Grupos de mídia pertencentes a partidos políticos: o caso de Malta a partir de 1991.

Abstract

The goal of this study is to uncover the reason and the functioning of an unusual phenomenon, in which political parties are the owners of mass communication outlets. In order to deal with a theme as partisan media groups, this research focuses on the only one known case among European democracies, in which political parties owns media groups, managing television channels, radio stations, daily and weekly newspapers, as well as news websites: Republic of Malta, a small nation placed on central Mediterranean Sea. In Sammut’s book (2007) there is several information and details about the case of Maltese partisan media groups, whose citations will be often in the description of the object of study on this work. As the differential of this case, the focus of this study is on the audiovisual, partisan television and radio channels. The time frame of this study will cover the previous facts, from the nationalization of the audiovisual media in Malta, in 1975, through the establishment of those partisan media outlets, from 1991 and the follow years, until the period of partisan media consolidation, in which it is possible to find bibliographic material on this case, in 2014. This dissertation presents two lines of analysis, one on the reasons for establishing and maintaining that unique partisan media model, and another on the operation of this model, aiming to expose for which objectives those partisan communication outlets are employed. For the first line of analysis, the reasons for establishment and maintenance will be treated from a neoinstitutionalist perspective, using the theoretical tool of path dependence. For the second line of analysis, the operation of the partisan media will be analyzed under the theoretical light of political communication. This paper concludes that with the establishment of partisan media groups, different streams of Maltese public opinion get more transparent means of knowing what are the political interests of those who inform them, and based on what is offered, each individual can decide which point of view follow, or develop their own vision of the facts. The conclusion about a media model that consider the existence of media outlets belonging to political parties, coexisting with media of private, religious and state property, offering contributions for future reflections on the access to the media by different political groups and streams, which represent sectors of a given society.