The revolution will be televised : articulation of open alternatives through teleSUR

Bolivarianism, as both populist political practice and political re-articulation of democracy, development and identity in Latin America offers a new vision of the world that resists globalization and encourages participation, popular empowerment, Latin American integration and independence. The thesis employs discourse analysis to examine the newly launched teleSUR, an international public broadcasting network (the first of its kind) conceived as an alternative media text to American and private television and as a medium of political change. Specifically, I apply my analysis to the news and testimony genre as a particular moments articulated together within a wider discourse of Bolivarianism emerging out of Venezuela today. An attempt will be made to uncover the key signifiers in the broadcasts and identify the strengths of the links regarding discursive constructions of supra- and plurinationalism, political participation and national sovereignty.