established different codes of conduct.
• Set up under the 2003 Communications bill, the UK’s broadcasting
regulator, Ofcom, has been an example of reference in media
regulation in Europe;
• Ofcom states that is main aim is to further the interests of citizens
and consumers. Ofcom is responsible for limiting publicity,
establishing gender quotas, independent production, protection of
privacy, combating offensive content and the establishment of
impartiality criteria

18. Broadcasting in the UK and regulation
continued
* According to Forgan and Tambini (2000, 03, in Santos e Silveira,
2007, 73), PSB regulation in the UK improved through time;
• Dunleavy (1987) has argued how public service broadcasting
regulation in the UK has managed to act as a counter-weight to
the press, neutralising or balancing the biases of the partisan
British tabloids;
• Ofcom says it has a “bias” against intervention, and states that it
regulates only to enable citizens to receive high quality
information as well as to ensure fairer competition
• As Petley (1999) has affirmed, broadcasting regulation has been
largely successful because it has been attentive to citizen’s and
consumer’s needs, responding to the public’s desire for
regulation around issues such as diversity, plurality, political
balance and educational purposes

19. Comparing media systems: Southern Europe and Latin
America
 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.

20. Latin American governments and media
reform
• Brazil and Mexico, with stronger national production markets and
audiences, registered lower levels of media concentration and higher
diversity compared to other smaller countries in the region
• Governments in Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay and
Bolivia have acted to promote media democratization through the
creation of regulatory frameworks and public systems of
communication
• Argentina is being seen as an example by many experts
• In the first government of Kirchner (2007-2011), the approval of the
Law 26.522 – Lei de Servicos de Comunicacao Audio-visual,
substituted previous legislation from the dictatorship
• Law proposed limits on the power of media conglomerates,
preventing any private TV company from owning more than 35% of
the media, stating that licenses should be renewed every 10 years
instead of after 20 and quotas for local production.

21. Public communication infrastructure in Latin America:
a history of neglect
 State intervention in South America has had the aim of reinforcing
governmental powers rather than promoting democratic
communications (Waisbord, 2000; Matos, 2008).
 Broadcasting has been built on a combination of political control and
limited regulation. Educational and state channels are mainly owned
by sectors of the Church and politicians.
 National broadcasting policies have also been traditionally aligned
with political interests and state control.
 Debates on the necessity of broadcasting and media reform and
regulation culminated in the first realization of a conference on the
theme in 2009 (i.e. Confecom debates)

22. ‘Private’ versus ‘public’ dichotomy
Private Public
Right/Conservative/Centre/Left – the Centre/Left/Liberal/some
consumer conservatives - citizen
‘Objective’ and informational ‘Objective’/’public’/’serious’ journalism
journalism
Talk shows/sit-coms/reality TV – Realism in films/documentaries/reality
American programming, some content TV – ‘arty’ and European
from other countries programming, some US material
Advertising/aesthetic of consumerism ‘Quality’ aesthetic/Challenging
– self/intimacy/the private sphere (i.e. material - collective/the public sphere
Sci-fi, horror)
Dreamy/fantasy/’escapism’ texts – Historical material/in depth analyses –
occasional ‘serious’ material some entertainment (i.e. Soaps,
drama, sci-fi, horror).

23. Table 1 – Radio and TV stations controlled by politicians
in Brazil (1994) (Source: Lima (2001: 107) (in Azevedo,
2006, 34)
Channels Total Brazil Current Per cent
politicians and
past
TV 302 94 31.12%
Radio 2908 1169 40.19%

24. Facts and figures on public communications and
broadcasting in Brazil
 Government is preparing to put up for public consultation media
reform proposals
 Last Lula government submitted a text to the Dilma government with
proposals from the Confecom debates
 Changes to the current legislation on broadcasting, the Codigo
Brasileiro de Telecomunicacoes, which dates to 1962. The latter
combined the authoritarianism of the Vargas regime, such as power
to distribute licences, with economic liberalism
 Aim of new regulation for broadcasting is to make the process of TV
and radio concessions more transparent and quick
 Idea is that there would be one regulatory agency for
communications. Anatel (Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicacoes)
would gain more attributions and a new name (Agencia Nacional de
Comunicacao)

25. TV Cultura versus TV Brasil
• EBC, which controls TV Brasil, was launched in December 2007
• Current restructuring of TV Cultura and TV Brasil to attend to
multiple publics, with TV Cultura forming partnerships with
newspapers such as Folha
• TV Cultura is seen as aligned with the government of Sao Paulo, of
the PSDB, whereas TV Brasil is linked to the federal administration
(i.e. accused by the opposition when it was launched of being the “TV
Lula”)
• Academics and journalists are weary about media reform (i.e.
Gabriel Priolli: “If FHC couldn’t do it, Lula either, I doubt Dilma will.”)
• Sites: www.tvbrasil.ebc.com.br
• www.tvcultura.cmais.com.br
• www.redeglobo.globo.com

26. Quotes from interviews
 ‘ ...always when a government destined resources to the
public TV, it wanted to be compensated by a positive
representation..... We have not yet fully incorporated the
notion that the public television attends to citizenship rights.....
If we really have a strengthening of the public media – which
will only be ‘public’ if it is really independent of governments –
we will have advanced historically....In Brazil the idea that the
government should interfere in social communications is like a
multi-party consensus. We can see that no public television
has total autonomy..The average mentality of politicians in that
respect is still very backward....’
(Eugenio Bucci, journalist and former Radiobras president)

27. Quotes from interviews
 “Open television has been incapable of developing relevant themes
or even to use national values, like music, to assist in constructing a
national identity. The ways in which we can improve the quality of
Brazilian television is to oblige them to include a quota for local
production..... The issue is mainly to make room for wider
competition, allowing the entry of new players. It is a market in which
the only real competitors are Globo and Record, with the latter trying
to imitate Globo’s model. The only way to break this mediocrity pact
is to open spaces for new players...”

(Journalist Luis Nassif, former FSP columnist and
presenter of the TV Brasil debating programme
Brasilianas.org)

28. Quotes from interviews
‘In 2005, when the mensalao scandals emerged, that was when they
‘sold’ the idea to Lula to have TV Brasil, of having a strong public
network capable of competing with the private, as the government
wanted a media which could be more favourable...The government
wanted an instrument to defend itself, and it convinced itself that it
was important. This is a contradiction with the real role that public TV
should have....There is actually a lot of idealism and hypocrisy in this
whole discussion... People say that all you need is another option to
TV Globo for people to change channels, but the reality is that they
do not, they do not change to TV Brasil. I believe that this issue has
a direct relation to education as well, for a better quality education
produces audiences of better quality.....more sensitive
and....interested in watching the public media....’
(Gabriel Priolli, vice-director of journalism of TV Cultura)

29. Media reform in Brazil: achievements and future
challenges
• Achievements of the last years include the realization of
the Confecom debates; the implementation of TV Brasil
and commitments towards media regulation
• New rules for radio and TV concessions
• Ministry of Communications of former government has
identified five areas to tackle:
• 1) creation of a new regulatory framework;
• 2) regulation of article 221 of the Brazilian Constitution;
• 3) author’s copy rights;
• 4) Internet regulation
• 5) public TV regulation.

30. Media democratization in Brazil: achievements and future
challenges
• Programme for the communication sector of the Lula candidature in
2006 underscored that democratization of communications was
necessary to deepen democracy
• Lima (2007) has argued that the 8 years of the Lula government did
not represent a threat to the media (EBC was already a demand of
the 1988 Constitution)
* Broadcasting versus telecommunications: in Brazil in 2009, the profit
of broadcasting was of R$ 13 bi, whereas for the telephone
companies, this was R$ 180 bi
* Genuine public media does not exist in Brazil, but educational
stations controlled by the state (i.e. Legislative, Executive or Judicial
powers (TV Senado);
De-concentration of the market, and promotion of national and
regional culture, are also deemed necessary

31. Challenges for public communications and media reform in
Brazil
• Reluctance of market sectors and some media organisations (i.e.
fears of media censorship, control of content, competition, etc)
• Break the false equation of regulation with censorship
• Scholars believe that only a new regulatory framework for the media
can be capable of contemplating differences between the state, the
public and commercial sector
• Study of other European regulation models (i.e. UK and Portuguese)
• Document discussed in the Chamber of Deputies underlines the
importance of the State in taking on responsibility for policies for
public communications (i.e. guarantee funds)

32. Conclusions
* There must be wider access to the Internet beyond the middle classes;
more players need to be producers of media content and participate
more fully as citizens
* More support for community radio, funding for segmented media outlets
and magazines
1) Building of a broadcasting regulatory framework committed to the
public interest and independent;
 2) reinforcement of balance and professionalism in newsrooms,
including regulation of the journalism profession and auto-regulation of
the press;
 3) Fortifying of the public media platform, TV, radio and the Internet,
followed by an engagement with the debate over “quality”
 4) Strengthening of regional, local and alternative media
 5) Wider access to less privileged sectors of the population to the
Internet throughout Latin America

33. Selected bibliography
 Banerjee, Indrajit and Seneviratne, Kalinga (2006) (eds.) Public
Service Broadcasting in the Age of Globalization, Singapore: Asian
Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC)
 Bolano, Cesar Ricardo Siqueira (2007) Qual a logica das politicas de
comunicacao no Brasil?, Sao Paulo: Editora Paulus
 Canizalez, Andres and Lugo-Ocando, Jairo (2008) “Beyond National
Media Systems: A Media for Latin America and the Struggle for
Integration” in The Media in Latin America, Berkshire: Open
University Press, 209-223
 Curran, James, Iyengar, Shanto, Brink Lund, Anker, Salovaara-
Moring, Inka (2009) “Media System, Public Knowledge and
Democracy” in European Journal of Communications, vol.24, no. 1,
5-26
 Dunleavy, Patrick and O’Leary, Brendan (1987) Theories of the
state: the politics of liberal democracy, Handmills: Macmillan
Education
 Fox, Elizabeth and Waisbord, Silvio (eds.) (2002) Latin Politics,
Global Media, Austin: University of Texas Press

34. Bibliography continued
• Hallin, Daniel C. and Mancini, Paolo (2004) Comparing Media
Systems – Three Models of Media and Politics, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1-17, 21-86, 251-306
• Matos, C. (2008) Journalism and political democracy in Brazil,
Maryland: Lexington Books
• 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
• Scannell, P. (1989) “Public Service Broadcasting and Modern Life” in
Media, Culture and Society, vol. 11, 135-66
• Waisbord, S. (2000) Watchdog journalism in South America: news,
accountability and democracy, NY: Columbia