In Mulalillo in the heart of the Ecuadorian Andes,
Indians from surrounding villages drop by the
Radio Latacunga recording booth each week to
give local announcer Miguel Tipanguano news and
gossip from their communities. 1 The tapes recorded in
small outposts like Mulalillo are then sent to the
regional capital of Latacunga to be played on the air.
Radio Latacunga forms an integral part of the lives
of the area’s campesinos, knitting the community
together and fortifying local culture and identity. Each
day, Indians tune in to hear local news and get tips
about agriculture, health and hygiene. Others listen
avidly for messages transmitted over the radio from
relatives who have left home to work in the cities.
Radio Latacunga exemplifies the role that popular
and alternative media can play in invigorating democ-
racy. Popular and alternative media provide a vehicle
for marginalized sectors of civil society-such as
women, youth, campesinos, and Indians-to partici-
pate in public debate. The raison d’etre of these ven-
tures is not to turn a profit, but to give voice to often-
neglected interests and points of view, and to forge a
better society. The media that I will discuss are both
popular-emanating from the grassroots, and alterna-
tive-representing perspectives at variance with the
mainstream. For brevity’s sake, I will use the term
popular media.
Political and economic clout depends on access to
information. Parallel to the fight over economic
resources in Latin America is a fight over communica-
tion. During the 1970s and early 1980s, this conflict
was crystallized in the call of Third World leaders for a
New World Information Order, in which information
would not be monopolized by Western powers. This
would go hand-in-hand with a New World Economic
Order, in which economic resources would be shared
more equitably between North and South. 2 Implicit in
this rallying cry was the assumption that Third World
media would act in the public interest. Yet Latin
American elites have long used media to exercise
social control and legitimate their rule. Today, the
interests of domestic and foreign elites are more inter-
twined than ever before. Now, it is popular media’s
turn to call for the redistribution of informational
resources.
During the dark age of military dictatorship in Latin
America, popular media thrived, blessed with a natur-
al constituency and a strong message of resistance.
Paradoxically, in today’s new democracies, grassroots
media are dwindling in both number and influence.
The obstacles are not censorship and repression, but
scarce economic resources. The struggle is not to
VOL XXVII, No 2 SEPT/OCT 1993
Deidre McFadyen is associate editor of this magazine.
35REPORT ON DEMOCRACY
evade being shut down by security forces, but to
remain relevant in an age of disenchantment with tra-
ditional politics.
The adoption of free-market economic policies in
much of Latin America has had profound repercus-
sions on communication. Latin American media are
increasingly dominated by large private corporations.
Reinforcing this concentration of power, an intricate
web of personal and business ties binds together gov-
ernment officials, corporate managers and media own-
ers. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)-the
principal funding source for popular media-have cut
back or turned their attention elsewhere. To make
matters even more difficult, grassroots media target
precisely those people with the least money to buy
magazines or otherwise support popular communica-
tion. In the jungle of free-market capitalism, small
independent media are being gobbled up by larger
companies, or folding for lack of resources.
opular media have to dive into this free-for-all
of market competition against larger, better-
endowed opponents. Yet many in popular media
are ill-prepared to do battle. The inclement economic
climate has thrown popular media’s deficiencies and
flaws into stark relief.
Mainstream media have become more globalized
and coordinated, conveying information to the most
secluded corners of the world. Popular media, on the
other hand, remain fragmented-a veritable Tower of
Babel of divergent sectors and interests. Popular
media are predominantly active at the local level in
small communities; as a consequence, they have little
national presence. In order to influence public debate
and reach the largest possible audience, a number of
new networks are being created-following the model
of the Latin American Association of Radio Education
(ALER), an umbrella organization for popular radio.
These networks will enable organizations to share
resources and information.
The Latin American Encuentro of Alternative and
Popular Communications Media, held in Quito this
April, was a first tentative step in this direction. Sixty
representatives from alternative and/or popular media
(including NACLA) met to discuss the new challenges
they face and to figure out ways to coordinate their
work. They talked about organizing a pool of journal-
ists to cover major conferences and events, setting up
a data bank, and establishing a permanent conference
on electronic mail.
Similar efforts on a smaller scale are sprouting up
elsewhere. A network of trade-union and popular
communication, for instance, formed among nine
media organizations that attended the Caminos de
Integraci6n meeting in La Paz, Bolivia this February.
Participants agreed to exchange materials, publish a
biannual newsletter, and organize a data bank.
These information networks and coalitions are made
possible by new communication technologies such as
fax machines, microcomputers, electronic mail, satel-
lites, video cameras and VCRs. This technology decen-
tralizes access to information and accelerates the pace
of news delivery. The mainstream media, of course,
were the first to take advantage of these technological
breakthroughs. But just as Pancho Villa used the trains
in the Mexican Revolution, popular media have appro-
priated the new technologies to serve their own ends. 3
Mexicans, Canadians and U.S. citizens opposed to the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for
example, electronically coordinate their efforts through
conferences posted on Association of Progressive
Communications (APC) networks. At the Earth Sum-
mit in Rio de Janeiro last year, environmental activists
communicated with each other via electronic mail.
And electronic-mail users were the first to denounce
the assassinations of Guatemalan anthropologist
Myrna Mack two years ago, and Brazilian rubber-tap-
per Chico Mendes in 1988.
These new technologies, however, come with a
price. To use electronic mail, for example, an organi-
zation needs a computer, a modem and a phone line,
all of which may be beyond the means of a struggling
community radio station. Popular media may soon
divide into new haves and have-nots based on access
to the new technologies. At the encuentro in Quito,
participants enthusiastically discussed plans for an
electronic communication network until the discussion
was cut short by one woman’s angry comment that her
small quarterly magazine for social movements could
not afford the equipment needed to hook up electroni-
cally. This high-tech future is pitted with other dangers
as well. As another encuentro participant who works
with rural migrants pointed out, the slick presentation
of information, made possible by the new technologies,
might intimidate people in the popular sectors.
Popular media are also expanding their reach by
cultivating contacts with the mainstream press. For
example, Chile’s fempress-a feminist communica-
tion and information network which publishes a wide-
ly read monthly magazine-feeds information and
story ideas to journalists in the mainstream media who
are interested in women’s issues. In addition, the orga-
nization’s Media Service placed close to 700 fempress
articles in the mass media last year. 4 In Venezuela,
even though the economic crisis has wiped out many
popular media, people active in the social movements
have been able to voice their points of view through
mainstream TV programs like “Buenas Noticias,” and
“Comunidad con…” as well as columns and inserts in
regional and national newspapers.s
36NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 36 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON DEMOCRACY
Popular media have also begun to take into consid-
eration the different capacities and limitations of visu-
al and print formats. Print media are severely handi-
capped when targeting sectors with low literacy
levels. To attract people with poor reading skills,
Colombia’s Encuentro: revista de comunicaci6n pop-
ular uses large typeface and publishes one section
made up of a series of photographs that tell a story with
balloon captions. Radio, on the other hand, is
generally considered the
medium with greatest influence
in Latin Ameri- ca.
The Popular Center for
Latin American Commu-
nication (CEPALC) in
Bogota estimates, for
example, that 90% of
Colombians listen to the radio,
60 to 70% watch
TV, and only 30% read magazines
or newspapers.6
Accordingly, a number
of print media have begun 2
to explore broadcast for- 4
mats. To reach unorga-
nized women, including
housewives and those who A popular reporter makes announcements are
illiterate, fempress Pachamama, a community radio
launched a women’s radio
information service last year. The Center for Mining
Promotion (CEPROMIN) in Bolivia has also begun to
experiment with video technology. In addition to its traditional
work in radio programming and magazines,
CEPROMIN is now making video documentaries of
interest to the mining community.
But outreach capability is only part of the challenge.
To be competitive with their commercial counterparts,
popular media must actually gain a broader audience.
“Have we not confused grassroots with marginal?”
Josd Ignacio L6pez Vigil, Latin America’s representa-
tive to the World Association of Community Radios,
pointedly asks.7 Popular media have traditionally tar- geted
organized sectors of the population. Rather than
reaching out to the vast unorganized public with its
diverse tastes and interests, popular media have
played it safe by preaching to the converted. Popular
communication has often been considered an instru-
ment to educate or inculcate certain values. Content,
as a consequence, has often been dour and pedantic.
Popular media no longer have the luxury of such a
narrow focus. Critics are suggesting that popular
media provide a forum for robust debate between peo- ple
of different political persuasions; furnish useful information
in an entertaining fashion; and-with
regard to radio-add music and cultural programming.
Uruguay’s biweekly newspaper Mate Amargo, for
example, covers sports and publishes TV and book
reviews in addition to its incisive analysis of politics
and economics.
The popular press is also paying greater attention to
the design and packaging of its publications. Many
argue that popular media can no longer depend solely
on the good will of amateur volunteers; skilled per-
sonnel must be hired-which means paying fair wages
to attract and keep them.
Popular media are begin
ning to adapt the profes
sional tools and techniques
of mainstream journalism.
Magazines such as Colom-
bia Hoy and Mexico’s La
Otra Bolsa de Valores are
peppered with large pho-
tographs and inventive car-
toon illustrations. Colom-
bia’s Cien Dias has taken
the deepest plunge; the
magazine is full of color
illustrations and U.S.
Today-style pie charts and
graphs.
announcements in Aymara on Radio The business side of pop-
radio station in La Paz, Bolivia. ular media is under the
magnifying glass as well.
Marketing, selling ad space, and streamlining business
procedures are no longer taboo topics of discussion.
Many in popular media insist that these financial con-
siderations do not oblige popular vehicles to compro-
mise their values. “Money is like blood,” says L6pez
Vigil. “Community radio, a living organism, needs it.
But it doesn’t live for it. In other words, we aren’t
vampires.” 8
But do popular media risk selling their souls for the
hollow victory of market success? “You have to live
in accordance with the times,” says Juan Serrano,
director of Radio Mensaje in northern Ecuador. “You
can become a capitalist without changing your philos-
ophy. Once we’ve got an audience and financing, it
will be easier to get our message across.”‘9 Popular
media, however, walk a dangerous tightrope. The
goals of democratizing communication and supporting
the struggles of popular movements may not always
be compatible with the demands of the marketplace.
Popular media aspire to integrate the user of informa-
tion into the communication process. But as a result of
pressures to commercialize, popular media may
become less and less representative of the communi-
ties they serve. Only time will tell whether commer-
cialization is a slippery slope-and how far down
some may slide.
37 VOL XXVII, No 2 SEFr/OCT 1993
Invigorating the Public Debate: Popular Media in the Age of
Mass Communications
1. See Marc Bertola and Patricia Pradel, “Los indigenas de Ecuador
toman la via de las ondas,” CuatroSemanas y le Monde Diplo-
matique, June, 1993.
2. See “Toward a New Information Order,” NACLA Report on the
Americas, Vol. XVI, No. 4 (July-August, 1982).
3. I am indebted to a spirited discussion at the Encuentro of Alter-
native and Popular Communications Media for this analogy.
4. Fempress (Santiago), “Fempress: Una estrategia de comuni-
caci6n,” preparatory paper for the Encuentro latinoamericano
de medios de comunicaci6n alternativa y popular (unpublished),
April, 1993.
5. Equipo de Formaci6n, Informaci6n y Publicaciones (Caracas),
“Diagn6stico Sobre la Comunicaci6n a Nivel Nacional,” prepara-
tory paper for the Encuentro latinoamericano (unpublished).
6. Centro Popular para America Latina de Comunicaci6n (Bogota),
“La Comunicaci6n en Colombia,” preparatory paper for the
Encuentro latinoamericano (unpublished).
7. Jose Ignacio L6pez Vigil, “Community Media in Neoliberal
Times,” in envio, Vol. 12, No. 139-141 (April, 1993), p. 37.
8. L6pez Vigil, “Community Media,” p. 39.
9. Quoted in Bertola and Pradel, “Los indigenas de Ecuador toman
la via de las ondas,” p. 35.
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