Television and dependence in Latin America

Includes bibliographical references (pages 84-87)This study analyzed the economic structure of commercial television in Latin America. A theoretical framework was derived from the published writings on international economic relationships by leading Latin American social scientists who adhere to a perspective embracing dependency.\ud Based on the exploratory studies of Schiller (1969), Pasquali (1972), and Nordenstreng and Varis (1974), the four institutions that control and manipulate the content of television via their economic interaction were determined to be the following: sponsors, advertising agencies, program distributors, and station owners. It was found that the first three of these institutions are distinguished in several Latin American countries by a high concentration of foreign investment. The influence of foreign investment in the fourth institution was found to be limited primarily to Central America. However, broadcasting surveys of countries such as Mexico and Brazil, whose television stations are owned by domestic industrialists, indicated that domestic and foreign owners relied on the same criteria in the selection of programs.\ud A model set of relationships in the commercial television structure was developed from the analysis. The model evidences a dual role for television in the dependency framework. Television reflects dependency in the economic and cultural links within its structure. Television sustains dependency by its capacity to transmit and reinforce commercial values. It was found that consumerism transmitted by television generates a production-consumption cycle oriented toward the upper and middle classes, and away from the needs of the lower classes, by increasing demand in the direction of luxury products.\ud The major conclusion of this study is that commercial television in Latin America reflects and sustains dependency as a natural development of the international capitalist system. As the literature review documents, the concentration of foreign investment in television has a parallel in many other industries throughout Latin America. The shift of emphasis from extractive industries to manufacturing has enlarged the role of television as a perpetuator of dependency. This study evidenced a consciousness on the part of multinational companies and domestic industrialists of how to utilize television for economic and social control