Communication industries in North America after 20 years of North American Free Trade Agreement: Media policy, regulatory bodies and concentration

Abstract

This article assesses an overview of the media industries in North America after 20 years of NAFTA, 1994-2014. The study addresses three research questions: (1) How have the communications acts been reformed: according to which logic and with what objectives? (2) How have the communication regulatory bodies performed? ( 3) To what extent has concentration on the media and telecommunication industries increased? It explores these issues from a structural historical analysis to understand how the media systems in North America have been re-shaping in the three countries (Canada, Mexico, and the United States) during the last 20 years, focusing in three observable paths: Media policy reform and policy-making; the performance and leeway of the regulatory institutions; and the level of concentration in the three countries in media and telecommunications sectors.

The rol of the State in the Mexican Media System. Starting point for a research agenda

“…De hecho, el sistema de medios mexicano ha sido caracterizado en la órbita de los modelos de medios político-clientelar (Hallin & Papathanassopoulos, 2002) y de pluralismo limitado (Segura & Waisbord, 2016), con aspiraciones liberales (Gómez, 2016) y como uno de los sistemas más concentrados en el mundo (Noam, 2016).…”

“…En el caso mexicano, tenemos que subrayar a diferencia del resto de los países latinoamericanos, que la proximidad con Estados Unidos es fundamental para entender su reforma de medios en el contexto de la integración norteamericana a través del libre comercio (nafta y el t-mec 2 ) que presiona al sistema político mexicano a alinearse a la lógica del libre mercado y los principios de la democracia liberal (Gómez, 2016).…”

The Mexican Third Sector of the Media: The Long Run to Democratise the Mexican Communication System

“…(2011,148) In Mexico, as in the rest of the region, media reform was expected to represent a major vector in terms of freedom of expression, equal access to all three sectors, cultural diversity, economic competition and better communication services. It is important to underline that the communication/public policies perspective shaping the MCS is the market logic under the imperatives of neoliberal, corporate, global capitalism (Gómez 2016).…”

“…As a point of entry, it has to be said that the new Act of 2014 has been characterised by its privileging of market imperatives over public service mandates or communication rights (Gómez 2016). However, this new legal framework has an important central factor, which is its institutional role to regulate, promote and supervise the use and exploitation of the spectrum in the form of an autonomous and independent public entity called the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT).…”

“…The Mexican media (communication) system has been characterised in the orbit of clientelism (Hallin and Papathanassopoulus 2002) and limited pluralism models (Soledad Segura and Waisbord 2016) with liberal aspirations, and, at the same time, as one of the most concentrated systems in the world (Gómez 2016). However, since the end of the twentieth century, the Mexican communication system has exhibited signs of change, and of edging toward democratisation.…”