Mass media in Venezuela comprise the mass and niche news and information communications infrastructure of Venezuela. Thus, the media of Venezuela consist of several different types of communications media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, cinema, and Internet-based news outlets and websites. Venezuela also has a strong music industry and arts scene.
Venevisión is a Venezuelan free-to-air television channel and one of Venezuela's largest television networks, owned by the Cisneros Media division of Grupo Cisneros.
A failed coup d'état on 11 April 2002 saw the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, ousted from office for 47 hours before being restored to power. Chávez was aided in his return to power by popular support and mobilization against the coup by loyal ranks in the military. Those who opposed Chávez claimed that his government was becoming undemocratic. By early 2002, Chávez's approval rating dropped to around 30%. The growing dissatisfaction with Chávez among those in the military due to his aggressive manner, and alliances with Cuba and paramilitaries also led multiple officers to call on Chávez to resign.
Telesur is a Latin American terrestrial and satellite news television network headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela and sponsored by the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua. It was launched in 2005, under the government of Hugo Chávez, promoted as "a Latin socialist answer to CNN".
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, also known as Chávez: Inside the Coup, is a 2003 Irish documentary film. It focuses on events in Venezuela leading up to and during the April 2002 coup d'état attempt, which saw President Hugo Chávez removed from office for two days. With particular emphasis on the role played by Venezuela's private media, the film examines several key incidents: the protest march and subsequent violence that provided the impetus for Chávez's ousting; the opposition's formation of an interim government headed by business leader Pedro Carmona; and the Carmona administration's collapse, which paved the way for Chávez's return. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was directed by Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain. Given direct access to Chávez, the filmmakers intended to make a fly-on-the-wall biography of the president. They spent seven months filming in Venezuela, following Chávez and his staff and interviewing ordinary citizens. As the coup unfolded on 11 April, Bartley and Ó Briain filmed on the streets of the capital, Caracas, capturing footage of protesters and the erupting violence. Later, they filmed many of the political upheavals inside Miraflores, the presidential palace.
Corporación Venezolana de Televisión or VTV is a state-run television station based in Caracas, Venezuela, which can be seen throughout the capital and surrounding areas on channel 8. Programs that can be seen on VTV included Aló Presidente and Telesur Noticias.
Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela from 1999 until 2013, has elicited a variety of public perceptions regarding his policies, personality, and performance as a head of state.
Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) was a Venezuelan free-to-air television network headquartered in the Caracas neighborhood of Quinta Crespo. It was sometimes referred to as the Canal de Bárcenas. Owned by Empresas 1BC, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) was inaugurated on 15 November 1953 by William H. Phelps, Jr. Its radio counterpart was Radio Caracas Radio.
Globovisión is a 24-hour television news network. It broadcasts over-the-air in Caracas, Aragua, Carabobo and Zulia on UHF channel 33. Globovisión is seen in the rest of Venezuela on cable or satellite and worldwide from their website. Some of Globovisión's programs can be seen in the United States on cable network Canal Sur and TV Venezuela, a channel offered in DirecTV's Para Todos package. In Latin America, Globovision can be seen in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and other territories as Aruba, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Curaçao in DirecTV's package.
Canal Maximo Televisión (CMT) was a Venezuelan free-to-air television network that was seen on UHF channel 51 in the metropolitan area of Caracas, Barquisimeto, and the Miranda State, channel 43 in Calabozo, Puerto Ordaz, and the Zulia State, and channel 21 in San Cristóbal.
Televen is a private Venezuelan national television network headquartered on the Caracas neighborhood of Horizonte. For this reason it is also called 'Canal de Horizonte'. Televen was inaugurated as the TELEVEN Corporation on July 10, 1988 by Omar Camero Zamora and T Radioven, S.A. As an alternative for the two-leading-private TV Networks on Venezuela, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) and Venevision, Televen distanced itself from this trend and made a different oriented programming in some cases the middle classes who do not usually watch TV and it was open and being composed of talk shows, sports, movies, a full range of series, mainly American, and Brazilian, Colombian, Mexican, and U.S. Hispanic telenovelas, and in the 1990s, anime.
La Tele was a regional television network in Venezuela. It could be seen on the cable and satellite systems of DirecTV, Supercable, Intercable, and Net Uno.
ViVe is a cultural television network funded by the Venezuelan national government that was inaugurated on November 11, 2003 and whose objective consists of spreading information related to achievements made by Hugo Chávez’s political process and the encouragement of Venezuela's culture. Recently, the Venezuelan government has been working towards making ViVe’s signal be seen in all of the country, by acquiring new equipment, antennas, and adequate installations.
TVes is a Venezuelan public television channel. Its name is short for Televisora Venezolana Social and is pronounced [ˈte ˈβes], meaning you see yourself. It replaced the signal of Radio Caracas Televisión on Channel 2 on 28 May 2007, and began broadcasting at 12:20 a.m. local time. The Venezuelan government had refused to renew RCTV's broadcasting license and instead determined to create a new channel from part of RCTV's infrastructure. The new channel, in contrast with RCTV, is public-owned. According to the government, TVes aims to portray the identity of Venezuelans, hence the pronunciation of the station's name meaning you see yourself.
The RCTV protests were a series of protests in Venezuela that began in the middle of May 2007. The cause of the protests was the decision by the government to shut down Venezuela's oldest private television network, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), refusing to renew its broadcasting license and instead creating a new public service channel called TVes, which began operations on 28 May, the same day RCTV's license expired. RCTV had Venezuela's largest viewing audience, with 10 million of the country's 26 million people viewing its shows and soap operas.
Venezuelan protests for and against President Hugo Chávez's proposed 2 December constitutional referendum occurred after the National Assembly approved the referendum on 2 November 2007.
Television in Venezuela began in 1952, when the president Marcos Pérez Jiménez launched the state channel Televisora Nacional, making Venezuela the ninth country in the world to have a public television network. By 1963, a quarter of Venezuelan households had television; a figure rising to 45% by 1969 and 85% by 1982. Telenovelas are popular in Venezuela, and some Venezuelan productions are distributed internationally. Perhaps the best known television show internationally was President Hugo Chávez' weekly talk show Aló Presidente, which began in 1999 and ended in 2012. The government also makes regular use of cadenas.
Aló Presidente was a long-running, unscripted talk show hosted by former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. It was broadcast on Venezuelan state television and radio channels, including Venezolana de Televisión, on Sundays from 11:00am until mid/late afternoon. In 2009, a survey of 3,000 Venezuelans indicated that 61% of citizens watched or listened to the show regularly.
Bolivarian propaganda is a form of nationalist propaganda, especially in Venezuela, that utilizes the ideals espoused by Simón Bolívar, who helped lead Venezuela and other Latin American countries to independence from Spain, to exploit populist sentiments in support of local leaders. This type of propaganda has been particularly associated with Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution, which used emotional arguments to gain attention, exploit the fears of the population, create external enemies for scapegoat purposes, and produce nationalism within the population, causing feelings of betrayal for support of the opposition. The World Politics Review stated that, as Chávez began "transforming Venezuela into a socialist state", propaganda was "an important role in maintaining and mobilizing government supporters". The image of Chávez is seen on sides of buildings, on T-shirts, on ambulances, on official Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) billboards, and as action figures throughout Venezuela. A 2011 article by The New York Times says Venezuela has an "expanding state propaganda complex" while The Boston Globe described Chávez as "a media savvy, forward-thinking propagandist" and that he had "the oil wealth to influence public opinion".
