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Chilean Print Media and Human Rights: Mainstream Silence Versus Satirical Subversion
Author(s) -
Sorensen Kristin
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0130.2011.00704.x
Subject(s) - newspaper , mainstream , human rights , subversion , silence , conceptualization , print media , variety (cybernetics) , entertainment , media studies , institution , sociology , political science , law , politics , art , aesthetics , artificial intelligence , computer science
This study investigates the role of print media in the circulation of human rights discourses in post‐Pinochet Chile. While Chilean print media tends to offer more discussion of human rights violations than other forms of Chilean media such as television, what appears in the papers is still significantly constrained. The constraints imposed on print media are a consequence of a variety of factors—some common to all forms of capitalist, advertiser‐driven media, but others a consequence of the experience of living and working in a postrepressive nation. Despite these constraints, some Chilean print media outlets do offer significant coverage of issues related to the legacy of the Pinochet regime. One such example is The Clinic , a biweekly satirical newspaper first created in 1999 after Pinochet was arrested in the United Kingdom while recovering from surgery in the medical institution called The Clinic. Now that most Chilean print media outlets have interactive, electronic versions of their papers available online, their impact and the potential for all Chileans to give voice to their experiences are growing. These media outlets play a key role in the reconstruction and re‐conceptualization of the nation in postdictatorship Chile.