• Custom Writing Services
  • How to Write a Research Paper
  • Research Paper Topics
  • Research Paper Examples
  • Order

Communication

iResearchNet

Custom Writing Services

Custom Writing Services
Communication » Media » Chile: Media System

Chile: Media System




Chile is a country of over 16 million people, lying along the southwest coast of South America. Becoming independent from Spain after 1810, Chile evolved as a republic with strong democratic traditions, until a major coup in 1973. The development of media in Chile has been unique in its region, principally because of the following interregnum of dictatorship from 1973 until 1988, which accelerated the adoption of neo-liberal policies. By the mid-2000s, although it still had a local press duopoly like its neighbors, Chile’s degree of commercialization and of foreign ownership in radio, in free as well as pay television, and in related telecommunication services, notably the Internet, set it apart from the conventional model in the region of local family oligopolies.

Clearly, the dictatorship was a crucial turning point in Chile’s history, including that of the media. Prior to September 11, 1973, when a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the legally elected Unidad Popular government of Salvador Allende, there was a highly politicized press, with five pro-government dailies and the government’s own publishing house, Quimantú, lined up against the three dailies and regional papers of the conservative Edwards family’s El Mercurio group. Centered in the capital and most populous city, Santiago, their papers dated back to the beginning of the twentieth century. As well, the Copesa company had one daily, and there was one other, Clarín.




As for broadcasting, radio had developed as a wholly commercial medium ever since the 1920s, when Chile was the first country in the region to adopt it, but in the 1960s, in order to keep television independent of both commercial and state control, the first licenses were given to universities, and funded jointly by state subsidies and advertising. This system was quite distinct in the region. The General Law of 1970 also set up a national state network and regulatory body.

With the coup, all left-wing newspapers were closed down, and even those of the centerright and right squeezed out of existence. The state television network was seized, and put under direct control of the new regime, and laws were passed in the name of state security to obstruct journalistic investigation and otherwise impose censorship of media content. Scores of journalists were killed or made to disappear, and hundreds sent into exile. As the dictatorship consolidated itself, the press settled into a duopoly of El Mercurio and Copesa, while state subsidies were withdrawn from television, obliging networks to conform to an exclusively advertising-supported system. Before the end of the Pinochet years, the basis was laid for the subsequent development of privately owned broadcast and cable television networks.

Under the constitution with which the dictatorship sought to legitimize itself in 1980, a plebiscite on the junta’s rule was set down for 1988, and as that time approached, some opposition daily newspapers emerged, joining a flourishing alternative media scene. Pinochet was rejected in the plebiscite, ushering in an era of democratic transition under the Concertación, a coalition of pro-democratic parties. However, because the Concertación continued to pursue much the same kind of neo-liberal policies as were introduced by Pinochet, reform-minded Chileans were disillusioned by a failure to achieve the level of democracy and diversity they had expected. For example, the new government gave no support to the progressive dailies, and even online newspapers failed in a market still dominated by the El Mercurio–Copesa duopoly. Media reform was not a priority: it took until 2001 before the former dictatorship’s media controls were superseded by a new press law.

Similarly with television, the Concertación government favored a neo-liberal approach, facilitating a privatized, commercial system, which has come to eclipse the university-based public service model. University channels and the national state network still form part of the Chilean system, however, regulated under the National Council for Television, but all are advertising-based. Even before the end of the dictatorship, broadcast television was in 95 percent of homes, and after 1990 the new government intensified the commercialization of the industry by carrying through the junta’s initiative in permitting two private channels to open up, at the same time allowing cross-media and foreign ownership. These provisions initially enabled Copesa to acquire a network, while Mexican and Venezuelan media conglomerates were able to obtain significant interests in the industry later during the 1990s. In terms of advertising, television overtook print as the premium advertising medium early in the decade, and by 2004 was reaping almost half of total advertising media expenditure. Though radio lags behind even print in its attraction for advertisers, its reach extends into more remote areas than television, and it has undergone a similar internationalization of ownership.

However, the greatest extent of foreign ownership is found in the convergent media of cable and satellite television. Originally there were two cable providers, but the US companies involved in each of them, Liberty Media and UnitedGlobalCom, later merged within the US. In Chile, this created VTR GlobalCom, which in 2006 was claiming 80 percent of Chile’s cable subscribers, as well as being the major Internet service provider. Similarly, at the global level, the once-competing satellite services Sky and DirecTV merged with the Murdoch News Corporation takeover of DirecTV in 2004. The cases of both cable and satellite illustrate how foreign ownership can diminish media diversity, beyond the reach of national control. Both kinds of service tend to cater mainly for upper socio-economic groups, while broadcast television remains more of a mass medium. Nonetheless, pay services achieved over 20 percent market penetration by 2006, the highest in the region, stimulated by the availability of the “triple play” of fixed telephony, broadband internet access, and pay television in the one package. Consequently, there is also a high rate of computer ownership and Internet access.

References:

  1. Bresnahan, R. (2003). The media and neoliberal transition in Chile: Democratic promise unfulfilled. Latin American Perspectives, 133, 39 – 67.
  2. Tironi, E., & Sunkel, G. (2000). The modernization of communications: The media in the transition to democracy in Chile. In R. Gunther & A. Mughan (eds.), Democracy and the media: A comparative perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 165 –194.




Communication Research

Communication Research

  • Media
    • Media Economics
    • Media Effects
    • Media History
    • Media Production and Content
    • Media Systems
    • Media and Perceptions of Reality
    • Excitation Transfer Theory
    • Effects Of Exemplification And Exemplars
    • Economics of Advertising
    • Antitrust Regulation
    • Audience Commodity
    • Brands
    • Circulation
    • Commercialization of the Media
    • Competition in Media Systems
    • Concentration in Media Systems
    • Consolidation of Media Markets
    • Consumers in Media Markets
    • Cost and Revenue Structures in the Media
    • Cross-Media Marketing
    • Distribution
    • Diversification of Media Markets
    • Economies of Scale in Media Markets
    • Globalization of the Media
    • Labor in the Media
    • Labor Unions in the Media
    • Markets of the Media
    • Media Conglomerates
    • Media Management
    • Media Marketing
    • Mergers
    • Ownership in the Media
    • Piracy
    • Political Economy of the Media
    • Privatization of the Media
    • Forms of Media Corporations
    • Public Goods
    • Agenda-Setting Effects
    • Appraisal Theory
    • Media Effects on Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs
    • Cognitive Availability
    • Albert Bandura
    • Catharsis Theory
    • Steven H. Chaffee
    • Credibility Effects
    • Cumulative Media Effects
    • Desensitization
    • Diffusion of Information and Innovation
    • Emotional Arousal Theory
    • Media Effects on Emotions
    • Effects of Entertainment
    • Fear Induction through Media Content
    • Leon Festinger
    • Framing Effects
    • Frustration Aggression Theory
    • George Gerbner
    • Carl I. Hovland
    • Intercultural Media Effects
    • Elihu Katz
    • Knowledge Gap Effects
    • Latitude of Acceptance
    • Linear and Nonlinear Models of Causal Analysis
    • Mainstreaming
    • Media Effects: Direct and Indirect Effects
    • Media Effects Duration
    • History of Media Effects
    • Media Effects Models: Elaborated Models
    • Strength of Media Effects
    • Media System Dependency Theory
    • Mediating Factors
    • Mediatization of Society
    • Structure of Message Effect
    • Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
    • Effects of Nonverbal Signals
    • Observational Learning
    • Opinion Leader
    • Order of Presentation
    • Persuasion
    • Physical Effects of Media Content
    • Priming Theory
    • Media Effects on Public Opinion
    • Reciprocal Effects
    • Schemas and Media Effects
    • Effects of Sex and Pornography as Media Content
    • Sleeper Effect
    • Media Effects on Social Behavior
    • Media Effects on Social Capital
    • Social Judgment Theory
    • Trap Effect
    • Two-Step Flow of Communication
    • Secondary Victimization
    • Effects of Violence as Media Content
    • Academy Awards
    • History of Advertising
    • BBC
    • Cable Television
    • History of Censorship
    • History of Cinematography
    • History of Citizen Journalism
    • Civil Rights Movement and the Media
    • Coffee Houses as Public Sphere
    • Effects of Violence as Media Content
    • Academy Awards
    • Collective Memory and the Media
    • History of Digital Media
    • History of Documentary Film
    • History of Elections and Media
    • Electronic Mail
    • Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
    • Fleet Street
    • Fourth Estate
    • Graffiti
    • Historic Key Events and the Media
    • Illustrated Newspapers
    • Literary Journalism
    • History of Magazine
    • Music Videos
    • Nineteenth-Century New Journalism
    • History of News Agencies
    • History of News Magazine
    • Newscast
    • 24-Hour Newscast
    • Antecedents of Newspaper
    • History of Newspaper
    • Paperback Fiction
    • Penny Press
    • History of Postal Service
    • History of Printing
    • Newsreel
    • Freedom of Communication
    • Propaganda in World War II
    • History of Public Broadcasting
    • Radical Media
    • Radio Networks
    • Radio: Social History
    • Radio Technology
    • Satellite Television
    • History of Sports and the Media
    • History of Telegraph
    • Television Networks
    • Television: Social History
    • Television Technology
    • Underground Press
    • History of Violence and the Media
    • Virtual Reality
    • Watergate Scandal
    • Women’s Movement and the Media
    • Accountability of the Media
    • Accountability of the News
    • Accuracy
    • Balance
    • Bias in the News
    • Commentary
    • Commercialization: Impact on Media Content
    • Conflict as Media Content
    • Consonance of Media Content
    • Construction of Reality through the News
    • Credibility of Content
    • Crime Reporting
    • Editorial
    • Endorsement
    • Ethics of Media Content
    • Fairness Doctrine
    • Fictional Media Content
    • Framing of the News
    • Infotainment
    • Instrumental Actualization
    • Internet
    • Internet News
    • Local News
    • Magazine
    • Media Performance
    • Morality and Taste in Media Content
    • Narrative News Story
    • Negativity
    • Neutrality
    • News
    • News Factors
    • News Production and Technology
    • News Values
    • Newspaper
    • Objectivity in Reporting
    • Plurality
    • Quality of the News
    • Quality Press
    • Radio
    • Radio News
    • Reality and Media Reality
    • Scandalization in the News
    • Sensationalism
    • Separation of News and Comments
    • Soap Operas
    • Soft News
    • Sound Bites
    • Stereotypes
    • Synchronization of the News
    • Tabloid Press
    • Tabloidization
    • Television
    • News
    • Truth and Media Content
    • Violence as Media Content
    • Africa: Media Systems
    • Austria: Media System
    • Balkan States: Media Systems
    • Baltic States: Media Systems
    • Argentina: Media System
    • Bolivia: Media System
    • Brazil: Media System
    • Canada: Media System
    • Caribbean States: Media Systems
    • Central America: Media Systems
    • Chile: Media System
    • China: Media System
    • Colombia: Media System
    • Convergence of Media Systems
    • Cuba: Media System
    • Czech Republic: Media System
    • Egypt: Media System
    • France: Media System
    • Germany: Media System
    • Gulf States: Media Systems
    • India: Media System
    • Iran: Media System
    • Israel: Media System
    • Italy: Media System
    • Japan: Media System
    • Malaysia: Media System
    • Mexico: Media System
    • Netherlands: Media System
    • North Africa: Media Systems
    • Poland: Media System
    • Portugal: Media System
    • Public Broadcasting Systems
    • Russia: Media System
    • Scandinavian States: Media Systems
    • Singapore: Media System
    • South Africa: Media System
    • South Korea: Media System
    • Spain: Media System
    • Switzerland: Media System
    • United Kingdom: Media System
    • United States of America: Media System
    • West Asia: Media Systems
    • Behavioral Norms: Perception through the Media
    • Body Images in the Media
    • Computer Games and Reality Perception
    • Cultivation Effects
    • Disowning Projection
    • Entertainment Content and Reality Perception
    • Extra-Media Data
    • False Consensus
    • False Uniqueness
    • Media Campaigns And Perceptions Of Reality
    • Media Content and Social Networks
    • Media Messages and Family Communication
    • Media and Perceptions of Reality
    • Perceived Realism as a Decision Process
    • Perceived Reality as a Communication Process
    • Perceived Reality: Meta-Analyses
    • Perceived Reality as a Social Process
    • Pluralistic Ignorance
    • Pluralistic Ignorance and Ideological Biases
    • Social Perception
    • Social Perception: Impersonal Impact
    • Social Perception: Unrealistic Optimism
    • Socialization by the Media
    • Spiral of Silence
    • Stereotyping and the Media
    • Third-Person Effects
    • Video Malaise

Custom Writing Services

Custom Writing Services