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JOU0010.1177/1464884917738376Journalismde Albuquerque
Article
Journalism
Protecting democracy or
2019, Vol. 20(7) 906–923
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1464884917738376
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Afonso de Albuquerque
Fluminense Federal University, Brazil
Abstract
Political communication researchers often take for granted that a free press is one of the
most important pillars of a solid democracy. Based on the western Fourth Estate model,
they suppose that a free press naturally acts as an accountability agent, by protecting the
interests of common citizens against government corruption and political abuses. Like
many other nonwestern regions of the world, studies about the relationship between
media and politics in Latin America usually adopt a ‘transition to democracy’ approach,
by evaluating them more or less positively in reference to their degree of conformity
to western examples. Typically, these studies describe advances of Latin American
media toward a more democratic model or point to the obstacles preventing this from
happening. However, these studies rarely explore a third possibility: What about cases
in which the free press seemingly conspire against the democratic order? The 2016
parliamentary coup that overthrew President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil provides a vivid
example of such a possibility. Based on this case, this article contends that analyses
about the press/politics relations in Latin American societies must consider other
factors, such as those related to their postcolonial nature. In particular, I argue that
Latin American elites and their media portray themselves as a westernized minority
endowed with a civilizing mission regarding their societies as a whole, and manipulate
the Fourth Estate discourse toward their own benefit, as a means for securing and
legitimizing their own privilege.
Keywords
Brazil, democracy, Fourth Estate, journalism, Latin America, postcolonial
Corresponding author:
Afonso de Albuquerque, Fluminense Federal University, Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro 24210-590, Brazil.
Email: afonsoal@uol.com.br
de Albuquerque 907
the mainstream media and other accountability institutions often justify their authority
claims based on a rationale closer to an internal colonialism model (as civilizing agents)
than a democratic one, deriving from the people’s will (Albuquerque, 2016).
Tensions arise in these societies when elected governments do not conform to the
elites’ criteria of what democracy should be. This kind of dilemma became common
across the region, in the wake of the ‘left turn’ that took place in a large number of Latin
American governments in the 2000s (Castañeda, 2006; Kitzberger, 2012). In these cir-
cumstances, the media and other accountability institutions can undermine democracy, at
the same time they claim to defend it, under the argument that it is necessary to protect
democracy against people’s bad choices. Arguably, this happened in Venezuela, in 2002
(Lugo-Ocando and Santamaria, 2015), and Brazil, in 2016.
They include censorship (Smith, 1997), economic pressures and political and legal har-
assment of media organizations (Kellam and Stein, 2016), and even violence against jour-
nalists (Alves, 2005). These intimidating, repressive practices have been usually associated
to the authoritarian – and in most cases military – regimes that preceded democratization
(Alves, 2005; Boas, 2013; Lawson, 2002). They also have been identified in neo-authori-
tarian regimes, as the Fujimori government in Peru, in the 1990s (Conagham, 2002), and
associated to populist leftwing regimes existing in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and
Argentina, in the 2000s and 2010s (Macrory, 2013; Waisbord, 2013).
Finally, the third group of obstacles includes social and cultural factors opposing the
full implementation of the rule of the law in Latin American societies. Some of them
associate these obstacles to specific historical circumstances fostering them, as for
instance the survival of collusive patterns of relationship between private media owners
and the state, inherited from the period of authoritarian rule (Boas, 2013; Fox and
Waisbord, 2002; Matos, 2012). Other authors envisage more diffused patterns affecting
the political culture in the region. Some of them refer to problems existing everywhere,
for instance corruption (Alves, 2005) and clientelism (Hallin and Papathanossopoulos,
2002), which, arguably, are particularly influent in Latin America. Others refer to
arrangements characteristic of Latin America, as for instance the ‘Captured Liberal’
media system model, which, according to Guerrero (2014) defines the peculiar charac-
teristics of media systems in Latin America. This model is Liberal only to a certain
measure: Although the media are predominantly commercial, the full development of the
characteristics associated to the Liberal model have been undermined by their ‘late
development under historical circumstances that made dependent on governments and
public funding’ (Guerrero, 2014: 59), which results in a low quality of regulatory effi-
ciency and a high degree of interference in media and journalism that inhibits the exer-
cise of their watchdog role.
Media opening
This approach looks to the issue on its bright side, since the problems described in the
previous section are supposed to be on their way to being solved, or at least attenuated.
Taylor Boas presents a particularly optimistic version of this argument. According to
him, ‘collusion between national executives and mass media in Latin America is
largely a thing of the past’ given that ‘the political scenario underlying these cozy rela-
tions has definitely been transformed’ (Boas, 2013: 70–71). In a similar manner, Alves
(2005) sustains that, in the last decades, ‘journalism has evolved throughout the region
toward an independent and aggressive style, more attuned with the role of the free
press as a fundamental tool with the checks and balance necessary for a working
democracy’ (p. 181).
Many studies on media opening in Latin America accentuate the role that market
competition plays on this respect. According to Lawson (2002), market competition is
the key factor for explaining the emergence of a Fourth Estate in Mexico, given it ‘stimu-
lated media outlets to take into account the demands of their audiences, rather than the
preferences of official censors’ (p. 6). Similar arguments were raised by Silvio Waisbord
(2000) for explaining the development of investigative journalism in South America.
910 Journalism 20(7)
(Appadurai, 1996; Chaturvedi, 2000), which allowed western societies to allege cham-
pioning universal values – a phenomenon that Wallerstein (2006) named European
Universalism. However, given that colonial experiences were not alike everywhere, it
is reasonable to suppose that the problems experienced by the diverse postcolonial
societies differ significantly. Most postcolonial studies refer to societies that became
independent countries after World War II, and many of them highlight the manners in
which the European thought and institutions were imposed and marginalized – as less
civilized or as relics from the past – those previously in nonwestern societies (e.g.
Chakrabarty, 2000; Said, 1978).
The postcolonial experience in Latin America differs sharply from this model
(Bortoluci and Jansen, 2013). Unlike Middle East and Eastern Asian societies, which
were able to preserve their own ‘ageless’ traditions and religions (Ortiz, 2000; Whitehead,
2006) – providing them with a barrier against a fuller western influence – the colonial
process in the Americas erased much of the cultural heritage of the previous indigenous
societies. In consequence, American societies share language and much of the culture of
their former colonizers (Anderson, 1983). On the other hand, Latin America opposes
Anglo America (the United States, in particular), which successfully challenged its colo-
nial burden to become the core of the Western world. Therefore, the Latin American
identity is defined by a double negative and diminutive relationship with reference to
Europe – as second-class Europeans – and the United States – as an inferior version of
the (original) America (Mignolo, 2005).
The self-perception as peripheral remained a perennial trait of Latin American iden-
tity, even after two centuries of independent rule. They are neither ‘western’ nor ‘non-
western’ (Mignolo, 2005; Whitehead, 2006), but define themselves essentially in terms
of their subordinated relationship with the West. This arrangement has some conse-
quences that are worthy to note. First, Latin American societies – and their elites in
particular – are strongly oriented toward external models. At the same time, Latin
American elites ‘aspire to enhance their authority by presenting themselves as bearers
of internationally approved standards of modernity’ (Whitehead, 2006: 9–10), they
radically adapt these models to their interests and the circumstances prevailing in the
societies they live in. A second, complementary aspect refers to how this outward ori-
entation affects the internal dynamics of Latin American societies. Here, the concept
of internal colonialism (Baysha, 2016; González-Casanova, 1965; Mignolo, 1998) has
a role to play. In particular, Mignolo (1998) has emphasized the role played by the
intellectuals from colonized areas in fighting ‘the barbarism’ of their culture by pro-
moting the European civilization (p. 33). Arguably, Latin America’s ‘accountability
institutions’, and mainstream media in particular behave in a similar manner (e.g. de la
Torre, 2015)
Relations between the mainstream news media and PT have been uneasy even before
2003, when the PT-led governments’ era began, due to the party’s socialist positions. As
PT ‘normalized’, and moved from socialism to social democracy (Hunter, 2010; Samuels,
2004), these relations ameliorated. Indeed, in 2002, some authors observed this is was
the first time that the mainstream media did not adopt an anti-PT bias in a presidential
election (Miguel, 2006). This was also the last time, too, because these relations deterio-
rated steadily after the outbreak of the Mensalão scandal – a cash-for-vote schema led by
PT politicians – in 2005, during Lula’s first presidential term. Despite losing much of its
prestige among middle class voters, his government’s social policies allowed Lula to
conquer a large support from the poorest voters, and allowed him to obtain a comfortable
victory in the 2006 reelection bid (Hunter and Power, 2007), despite the mainstream
biased coverage against him and PT (Azevedo, 2017; Mundim, 2014).
More than corruption itself, Lula and PT’s political resilience seem to have exerted a
particularly disturbing effect on the mainstream media. The day after Lula’s victory in
2006, Rede Globo’s journalist Alexandre Garcia declared that ‘the people voted against
the public opinion’ (Albuquerque, 2016). As PT managed to win one election after the
other, the mainstream press felt growingly uncomfortable. Echoing these worries, the
914 Journalism 20(7)
president of the Brazilian National Newspapers Association, Maria Judith Brito sus-
tained that the media have a moral duty to work as a de facto opposition party, in face of
the weakness of the formal political opposition (Farah, 2010). Mensalão persisted as a
permanent topic of the mainstream media for almost a decade (Biroli and Mantovani,
2014; Miguel and Coutinho, 2007), and the negative tone dominated the mainstream
media coverage of Rousseff’s government (Mont’Alverne and Marques, 2013). Besides
corruption, mainstream media’s criticism against PT governments focused on three
aspects: populism, close relationship with authoritarian regimes, and media harassment
(Albuquerque, 2016; Biroli and Mantovani, 2014; Pires, 2007).
The use of the label ‘populist’ for describing Lula or his supposed influence on
Rousseff’s government may be surprising at first sight. Indeed, authors such as
Castañeda (2006) and Seligson (2007) described Lula’s Brazil as an example of a
‘good’, social democratic left, in addition to countries like Chile and Uruguay, as
opposed to the ‘bad’, populist left, represented by Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia.
Concretely, accusations of populism have been related to other factors, as Lula’s cha-
risma, his popular, working-class origins – in particular Lula was often criticized
because he did not hold a university degree – and some of his government policies were
aimed to the poorest sectors of Brazilian society, as for instance the Bolsa Família
(Hunter and Power, 2007). The mainstream press coined a peculiar term – Lulopetismo
– for describing Lula’s government as a populist regime (Van Dijk, 2017). Writing in
Folha de S. Paulo, Clovis Rossi was one of the first journalists to employ systematically
the expression, during Lula’s first presidential term: ‘Lulopetismo became accustomed
to furiously attacking the facts, when they embarrass it. Against evidences, it appeals to
the “elites/media plot” mantra’ (Rossi, 2006).
It was only in the 2010s that the use of Lulopetismo as a means for describing PT
governments spread around in Brazilian mainstream media, signaling a radicalization of
their position against it. The lasting effect resulting from this was picturing PT govern-
ments as a native version of some of Brazil’s troublemaking neighbors, particularly
Chavista Venezuela, and the Bolivariano regimes in South America, and therefore sug-
gesting that PT governments had an authoritarian nature, too.
Indeed, it was not the first time that the Brazilian mainstream media recurred to
derogatory comparisons with ‘populist’ neighbors as a means for raising suspicion about
the democratic credentials of a Brazilian president. Goldstein (2017) points to strong
similarities existing between O Globo’s and O Estado de São Paulo’s newspaper cover-
ages of Lula and Rousseff governments with Getúlio Vargas government, in the early
1950s. As Vargas was accused of emulating Argentinian Peronismo, the petista govern-
ments were blamed for their closeness to Venezuelan Chavista politics. According to
O’Shaughnessy (2007), during the Cold War era, elites and mainstream media opposing
social reforms presented changes in the status quo as Communist inspired and against the
interest of the West (p. 67). Evidences suggest this still may be the case nowadays.
An interesting example of this general rule refers to how Brazilian mainstream media
reacted against perceived threats of their interests, by denouncing them as attempts of
curbing the freedom of the press. During the PT governments’ era, this happened in two
types of circumstances: proposals of media regulation and criticism. As discussed above,
Latin America (and Brazil, in particular) provides an example of a very weakly regulated
de Albuquerque 915
media (Matos, 2012; Porto, 2015). In 2004, President Lula proposed to the Congress a
law creating the Conselho Federal de Jornalismo (Journalism Federal Council) as a
means of providing some regulating framework for Brazilian media. The mainstream
media denounced this move: As Folha de S. Paulo argued in an editorial piece that it was
inspired in ‘authoritarian centralizing concepts’, O Globo claimed that ‘the only legiti-
mate judge of the press is public opinion’ (Pires, 2007). The mainstream media also
reacted bitterly to critiques directed to them by government officials and PT leaders,
mainly those accusing them of working as a political opposition, portraying them as a
direct attack against the freedom of the press (O Estado de São Paulo, 2014). This sug-
gests that the Fourth Estate provides a rhetoric that grants the Brazilian mainstream
media with a sort of ‘legitimacy shield’, as it allows them to perform an active political
role, inspired in the example of ‘advanced western democracies’ (The United States and
the United Kingdom), at the same time as they behave in an entirely different manner.
its intrinsic merit. Therefore, the peripheral condition provides a particular angle to dis-
cuss global issues, which is as important as that emanating from the western center.
Indeed, it can be considered richer than the central angle in certain aspects. This happens
for two motives. On the one hand, peripheries include the center as a part of their very
identity: Peripheries are not failed versions of an original center; instead, they actively
adapt models from the center to their own necessities (Albuquerque, 2011). On the other
hand, the peripheral condition is much more representative of societies existing in the
world than the central one. As discussed above, Latin American societies offer a particu-
larly fertile ground for discussing this issue, given that their self-perception as peripher-
ies of the West constitutes a core aspect of their identity (see also Araya, 2014).
Center–periphery relations do not apply only to those between different societies,
but also affect the ones taking place inside societies. In fact, both internal and external
relations interact, as some sectors of society claim to exert moral and political authority
based on their greater similarity or affinity with virtuous foreign models, practices, or
institutions. These sectors are in a much better position to represent the enlightened
universal values of democracy against their adversaries. A recent article by Kellam and
Stein’s (2016) provides a vivid example on how this logic works in practical terms.
Departing from data indicating that, between 2002 and 2013, a group of 12 Latin
American countries declined 10 points or more in Freedom House’s Freedom of the
Press Index, they propose to investigate the circumstances that favor presidents curbing
media freedom. In short, their answer is that as leftist presidents put in danger media
freedom, particularly when they win elections by landslide, rightist presidents improve
media freedom (Kellam and Stein, 2016: 62). The logical consequence of this argument
is deeming the popular choice as the weakest link of democracy – as the option for left-
ist presidents puts it in danger – at the same time they take for granted media commit-
ment with it.
to coordinate efforts, and even coining a common rhetoric for describing the changes in
the political landscape in the region. A particularly interesting case refers to the role per-
formed by Grupo de Diarios America (thereafter GDA) – a consortium of newspapers
from 11 countries in Latin America, whose headquarter is located in Miami, Florida – in
coordinating conservative news media in the region. Created in 1991, GDA adopted a
more active political stance, along the 2000s, particularly by denouncing the expansion
of Chavismo in Latin America and the danger it represented for the freedom of the press
in the region. GDA even articulated the joint publishing of news series as ‘This is how
Chavismo spread throughout Latin America’ (Grupo de Diarios America, 2007).
Conclusion
International political communication studies often take for granted that western democ-
racies provide an absolute referential for evaluating all the other societies. Yet, this
approach presents some analytical limitations that are worthy to note. In a general man-
ner, western centrality is a matter of power, rather than intrinsic merit – Wallerstein
(2006) called this European Universalism. Being a product of history, there is no guaran-
tees that the balance of power that provides the basis for this approach will last forever.
In fact, some evidences suggest that the centrality of the West in the global order may
experience serious challenges at the present (Aouragh and Chakravartty, 2016; Zhao,
2014). Therefore, it is highly recommended to keep an open mind on other possibilities.
More specifically, it is argued that the western ‘central’ angle is unable to cope with some
problems experienced by peripheral societies, as for instance, the active engagement of
institutions supposed to guarantee democracy, and particularly the free press in under-
mining it, as demonstrated by the 2016 coup in Brazil.
Otherwise, this article proposes that a postcolonial approach may offer valuable
insights in discussing the media/politics relations in peripheral societies. Taken from
this view, the influence exerted by western models in peripheral societies is a part of
the problem to be analyzed, rather than a normative solution to it. Postcolonial socie-
ties experience a ‘West versus the Rest’ divide inside them, as their elites present
themselves as westernized enclaves living in barbarous, nonwestern societies, and
call upon themselves the duty of civilizing everyone else. Therefore, the reference to
western values often rewards more some sectors of the society over others. A second
point to emphasize is that these elites usually reinterpret Western values in order to
adequate them to the particular culture and social conditions of their societies, and
their particular interests. A notably interesting example refers to democracy, which is
radically reinterpreted from a system promoting popular sovereignty to a western
institution, which must be protected from bad popular decisions by elite-dominated
accountability institutions, including the mainstream media, presenting themselves as
a virtuous Fourth Estate.
Peripheries have been opposed to the center as the particular/local opposes to universal
characteristics. Otherwise, this article contends that the peripheral condition is as univer-
sal as the central one, if we take it as a theoretical principle, and much more representative
than it, given that from an empirical viewpoint, it can be said that the peripheries are much
more common (and therefore more ‘normal’) than the center. In particular, it is argued that
de Albuquerque 919
Latin American societies provide a particularly fertile ground for discussing problems
related to the peripheral condition, since the very radical character of their colonization –
which erased much of the cultural influence of previous existent societies – lead them to
perceive being peripheral as an essential trait of their cultural identities. Understanding
the dilemmas that result from Latin America’s historical burden is the first step to allow
them to build themselves as something different in a changing world.
Funding
TThe author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by CNPq, National Council for
Scientific and Technological Development – Brazil.
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Author biography
Afonso de Albuquerque is a Full Professor in the Media and Cultural Studies, at Fluminense Federal
University, Brazil. His research interests include political communication, journalism studies, and
international comparative media studies. His previous articles appeared in Journalism, The
International Journal of Press/Politics, Media, Culture & Society, Journalism Studies and
International Journal of Communication.