In conversation with Dr Tanya Harmer, the interdisciplinary feminist collective, LASTESIS, will be reflecting on art, rights and resistance for the 21st century. This is a timely event. 50 years after the Chilean coup that ushered forth a violent 17-year dictatorship and 5 years after Chile’s widespread democratic protests, known as the estallido social, they will discuss the importance of understanding history for the present and why feminist theory and resistance matters more than ever. They will also be speaking about their book, Set Fear on Fire: The Feminist Call that Set the Americas Ablaze, published by Verso earlier this year. What role does art and performance have in politics and how does it shape activism around the world? What relevance does Chile’s history have for contemporary politics and society? How has the conceptualisation of human rights changed over time and what rights should we be concerned about safeguarding today? Join us to find out more and pose your own questions to LASTESIS in an inclusive dialogue hosted by the Department of International History. Click here for details of the event and how to attend.

As part of the “Learning from Latin America and the Caribbean at LSE” seminar series this year, Dr César Jimenez from the Department of Media and Communications will be sharing research in progress on media progress of the Estallido Social in Chile in 2019. To register to attend the seminar either online or in person, please contact chile50lse@gmail.com

Abstract: Although television has mediated the representation of protests for decades, recent scholarship has largely overlooked this, focusing instead on newspapers or social media. In this presentation (based on research conducted by César Jiménez-Martínez, Ximena Orchard and Nadia Herrada), this gap is examined by focusing on the 2019 Chilean social uprising. Drawing on a mixed-method analysis of 361 news reports aired during the first week of protests on one private and one state-owned station, the research looks at (1) the extent to which television adhered to delegitimizing journalistic patterns such as the “protest paradigm”, (2) the significance of television formats in shaping the representation of dissent, and (3) whether and how journalists legitimized certain forms of protest over others. The findings demonstrate that the coverage was fluid and dynamic, with an initial emphasis on violence and damage, then moving towards a more apparently legitimizing approach, which celebrated “peaceful” demonstrations and “good” protesters. It is noted however that narratives of peaceful demonstrations –often assumed to be beneficial for social movements– can become virtue-signaling exercises, which acknowledge the legitimacy of specific demonstrations as long as they fit within “correct” and “desirable” behaviors. The Chilean case is therefore a timely contribution in view of how protests are currently facing increasing restrictions aimed at inhibiting and criminalising collective action.