MEDIA AND TERRITORY: THE DISPUTE BETWEEN CONCENTRATION AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN LATIN AMERICA

Abstract

The organization of the media in Latin America is characterized by an intense concentration of communication power in a few corporations. This process has encountered various forms of resistance in recent decades. These resistances are demonstrations of the existence of agents and narratives in dispute: on the one hand, large companies clamoring for their unrestricted freedom of action and concentration – supported by other agents of the neoliberal discourse; on the other hand, various sectors of the independent and alternative press, social movements and civil society organizations defending the need for democratic regulation of communication and for more diversity and plurality of voices in circulation. This paper discusses the disputes between the concentration and the struggles for the democratization of the media in Latin American socio-spatial formations. The present analysis emphasizes the movement towards the renewal of the legislation that regulates the communication industries.