Durante la última década, se advierte un incremento de la participación ciudadana en torno a Netflix desde el sitio de peticiones en línea Change.org. La relevancia que, en tal sentido, esta industrial cultural ha adquirido para su masiva audiencia, se manifiesta con particular énfasis en la América Latina de habla hispana. De ello dan cuenta las 683 iniciativas que se examinan en el presente trabajo, mediante el análisis de contenido facilitado por el programa NVivo 11, la observación directa y la revisión bibliográfica y documental. Se persigue un objetivo encaminado a identificar los rasgos y productos de la plataforma de streaming que se expresan, interpelan e impactan a través de tales iniciativas. Los principales hallazgos demuestran una correlación entre el número de peticiones y el de los suscriptores de Netflix, así como entre su crecimiento y el número de iniciativas impulsadas durante el encuadre temporal del estudio, en los países que forman parte de él. Se verifica, asimismo, una cifra numéricamente representativa de suscriptores que, mediante sus firmas, se han venido pronunciando durante el sexenio anterior. Se determinan, igualmente, ciertas preferencias de los suscriptores latinoamericanos, evidenciadas en los audiovisuales objetos de demanda. Se concluye que, a pesar del bajo impacto constatado, las peticiones en línea constituyen una forma de participación ciudadana que satisface necesidades expresivas clausuradas por Netflix, con el potencial de incidir en los productos de su catálogo audiovisual.

This article describes how the “bleeding eyes” symbol was crafted during the social unrest that took place in Chile in October 2019, when hundreds of people suffered from ocular trauma after being shot by the anti-riot police with plastic pellets. This seminal moment of symbolic production has been under-studied in the field of political communication. It draws upon concepts from the so-called “culturalist” approach to social movements studies and conducts an ethnographic account describing the dynamics that gave birth to a symbol.

This article aims at enriching the debate on the role of political satire when politics becomes troublesome. It takes an ethnographic approach to the production of the TV programme Polònia, which has been broadcast weekly in Catalonia since 2006 and consists of satirical impersonations of politicians. The first section tries to understand the role programme-makers attribute to Polònia within Catalan politics. Participants regard themselves as a central part of the political institutions in Catalonia and recognize a commitment with democratic values. This contests the normative approach in political communication studies which does not assign a role for entertainment in fostering democratic dialogue. The second section has to do with the main characteristic of Polònia’s language: experiential metaphors. Politics is ‘re-described’ in terms of everyday situations by transposing politicians into situations easily recognisable for the audience. It is concluded that Polònia uses a verisimilitude-oriented language rather than the veracity-oriented language of journalism.

The article analyses the communication factors that led up and contributed to General Pinochet’s coup against Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government in Chile in September 1973. Empirically based on interviews held with Chilean politicians and journalists in autumn 1972 and a content analysis of changes in key newspapers’ political coverage between 1970 and 1973, lessons and warnings for communication roles in present-day liberal democracies are drawn from two features of this case: (1) intense political and media polarisation, and (2) challenges to and confusion over conventional journalistic norms. The possibilities and difficulties of overcoming the resulting problems are canvassed in the article’s conclusion.