Mídia, hegemonia e democracia: os desafios para a efetivação de políticas públicas para a democratização da mídia em sete países

Abstract

This research, carried out between 2021 and 2023, brings a comparative study of the public policies for communication in Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, Australia, Japan, Mexico and Portugal from the perspective of studies on hegemony and democratisation of the media. It takes Gramsci's concepts of hegemony, democracy and citizenship as a basis to read the conjuncture of the media in relation to politics and society. Then, based on the concepts presented, the analytical categories of hegemony and public sphere (prohibition of monopolies and oligopolies; clear and objective norms for concessions; guarantees against political and economic parallels over the media), democracy and public policies (express guarantee of press freedom; existence of a regulatory body independent of the state and the market with guarantees of effectiveness and jurisprudence openness to governance) and citizenship (instruments that curb the spread of prejudice; guarantee of plurality of content; encouragement for community media and local programming; broadcasting that promotes social welfare as a public service) as a way of gauging the existence and effectiveness of mechanisms that favour democratic practices and citizenship. We start from the initial observation of the deregulation of markets, the existence of private monopolies and power struggles in the field of communication as a global trend until we reach the conclusion that some countries, such as South Africa, Japan and Australia have mechanisms to promote democracy in the media, while Brazil, Mexico, Portugal and Argentina still demand the creation or implementation of their policies for the area.