Popular media and political asymmetries in the Brazilian democracy in times of digital disruption

Popular media are means of communication such as radio stations, print newspapers and television channels, digital or analog, created and animated by social movements, community associations and civil society organizations. In this work, based on a field research involving 29 initiatives located in different regions of Brazil, they illustrate in a forceful way the asymmetries of power that characterize Brazilian democracy. Asymmetries are deeper issues than inequalities. They survive even if all or part of the inequalities are suppressed. The incorporation of digital resources into popular media initiatives demonstrates this by revealing that, even though digital platforms are widely used, the capacity to intervene in the construction or transformation of the collective world view remains restricted to only a few social groups. It is important to recognize that digital resources expand the capacity of expression and reach of social actors, including the marginalized. This advance allows them to produce more dissonance, which is a central element for social change. However, it should be noted that in highly mediatized societies the concentration of media ownership and use, often exacerbated by policies and practices that organize the digital environment following capitalist principles, hinders the effective realization of participation and dialogue in public debate. Popular media represent, in this sense, a doubly relevant field of struggle. On the one hand, they play a fundamental role as platforms for the construction and affirmation of identities and narratives of marginalized social groups. On the other hand, they constitute a space of struggle in itself, associated with the organization and democratization of the public sphere.(POLS - Sciences politiques et sociales) -- UCL, 201