Communications Policies and the Production of Audiovisual Content in Argentina

• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18766912
• Author: Carla Rodríguez Miranda,Ornela Carboni
• Date: 01 May 2018
• Published date: 01 May 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 220, Vol. 45 No. 3, May 2018, 44–54

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18766912

© 2018 Latin American Perspectives

44

Communications Policies and the Production of

Audiovisual Content in Argentina

by

Carla Rodríguez Miranda and Ornela Carboni

Translated by

Victoria J. Furio

The introduction of digital terrestrial television and the passage of the Audiovisual

Communications Services Act in Argentina in 2009 led to a series of competitions to

stimulate the production of new content and help dismantle the prevailing center-periphery

logic in Argentine television. An examination from the perspective of the political econ-

omy of communications of these efforts in 2011–2013 indicates that they were small steps

in the right direction. Further progress will require a stable source of funding, a stronger

role for public televisión, and new strategies for capturing viewers.

La implementación de la televisión digital terrestre y la sanción de la Ley de Servicios

de Comunicación Audiovisual en Argentina en 2009 dio lugar a una serie de concursos

para estimular la producción de nuevos contenidos y ayudar a desmantelar la lógica cen-

tro-periferia que predomina en la televisión argentina. Un análisis desde la perspectiva de

la economía política de la comunicación de estos esfuerzos durante el periodo 2011–2013

da muestra de pequeños pasos en la dirección correcta. Para un mayor progreso se requerirá

de una fuente de fondos estable, un papel fortalecido para la televisión pública, y nuevas

estrategias para captar televidentes.

Keywords: Communications policies, Digital television, Production of content,

Government, Argentina

Since 2009, Argentina has experienced a new phase in regulatory policies for

audiovisual communications media inaugurated by the passage of the

Audiovisual Communications Services Act. The new standards are character-

ized by efforts to reduce concentration, promote the development of nonprofit

sectors, encourage nationwide production of content for radio and television,

and reconfigure the enforcement authority. Since the return of democracy in

1983, this authority had been under the executive branch. The new law created

Carla Rodríguez Miranda teaches social sciences at the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes and the

Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the Universidad de Buenos

Aires and has a Master’s in cultural industries. Ornela Carboni teaches and holds a research

fellowship from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas at the Universidad

Nacional de Quilmes and has a Ph.D. in social sciences from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. She

manages the project “Los procesos de organización productiva y del trabajo en el escenario con-

vergente y digital de la industria audiovisual argentina” and is coeditor, with Guillermo Mastrini,

of Siete debates nacionales en políticas de comunicación: Actores, convergencia y tecnología (2012).

Victoria J. Furio is a translator living in New York City.

766912LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X18766912Latin American PerspectivesRodríguez and Carboni / PRODUCTION OF AUDIOVISUAL CONTENT IN ARGENTINA

research-article2018