In the times of Pawipacha: putting the theory and public policies practices in communication up to date

Abstract

The theory of communication has been enriched with the approach of public policies in communication, which condense an accumulation of achievements for the democratization of communication and society. The legislation has also opened paths of forms of participatory democracy with the exercise of the right to information and communication. Nevertheless, communication practices at the decision- making levels about these policies are not keeping pace with altruistic theory or humanist legislation. On the contrary, it has become instrumentalist, functional to the powers, uprooting itself from the citizenships. In this environment, immersed in a time of uncertainty (Pawipacha), we propose to update the theory and the practices of public policies in communication, critically considering the following factors: i) question (in) communication in its context and relations of power ; ii) question public policies in communication focused on media dynamics, opening it up to the nature of digital social networks; iii) question the western nature of public policies, in order to complement it with the vivifying emergence of intercultural paradigms; and iv) question the notion of the public from the hybrid forms of constitution of the public and the private in the decentralization of societies. Updating the theory, legislation and practices of public policies in communication, constitutes an opportunity to retake the flags of the democratization of communication and society.