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2016 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

6. Broadening the Scope: Advocacy Coalitions and Media Reforms in Chile and Uruguay

Author : Christof Mauersberger

Published in: Advocacy Coalitions and Democratizing Media Reforms in Latin America

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Having analyzed the experiences in Argentina and Brazil in depth, it is worth having a look at the smaller neighbors Chile and Uruguay. Naturally the analysis of these two complementary cases cannot be as detailed as for the two main cases, but they nonetheless add considerably to our understanding of the possibility of media democratization. I will thus focus explicitly on the structure of the Coalitions for Democratization and their belief systems (class-based perspective vs. communication rights), as well as on the prospects of policy-oriented learning. The case of Chile shows that a fragmented Coalition for Democratization without any institutional base can hardly develop a common agenda, let alone brokerage capacities. Some limited success was visible only in one sector reform that featured an open, focused network (part of the Coalition for Democratization) indirectly based on a rights perspective. Uruguay’s Coalition for Democratization resembles its Argentinean counterpart (open, focused network, communication rights) and was, interestingly, able to initiate a series of incremental reform steps, which significantly democratized media regulation.

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previous chapter Brazil: Much Debate About No Reform
next chapter Comparison and Generalization: Conditions for Media Democratization
Footnotes
1
The law for “broadcasting with minimal coverage” (1994–2010) restricts community radios to a potency of 1 W (sufficient to cover about one block), prohibits advertisement, and calls for a costly renovation of the license every 3 years. Any violation of these rules can be punished with prison sentences and the confiscation of equipment (La Morada 2009: 160).
 
2
Paradoxically, the law’s poor consideration of technical realities in spectrum management brought the regulatory agency closer to community radios, as the agency was forced to cooperate in order to implement ambiguous rules (I092: 37; Observatorio de Medios 2012).
 
3
Decisive for these connections have been AMARC, particularly the activist Gustavo Gómez, and the German foundation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) (I023: 39; I027: 27; I031: 26ff; I033: 18). AMARC enabled knowledge exchange with other countries in the region. The FES supported the debate through different activities and published most of the reports and books on this topic (e.g., Lanza and Buquet 2011; Gómez 2010; I029; I027: 25; I023: 8).
 
4
The law was welcomed by representatives of UNESCO and the IACmHR but criticized by the commercial sector, the conservative opposition, and the more radical community radio association ECOS (Hall 2012: 56; La Klasista 2011; I024). In 2014, Edison Lanza became the new OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression (Lauría 2014).
 
5
One example of learning is the acknowledgement of the importance of community radios by representatives of commercial radio, which criticized them strongly before. Similarly, the equilibrium among public, private, and community media—long opposed by the private actors—was accepted as consensus within the CTC, although ideas about the proportions continued to diverge (I023: 27; I037: 22; Light 2013: 101).
 
6
The CTC still finished its sessions and published the final report, but the planned public presentation with the UN’s Special Rapporteur and the subsequent public consultations were cancelled (CTC 2010; DINATEL 2011; Rodríguez 2011: 17f, 28; I023: 027f). The next year, Gómez was withdrawn from DINATEL, but according to him and others, the move was unrelated to the process (even though it had a negative effect).
 
7
A survey with data from 2011 to 2012 showed strong support for new media regulation (70 % in 2012) and the promotion of public television (52 %) and community TV (26 %), while only 11 % supported promoting commercial TV. Knowledge about the ongoing policy debate rose from 16 % in 2011 to 25 % one year later, although these figures are much higher in the capital region and among those with a higher level of education (Alonso et al. 2013: 37–47).
 
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Metadata
Title
Broadening the Scope: Advocacy Coalitions and Media Reforms in Chile and Uruguay
Author
Christof Mauersberger
Copyright Year
2016
Book
Advocacy Coalitions and Democratizing Media Reforms in Latin America

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-21277-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-21278-4

Copyright Year: 2016

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21278-4_6