Media and Politics in Latin America

Carolina Matos is a journalist and academic and a former Fellow in Political Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She obtained her PhD in Media and Communications at Goldsmiths College in January 2007, with no corrections. Matos has taught and researched in the UK at the University of East London (UEL), St. Mary's College at Twickenham, Goldsmiths and the LSE. She has worked as a full-time journalist in Brazil and the UK for many mainstream newspapers and international agencies including Reuters, Unesco, Folha de Sao Paulo, Tribuna da Imprensa and Globo.com. Matos is also the author of Journalism and Political Democracy in Brazil (2008).

• Part One - Frameworks of Comparison for Public Service MediaChapter 1 - The Latin American media system Media and democracy in Latin America: setting out a debateIntroductory approachesMedia democratization across borders Defining an intellectual framework for comparative analysisLatin America: from underdevelopment to globalizationLatin America and global inequalityFrom underdevelopment and colonization to globalization Methodological IssuesEmpirical work and theoretical frameworksSurvey methods Chapter 2 - Public communications and regulation in Latin AmericaThe role of the state and broadcasting in the UK and the US Regulation in the US and UK: from FCC to OfcomLatin America media systems: a history of neglect of public communicationsBroadcasting policy and the public media in Brazil Government’s policies for the communication sectorConclusionPart Two - Public sphere and the public interest: the role of the state in public service mediaChapter 3 - European public service broadcasting revisited Defining PSB and the public interestEuropean public service broadcasting dilemmasHistory and development of PSB Towards a framework for examining PSBs BBC: from a history of tensions with government to funding challenges PSBs and its relationship to governmentsPSB at a crossroads: challenges in a digital age Conclusion Chapter 4 - Journalism for the public interest and the crisis of civic communications in the UK and Brazil The role of the media and the public interestClassic liberal media theory The conservative perspectiveThe public sphere liberalism modelThe radical democrats’ critique The crisis of public communications and quality journalism in the US and UKJournalism cultures in Latin America and the public interest Contemporary Brazilian journalism Conclusion Part Three - Television, entertainment and the public interest Chapter 5 - Audience perceptions of quality programming and the public media Global and local television culturesTV as a site of resistance TV news and the public sphereTelevision and globalizationBBC and the quality journalism tradition Audiences’ interpretations of the media in the UK and Brazil Conclusion Chapter 6 - Television, popular culture and Latin American and Brazilian identity International television flows: from the global media to Latin American broadcastingBrazilian and Latin American culture as hybridity: the national identity controversy Challenges for Latin American integration Television and popular Brazilian culture: the aesthetic of consumerism TV Globo and the history of Brazilian commercial televisionBrazilian television, national identity and audience responses Public (television) journalism formats: from TV Cultura to TV BrasilConclusion Part Four - The Internet for the public interest: the limits and uses of the Web in Latin AmericaChapter 7 - Media and politics in Latin America: political cynicism and the digital divide Representative democracy and the political functions of the mediaMedia and politics: from media effects to political cynicismMedia effects theories Political cynicism or realism?: the state of politics worldwide The digital divide in Latin America and the challenges for information knowledge Conclusion Chapter 8 - Mediated politics in the 2010 Brazilian electionsPolitical campaigning and modernization practices in the UK and Latin America Political trends and scandals in BrazilThe media and the 2006 presidential race The role of the Internet and gender politics in the 2010 campaignThe benefits of networked politics Gender politics, blogging and the presidential dispute Conclusion Part Five - Media democratization in Latin America: towards a politics for national development and 'alternative' globalization General perspectives Cosmopolitan democra

'This book by a leading scholar of media in Brazil and Latin America is lucid, focused and pertinent in approach and treatment, and inspired by a profound commitment to democratization. It deserves to be widely read.'Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Mellichamp Professor of Global Studies and Sociology at University of California, Santa Barbara. 'Media and Politics in Latin America sheds light on the confusing, obscure, but very important discussion about media regulation and public media that has been intense in many Latin American countries. Through a solid theoretical framework and a comparative analysis between two major cases, Brazil and the United Kingdom, Carolina Matos shows that the aspirations for public media are still alive and strong as a way to reach a more democratized media environment in Latin America. Matos is a rising star among the best scholars in the field of Latin American Media Studies.'Professor Rosental Calmon Alves, Knight Chair in Journalism & UNESCO Chair in Communication and Director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, University of Texas at Austin. 'Carolina Matos is an outstanding scholar of Latin American media. Her applied comparative method, including an accomplished analysis of the contrasting media systems of Brazil and the United Kingdom, yields a unique and profound insight into the potential for public sphere(s) television across both commercial and State funded or supported media. This is absolutely required reading for critical scholars and students of international and South American media, and of public sphere television.'Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Director of Communication Studies, Bowling Green State University, Ohio. 'Carolina Matos' book is a welcome addition to the literature on media and politics in Latin America. The book is packed with valuable insights about media history in the region, and offers an interesting perspective for the comparative study of media systems. The analysis intelligently dissects the problems for media democracy and, particularly, the troubles that have plagued public broadcasting. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the evolution of media systems outside the West.'Silvio Waisbord, Associate Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University. 'We have long needed a comprehensive, in-depth survey of Latin American media that comes from someone who has mastery of all the relevant languages, theories, and settings. Now it's arrived! Carolina Matos has produced an instant classic,' Toby Miller, Distinguished Professor of Media & Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside.