Media power, ideology and elites: the structural entanglements of the Chilean traditional print media to secure the neoliberal system after the social uprising of 2019

Marcos ortiz Finch, SOAS PhD candidate

What happens when capitalist hegemony – in Gramscian terms – is threatened and unstable or the normal practice is interrupted? This is precisely what began to happen in the streets of Santiago in October 2019. This seminar will analyse the coverage of the Chilean social uprising by the country’s legacy print media, concentrating on the front pages of the six most influential outlets. While increasing academic attention has been dedicated to explaining the causes of the Chilean Spring, this research focuses on the understudied media’s influence and its relationship with the elites and the government. Why are these legacy media choosing to enclose themselves possibly jeopardising their own survival? A plausible answer is that they are reacting in the same way as they did in the early 70s during Salvador Allende’s socialist government, the last time their interests were seriously menaced. Has this radicalisation of their beliefs always worked for them so they “know no better”? To what extent do their close entanglements with the country’s political, economic and cultural elites shield them in a moment when the legitimacy of many institutions has been seriously called into question?

Chaired by Dounia Mahlouly/Dina Matar

Join via Zoom:

Location:
https://soas-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/ 97295344029?pwd= NjBiZlBBSlc4cWxmYWkwZ1d1WHZxdz 09

Meeting ID: 972 9534 4029
Passcode: X5jmV95j3n

Organiser: Centre for Global Media and Communications

Contact email: dm27@soas.ac.uk