The Role of the Media in an Extremely Polarized Society : The Case of Venezuelan Populism

Abstract

Media Studies specialist Virpi I. Salojärvi investigates the stratagems of a populist government in its uses of the media. Carefully differentiating between the respective roles of the state media, community media, and private media, Salojärvi outlines Venezuela’s increasing instrumentalization and control of the print media, radio, and TV stations, as well as Twitter, Facebook, etc., from the era of the charismatic populist Hugo Chávez to the unpopular Nicolás Maduro, in creating a variety of socialism known as the “Bolivarian Revolution.”