Mercantilización mediática y ciudadanía

Abstract

The media are the main source of socialization in the citizenry of the new generations of
voters. We analyse the life histories of young adults (aged between 18 and 25) with low
socioeconomic status in Spain and Brazil. We analyse whether young people see themselves as
being able to identify, question and react vis-à-vis political institutions, as citizens holding full right,
and vis-à-vis the media, as active members of the audience.
Less favoured young people, in the light of earlier studies carried out on university students,
look at the public sphere created by the media with vague feelings or moral and human principals
that have lost substantive content, precisely because of media commercialization. Indifference,
mistrust and a self-perception of inability or disagreement vis-à-vis the media and politics increase
among those who have fewer resources than others. And so, increasing audience segmentation for
reasons of commercial criteria reduces the possibilities of the citizen self-awareness and
involvement experienced by less favoured sectors.