Memories of the disagreement: political, legal and economic crisis of Ecuador´s public media

Abstract

The project for the creation and consolidation of public media in Ecuador was born with the purpose of democratizing communication, the right to disseminate and receive truthful information and other social demands. However, this policy was not enough. The public media map was made up of 22 media in 2007; by the end of 2023, 6 public media survive, without considering the group of media managed by sectional governments and other entities, which operate in 20 of the 24 provinces of Ecuador. In this context, the proposed qualitative research aims to investigate the causes of the disappearance of some public media and to analyze from a historiographic-descriptive perspective the public media map, from 2007 to 2023, using a methodological instrument adapted to the Ecuadorian case known as: Barometer of media sustainability, composed of four variables: economic health of the media, political environment, the degree of incidence of legal regulations of the sector, use of technology and digital adaptations, which allow identifying the factors that have prevented the sustained and independent development of the sector. It is concluded that the financing of the media comes from the General State Budget, which has limited its independence. The participation of the State has influenced the design and dissemination of content. Finally, the reforms and the validity of the concomitant laws have contributed to the crisis of the public media sector, weakened by a scarce support from the audience.

This research analyzes from a historiographic-descriptive perspective the public media map (2007-2023), applying a model adapted to the Ecuadorian case known as: Barometer of media sustainability, composed of four variables that allow identifying factors that have prevented the independent development of the sector, evaluating at the same time the political participation and management of the last three popularly elected governments.

Among the variables of the barometer are political pressures, discretional management of the advertising budget and the different administrative visions of the three governments in office, which have caused a crisis in the public sector and, subsequently, the massive closure of the media. The public media subsist on the back of digital globalization and with weak audience support.