Terror On Television

Abstract

While extensive research in the English language has already been conducted on international hunter-killer operations performed by the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, comparatively little attention has been paid on how the regime collaborated and controlled media outlets in order to justify those operations. This paper aims to provide the reader with a concise summary of the tactics deployed by Pinochet’s government, as well as the effects that those tactics have produced on the media ecology of Chile. This article will advance the hypothesis that the development of a “culture of fear” in Chile during Pinochet’s rule has inflicted lasting structural damage on the way that modern Chileans interact with their media. Today, Chilean society faces a crisis of political apathy, and can serve as an important case study for the long-term implications of the proliferation of counternarrativistic strategies across the global media landscape.