Indigenous Media in Argentina: Characterization and Challenges of Two Kolla Radios

The Argentinian Law 26.522 on Audiovisual Communication Services (2009) recognizes indigenous peoples as nonstate public law persons authorized to provide communication services through their own media. Such an achievement is due to the claims of indigenous communities and organizations that, during the discussion of the law, fostered the inclusion of their ‘right to communication with identity’. In fact, only by self-representing themselves in the media arena —i.e., by making their struggles and cultures visible— native peoples can decolonize the stigmatizing discourses of dominant media and, at the same time, strengthen their ethnic identity. Therefore, media are not only environments and tools accompanying the indigenous movement, but become objects and subjects of claim because the dispute for the interpretive power is played in the mediatized public space. In this context, we analyze the experience of two kollas radios in the Argentinian Northwest that are among the first broadcasters authorized within the LSCA framework. From such case studies, we characterize the mediatized indigenous communication and identify the main challenges faced by the indigenous media during the state policies implementation.