Venezuela’s media war: Coexistence and confrontation in the struggles of the Bolivarian Revolution

In the midst of economic crisis and violent anti-government protests, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, convoked a Constituent Assembly in May 2017. The initiative aims to transform the State and craft a new Constitution without consulting the Venezuelan people. The response of the population has intensified the division between government and opposition, generating unexpected turns that make it difficult for media to provide a proper and accurate coverage of events. This paper uses critical discourse analysis of newspaper’s articles and Twitter trending topics to suggest that these media platforms have constructed a dichotomy. This dichotomy addresses the Constituent Assembly as a victory for the Bolivarian Revolution, but a misfortune for the opposition. It also denotes the use linguistic means to validate the political ideology of the media platforms analyzed. I argue that this construction keeps fragmenting media spheres in Venezuela, perverting their role and fostering confrontation and inequality within both groups. A thorough study of the complexities of Venezuela’s political realm and an inter-political approach to transforming the legal framework are proposed to foster freedom of expression over the defense of political ideologies in media.