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Since the election of President Hugo Chavez in 1998, Venezuela has become an important news item. Western coverage is shaped by the cultural milieu of its journalists, with news written from New York or London by non-specialists or by those staying inside wealthy guarded enclaves in an intensely segregated Caracas. Journalists mainly work with English-speaking elites and have little contact with the poor majority. Therefore, they reproduce ideas largely attuned to a Western, neoliberal understanding of Venezuela.
Through extensive analysis of media coverage from Chavez's election to the present day, as well as detailed interviews with journalists and academics covering the country, Bad News from Venezuela highlights the factors contributing to reportage in Venezuela and why those factors exist in the first place. From this examination of a single Latin American country, the book furthers the discussion of contemporary media in the West, and how, with the rise of 'fake news', their operations have a significant impact on the wider representation of global affairs.
Bad News from Venezuela is comprehensive and enlightening for undergraduate students and research academics in media and Latin American studies.
List of contents
Introduction
PART I
1 The election of Hugo Chavez, 1998-99: a threat to democracy?
2 The 2002 coup
3 Hugo Chavez's death and funeral
4 The 2013 elections
5 The 2014 Guarimbas
PART II
6 Who are the journalists?
7 Inside the news factory
8 Geopolitics and the propaganda model
Conclusion
About the author
Alan MacLeod is a member of the Glasgow Media Group and completed his thesis in sociology in 2017. He specialized in media theory and analysis.
Summary
This book explores how the Western media covers Venezuela.
