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Motta Nicolicchia, Alejandro G.
Mass media and social media configuration under Hugo Chavez populist discourse : differences and contrasts
2020
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Motta Nicolicchia, Alejandro G.
Chávez evokes a very significant past in Venezuelan political, social and cultural history, which is the permanent demand for strong leaderships, for one-man leadership that mainly comes to heighten and remove from the political arena what he called the “corrupt and old elites” (López Maya, PBS Frontline, 2008). With that antiestablishment rhetoric, Chávez divided and polarized Venezuelan society: “Us vs Them,” intimating that everything that did not represent his option was simply his opposite, even his enemy, without any kind of middle term. From there, his power was consolidating in one sector of the country and little by little he was cultivating his leadership using the “Us vs Them” strategy and ultimately with the hegemonic participation of the media. Chávez acknowledges the importance and the role that media has regarding the achievement of political changes. Populist leaders acknowledge the power that media has channeling citizens’ demands, political criticism, and anger toward the establishment. Populists put on a platform something real, something that is happening in society, in some cases and countries, something that exists under the shadow: a demand of change. ©2021 Communication, Culture and Critique, Oxford University Press Copyright © 2022 International Communication Association.