When civic mobilization successfully impacts media policy: Lessons from contemporary experiences in Latin America

SILVIO WAISBORD; MARÍA SOLEDAD SEGURA

Conferencia; IAMCR Conference 2016; 2016

This presentation offers asummary of our main findings and arguments presented in our forthcoming bookMedia Movements, which examines experiences of citizen participation in mediapolicy-making in Latin America, with special focus on four countries:Argentina, Ecuador, México and Uruguay. We believe these experiences offervaluable lessons for understanding the role of civil society and organizedcitizens in media reform and policy-making. Here we describe the types oforganizations and demands, interpretative frameworks, and strategies, and weshow the impact of the content and the implementation of new laws. Finally, weassess the contributions of civil society to communication policies byexamining the participation of organizations in the three phases ofpolicy-making: public deliberation, legislative drafting of bills, and theimplementation of new legislation.In the past two decades, anunprecedented number of media policies grounded in the right to communication waspassed in Latin America. Civil society organizations (CSOs) played criticalroles in the processes that culminated in new legislation. This is an absolutehistorical landmark in the history of the region?s media policy-making. Principlesand proposals submitted by activists undergird legal systems of publiccommunication, including public access to government information, communitymedia, broadcasting regulation, public media, and civic participation in mediasystems. Civil society representatives participate in government agencies andconsulting mechanisms, which give them, in principle, access to publicofficials and opportunities to participate regularly in the formulation,implementation and monitoring of policies. Innovations incommunication policies raise new question to understand media governance in theregion that are relevant for studies in media policy-making and citizenparticipation. How are CSOs inserted in participatory institutional mechanisms?Do they contribute to improvements in governance? What are the obstacles andopportunities for the strengthening of citizen participation? What strategieshave civic organizations used in policy advocacy? In this paper we offeranswers to these questions by examining the implementation of new broadcastinglaws, access to government information, and freedom of expression laws. By studying these Latin American cases, wehope to contribute to understanding whether citizens contribute to new forms ofmedia policy-making and redressing chronic problems of underrepresentation ofdiverse voices and actors.   Our analysis suggests that the analysis ofmedia policymaking should move beyond the focus on the actions by political andeconomic elites, and instead, recognize the role of citizens and powerstruggles. Media policies are the outcome of complex processes that involvemultiple actors and institutions with unequal power and resources. Actors that,in principle, are weak might influence political process as a result of theirability to make demands beyond the politics of representation (Álvarez Ugarte,2013). Also, we argue that public policies are not completely controlled by theState, but are also influenced by the dynamic relations between state, market,and civic actors.   Our findings confirm thatcivil society is not a unified whole, but rather, it is complex and conflictive(Acosta, 2014). Civil society is heterogeneous and maintain relative autonomyvis-à-vis the market and the state. It is neither a purely democratic sphereopposed to the market or the state, but rather, it contains multiple relations.