Playing across the Andes: Sports Media and Populism in Argentina and Chile

Abstract

This article examines the central role of sports media in the discussions about national sports programmes at the peak of Latin American populism, particularly during the governments of Juan Perón in Argentina (1946–55) and Carlos Ibáñez in Chile (1952–8). By exploring sports publications such as the Argentine magazines Mundo Deportivo and El Gráfico and the Chilean weekly Estadio, I argue that sports media staged stories and images that were both inspired by, and critical of, the larger populist projects in Argentina and Chile. Photographers and cartoonists, often in collaboration with sportswriters, produced and crafted populist ideas about class collaboration, the inclusion of children in the state project and women's participation in politics.

Transnational Visual Parodies: Political Cartoons of Perón in the Chilean Satirical Magazine Topaze, 1943–1958

“…The sporting press, for instance, reacted favorably to the state initiatives promoted by Perón, most notably expressed in the organization of the Pan American Games in 1951. Despite celebrating the democratization of sports and its extension to women and children, Chilean sportswriters criticized Perón for his "excessive cultural diplomacy" and accused him of using sports with a proselytizing agenda (Elsey 2016;Acuña 2019).…”

Sustainable Development of Sports Media Industry in Hunan Province under the New Normal

“…Acuna P examines the central role of sports media in discussions about national sports at the height of populism in Latin America. It is believed that the stories and images performed by the sports media are both inspired and criticized by the larger populist projects in Argentina and Chile [1]. Behzad, Heydarpour proposed that sports media has a certain popularization and incentive effect on people's health, thereby promoting the implementation of health policies [2].…”