Beyond Profits? An Inquiry about Media for Social Transformation in Argentina and Brazil

Thirty years after the return to democracy, Argentina and Brazil are still facing challenges to democratize communications. In both countries, a commercial approach to culture and communications prevails, with high rates of ownership concentration in few private firms, irrespective of the negative consequences this has for the existence of a diversity of media voices, particularly from underrepresented groups. Nevertheless, since the arrival to power of left wing governments in 2003, both countries have been experiencing changes that question this situation; for example, Argentina introduced a new audiovisual communication services law in 2009 regulating the radio spectrum and stimulating NGO media; whereas Brazil has been funding different cultural and free media networks through cultural policies. Yet, research has paid little attention to the processes of emergence of these media projects that try to depart from the for-profit culture and communication model of non-Western countries. In this context, this work offers a conceptual framework to understand the key dimensions that shape how nongovernmental audiovisual media projects striving for social transformation challenge a predominant commercial approach to culture and communication. The conceptual framework divides the analysis into three levels: media system, policy discourses and the specific media cases under analysis. The first one considers the historical changes in the structure and actors of the media system in both countries, which help to comprehend the contemporary problems of ownership concentration and the most important actors. The second level examines the main and counter policy discourses in competition to change the existing media system, while the third level focuses on key dimensions that have been shaping (both enabling and restricting) the projects of new media experiences in both countries. In particular, it takes into account the important role of the specific discourses that these experiences create to challenge a for-profit communication model, which introduces context specific interpretation schemes and visions on how communications, culture, and more generally society, ought to be. Apart from the discursive dimension, the third level considers the potentials and limits that technologies put on new projects, together with the constraints that quality patterns have in new media cases. Furthermore, the framework considers different types of violence from incumbents that the cases have to withstand, which is a relevant dimension to understand why these cases do not spur as fast as expected. Additionally, the conceptual framework proposes ways to study participation and the reception of content by audiences. Finally yet importantly, the conceptual framework incorporates a resource view of power to research about the different strategies for acquiring and mobilizing resources that media projects employ to keep in operation. This conceptual framework builds on empirical data gathered in Argentina and Brazil covering both levels of interest. On the one hand, interviews with former and current policy makers span the policy discourse level, plus the analysis of policy documents and other sources. On the other hand, the empirical data of the four selected case studies was collected mixing both participant observation and the material generated by and about each experience. In particular, in Argentina the thesis considers the first co-operative channel and the first Mapuche indigenous community channel under the new audiovisual communication services law. Moreover, the research covers a preexisting alternative media channel operating in a factory recovered by its workers, which was legalized after the law had been passed. As regards Brazil, the thesis builds the argument on the experience of a media collective, Midia NINJA, which represents practices of the collaborative economy advanced by a network of cultural agents operating across the country. In sum, this work makes empirical and theoretical contributions, stressing the importance of communication to the aims of the international development agenda, and its importance to open up spaces for different visions and perspectives. This is not only academically relevant, but also practically for Argentina, Brazil, and other Latin American countries that are experiencing similar media change processes

Enseñanza de Relaciones Internacionales: reflexiones sobre una experiencia con series de ficción en Argentina

Este artículo detalla una experiencia realizada en un curso de Introducción a las Relaciones Internacionales impartido en una universidad argentina, donde se incorporaron series de ficción como instrumento pedagógico complementario a las lecturas académicas. El análisis se basa en el trabajo efectuado con series durante todo el curso y en los resultados de dos encuestas realizadas a los estudiantes, que motivaron la reflexión de los docentes sobre el tema. Los resultados sugieren que las series de ficción son útiles como insumos complementarios para un curso introductorio de Relaciones Internacionales. No obstante, su incorporación no está exenta de desafíos, vinculados a la demanda de tiempo, la dificultad de relacionar contenidos audiovisuales y escritos y el riesgo de reproducir los sesgos presentes en las series extranjeras

Teaching International Relations: Reflections on an experience with fiction TV shows in Argentina

Este artículo detalla una experiencia realizada en un curso de Introducción a las Relaciones Internacionales impartido en una universidad argentina, donde se incorporaron series de ficción como instrumento pedagógico complementario a las lecturas académicas. El análisis se basa en el trabajo efectuado con series durante todo el curso y en los resultados de dos encuestas realizadas a los estudiantes, que motivaron la reflexión de los docentes sobre el tema. Los resultados sugieren que las series de ficción son útiles como insumos complementarios para un curso introductorio de Relaciones Internacionales. No obstante, su incorporación no está exenta de desafíos, vinculados a la demanda de tiempo, la dificul-tad de relacionar contenidos audiovisuales y escritos y el riesgo de reproducir los sesgos presentes en las series extranjeras.This article details an experience carried out in an introductory course to International Relations course taught at an Argentine university, where fiction TV shows were incorporated as a pedagogical instrument complementary to academic readings. The analysis is based on the work done with the TV shows throughout the course and on the results of two student surveys, which motivated the teachers' reflection about the experience. The results suggest that fiction TV shows are as useful as complementary material for an introductory course on International Relations. However, its incorporation is not without its challenges, such as the extra time they demand, the difficulty of linking audiovisual and written content, and the risk of reproducing the biases present in foreign TV shows.Instituto de Relaciones Internacionale

Medición de áreas prioritarias. Producción científica y tecnológica en salud

En el presente trabajo se realiza un análisis de la producción científica y tecnológica, relacionada con el área salud, tanto a nivel mundial como de Argentina. Para ello, se estudiaron las publicaciones y patentes de salud detectadas en distintas fuentes de información. Para el caso de las publicaciones se estudiaron las que se encuentran indizadas en la versión Web of Kowledge del Science Citation Index y los artículos publicados en MEDLINE. Mientras que para que el caso de las patentes se consideraron aquellas publicadas por intermedio del tratado de colaboración de patentes (o PCT por sus siglas en inglés). En ambos casos, se definieron estrategias de búsqueda que permitieron identificar los documentos relacionados con la salud, lo que permitió elaborar un conjunto de indicadores que ofrecen información sobre la dinámica de la producción a nivel mundial, latinoamericano y de Argentina. Estos indicadores reflejan los principales países productores, tendencias en la colaboración internacional, y para el caso argentino, la red de las principales disciplinas de las publicaciones, la red de instituciones que publicaron en conjunto, las áreas tecnológicas de las patentes de titularidad nacional, entre otros.Fil: Arber, Gustavo. Ministro de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva. Director Nacional de Información Científica; Argentina.Fil: Vila Seoane, Maximiliano Facundo. Ministro de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva. Director Nacional de Información Científica; Argentina.Fil: Juárez Micó, María Victoria. Ministro de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva. Director Nacional de Información Científica; Argentina.Fil: Barrere, Rodolfo. Observatorio Iberoamericano de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Sociedad; Argentina.Fil: Matas, Lautaro. Observatorio Iberoamericano de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Sociedad; Argentina.Fil: Merlino-Santesteban, Cristian. Observatorio Iberoamericano de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Sociedad; Argentina.Fil: Milia, Matías. Observatorio Iberoamericano de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Sociedad; Argentina

Medición de áreas prioritarias. Producción científica y tecnológica en TIC

En el presente trabajo se realiza un análisis de la producción científica y tecnológica relacionada con las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC), tanto a nivel mundial como en Argentina. Para ello, se estudiaron las publicaciones y patentes de TIC detectadas en distintas fuentes de información. En el caso de las publicaciones se analizaron aquellas que se encuentran indizadas en la versión Web of Science del Science Citation Index. Mientras que para las patentes se consideraron aquellas publicadas por intermedio del Tratado de Colaboración de Patentes (o PCT por sus siglas en inglés). En ambos casos se definieron estrategias de búsqueda que permitieron identificar los documentos relacionados con las TIC, lo que permitió elaborar un conjunto de indicadores que ofrecen información sobre la dinámica de la producción a nivel mundial, latinoamericano y de Argentina. Estos indicadores reflejan los principales países productores, las tendencias en la colaboración internacional y, para el caso argentino, la red de las principales disciplinas de las publicaciones, la red de instituciones que publicaron en conjunto y las áreas tecnológicas de las patentes de titularidad nacional, entre otros.Fil: Arber, Gustavo. Ministro de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva. Director Nacional de Información Científica; Argentina.Fil: Vila Seoane, Maximiliano Facundo. Ministro de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva. Director Nacional de Información Científica; Argentina.Fil: Juárez Micó, María Victoria. Ministro de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva. Director Nacional de Información Científica; Argentina.Fil: Barrere, Rodolfo. Observatorio Iberoamericano de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Sociedad; Argentina.Fil: Matas, Lautaro. Observatorio Iberoamericano de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Sociedad; Argentina.Fil: Merlino-Santesteban, Cristian. Observatorio Iberoamericano de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Sociedad; Argentina.Fil: Milia, Matías. Observatorio Iberoamericano de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Sociedad; Argentina

Framing China: The Belt and Road Initiative in Argentine national media outlets

This article studies how Argentine national media outlets reported on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) between 2013 and February 2022 (this covers the period from the launch of the BRI to Argentina’s official accession to the initiative). Based on a framing analysis of 272 articles, this study argues that national media outlets tend to reproduce two frames about the BRI: they either present it as an opportunity or as a threat. The balance between them matters when attempting to understand how media organisations shape citizens’ perceptions of China and the BRI. In the case of Argentina, even though its political and economic relations with China have become closer, reports on the BRI were quite polarised. Indeed, national media outlets’ portrayal of the BRI as an opportunity has been slightly more prevalent than negative portrayal (41% vs. 35%). However, national media firms covered the BRI in different ways. Some organisations conveyed largely positive frames, some chiefly presented negative ones, and others were more balanced. The specific editorial lines of the newspapers and their affinities to national political alliances explain these different patterns. Furthermore, although articles citing Western sources were indeed more negative about the BRI, many of the op-eds and reports criticising the BRI were produced by Argentine journalists and other local actors. Thus, Chinese academics exaggerate Western media sources’ influence on Argentina’s national media critical coverage of China while overlooking reasonable concerns about the impacts of Chinese projects.Fil: Vila Seoane, Maximiliano Facundo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Políticas. - Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Políticas; Argentin

Los desafíos de la nanotecnología para el “desarrollo” en Argentina

RESUMEN: En el artículo se delinean las principales características de la política pública para la nanotecnología en Argentina y el tipo de modelo de desarrollo al que contribuye. Se describen los factores que intervinieron en la promoción de esta política, como la experiencia pionera de EUA, organismos internacionales de crédito y la comunidad científica. A su vez, se bosqueja el modelo analítico de intervención gubernamental, el Sistema Nacional de Innovación, junto con sus debilidades. Más allá de esto, en el artículo se detallan los principales hitos en la conformación de la política de nanotecnología y algunas tensiones en su implementación. Entre ellas: la disputa por su definición; las interacciones entre grupos de investigación y desarrollo y empresas; y los principales desafíos detectados en su implementación. Se concluye con sugerencias para incluir actores de la sociedad civil en el diseño de políticas de nanotecnología, y de ciencia y tecnología en general, para que puedan contribuir a resolver problemas sociales y ambientales del país

China’s digital diplomacy on Twitter: The multiple reactions to the Belt and Road Initiative

This article examines three aspects of China’s digital diplomacy efforts about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on Twitter between February 9th 2019 to January 3rd 2020. First, it explores the frequency and geographical distribution of tweets about the BRI. Second, it scrutinises the main topics discussed in such tweets. Finally, it describes the actors producing BRI content. Results show that Chinese digital diplomacy has been proactive on Twitter, driven by the posting practices of its main international broadcasting organisations and BRI partners. As such, China’s digital diplomacy is becoming more relational. However, the open nature of Twitter also paves the way to numerous counter narratives disseminated by other users critical of the BRI, namely, Western media, think tanks, academics, and citizens, who undermine the stories that China aims to convey. These criticisms expose the limits of China’s digital diplomacy and of the sensationalist reporting of its alleged direct effects on audiences.Fil: Vila Seoane, Maximiliano Facundo. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Escuela de Política y Gobierno; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Políticas. - Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Políticas; Argentin

Jenseits Gewinn? Eine Untersuchung über Medien für soziale Transformation in Argentinien und Brasilien

Thirty years after the return to democracy, Argentina and Brazil are still facing challenges to democratize communications. In both countries, a commercial approach to culture and communications prevails, with high rates of ownership concentration in few private firms, irrespective of the negative consequences this has for the existence of a diversity of media voices, particularly from underrepresented groups. Nevertheless, since the arrival to power of left wing governments in 2003, both countries have been experiencing changes that question this situation; for example, Argentina introduced a new audiovisual communication services law in 2009 regulating the radio spectrum and stimulating NGO media; whereas Brazil has been funding different cultural and free media networks through cultural policies. Yet, research has paid little attention to the processes of emergence of these media projects that try to depart from the for-profit culture and communication model of non-Western countries. In this context, this work offers a conceptual framework to understand the key dimensions that shape how nongovernmental audiovisual media projects striving for social transformation challenge a predominant commercial approach to culture and communication. The conceptual framework divides the analysis into three levels: media system, policy discourses and the specific media cases under analysis. The first one considers the historical changes in the structure and actors of the media system in both countries, which help to comprehend the contemporary problems of ownership concentration and the most important actors. The second level examines the main and counter policy discourses in competition to change the existing media system, while the third level focuses on key dimensions that have been shaping (both enabling and restricting) the projects of new media experiences in both countries. In particular, it takes into account the important role of the specific discourses that these experiences create to challenge a for-profit communication model, which introduces context specific interpretation schemes and visions on how communications, culture, and more generally society, ought to be. Apart from the discursive dimension, the third level considers the potentials and limits that technologies put on new projects, together with the constraints that quality patterns have in new media cases. Furthermore, the framework considers different types of violence from incumbents that the cases have to withstand, which is a relevant dimension to understand why these cases do not spur as fast as expected. Additionally, the conceptual framework proposes ways to study participation and the reception of content by audiences. Finally yet importantly, the conceptual framework incorporates a resource view of power to research about the different strategies for acquiring and mobilizing resources that media projects employ to keep in operation. This conceptual framework builds on empirical data gathered in Argentina and Brazil covering both levels of interest. On the one hand, interviews with former and current policy makers span the policy discourse level, plus the analysis of policy documents and other sources. On the other hand, the empirical data of the four selected case studies was collected mixing both participant observation and the material generated by and about each experience. In particular, in Argentina the thesis considers the first co-operative channel and the first Mapuche indigenous community channel under the new audiovisual communication services law. Moreover, the research covers a preexisting alternative media channel operating in a factory recovered by its workers, which was legalized after the law had been passed. As regards Brazil, the thesis builds the argument on the experience of a media collective, Midia NINJA, which represents practices of the collaborative economy advanced by a network of cultural agents operating across the country. In sum, this work makes empirical and theoretical contributions, stressing the importance of communication to the aims of the international development agenda, and its importance to open up spaces for different visions and perspectives. This is not only academically relevant, but also practically for Argentina, Brazil, and other Latin American countries that are experiencing similar media change processes

Mediated public diplomacy and securitisation theory: the US campaign against Chinese 5G in Brazil and Chile

Amidst the transition to the fifth generation of mobile telecommunications (5G), the US has launched a diplomatic campaign to prevent other states from acquiring such technologies from Chinese providers. In reply, China has launched a similar campaign to rebut being perceived as a security threat. However, the outcomes of such influencing campaigns in other states have been varied. This article argues that mediated public diplomacy and securitisation theory offer complementary ways to research the competition between the US and China in terms of influencing the policies of foreign states. Empirically, it examines the cases of Brazil and Chile, where the US campaign against Chinese 5G suppliers was successful in setting the agenda. However, neither the increased economic interdependence of Brazil and Chile with China nor their close political cultural congruency with the US, though, are enough to explain the different outcomes of the US campaign against Chinese 5G providers in each country. Indeed, Chile rejected the US securitisation move, while in Brazil it was successful, but partial in that it only refers to government 5G, not commercial 5G. The article argues that the degree of consensus among national political elites and other non-state actors to endorse or reject the US narrative explains such differences.Fil: Vila Seoane, Maximiliano Facundo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Políticas. - Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Políticas; Argentin