Broadcasting Populist Leadership: Hugo Chávez and Aló Presidente

Abstract

The transcripts of the television programme Aló Presidente, the centrepiece of President Hugo Chávez's media strategy, provide insight into the different ways in which his movement promoted the image of its leader and sought to solidify his emotionally charged connection with the Venezuelan masses. The study outlines the dynamics behind the changing format and content of Aló Presidente and places it within the context of earlier research on populist media use in Latin America. Although similar to its predecessors, the programme was a unique creation of Chavismo, designed to balance Chávez's knack for improvisation with a structure designed to curb his excesses and keep him on message. This led to occasional tension between Chávez and the media professionals charged with the programme's production. The article provides a corrective to inaccurate treatments in the media and scholarly literature, and offers new information on Aló Presidente to facilitate future comparative studies.

Contents/Introduction

“…The Bolivarian Revolution emerged as a sui generis brand of mass mediatised populism, characterised as much by community television projects, as by the creation of new state channels (such as Vive and Ávila TV), and Chávez's own mode of live‐televisual governance across the airwaves (see Frajman, ). The controversial closure of RCTV in 2007, Venezuela's oldest private television channel, is just one example of how mass media policies have mapped onto political conflicts over recent years, with opponents denouncing a power grab via the silencing or taming of opposition media outlets, such as the cable TV network Globovisión and daily broadsheet El Universal .…”

Hugo Chavez's Polarizing Legacy: Chavismo, Media, and Public Opinion in Argentina's Domestic Politics

“…During this time, Argentina experienced a deepening level of social polarization that had not existed since the early period of Peronism (De Luca and Malamud 2010: 174). The problems began during the approval process of the so-called Resolution 125 (Frajman 2014). With this measure, the government attempted to change the taxation system for agricultural exports, establishing a progressive taxation mechanism indexed to international commodity prices.…”

La comunicación en los procesos de cambio social en América Latina: Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador y Venezuela

“…A pesar de la ausencia de un marco regulador, el gobierno venezolano ha sido uno de los más activos de la región a la hora de la creación medios públicos (Frajman, 2014). El conglomerado de medios integrados en el actualmente denominado Sistema Bolivariano de Comunicación e Información que incluso tiene su reflejo internacional en el canal Telesur, ha supuesto la actuación más visible y la más importante, con diferencia, de las políticas públicas de comunicación venezolanas.…”