Perspectivas conceptuales para el análisis del Estado y las políticas de comunicación

Abstract

The relationship between politics, media, and society is mediated by state regulation in matters of communication policy. In this sense, it seems relevant to analyze how these public policies are elaborated and what dynamics intervene in such processes. This paper proposes a conceptual path through analytical perspectives that have addressed the study of the state as well as of communication and cultural policies. It seeks to gather - from a multidisciplinary viewpoint that includes the fields of communication science, political science, and political economy - the analytical tools that might allow us to examine the formulation of state policies on this issue and understand what role interactions between different actors play in this process. To this end, we develop a series of classical and modern concepts that have attempted to grasp the many points of view, dimensions, and aspects of the state, which is understood as the arena where communication policies are elaborated and where media systems are organized. To tackle the study of communication policies we utilize a conceptual framework that includes a description of the many schools devoted to the analysis of such policies and the concepts of power that lie beneath them, and which also deals with the many challenges faced by regulation due to the appearance of different actors and decision-making contexts. This article argues that public communication policies imply a dynamic process of interaction between diverse actors - both institutional and not - who seek different interests and who resort to formal and informal mechanisms to influence regulation processes and the configuration of media systems