Concentración de la agenda informativa en la televisión colombiana: un estudio histórico-discursivo

Abstract

Colombia’s media system has distinguished itself for its closeness to political parties and powers. As a result of this, the written press, radio, and television have failed to constitute themselves into instances that can counterbalance or monitor established powers. Instead, these media have, throughout their history, operated as echo chambers of government or party interests. Television specifically emerged as owned and administered by the state, developing from the outset as a government outlet. Nevertheless, with the creation of two private networks in 1998, Caracol and RCN, the pro-duction of contents and the agenda of news broadcasting were concentrated in the hands of these networks’ owners, marking the start of the decline of the state’s ownership of television. In relation to this, this article analyzes how the past twenty years have seen the consolidation of a duopoly and the ensuing reduction of perspectives for news reports and of diversity of public opinion. To that end, this article analyzes the state’s juridical discourse, focu-sing on its ability to stimulate the concentration of media ownership and, in doing this, that of audiences and the advertisement market. This ultimately favors the interests of the groups that own Caracol and RCN, which have prevented the emergence of new participants in the media sphere and with it, the diversity and plurality of sources of information.