Table Of ContentBad News from Venezuela
Since the election of President Hugo Chavez in 1998, Venezuela has
become an important news item. Western coverage is shaped by the
cultural milieu of its journalists, with news written from New York or
London by non-specialists or by those staying inside wealthy guarded
enclaves in an intensely segregated Caracas. Journalists mainly work
with English-speaking elites and have little contact with the poor
majority. Therefore, they reproduce ideas largely attuned to a Western,
neoliberal understanding of Venezuela.
Through extensive analysis of media coverage from Chavez’s election
to the present day, as well as detailed interviews with journalists and
academics covering the country, Bad News from Venezuela highlights
the factors contributing to reportage in Venezuela and why those
factors exist in the first place. From this examination of a single Latin
American country, the book furthers the discussion of contemporary
media in the West, and how, with the rise of ‘fake news’, their operations
have a significant impact on the wider representation of global affairs.
Bad News from Venezuela is comprehensive and enlightening for
undergraduate students and research academics in media and Latin
American studies.
Alan MacLeod is a member of the Glasgow Media Group and completed
his thesis in sociology in 2017. He specialized in media theory and
analysis.
Routledge Focus on Communication and Society
Series Editor: James Curran
Routledge Focus on Communication and Society offers both estab-
lished and early-career academics the flexibility to publish cutting-
edge analysis on topical issues, research on new media or in-depth case
studies within the broad field of media, communication and cultural
studies. Its main concerns are whether the media empower or fail to
empower popular forces in society; media organisations and public
policy; and the political and social consequences of the media.
Bad News from Venezuela
Alan MacLeod
For a complete list of titles in this series, please see: www.routledge.com/
series/SE0130
Bad News from Venezuela
Twenty years of fake news
and misreporting
Alan MacLeod
First published 2018
by Routledge
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© 2018 Alan MacLeod
The right of Alan MacLeod to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
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ISBN: 978-1-138-48923-3 (hbk)
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To my parents
Contents
List of Tables viii
Introduction 1
PART I
1 The election of Hugo Chavez, 1998–99: a threat
to democracy? 16
2 The 2002 coup 27
3 Hugo Chavez’s death and funeral 42
4 The 2013 elections 58
5 The 2014 guarimbas 80
PART II
6 Who are the journalists? 104
7 Inside the news factory 115
8 Geopolitics and the propaganda model 132
Conclusion 148
Index 156
Tables
1.1 How democratic is your country, 1–10? Venezuela,
1997, 2013. Latinobarómetro 19
1.2 Venezuelan elections: clean or Rigged? 1997 and
2006, Latinobarómetro 20
1.3 Newspapers’ identifications of the Punto Fijo System 22
1.4 Newspaper articles on Venezuelan institutions 23
2.1 NED and USAID grants to Venezuelan organizations,
2000–2006, Golinger (2007: 56). 30
2.2 What happened in Venezuela? 2002 newspaper
identifications. 34
2.3 2002 articles mentioning possible US involvement in
the coup 36
2.4 2002 articles mentioning media involvement in the coup 38
3.1 Venezuela: poverty and extreme poverty, 1990–2012,
ECLAC, 1990–2013 45
3.2 Venezuela: share of income by class, 1990–2012,
ECLAC (2013: 89) 46
3.3 Total number of 2013 mentions of heads of state
attending Hugo Chavez’s funeral 52
4.1 How democratic is your country? 2013, average
score, Latinobarómetro. 62
4.2 Venezuelan TV audience share, 2000–2010, AGB
Nielsen, cited in Weisbrot and Ruttenburg (2010: 2–4). 64
4.3 Venezuelan media assessment of Maduro and
Capriles, Carter Center (2013: 56) 65
4.4 Venezuelan elections: clean or not clean? 2013
newspaper identifications 68
4.5 Venezuelan media: caged or free? 1998–2014 71
4.6 The Venezuelan state: does it dominate the media
landscape or not? 72
Tables ix
4.7 2013 newspapers’ identifications of Henrique Capriles 75
5.1 Do you agree or disagree with the guarimbas?
Venezuela, Noticias24 (2014) 85
5.2 2014 guarimbas: Protests or a Coup? 86
5.3 The 2014 guarimbas: a protest or a coup?
Identifications in selected media. 88
5.4 Why are there street demonstrations? Explanations
offered by sampled newspapers 91
5.5 Mentioning of possible US Government involvement
in 2014 protests, UK and US newspapers 92
5.6 Who is responsible for the violence? Identifications in
selected newspapers 93
5.7 Respectable or violent protesters? Identifications in
selected newspapers 95
5.8 Identifications of the demonstrations: Isolated and
unpopular or widespread and serious 96
