Browsing by Author "Falcão, Pedro"

In the past few decades, media has assumed an increasingly important role in shaping social and political understandings of the world. This is true across the world and its importance is magnified whenever the society it depicts is one of imbalances and inequalities. Such is the case in Bolivia, where centuries of colonialism, exploitation, discrimination, and injustices have created an immense gap between the Indigenous majority and a criollo minority, across all aspects of social, economic, and political life. After Evo Morales’ ascent to the presidency in 2006, Indigenous Peoples became the archetype for national citizenry, in a sharp contrast with their image under much of Bolivia’s history as a country. After the refounding of the nation as the Plurinational State of Bolivia in 2009, Indigenous Peoples were given a sociopolitical emphasis befitting of their representativeness, a volte-face contested by many. Coupled with these great changes in Bolivian society was the media (and particularly online media) growth registered in the last few decades. Its role as a political watchdog and as a social tone-setter became exponentially magnified, especially in its portrayal of Indigenous Peoples, no longer a marginal sociopolitical player in Bolivia but at the front and centre of national politics. This study analyses how Bolivian media portrays the country’s Indigenous Peoples in its online publications. This research focused on the second half of Evo Morales’ third term in office, when the new role of the indigenous person as a citizenship archetype had already been modestly consolidated. This study focuses on four distinct newspapers, relying on content analysis and framing analysis of articles dealing with and representing Indigenous Peoples as a methodology. The four newspapers were chosen either for their size and importance (El Deber, La Razón, Página Siete) or their political affiliation with the State (Cambio). As vehicles of information, the publications analysed convey heavily biased stances, widening the gap between one side and the other in an already deeply divided society like Bolivia’s. This polarisation acts as a tool of division, stoking flames of conflict and eroding the fertile middle grounds of dialogue, debate and compromise. Some media still portrays Indigenous Peoples as ossified relics of a pre-Columbian past, relying on binary oppositions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous, others discredit differences under the guise of mestizaje, while some focus on Indigenous Peoples’ agency to highlight what has been achieved and how their own volition can shape the course of their social, economic, and political path. Indigenous Peoples’ representations in Bolivia are, therefore, quite divergent, even amongst bigger and mainstream outlets, creating their own kind of echo chamber; depending on the media consumed and the sociopolitical predispositions of the readers, two quite divergent portrayals are real and coexist side by side. This very contradiction could be an object of future studies, in an attempt to study what is the role of the media in broadening social divides. This is especially true in a society like Bolivia, where the differences between the “haves” and the “have-nots” are stark and the media is openly and partially biased, enacting a role that is more opinion-based and less informative than the common canons of journalistic objectivity.