AGAIN...

We have another loss in Venezuela. Less than three years after the government did not renew RCTV's broadcast license and sent the station to cable, now they have created a new norm, especially designed to take the station from the air, even on cable. The new norm classifies cable stations as "national" or "international." "National" stations must comply with the restrictive Media Content Law and broadcast the President's speeches, "cadenas." Not surprisingly, CONATEL, the government's communication regulating body declared that RCTV is "national" to be able to modify and control the oppositional stance in the station's content. RCTV did not broadcast a presidential cadena yesterday. Last night, cable companies, complying with the new norm, took RCTV out of the air.

So, today Venezuela wakes up with less of a voice. We're going towards a silence. Better said, they're moving the country towards a generalized silence in which the only voice that's heard is the President's.

Links with related news stories:

BBC News

AFP

Reuters

TELENOVELA CONSUMPTION: VANESSA'S CARTOONS

Studying telenovelas has given me the opportunity to meet interesting people. Among them is Vanessa, who I met while conducting the fieldwork for my last case study, telenovela La Vida Entera. When I interviewed Vanessa regarding her decoding of this telenovela, she told me that she drew several cartoons of some of the characters in the show. Following are some of her cartoons, along with photos of the characters. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I have. It's another way of observing telenovela consumption, and how audience members appropriate the characters, as they follow their storylines.

Kotufa (Anastasia Mazzone):




Facundo (Carlos Mata):




Olimpia (Beatriz Valdés):

Tata (Marisa Román):

Guille (Luis Gerónimo Abreu):

And this isn't a character, but the telenovela's author, Leonardo Padrón:

This isn't a character either :-) Thanks, Vanessa!