CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Latin America?s?left turn? has been characterised by ambitious reforms to reshuffle powerrelations in the region?s historically elitist and commercially driven mediasystems. Those radical policies faced course reversals where right-shiftinggovernments followed. This article explores the legacies of left turn mediapolicies by focusing on the counter-reforms to the media regulatory laws inArgentina and Ecuador. The comparative case study both traces differences inoutcomes and finds a common incomplete restoration of historical media policypatterns. While de-regulations reflected reinstated privileged state access ofestablished interests, operating policy-feedback mechanisms preserved some regulationsconferring rights and resources to incorporated stakeholders.