Social Mobilization, Racism, and Discrimination in the Great Colombian Mass Media During the Pandemic

This research article analyzes a case of racism and discrimination against indigenous people by a media outlet, representative of the media elite and the right wing of Colombia. The event occurred within the framework of the national strike during the first half of 2021, in the midst of the pandemic...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Guerrero-Rivera, Javier
Format: Online
Language:Spanish
Published: Instituto para la Investigación Educativa y el Desarrollo Pedagógico, IDEP 2023
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Online Access:https://revistas.idep.edu.co/index.php/educacion-y-ciudad/article/view/2859
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Summary:This research article analyzes a case of racism and discrimination against indigenous people by a media outlet, representative of the media elite and the right wing of Colombia. The event occurred within the framework of the national strike during the first half of 2021, in the midst of the pandemic caused by Covid-19, through a radio interview with Governor Misak on the occasion of the demolition of the statue of the colonizer Sebastián de Belalcázar in Cali. From the perspective of Critical Discourse Studies, it is shown that, through the discursive strategy of binarism’s and the victimization used by the journalist who conducts the interview, indigenous people are violated and discriminated against. It is concluded that this elite racism denigrates them as violators of the human rights of the majority of the country, warmongers, haters, uncivilized and clumsy, which is argued from a colonial, binary and reductionist ideology. With this, the structural racism that threatens human dignity is legitimized and reproduced, situating the indigenous (the others) as an inferior culture that destroys the "western values" and "decent" of the elites (us) and, in general, other citizens or "good people". However, Governor Misak builds a counter-discourse that confronts the journalist's abuse of power and positions a positive image of the indigenous social movement against the reductionism of the binarisms of the elite discourse.