Mercosur caught between lofty ambitions and modest achievements: a critical analysis of 16 years of audiovisual policy-making

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a critical analysis of Mercosur’s audiovisual policy. It is based on qualitative document analysis combined with a goal-means tree analysis methodology. The confrontation of the goals and the means in this manner makes it possible to identify structural problems in the development of RECAM, which is the Specialized Meeting of Audiovisual and Cinematographic Authorities of Mercosur and Associated States. Expert interviews and an examination of the theory relating to supranational challenges and the tensions between the cultural and economic aspects of audiovisual activities made it further possible to assess the nature of Mercosur policies and how they affect the results achieved. Although it has high aspirations, RECAM demonstrates a weak strategic development with a clearly identifiable mismatch between the goals and the means. The proposed economic integration was not achieved and the implemented measures were focused on cultural actions that led to a purely symbolic integration.

KEYWORDS:

• audiovisual policy
• Mercosur
• Recam

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior.

Notes on contributors

Marina Rossato Fernandes

Marina Rossato Fernandes is a PhD student at the department of Communication Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and research about audiovisual policy.

Jan Loisen

Jan Loisen is associate professor at the department of Communication Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and has published on the issue of audiovisual policy at the crossroads of trade and cultural policy in international policy organisations.

Karen Donders

Karen Donders is a lecturer at the department of Communication Studies, Department of Social Sciences and Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences & Solvay Business School at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Head of Media & Society research program in the Center for Studies on Media Innovation and Technology (imec-SMIT). Co-director of the Mediahub Brussel, Director of the Postgraduate in Media Economics and Director of the Master Program New Media & Society in Europe.