Regional media conglomerates: the media as a means of production in the territorialization of capital

Author: Janaina Visibeli

This thesis is interested in understanding how the regional media conglomerates participate in the territorialization of capital, in territories far from the main Brazilian urban centers, and how these organizations rationalize the work in the productive process. For this, two regional conglomerates were investigated: one, holder of concession of commercial TV and another, of educational TV, in Divinópolis, Center-west of Minas Gerais. As a research method, data “excavations” were carried out on the conglomerates and their political and economic groups, in order to know their territory of action. In order to understand the work rationalization process, semi-structured interviews were conducted with TV workers. We conclude that the media are means of production that fulfill the role of discursive and economic agents. In the process of territorialization of the conglomerates, several constitutional precepts and regulations of the communication are disrespected, by legal maneuvers of the groups. The workers participate in the territorialization of capital in the exercise of their activity and in re-signifying the neoliberal values in the organizational culture of the media groups. In the productive process, there are no differences between the contents produced between commercial TV and educational TV. Both are guided by the productive aesthetic standard of Grupo Globo, the main Brazilian communication group. Local journalism does not do research and the commercial logic of the groups participates in the journalistic product offered in the region. The media concentration of both conglomerates is an instrument to prevent discordant discourses, which isolates the municipality, blocks the development of the local communication market and fosters poor working conditions. The political and economic articulations of the groups maintain the system of reciprocity of the phenomenon called electronic “coronelismo”, for which there are exchanges of favors between broadcasters and political representatives.

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