Technology, democracy and citizenship pose a challenge to communication

Smartphones, tablets, apps, social media, internet-based television—the devices available for communication multiply as quickly as a click. They have taken over people’s everyday lives, especially in the big cities. All you have to do is look around you to see nimble-fingered people sending countless messages through their high-tech cell phones.

New communication devices pose new challenges in a field that has grown distant from the debate about the work of public authorities over the course of history. Now, “it is necessary to ensure that communication is conceived from the standpoint of citizenship,” says Sérgio Amadeu, a member of Brazil’s Internet Management Committee. A key issue, he argues, is the enforcement of the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (Marco Civil da Internet, in the original Portuguese), which was approved in March this year, after months-long dispute at the National Congress. “We need to ensure the observance of the principles of neutrality, freedom of expression, navigation free from surveillance and privacy on the web,” he adds.

The debate over access and rights

If, on the one hand, for part of the Brazilian population, the crux of the matter lies in their rights on the internet, for the remainder, on the other hand, the greatest challenge is still the very access to the World Wide Web. Bearing this in mind, Amadeu points out that expanding the access provided to people from the country’s farther reaches should become part of the government’s political agenda in the upcoming years.

“Our infrastructure should be compatible with the nation’s economic and cultural needs and promote connectivity among things, cities, schools, places of entertainment. We need, in fact, to have our infrastructure expanded and made compatible with the speed of data transmission and interaction being used the globe over,” he maintains.

A member of the National Forum for the Democratization of Communication (FNDC), journalist Bia Barbosa believes that the country has been faced with a paradox in the communication arena. “As access to the internet and the new platforms grows in Brazil, despite the obstacles, we come across an agenda that belongs to the last century but remains current: that of democratizing the means of communication and putting an end to the concentration of property in the sector,” she declares.

The process of bringing true democracy to the internet, Bia Barbosa claims, entails consolidating the public system of communication, encouraging media actions staged by the local communities themselves, ensuring the sustainability of these media and promoting content diversity. All of this is an attempt to “make voices and opinions known, because the same communication groups are in charge of both planning and mediating the public debate in Brazil, even on the web,” she adds.

Among the measures that could be adopted in the short run is to send funds to community radio stations and alternative media; to guarantee transparency in public grants, as they keep all the country’s radio stations and television channels operational; and to exercise human rights in the media.

For this reason, the forum advocates a new law on communications—a law that comes as a substitute for the one in effect since 1962.

Enforcing the Constitution

More specific laws are defended by retired professor Venício Lima, from the University of Brasília. He points out that, even 26 years after the Federal Constitution was promulgated, the articles that address the subject of communication have not been officially regulated. Article 220 is a case in point, as it stipulates that “the means of social communication must not, either directly or indirectly, be the object of monopoly or oligopoly.”

The author of a number of books on communication policies, Lima believes that the regulating the wide range of mechanisms laid down in the Constitution “would be a major breakthrough.” In his view, in spite of the development of communication technology, the need is still urgent to ban cross-ownership, so that the person owning a television channel can also run a radio station. According to the specialist, countries like Argentina and Uruguay have been taking steps in this direction, having recently enacted laws aimed at breaking up the monopoly.

The Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters (ABERT), however, holds a different opinion. In the judgment of its president, Daniel Slavieiro, “to talk about concentration of property is a subject of the past,” given the technological convergence. He goes on to say that there are 10 thousand radio stations, among commercial and community ones, as well as 14 television networks with domestic programs, which demonstrates how varied the sector is.

As regards the challenge identified in the field of communications by the business sector, Slavieiro mentions the concern over the freedom of the media. He holds that this freedom has been threatened both by democratizing proposals in communications and violent acts against journalists.

Analog versus digital

For the upcoming years, ABERT says that the challenge is to guarantee the transition to digital television, as 30 percent of the analog signal will be deactivated in 2016. The association claims that 70 percent of the Brazilian population is within the coverage of the digital signal, “but it is still necessary to make sure people in small and medium towns do not lose television after digital TV is fully implemented.”

To reach the homes of all Brazilians and to take part in the technological changes are also challenges faced by public communication, a sector that brings together media from schools, universities and local communities and has as its leading representative the Brazil Communication Company, EBC.

For this reason, the transition to the digital universe, marked by the wide use of technology, is worrying, says Pedro Osório, president of the Brazilian Association of Public, Educational and Cultural Broadcasters.

Pedro Osório believes that broadcasters spread across Brazil have gone through “great difficulty migrating to digital technology, whether due to lack of resources for the purchase of equipment or to the lack of staff with up-to-date skills in an effort to make a digitalization project viable.”

To cope with this problem, Osório calls for public policies aimed at this sector, like encouraging technological training, and making specific credit lines available for the acquisition of equipment. Still in the subject of funding, he says it is necessary to make more room for contributions from society in the management and maintenance of these media, so that, in addition to being sustainable, they are capable of becoming public.

Acknowledging the key role of public communication

A member of one of the fronts for the recognition of the work of public television, Alice Campos advocates the local distribution of public funds coupled with more autonomy among the public communication media, with the participation of society and its decision-making councils. “Its independence must be guaranteed if the goal is to change the process and the understanding about how communication is made.”

The importance of this sector, Venício Lima claims, still needs to be acknowledged by government officials and by society at large, because television channels and radio stations from schools, universities and communities play a key role in providing the population with educational content free from the pressures exerted by the market, which is in constant search of an ever larger audience. “A solid public system is crucial for you to have a alternative to the commercial system,” he adds, also highlighting the need for funding, training, and autonomy.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira