Media Invisibility and Hyper-Visibilization of the Poor in Puerto Rico: A Challenge in the Information Society of the Twenty-First Century

• In Event: Economics and Politics in Puerto Rico’s Mass Media Industry

Abstract

In the so-called Information Society, Social Work and Communications professionals consider invisibilization in mass media to be a social problem that merits attention because it affects socially and economically disadvantaged groups (Echevarría, 2008; EN.FA.SIS, 2004; Morales Lara, 2009; Mujica, 1969; Reguillo, 2000; and Torres, 2010). In order to delve into this topic, the author proposes a theory—based on an exploratory mixed-method study she carried out—to explain the reasons for this phenomenon and offer alternatives that could be incorporated in our profession’s agenda by creating and implementing social policies or programs that help include the poor in our Country’s mass media. The study was a type of emerging-critical and qualitative-quantitative methodological hybrid, which used in-depth interview (Guerrero, 2001) and survey (Fink, 2006) techniques—by availability—to explore, in the voices of the residents of lower-income communities and professionals from the media:

1. An emerging theory to explain the invisibilization (of the positive) and hyper-visibilization (of the negative) of low-income sectors in the media.
2. Possible alternatives to this social problem.

By combining critical discourse analysis (Van Dijk 1993, 1999; and Gee, 2011) and grounded theory (Bryant and Charmaz 2007; and Birks and Mills, 2012) the author was able to formulate the Theory of the Double Edge Knife to explain the reason for the social phenomena of invisibilization and hyper-visibilization—an antinomy, or contradiction, according to Mattelart, 1994. This theory shows why the media “cuts” (edits) some information that lacks news value from a corporate media perspective. The results of the exploratory study suggest that some sectors are invisibilized (placed in a red zone without access to the media) because they lack the social acknowledgment and/or financial resources. The proposed theory implies that social policies need to be designed and implemented to help those sectors move from the red zone to the green zone in mass media.

Author

• Yalitza Navedo Román, U de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras