Latin America: bending theories

I have to admit that, sometimes, I do my best to fit Western media theories into the Latin American puzzle. But I, also, confess that I fail once in a while. Well crafted European concepts seem to vanish against turbulent, cruel, polarized and ultra-politicized Latin American public spheres.
I wonder how discussions about “infotainment” – a genre that mixes information and entertainment – would adapt to the reality of Venezuela and El Salvador, where mainstream media and leftist politics are constantly struggling with each other and dreaming to have complete dominance of public spheres? In what extent, Jary G. Blumler’s theory about the transformation of politics into a world of “slogans, images and racy soundbites” would be valid in countries where some people still attend elections with the only intention of receiving a free lunch? Would Kees Brants‘ remark that politics “also cast terrain of domestic life” still be relevant in media landscapes where populism is a historic disease in politics?
A war approach seems a better way to understand some Latin American countries, instead of using stable and European patterns. The history of European state-controlled media contrasts with the regions turbulent past in which public spheres were seen as cruel battlefields, and media merely as soldiers in a conflict. For example, in Venezuela, president Hugo Chavez challenges the trend of the retreat of governments from media business. Chavez assures the future belongs to Telesur (www.telesurtv.net), a transnational television network in which left-wing Latin American governments are share holders. Within the boundaries of the South American country, Chavez strengthens the importance of state owned and alternative radio and television stations in a clear challenge to the traditional mainstream media.
In El Salvador, the next presidential election will be played, also, on a polarized chessboard. Left and right-wing Salvadorean parties are recruiting media persons to influence the tailoring of the news. While ARENA, the right wing party, pulls the thread of the complaisent mainstream media, Mauricio Funes, a former journalist and current FMLN´s leftist presidential candidate, impulses a new concept of journalism with closer ties to the left wing.
Once in a while, I believe European theoretical tools can be insufficient to portray media realities in Third World countries. Brants´ and Blumler’s debate about if “infotainment” is an unavoidable reality or a dangerous menace for liberal democracy can be seen merely as a peaceful interpretation for, more or less, peaceful public spheres. Not for Latin America which  needs different tools to examine its media anathomy.