Could Chinese News Channels Have a Future in Latin America?

2020

Global Media and China

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This article focuses on international news channels in the Global South and the perceptions by audiences in Latin America. Designed with the intention of re-shaping global narratives, international broadcasting is considered instrumental to public diplomacy and improving the image of particular countries. While many studies focus on global media policies of specific countries or the messages broadcast by international media outlets, less attention has been paid to the impact on audiences. Based on a series of focus groups conducted in Mexico and Argentina, this article discusses how Latin American audiences perceive public diplomacy efforts as channelled by international news media and their effect on country image perception, by focusing on China’s CCTV-E, Russia’s RT and Iran’s HispanTV. The findings show that preconceived images contribute to undermine the acceptance of international broadcasters. In addition, participants were optimistic about RT’s prospects of success in Latin America, hesitant about HispanTV and pessimistic about China Central Television.

“…Pablo Sebastian Morales https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3125-4703 Notes 1. For a detailed description of the video compilations refer to Morales (2018).…”

Section: Declaration Of Conflicting Interestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

International broadcasters and country image management: Comparing audience perceptions of China, Russia and Iran in Latin America

2020

Global Media and China

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“…While some studies have addressed CGTN's targeting of the Spanish-speaking world (e.g. Madrid- Morales, 2015;Ye and Albornoz, 2018), others suggest that its relatively limited availability together with problems of credibility and trust undermine the perceptions of the channel by audiences in Latin America (Morales, 2018).…”

Section: Developing Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 1. A detailed description of the video compilations in terms of topic, length and rationale for each choice is available in Morales (2018). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mind the (cultural) gap: International news channels and the challenge of attracting Latin American audiences

Media, Culture & Society

2020

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This article explores the role of cultural proximity in the perception of international news channels in Latin America by focusing on the cases of CGTN (China), RT (Russia) and HispanTV (Iran). Instrumental to the public diplomacy strategies of their home countries, the success of international broadcasters depends on if/whether audiences accept them. Based on a series of focus groups conducted in Mexico and Argentina, this article argues that cultural proximity strongly influences viewers’ aesthetic experience. The findings show that international broadcasters from culturally distant countries bridge the cultural gap by evoking the style of western broadcasters while dissociating themselves from perceived negative images of their own countries of origin. At a deeper level, cultural proximity entails inclusionary and exclusionary processes even within subcultural spheres. Finally, the findings also show how issues of representation can undermine channel identification by audiences.

“…Li, 2017;Marsh, 2016) or reception (e.g. Geniets, 2013;Gorfinkel et al, 2014;Morales, 2018). Another strand of research focuses on the rise of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the implications for international communications (de Albuquerque and Lycarião, 2018; Nordenstreng and Thussu, 2015;Pasti and Ramaprasad, 2018;Thussu, 2017), which serves as a backdrop to the less explored phenomenon of counter-hegemonic media collaborations in the Global South.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Counter-hegemonic collaborations or alliances of the underdogs? The case of TeleSUR with Al-Mayadeen, RT and CGTN

Global Media and Communication

2022

This study explores how news channels from the Global South challenge western narratives by co-producing TV programmes. It focuses on Telesur (Venezuela) and its collaborations with RT (Russia), Al-Mayadeen (Lebanon) and CCTV/CGTN (China). By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, this paper examines the structure of these collaborations, the discursive construction of alternative narratives and their contribution to countering hegemonic discourses. The findings show that the efforts to construct counterhegemonic narratives are most evident in the co-productions with RT and Al-Mayadeen. Although the co-production with CGTN focusses on culture, it is nonetheless possible to identify the broadcasters’ distinct ideological agendas.