"Blogs have become a communicative alternative for Cuban civil society in recent years. Cuban communities, inside and outside the island, are characterized by substantial ideological differences and economic gaps that highlight the challenges for consensus building and collective action in the count ... ry’s politics. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), however, are gradually facilitating the creation of spaces outside the control of the state for the exchange of ideas about the present and future of the nation. Through content analysis and qualitative interpretation, we undertake a case study of the most renowned Cuban blog, ‘Generación Y’, to evaluate users’ participation, the content they generate for the site, and the nature of debates taking place within it. Our findings show that while this blog opens an unprecedented opportunity for Cubans to engage in relatively unrestricted political dialogue, its users tend to favour expressive participation and antagonistic exchanges over the rational deliberations associated with traditional conceptualizations of the notion of the public sphere." (Abstract) more

"This article critically examines the role of community media movements in articulating state-Civil society relations in the establishment of a popular radical democracy in Venezuela. We employ institutional analysis and a frame-alignment approach to understand how community and alternative media (C ... AM) advocates negotiated issues of identity and autonomy from the state in the creation of the National System of Popular, Alternative, and Community Communication between 2008 and 2009. The analysis revealed that CAM groups reasserted unmet demands for access to the spectrum and autonomy from state agencies, while amplifying the government's "anti-imperialist conflict frame" as a rationale for increased popular participation in the media. We discuss the democratic potential of these policies and the populist public sphere in Venezuela." (Abstract) more