Author: thompson.3191

Argentina: Final Information Network

Traditional Sources

1. La Nación [Source is in Spanish]

La Nación is one of the oldest and largest sources of conservative, center-right daily national news in Argentina that competes directly with Argentina’s other widely read newspaper, Clarín. New issues of La Nación are released daily with sections about politics, economics, society, arts & culture, technology, sports, and world news, demonstrating the breadth that is one of its strengths.

La Nación was founded by Bartolomé Mitre, one of Argentina’s former presidents, whose family still presides over this source [1]. The Buenos Aires-based private company who owns La Nación, called S.A. La Nación, is owned by the Mitre family while the newspaper’s publisher, Bartolomé Mitre, is the founder’s great-great-grandnephew [2]. S.A. La Nación, along with Grupo Clarín, shares control of a major association of companies and publishers of newspapers, magazines, and websites (called ADEPA) as well as Argentina’s primary newsprint manufacturer, Papel Prensa [3]. Due to these holdings, the company has been accused of having a monopoly over newsprint that has negatively affected independent newspapers [4].

While La Nación has its own website, access to news on this site is limited to 35 articles before you must pay for a subscription. As such, PressReader may be used for free access to this source at the following link: https://www.pressreader.com/argentina/la-nacion/20180131

2. Página/12 [Source is in Spanish]

Página/12 is a center-left daily Argentine newspaper published in Buenos Aires that offers content about society, the economy, science, culture, as well as world and entertainment news. The newspaper is owned by Grupo Octubre, an Argentine multimedia company based in Buenos Aires [5]. Grupo Octubre was created by Victor Santa María, a prominent unionist and politician for Argentina’s Justicialist party [6].

Página/12 prioritizes democracy, human rights and critical analysis of information, rather than just delivering news. Their slogan, La otra mirada, which translates to “the other viewpoint,” demonstrates their leftist standpoint that contrasts against popular center-right sources like La Nación and Clarín. In addition to this, center-right Argentinian President Mauricio Macri does not follow this news source on Twitter like he does La Nación or Clarín. This source also claims to use “everyday” Argentine language which they describe as a style of biting humor that is characteristic of the nation and that contrasts tone of the other sources included in this information network. The priorities of the newspaper as well as the style in which it is written reflect its critical, leftist stance. Página/12 also likely caters to its demographic, determined from 58% of its audience, who are between the ages of 18 and 52 years and are of middle or upper-middle class status [7]. Overall, this source is useful for those wishing to gain a view of Argentine news contrary to that which predominates in its most popular media.

Página/12’s website: https://www.pagina12.com.ar/

3. Diario Río Negro [Source is in Spanish]

Diario Río Negro is a center-right daily newspaper headquartered in General Roca, Argentina and that is privately-held by the company Editorial Río Negro S.A. Its articles are written by correspondents from various cities in Río Negro and Neuquén provinces where it is distributed. Río Negro and Neuquén, are in the southern half of Argentina, situated in Patagonia, where it is considered the oldest and most-distributed newspaper [8].

Diario Río Negro’s website provides provincial and national news in categories that include breaking news, society, sports, and culture. A strength of this source is its local view of Argentina and its clear organization of the origin of each news story. For instance, in the provincial news section of their website, most articles are subtitled with the city of each province from which the news originates, including Bariloche, Cipolleti, General Roca, Viedma, and Neuquén city. The national news is also subtitled, either as “Argentina,” “Buenos Aires,” “City of Buenos Aires,” or “World.”

Diario Río Negro contrasts with the more popular, Buenos-Aires-centered national sources in this information network, since this source has a more provincial focus in that it is headquartered and mainly reports on two specific provinces. The organization of each article by city and province makes it easier to distinguish between which content originates from where, which is a increases user-friendliness. As a center-right news source, it also contrasts most directly with Página/12, the left-wing traditional news source included in this network.

Diario Río Negro’s website: https://www.rionegro.com.ar/neuquen

 

New Media Sources

1. Global Voices [Source is in English]

Global Voices is a non-profit blog that aggregates news stories from various other blogs, independent presses, and social media. The multitude of contributors of each article are bloggers, journalists, academics, and human rights activists who digitally curate the information presented. According to their editorial code, Global Voices is committed to presenting transparent and accurate information with identified sources that avoids stereotypes and conflicts of interest [9].

Global Voices’s strength is in their aim to create a global understanding of a wide-variety of events not typically covered in larger, more traditional news sources. For instance, they defend censorship rights and freedom of speech to attempt to give a voice to marginalized and misrepresented communities, which helps audiences gain a better picture of smaller sectors of Argentina society. On the other hand, given its global focus, Argentina-specific news is posted to the website about one to three times a month, which is less frequent compared to national sources.

Global Voices—Argentina Homepage: https://globalvoices.org/-/world/latin-america/argentina/

2. La Izquierda Diario [Source is in Spanish]

La Izquierda Diario is the first digital daily in Argentina that represents the far-left, from a Trotskyist perspective. More specifically, it represents the Socialist Workers’ Party (Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas; PTS) in Argentina. As such, La Izquierda Diario focuses on the struggles of workers, women, and youth, and the goals of their project include finding an social and political alternative to the capitalist order and investigating truths where there are cover-ups, thereby “unmasking the lies of the powerful” [10]. Among other media sources, La Izquierda Diario is unique because it is independent and does not receive private or public funding, rather asking its readers help fund their project by becoming monthly subscribers [11]. This source is also part of an international movement of similar left-voice publications in Brazil, Mexico, France, Germany, the United States, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Venezuela [12].

La Izquierda Diario provides sections about the economy, politics, international news, the working world (information about workers protests and organizations), gender and sexuality, and youth in a blog-like format. There is also a section that links to an online magazine called Ideas de Izquierda (Ideas of the Left) with blog posts that center around the ideology, debates, worker’s culture, and movements of the far-left. The top of the website narrows down the contents of each article by provincially (16 of Argentina’s 23 provinces are included), a useful feature for instances in which more information about a specific event affecting a specific area is desired.

The multimedia composition of La Izquierda Diario, which includes articles, videos, and tweets embedded into the website, as well as photo galleries and art (including cartoons) that depict important events and political themes, is advantageous because it presents the far-left movement in Argentina in a multi-dimensional manner. Within this framework, La Izquierda Diario provides a vast amount of information about a relatively small audience within Argentina in terms of political alignment. The strong position of this source functions as its strength and weakness. On one hand, La Izquierda Diario is a valuable starting point for someone seeking to inform themselves about the far-left movement and ideology from a national, regional, and international perspective. This is especially important considering the prominence of workers’ movements in Argentina. On the other hand, the specificity of this source necessitates its use in conjunction with other media sources to gain a balanced perspective of Argentina.

La Izquiera Diaria’s website: http://www.laizquierdadiario.com/

La Izquiera Diaria is also exceptionally active on its Twitter page, linked here: https://twitter.com/izquierdadiario?lang=en

3. The Bubble [Source is in English]

The Bubble is a digital media company that provides daily coverage of current events and analysis of pop and media culture in Argentina and Latin America [13]. Its website contains sections dedicated to the latest news, politics, economy, lifestyle, and sports. The Bubble claims to stray from the standpoint of traditional media in that it provides a “no-bullshit approach to the facts” although it concedes that each writer in its staff speaks from their own viewpoints [14]. The quoted material in the previous sentence also reveals the informal tone of the source. Notably, The Bubble’s founder is Adrian Bono, a Spanish journalist who notably worked as the former deputy editor for The Buenos Aires Herald, the largest English newspaper in Argentina that was shut down in 2017 which contributes to its authority as a reliable source [15]. Additionally, despite being written in English, this source is intended for both local and international readers and its writers work from within Argentina. The presentation of information in English along with reporting on “non-standard” news like upcoming cultural events (in the realm of music, art, food, cinema, and festivals), discount tickets, and the official dollar exchange rate makes it especially valuable for those from who plan to travel to Argentina. Otherwise, this source is useful for those who want an easy to understand, less politicized overview of the current events and issues in Argentina or who want to know more about the culture of the country.

The Bubble’s website: http://www.thebubble.com/

 

Social Media Sources

1. Mauricio Macri, The President of Argentia’s Twitter Page [Source is in Spanish]

President Mauricio Macri is a member of the center-right PRO (Propuesta Republicana/Repuclican Proposal) party of Argentina. While tweets are posted to this page daily, the author of each tweet is unclear, given that some tweets are presented in first person while others could be interpreted as third person. Regardless of whether Macri or an administrator manages his account, the tweets made represent his ideas. This source is a convenient means of keeping track of major events in which the president is personally involved, such as the G20 which will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina later this year. It is also useful for observing which events President Macri highlights on his Twitter feed in comparison to what events the other sources in this information network focus on, as well as the differences in each source’s interpretation of the same events. With this in mind, it should be noted that as the president of Argentina, Macri must establish a strong political stance and thus the information communicated by this source will likely omit anything contrary to his beliefs and the ideas associated with the PRO. Finally, this source can be used to gauge citizen reaction to Macri’s response to important events, and observing whether these reactions are largely negative or positive may help construct an idea about citizen approval of the president.

President Mauricio Macri’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/mauriciomacri

 

2. Margarita Stolbizer, The President of Partido GEN’s Twitter Page [Source is in Spanish]

Margarita Stolbizer is the president of the center-left political party, Partido GEN, under the Progressive party, one of the major political parties in Argentina. According to Partido GEN’s website, the party reclaims politics as an instrument to reaffirm democracy and the search for liberty based on Argentine Independence and Republic within the ethical frameworks of solidarity, justice and sustainable development [16]. Some of the party’s other main ideas include correcting social inequality and exclusion, supporting transparency and access to knowledge and new technology to open opportunities within an equal society, and facilitating dialogue to combat partisanship. As president of Partido GEN, Stolbizer’s Twitter posts align with these ideas. Although this limits the perspective of the source, the page is useful to gain an understanding of a political party different than the one currently holding executive office and from those that other sources in this network represent. In addition to original content, Stolbizer retweets content daily from the official Partido GEN Twitter, from interviews she has taken part in, and from lawyers dedicated to uncovering corruption which provides broader insight into the Partido GEN platform and Argentina’s issue of transparency.

Margarita Stolbizer’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/Stolbizer?lang=en

Audiovisual Sources

1. Todo Noticias [Source is in Spanish]

Todo Noticias is a 24-hour Argentine cable news channel that is owned by Grupo Clarín, the largest media company in Argentina (headquartered in Buenos Aires) that also produces Clarín, one of the country’s primary newspapers. As part of Grupo Clarín, the goals of Todo Noticias are to provide honest, accurate, clear, and comprehensive information. The company also claims to be an advocate of democracy, hold national values, and wants Argentina to achieve global recognition. Todo Noticias itself broadcasts a live stream and other videos throughout the day from within categories such as politics, international news, economics, technology, and society.

Todos Noticias is valuable for its popularity; since it represents the information that a large portion of Argentine society consumes, it brings about an understanding of the types of media and Argentines are exposed to. Another strength of this source is that it provides information on a wide variety of topics, including news specifically discussing events that involve the police, a factor that sets this source apart from others. The 24-hour live stream feature of Todos Noticias makes it best for viewing current and ongoing events in Argentina on a national level, although with this speed of dissemination comes a weakness in that the information is developing and may contain errors that are corrected further in the following of certain news events.

YouTube Channel for Todo Noticias: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj6PcyLvpnIRT_2W_mwa9Aw

2. El Tribuno [Source is in Spanish]

El Tribuno is a daily tabloid that is part of a privately-owned media group Horizontes S.A. El Tribuno. There are two separate websites for El Tribuno: one website provides news about Salta and the other provides news about Jujuy, the two northwestern-most provinces of Argentina. As such, this source currently has 2 different editors, Sergio Romero and Rubén Rivarola. I have chosen to include the information for the Salta branch of the newspaper in this information network as it is the only newspaper in Salta province.

Sergio Romero is the director for the Salta branch of the newspaper, where El Tribuno is headquartered. The Romero family, who have served as representatives to the Argentine National Congress for Salta, has owned El Tribuno since 1957 and have expressed their Justicialist party, pro-Peronist viewpoint through this news source [17]. Although I could not find information linking Sergio Romero to this family, the fact that this source has been held by the same family for a long period of time is important to consider. This information also imparts a sense of the relationship between Romero’s participation in the Argentine government and his control over a private media-company and newspaper in terms of the views and potential conflicts of interest presented by this source. This is especially important considering that El Tribuno is the only newspaper in Salta province.

The news content provided by El Tribuno falls under categories such as the following: international, national, political, technology, women, and health. This channel posts multiple videos per day and their format seems more informal than the format of the traditional news sources found in this information network. El Tribuno also represents a provincial perspective from outside of Buenos Aires; however, in contrast to the other provincial sources present in this network, it carries viewpoint of the Justicialist Party, the party with the largest presence in Argentina’s national congress. The fact that the current president of Argentina is a member of the center-right PRO party despite the largest portion of Congress being occupied by the Justicialist Party presents a potential conflict between political parties that may be made clearer through comparison of the content President Macri’s Twitter page with this source.

YouTube Channel for El Tribuno Salta: https://www.youtube.com/user/eltribunodigital

 

Data Sources

1. Country Watch, 2018 Country Review, Argentina [Source is in English]

Country Watch provides accurate and authoritative information about the political, economic, and business aspects of many countries, including Argentina, in a yearly review. The intended audience of these country reviews are corporations, government organizations, libraries, and universities. The information contained in these reviews is drawn from an extensive variety of sources, including the World Bank, the CIA, BBC and CNN news, and the New Encyclopedia Britannica, to give a few examples. Therefore, this source contains a great quantity and quality of background information about Argentina that can be used to gain a basic understanding of the nation’s history and ongoing political, economic, and business trends. This country review can also be used mediate the information received from other sources that cover Argentina, but since it is only updated yearly it will take time to reflect new developments in Argentina presented in these other sources.

2018 Country Review PDF for Argentina: http://countrywatch.com/Content/pdfs/reviews/B33L48MZ.01c.pdf

2. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO) Country Profile for Argentina [Source is in English or Spanish, depending on the document chosen]

The FAO is a United Nations agency whose goal is to achieve global food security through access to regular, high quality food [18]. Other goals of the FAO align with solving the issue of hunger and include making agriculture, forestry, and fisheries more productive and sustainable in the face of an expanding global population, reducing rural poverty, increasing the inclusion of independent farmers and agricultural produces into the globalized food and agricultural system, and preventing risks and crises while creating support for disaster response [19]. Additionally, the FAO supports the policies and political commitments toward food security of its member nations.

The FAO provides a country profile for each of its member countries, which includes Argentina. The country profile for Argentina lists FAO priorities for the country such as rural development and alleviating rural poverty, evaluating and strengthening the country’s National Plan for food security, strengthening education, promoting environmental protection and sustainable management of natural resources, forestry, and biomass energy, creating a system of biological indicators of climate change, and improving the health of animals and the quality of food. The FAO website provides a detailed account of these priorities in a National Framework of Priorities for Medium-Term FAO Technical Assistance which seems to have been in effect from 2010-2014 [20]. This is just one example of the type of publication that can be found on Argentina’s country profile. Some examples of the FAO’s host of other resources about Argentina include: a map of its farming systems, a list of its FAO projects, trade policy briefs (from the WTO), and various statistical databases with indicators such as demographics, inputs, production, food availability, access and utilization, economic and political stability, and emissions, with a data visualization for each of these indicators [21]. The country profile is updated yearly, while some of the other sources are updated more sporadically.

Argentina’s FAO profile is excellent in that it contains an ample amount of information about the country’s key issues regarding resources, rural poverty, and development. Moreover, as an established agency of the United Nations that values reliable statistical data, the FAO is a dependable source for this type of information. The inclusion of this type of statistical information in this information network is essential because Argentina relies on agricultural exports for its economy, there is a presence of extractive companies operating in rural areas, and there is a high percentage of the population living below the poverty line.

Argentina’s FAO country profile: http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/index/en/?iso3=ARG

3. CIPPEC (Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth) [Source is in Spanish]

CIPPEC is an independent, non-profit think tank based in Buenos Aires that works on building “better” public policies in areas related to the state, government, and economic and social development [22].  Their goal is to achieve an equitable, democratic society in terms of income and opportunity that improves the lives of all Argentine citizens through development and implementation of policy. The CIPPEC website provides publications on policy measures they want to see adopted, analysis of current policies, and a section with data visualizations of statistical information on the social and political issues they target. The website’s homepage also provides links to articles that experts who operate within CIPPEC (those who occupy positions like directors and investigators of education and social protection) write that are published in various news sources in Argentina. Examples of these news sources include La Nación, El Cronista Comercial, Clarín, El País, and Página/12, which are all major center-right publications in Argentina except for Página/12. CIPPEC’s funds are spread out among several sectors and only 30% of its comes from the Argentine government. While this source has its own clear agenda which will contribute to a distinct point of view, it provides background information about a variety of policies operating in Argentina in its analysis and suggestions for improving these policies. Therefore, it is a good source to use to understand the policies in Argentina and the discourse and debates surrounding them on a more in-depth level than can be expressed in news articles.

CIPPEC’s website: http://www.cippec.org/

_______________________________________________________________________

1. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Naci%C3%B3n_(Argentina)

2. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Naci%C3%B3n_(Argentina)

3. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Naci%C3%B3n_(Argentina)

4. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Naci%C3%B3n_(Argentina)

5. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Octubre

6. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADctor_Santa_Mar%C3%ADa

7.  https://www.pagina12.com.ar/usuarios/institucional.php

8. https://www.linkedin.com/company/editorial-rio-negro-sa

9. https://globalvoices.org/about/editorial-code/

10. https://comunidad.laizquierdadiario.com/

11. https://comunidad.laizquierdadiario.com/

12. http://laizquierdadiario.com/Red-Internacional/

13. http://www.thebubble.com/f-a-q/

14. http://www.thebubble.com/f-a-q/

15. http://www.thebubble.com/staff/

16. https://www.partidogen.org.ar/sobreelgen/

17. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Tribuno#cite_note-1

18. http://www.fao.org/about/en/

19. http://www.fao.org/about/what-we-do/en/

20. http://www.fao.org/3/a-bp551s.pdf

21. http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#country/9

22. http://www.cippec.org/en/about-us/

Global News Post #6: Argentina

https://www.rionegro.com.ar/argentina/caputo-si-hubiera-querido-favorecerme-me-hubiera-quedado-en-el-sector-privado-CK4738567

“Luis Caputo expone una comisión bicameral del Congreso. (Foto: Archivo),” Río Negro, 4 Apr. 2018, www.rionegro.com.ar/argentina/caputo-si-hubiera-querido-favorecerme-me-hubiera-quedado-en-el-sector-privado-CK4738567.

 

On April 4th, Argentina’s Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, spoke with a tense Argentine Congress about the country’s public debt and addressed his personal involvement in offshore investments. Upon receiving criticism from opposition (Kirchnerist) politicians, who insist that he is operating under a conflict of interest and is thus unfit to hold office, Caputo defended himself by saying that if he had wanted to seek personal gain, he would have stayed in the private sector rather than assume the position of Minister of Finance. Prior to managing Argentina’s finances, Caputo had an extensive involvement in the private sector having worked as head of trading for JP Morgan Argentina, for Deutsche Bank (for East Europe and Latin America), and managed funds for AXIS, a private communications company in Argentina (“Luis Caputo”).

On the subject of offshore investments, Caputo commented that possessing such investments is not a crime when their ownership is not kept secret from the public. He claims that he has never owned any offshore company and assured Congress that all his activities have been recorded with Argentina’s Anti-corruption Office and the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos (AFIP), a federal body which handles income taxes. Despite his claims, evidence was uncovered last year that Caputo has a stake in the U.S.-registered company, Noctua Partners LLC, and that he did not report his holding in this and other “offshore companies that manage hundreds of millions of dollars in tax havens” on his taxes in 2015 and 2016 (Delfino & Crucianelli ; Bio). Regarding this, Caputo admits that is a fiduciary holder in the company, not an owner, and believes that maintains that he has not committed any crime, demonstrated by his willingness to take the issue to court to obtain proof of the integrity of his practices.

As for Argentina’s debt, Caputo declared that only 30% of it is contracted with the private sector and multilateral organizations and that the overall debt is strong because of their lengthy repayment windows. He also made it very clear that although one of the main goals of the Argentine government is to eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor through sustained growth, that it takes time to undo 75 years of mismanagement.

This article comes from Diario Río Negro (Rio Negro Daily), a center-right newspaper with a provincial focus, but that also reports on national news stories such as the one presented in this post. The fact that this new story is potentially revealing corruption within the Macri government shows, to an extent, a transparency of the media. This news story was also reported in other popular news sources in Argentina, such as Clarín and La Nación, that are also center-right and which are believed to support the views of President Macri, further adding to a sense of transparency. This makes sense when considering that although Macri appointed Caputo and is likely informed about Caputo’s dealings with offshore countries, he has also adopted a standpoint of working against corruption and thus allowing such news stories to be reported would be advantageous for his image. Overall, the evidence that this article uses are predominantly quotes from Caputo’s exposition before Congress and neither criticizes or appraises Caputo’s actions outright, leaving it to the audience to make sense of the situation as I have attempted to above.

Works Cited:

Bio, Demian. “SEC: Despite Denying It, Finance Minister Caputo Owned Company That Appeared on ‘Paradise Papers’.” The Bubble, 12 Mar. 2018, www.thebubble.com/sec-caputo-owned-company-paradise-papers/.

“Caputo: ‘Si hubiera querido favorecerme, me hubiera quedado en el sector privado.’” Río Negro, 4 Apr. 2018, www.rionegro.com.ar/argentina/caputo-si-hubiera-querido-favorecerme-me-hubiera-quedado-en-el-sector-privado-CK4738567.

Delfino, Emilia, and Sandra Crucianelli. “Caputo Concealed Cayman Island Offshore Firms from Argentine Authorities.” Buenos Aires Times, Editorial Perfil, 19 Feb. 2018, www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/caputo-concealed-cayman-island-offshore-firms-from-argentine-authorities.phtml.

“Luis Caputo.” Ministry of Finance: Presidency of the Nation, Gobierno Argentina, www.minfinanzas.gob.ar/en/ministry/minister/.

Global News Post #5: Argentina

42 Years After the Coup, Massive Mobilizations Said No to Impunity and Repression

http://www.laizquierdadiario.com/A-42-anos-del-golpe-masivas-movilizaciones-dijeron-no-a-la-impunidad-y-a-la-represion

Archivo. “El sábado se cumplen 42 años del último golpe de Estado.” La Nación. 23 Mar. 2018, https://www.lanacion.com.ar/2119618-dia-de-la-memoria-los-puntos-de-encuentro-de-la-marcha-del-24-de-marzo

Demonstrations took place on Saturday, March 24th on the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. The day was the 42nd anniversary of the 1976 right-wing military coup in which Isabel Perón, Argentina’s president, was deposed and replaced with Jorge Rafael Videla, a dictator who lead the genocidal “Dirty War” in which around 30,000 Argentinians were “disappeared” or killed.

While the bulk of the march took place in Buenos Aires, there were also sizeable demonstrations in other main cities across Argentina. At the beginning of the event, a communiqué was read demanding justice for the murder of Marielle Franco, a Brazilian politician and human rights activist, and denounced the militarization of Rio de Janeiro ordered by Brazil’s president, Michel Temer. The document read also expressed strong criticisms of the Argentine government and its policies of impunity, adjustment, and repression, specifically claiming that impunity allowed the advancement of the genocide following the 1976 military coup. Furthermore, it denounced the government’s defense of the controversial Chocobar shooting that generated discussions of a new security doctrine that would put less blame on police officers in confrontations so that so that officers will be more likely to intervene in situations that they otherwise would not for fear of being put in jail (Bubble Staff).

The article notes that this initial document did not criticize Peronist governors who apply the same adjustment policies as Macri, and criticizes this omission, saying that it would not hurt to remember that these adjustment policies include Macri’s pension reform which the source feels robbed retirees. The article also states that the first document redeemed the Kirchner governments for turning human rights into “state policy.” The article disapproves of this choice, providing evidence against the integrity of the Kirchner administration by pointing out that former Army General Milan, who served during Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s presidency, has been detained for crimes against humanity during Argentina’s military dictatorship.

The article then discusses a separate document read at the demonstration. The article believes that unlike the first document, this document marks a clear criticism not only towards the government of Macri but also towards governors, including Peronists, who apply or are complicit with the adjustment policies of Macri’s Cambiemos coalition. Additionally, this documents retains the position of the first document in condemning repression and impunity, claiming that anti-terrorism laws implemented during the former military government persecuted popular struggles, and decrying the repression of people from the following groups: the Wichí and Qom communities in Formosa, the miners of Río Turbio in Santa Cruz, as well as the factory workers from La Esperanza in Jujuy and those of the El Tabacal sugar mill in Salta.

A variety of groups, organizations, and parties were present for the march. According to the article, some of the leading figures participating were members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an association of mothers of the children who disappeared during the military government and the Center of Professionals for Human Rights. Workers from organizations such as SUTEBA (Unified Syndicate of Education Workers of Buenos Aires), NITI (National Institute of Industrial Technology) and railroad workers were also present. Additionally, Argentina’s Workers’ Left Front, including workers, women, and young people among the front’s leaders, such as Nicolás del Caño, participated.

At the end, the article concludes that this massive demonstration expressed citizen anger and discontent against impunity and repression that continues in Argentina and remarks that “Los gobiernos nunca han regalado nada”—the government has never given away anything.

For the most part, this article seemed to provide an overview of the demonstration and the ideas that were communicated there by providing direct quotes from the respective documents presented; However, there were moments in the article, such as the last quote that I included, that revealed a far-left tone that is expected from this source. Given that the source clearly emphasized and critiqued the differences between the two documents presented, it further aligns itself with its far-left viewpoint.

Works Cited:

“A 42 Años Del Golpe, Masivas Movilizaciones Dijeron No a La Impunidad y a La Represión.” La Izquierda Diario, 24 Mar. 2018, www.laizquierdadiario.com/A-42-anos-del-golpe-masivas-movilizaciones-dijeron-no-a-la-impunidad-y-a-la-represion.

Bubble Staff. “The Chocobar Case and the Government’s New ‘Police Doctrine,’ Explained.” Thebubble.com, 9 Feb. 2018, www.thebubble.com/the-chocobar-case-and-the-governments-new-police-doctrine-explained/.

Global News Post #4: Argentina

New Value-added Tax on External Digital Services to be Implemented by End of March

https://tn.com.ar/economia/habra-que-pagar-iva-por-netflix-spotify-y-otras-plataformas-digitales-partir-de-este-mes_854297

Argentina’s Federal Administration for Public Revenues (AFIP) has prepared the regulations needed to begin charging a value-added tax to foreign digital platforms and services such as Netflix and Spotify. The head of the treasury, Alberto Abad, commented yesterday (before submitting his resignation), that by the end of the month the regulations would be actualized and AFIP would be authorized to receive these taxes. Abad told journalists who informed TN.com.ar that the measure has already been sent to the Pink House (the equivalent to the U.S.’s White House) and that steps towards implementation are under way. A tax reform passed by Congress in 2017 empowers AFIP to charge value-added taxes to digital service platforms; according to the law, the tax on purchases will be applied to those services based in countries outside of Argentina whose use or profit occurs within the country.

Included in the list of proposed services affected are “the access and/or downloading of images, text, information, video, music” and games, including gambling games. To clarify further, the law includes downloading films and other audiovisual content to devices which are connected to the Internet, the downloading of online games, including those that connect multiple players remotely, music, movies, or any digital content acquired through streaming, obtaining mobile ringtones and music, viewing online news, blogs, and website statistics, and finally accessing weather and traffic (even through satellite services).

AFIP’s value-added tax will be set at 21% meaning that for every 100 pesos consumers pay to a digital service company, they will be charged an additional 21 pesos. If companies do not lower their prices to absorb the tax, consumers will have to pay more for these services previously mentioned. The article states that there were more than 500,000 subscribers to Netflix in Argentina in 2016, and adds that other streaming platforms affected will include HBO Go, Fox, Apple and Amazon TV, Spotify, and Airbnb.

The biggest problem AFIP faces is how to collect the taxes charged on services provided in Argentina but that are based in another country. Their plan is for credit card issuers to act as withholding agents in that these issuers will receive the tax the consumers pay for the service and will then turn it over to AFIP.

I obtained this article from my audiovisual news source, Todo Noticas, although this particular news story was presented as text rather than video. Todos Noticias is owned by Grupo Clarín, the largest media company in Argentina, who claims to provide honest, accurate, and comprehensive information. The information presented in the article seems to accurately outline of what types of digital content the value-added tax will affect; it reliably provides evidence for the services that will be covered by including quotes from the tax reform law passed in 2017. The article also uses a couple quotes from the head of the Argentinian treasury to state when the tax will take effect, which is reliable in terms of presenting information from the official directly involved with the issue, but in terms of the reliability of implementing the tax by his quoted date of the end of March may or may not prove reliable depending on how quickly AFIP acts. Overall, the article presents a neutral perspective. It provides the details of the tax, recognizes a challenge that AFIP faces in implementation, and provides a rough number of Argentinians who use Netflix (however, there is no cited source for this statistic) and therefore will be affected by the tax without using any charged vocabulary or favoring any side of the issue to introduce a notable source of bias. Although the article could have provided more information about the users of the other digital services affected, I expect more information to become available in the future after AFIP begins to apply the tax.

 

Works Cited (Image came from the article):

Rafele, Esteban. “Habrá Que Pagar IVA Por Netflix, Spotify y Otras Plataformas Digitales a Partir De Este Mes.” Todo Noticias, 3 Mar. 2018, tn.com.ar/economia/habra-que-pagar-iva-por-netflix-spotify-y-otras-plataformas-digitales-partir-de-este-mes_854297.

Global News Post #3: Argentina

Más que luz verde, luz amarilla (More Than Green Light, Yellow Light)

https://www.pagina12.com.ar/97546-mas-que-luz-verde-luz-amarilla

Shiel, Jason. “Women hold LED signs in front of Congress, advocating for free, legal, and safe abortions.” The Bubble. 20 Feb. 2018, http://www.thebubble.com/panuelazo-2018/

This article reports on the recent protests in Buenos Aires concerning the decriminalization of abortion in relation to the disinclination of President Macri and members of his Cambiemos political coalition to pass a contested pro-abortion bill. Activists from the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion protested outside of the National Congress Building on February 19th with their signature green handkerchiefs to show their support for the bill. The bill in question, called the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy, proposes legalized abortion (in cases other than rape or those in which the procedure would save the mother’s life and health) up to the 14th week of gestation. The bill will be presented before the Argentine Congress on March 6th, just before International Women’s Day on March 8th. If congress vetoes the bill, it will not be up for vote again until next year.

This article points out that some officials do not want to discuss the bill until amendments are made that bring other women’s issues, such as surrogate pregnancies, increased adoption speeds, and economic aid to women, into the discussion. Others, such as the Republican Proposal (PRO) leader of the Argentine National Congress, Humberto Schiavoni, said that he is willing to enable the conversation about abortion, but that all legislative steps and revisions will take place and “that each legislator [will] vote according to their moral, religious, and personal convictions.” This event is also taking place within Argentina’s increased awareness and activism regarding women’s rights.

The article takes a pro-abortion stance, or at least a more leftist viewpoint in opposition to the Macri government’s decisions. While utilizing quotes from representatives from both sides of the argument, it seems to favor viewpoints which criticize Macri’s Cambiemos (Let’s Change) platform, given that the platform’s name and goals imply a greater capacity to engage in open, representative discussion and action. An quote included from a representative of the Front for Victory stating that the government wishes to draw out the abortion debate in the media to cover its other social and economic faults demonstrates this stance. Further evidence in support of this stance exists in the article’s mentions of PRO congresswoman Carmen Polledo, who has proclaimed her opposition against abortion, and of the fact that women continue to die due to self-induced abortions in the face of criminalization as the debate drags on.

The abortion issue in Argentina is similar across Latin America. In addition to this article, I found data visualizations of the types of abortion legalization and attitudes towards it across Latin America, depicted below.

Gutman Institute. Parvini, Sarah. “Argentina Bans Abortion in Most Cases. So Why Is Its Abortion Rate Far Higher than That of the U.S.?” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2017, www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-argentina-abortion-20171029-htmlstory.html.

 

Pew Research Center. “Widespread Opposition to Legal Abortion,” “Chapter 5: Social Attitudes.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, Pew Research Center, 13 Nov. 2014, www.pewforum.org/2014/11/13/chapter-5-social-attitudes/.

Works Cited:

Gutman Institute. Parvini, Sarah. “Argentina Bans Abortion in Most Cases. So Why Is Its Abortion Rate Far Higher than That of the U.S.?” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2017, www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-argentina-abortion-20171029-htmlstory.html.

“Más que luz verde, luz amarilla.” Página12, 2018 Feb. 23, www.pagina12.com.ar/97546-mas-que-luz-verde-luz-amarilla.

Pew Research Center. “Widespread Opposition to Legal Abortion,” “Chapter 5: Social Attitudes.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, Pew Research Center, 13 Nov. 2014, www.pewforum.org/2014/11/13/chapter-5-social-attitudes/.

Shiel, Jason. “Women hold LED signs in front of Congress, advocating for free, legal, and safe abortions.” The Bubble. 20 Feb. 2018, http://www.thebubble.com/panuelazo-2018/.

Global News Post #2: Argentina

The Economic Future that Macri Envisions

http://www.pressreader.com/argentina/la-nacion/20180202/textview

Source: Del Rio, José. “El futuro económnco que imagina Macri.” Press Reader, Clarín, 2 Feb. 2018, www.pressreader.com/argentina/la-nacion/20180202/textview.

This article summarizes the central economic goals that Argentina’s president, Mauricio Macri, wishes to accomplish. The first portion of the article focuses on using natural resources as an asset in improving Argentina’s economy. Macri states that the country’s strong Patagonian winds can be used to generate wind energy, that lithium from the Andes can be exported, and that the production of shale, gas, and solar energy needs to continue to advance. He also emphasizes the importance of tourism in restoring in the economy, pointing to Argentina’s waterfalls, glaciers, and wine as a means of attracting foreign travelers.

The article provides contextual evidence regarding Macri’s statements. It mentions recent increases in U.S. investment in lithium as well as initiatives in development that aim to triple its lithium production in the coming years (the article does not provide details about these initiatives). The articles also discusses a law passed in 2015 that aims for 8% of Argentina’s total energy consumption to come from renewable energy sources by 2018 which will increase to a goal of 20% by 2020. The article also presents the plans that Argentina’s Minister of Tourism, Gustavo Santos, has to increase the number of foreign visitors to Argentina from 6.6 million in 2017 to 9 million by 2020.

The second portion of the article focuses on Macri’s goals surrounding debt, employment, and imports. Macri asserts that allowing imports and reducing bureaucratization to facilitate trade in Argentina is necessary and government cuts will need to take place to reduce debt. In addition, Macri believes that the peso will increase in value and has said that if it were not for increasing tourism and importing machinery than the current value of the peso would be much lower. In a similar line of thought, he mentions that foreign investments have helped lower inflation slightly.

Macri also hopes to address Argentina’s new generation of entrepreneurs by strengthening efforts to obtain new patents and achieve advances in health that serve the population, generate new jobs, and induce labor reforms. In the last few lines of the article, he criticizes that leftists are self-destructive in this matter by hindering important sources of employment in the past.

Macri’s economic goals are efforts to remove Argentina from its isolation in the global sphere and transform it into a force able to compete against powerful economic countries around the world. They are part of his ongoing attempt to recover from Argentina’s history of poor economic performance featuring rigid government controls, low exchange rates, devalued currency, and high inflation, unemployment, debt, and corruption, especially during the Kirchner presidencies that preceded Macri’s time in office (“Argentina: Economic Overview”).

This article uses many quotes from Macri and other officials within the Argentine government. Quoting their words directly clearly express their ideas, and the limited economic evidence presented at the beginning of the article helps show the actions the Argentine government is trying to make towards improving the economy.

 

Works Cited:

“Argentina: Economic Overview.” Country Watch, countrywatch.com/Intelligence/CWTopic?Type=text&CountryID=7&Topic=MAOVR. Supplementary sources used according to Country Watch: Roubini Global Economics, Bloomberg, Forbes, CNN Money, MiamiHerald.com and Reuters.

Del Rio, José. “El futuro económnco que imagina Macri.” Press Reader, La nación, 2 Feb. 2018, www.pressreader.com/argentina/la-nacion/20180202/textview.

“Mauricio Macri Sobre El Correo Argentino: ‘Ahí Me Equivoqué.’” Clarín, 12 Mar. 2017, www.clarin.com/politica/mauricio-macri-correo-argentino-ahi-equivoque_0_HyYIpVXse.html.

Argentina: Information Network

Argentina: Information Network [Version 1]

Source Types:

Audiovisual Source #1: Todo Noticias is a 24-hour Argentine cable news channel that is owned by Grupo Clarín, the largest media company in Argentina (Headquartered in Buenos Aires) that also produces Clarín, one of the country’s primary newspapers. Although Todo Noticias doesn’t have an “About” page that I could locate to find a mission statement, Grupo Clarín’s goals are to provide honest, accurate, clear, and comprehensive information. They also claim to be advocates of democracy, hold national values, and want Argentina to be noticed in a globalized world. Todo Noticias itself broadcasts news from within categories such as politics, international news, economics, technology, and society.

Although Todo Noticias has a presence on several electronic and social media platforms, I will use YouTube to watch the videos it provides since I already have this app on my phone. As a 24-hour news service, Todo Noticias posts videos regularly throughout the day and has a live stream feature. I have subscribed to their channel and plan to check this source at the end of every day to keep up to date on the most recent issues.

The following is the link to the Todo Noticias YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj6PcyLvpnIRT_2W_mwa9Aw

I chose this source because of its popularity—it is important to view information that a large portion of Argentine society is consuming to understand the types of media and ideas they are exposed to. This source also provides information on wide variety of topics, including news specifically discussing events that involve the police, which I thought was interesting and a factor that set this source apart from others.

[Source is in Spanish]

Traditional Source #1: La Nación is one of the oldest and largest sources of conservative daily national news in Argentina. It is a competitor against the newspaper Clarín, produced by Grupo Clarin, who also produces my audiovisual source, Todo Noticias. It is based in Buenos Aires and owned by S.A. LA NACION, a company which I could not find any information on other than that which is posted on Bloomberg.com that says that it is a private company that publishes newspapers. It includes sections about politics, economics, society, culture, technology, sports, arts & culture, and world news.

I will access this source through PressReader which I have bookmarked and added to my Bookmarks toolbar on Firefox. Since there is a new issue released every day, I will check this source near the end of each day. While La Nación does have its own website separate from PressReader, access to news on this site is limited to 35 articles before you must pay for a subscription, and therefore I opted for PressReader as my point of access.

This following is a link to La Nación on PressReader: https://www.pressreader.com/argentina/la-nacion/20180131

I chose this La Nación because of its similar breadth of information and popularity compared to Todo Noticias which will make comparing the information provided by each source interesting.

[Source is in Spanish]

Traditional Source #2: Página/12 is a left-wing daily Argentina newspaper, founded in 1987. The categorization of its content is traditional and similar to that of my other sources; It offers content about society, the economy, science, culture, and world, and entertainment news. Página/12 asserts that democracy and human rights are important to them, and that they do not only deliver information, but analyze and investigate that information. According to information made available on one of the pages of Página/12’s website (https://www.pagina12.com.ar/usuarios/institucional.php) 58 percent of their readers are between the ages of 18 and 52 years and are of middle or upper-middle class status.

I will monitor this source daily; I have followed this news source on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/pagina12?lang=en which will provide me with links to its most recent news articles. It can also be accessed through its own website at: https://www.pagina12.com.ar/

I chose Página/12 with the intention of balancing my compilation of sources. Even though it is published in Buenos Aires like some of my other sources, it is leftist rather than conservative/right. Further evidence that indicates their presentation of a leftist perspective, includes their slogan, La otra mirada which translates to “the other look” (viewpoint) and unlike La Nación and Todo Noticias, the conservative Argentinian president does not follow this news source on Twitter. This source also claims to use “everyday” Argentine language which they describe as a style of biting humor that is characteristic of the nation and that I expect to contrast the style and/or tone of my other sources.

[Source is in Spanish]

New Media Source 1: Global voices is a non-profit blog that aggregates news stories from various other blogs, independent presses, and social media. The multitude of contributors of each article are bloggers, journalists, academics, and human rights activists who digitally curate the information presented. According to their editorial code (https://globalvoices.org/about/editorial-code/) Global Voices is committed to presenting transparent and accurate information with identified sources that avoids stereotypes and conflicts of interest.

Posts on Global Voices specific to Argentina occur about 1 to 3 times a month. I have followed this source on Twitter to hopefully keep track of this semi-sporadic schedule at: https://twitter.com/globalvoices?lang=en. I have also bookmarked and added the Global Voices website itself, found at https://globalvoices.org/-/world/latin-america/argentina/ which I will check every Sunday.

I chose Global Voices because they aim to create a global understanding of a wide-variety of events not typically covered in larger, more traditional news sources. For instance, they defend censorship rights and freedom of speech to attempt to give a voice to marginalized and misrepresented communities. This will help me get a better picture of smaller sectors of Argentina society.

[Source is in English]

Social Media Source #1—Mauricio Macri, The President of Argentia’s Twitter Account: Since this is a Twitter account, there is no official title for this source and no mention of an author or group behind Macri’s tweets. Some of his tweets seem to be in first person, while others could be interpreted more as third person. Regardless, I have decided that whether Macri or some type of administrator is managing his account, the tweets made represent his ideas. Macri is a member of the PRO (Propuesta Republicana/Repuclican Proposal) party of Argentina, which is a center-right party.

I will check this source at least once daily given that from Macri’s current feed it looks like he posts at least a tweet a day, if not more. I have bookmarked Twitter on my laptop and pinned it to my Bookmarks Toolbar in Firefox for easy access. The link to this source is here: https://twitter.com/mauriciomacri

I chose this source because I am interested in observing which events President Macri highlights on his Twitter feed in comparison to what events my other sources focus on, as well as their takes on the same event. This source is also a good way to keep track of major events such as G20, which will be held in Argentina later this year, that the president is personally involved in. Finally, I will use this source to find opposing politicians or influencers on Twitter and to gauge citizen reactions in the comment section (I realize this is not the most reliable source of information but I think it would be interesting to see if these comments are largely negative or positive about certain posts).

[Source is in Spanish]

Data Source #1—Country Watch, 2017 Country Review, Argentina: This source provides accurate and authoritative information about the political, economic, and business aspects of many countries, including Argentina, in a yearly review. The intended audience of these country reviews are corporations, government organizations, libraries, and universities. The information contained in these reviews is drawn from an extensive variety of sources, including the World Bank, the CIA, BBC and CNN news, and the New Encyclopedia Britannica, to give a few examples.

This source is found at the following link: http://countrywatch.com/Content/pdfs/reviews/B33L48MZ.01c.pdf

I selected this source for its great quantity and quality of background information about Argentina since I do not know much about the nation’s history and ongoing political, economic, and business trends. I will use this country review to mediate the information I receive from other sources and inform myself on unknown aspects of my country.

[Source is in English]

First Draft—Process & Future Plans:

I began my search using several of the suggestions for sources we were given in class, which include UNESCO, Global Voices, Country Newswatch, PressReader, the World Economic forum, and the general OSU library research database. I also used Wikipedia to provide me with a list of news sources in my country. These were all good starting points, and as I kept searching for sources, a lot of related sources popped up. This manner of discovering new sources is beneficial to increase the number of different sources in my network, but I tried not to use only such sources because they often presented similar types of information and/or political views.

Out of all the types of sources, traditional news was the easiest to find because Argentina has many newspapers; However, the ones I have found so far focus more on the national level (despite providing 2 different political viewpoints) and are based in Buenos Aires. For my next draft, I hope to find more local or regional traditional news sources as well as international sources that focus on Argentina to bring both narrow and broad focuses to my network. Overall, finding sources was not difficult, but navigating through each to diversify the types of viewpoints in my network proved more challenging.

Additionally, most of the sources I found are only available in Spanish. In fact, the one of the only non-Spanish traditional news sources that I found was the Buenos Aires Herald, which stopped being produced last year due to lack of funding. Although I am pretty confident in my Spanish skills and believe that accessing these sources regularly will further improve them, I plan to try and find more sources in English for the next round. Knowing that many of the most popular news sources in Argentina are only offered in Spanish is, in a way, also a barrier to a global information society because it prevents users of another language from accessing information about the country at the domestic level.

Going forward, I am also interested in obtaining the demographics of the readership of each source to understand not only the viewpoints that these sources present, but also the people this information is reaching.

Global News Post #1: Argentina

https://globalvoices.org/2017/01/28/united-colors-of-persecution-the-struggle-of-patagonias-indigenous-people-against-benetton/

By Cartoonist Khali Bendib. Source: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9189

This article reports on an armed attack against members of the Mapuche, an indigenous group in Argentina, and places the event in the historical context needed to understand its impact. On January 10th, 2017, Mapuche members protested the possession of ancestral lands by the global fashion corporation, Benetton. The disputed land is in the Chubut region of Patagonia where armed forces numbering 200 attacked Lof en Resistencia del Departamento de Cushamen, a small Mapuche community of less than 30. Most members, including women and children, were injured and 10 were arrested. These acts directly violate an Argentine law that prohibited the evacuation of indigenous people and possession of their lands until November 2017, as well as other legislation that protect indigenous rights.

Patagonia has experienced a historical influence of multinational corporations and privatization of indigenous land. According to the article, the Argentine military campaign, Conquista del Desierto (Conquest of the Desert) that spanned 1878-1885 killed thousands of indigenous people and forced 14,000 to become servants to achieve its goal of incorporating Patagonian land into the Republic of Argentina. As a reward for aiding this campaign, foreign companies received pieces of Patagonian land. Aside from Benetton, who seized 900,000 hectares of land in 1991 to use for mining, logging, and obtaining petrol and wool, other corporations such as North Face and CNN have also purchased Mapuche land.

Nature forms a central part of Mapuche identity and the seizure of their land represses their freedom. This is particularly devastating when considering that the discrimination that the Mapuche face when they attempt to assimilate; they are poor, used for cheap labor, and considered terrorists by some. The fight to reclaim Mapuche land by groups such as Lof en Resistencia therefore stems in part from Argentine society’s inability to accept them.

The article presents the Mapuche issue as one with deep historical roots that bring up issues of human and indigenous rights. While noting the complexity of solving the issue, (especially when presented with the fact that the high value of the land Benetton owns makes it unlikely for them relinquish it or for the Argentine government to buy it back for the Mapuche) the article takes a stance in support of the Mapuche, given that several of its claims are backed by citations from similar articles that are critical of the dispossession of Mapuche land. The article also provides a link to a petition against the Benetton’s presence in the area, which encourages audience action in defense of the Mapuche. Finally, although most of the sources used are in English, some are in Spanish, and one is in French, which, in a minor way reflects the global relevancy of struggling indigenous people.