Media Policies in Latin America's Post-Left Turn: Legal (Counter-) Reforms in Argentina and Ecuador

Abstract

Latin America's ‘left turn’ has been characterised by ambitious reforms to reshuffle power relations in the region's historically elitist and commercially driven media systems. Those radical policies faced course reversals where right-shifting governments followed. This article explores the legacies of left turn media policies by focusing on the counter-reforms to the media regulatory laws in Argentina and Ecuador. The comparative case study both traces differences in outcomes and finds a common incomplete restoration of historical media policy patterns. While de-regulations reinstated privileged state access of established interests, operating policy-feedback mechanisms preserved some regulations conferring rights and resources on incorporated stakeholders.