Sergio Godoy
Nationality: ChileanEnrolment: 1997
Completion:1998
Director of Studies: Prof.Nicholas Garnham during MPhil, Prof.Jean Seaton during the PhD
Title of the PhD research
Chile's market oriented model of Public TelevisionAbstract of thesis
The main objective of this dissertation is to provide a comprehensive picture of the evolution and current performance of the market-oriented model of public service television in Chile. The focus is largely on the commercially-funded state-owned television network, Televisin Nacional de Chile (TVN). This thesis argues that Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) is still valid and necessary, yet the means to achieve this ideal have evolved and require some fresh thinking; such as the way forward provided by this case study.
This work attempts to describe TVN's main political, economical, and managerial characteristics when delivering PSB according to television law, considering the evolution of the media in Chile and Latin America. For this purpose, the analysis integrates the political economy of the media from a managerial and regulatory perspective.
The work is divided into two main parts. The first explains the current situation of PSB in the industrialised world, and also deals with the peculiar development of Chilean broadcasting within Latin America. The second part is the most important because it assesses the Chilean model at its present state. Nowadays TVN is an influential counterweight to authoritarian entrenchments as well as a booster of innovation and growth of the audio-visual sector. Its pro-market orientation prevents traditional forms of government manipulation, it is coherent with overall macroeconomic policy, and introduces awareness for the audience's preferences. But this case also has important contradictions that need to be dealt with in order to enhance its contribution to social welfare and democracy.
The thesis assumes that PSB -a Western European concept- has been possible in Chile because of a relatively extended republican tradition, and because of the effectiveness and probity of its public institutions. Nevertheless, as a developing country Chile has also suffered poverty, economic instability, and a prolonged military dictatorship (1973-1990) among other problems. These factors explain the differences between Chilean public television and its counterparts in the industrialised world, yet at the same time they reveal a special need for such a service despite all the technological changes that are taking place.
PhD Experience
My doctoral programme was an unintended result of a postgraduate study plan I put up in 1992, when I decided to go to Europe to study the economics and management of communications and the media (my wife agreed to accompany me, provided we did not go to the USA). But those contents were not available in a single programme then, so initially I decided to combine two different masters degrees: a MBA in Public Sector Management offered by the University of Exeter and (1993-94) and a MA in Communications (1994-95), which I finally decided to do at Westminster.
I combined a British Council scholarship (which paid for the MBA) and another from the Chilean government (which paid for the rest).
My MBA project was about the management of the BBC, so when I arrived to
the old CCIS (former name of CAMRI) at Holborn I was quite familiar with the economics and the industrial characteristics of public service broadcasting. I was put under the supervision Nicholas Garnham, whose support and guidance was absolutely crucial. As I did not come from an academic environment (nor I was planning to work in it afterwards), I did not consider a PhD specially useful. Combining two masters appeared better for me, but Nicholas persuaded me to go into a doctoral programme instead.
Because of the conditions of my scholarship, I had to return to Chile in 1996 with two masters programmes completed -otherwise the Chilean government would have sued me. So I started my research on public service broadcasting in Chile, taken as a case study centred around the quite successful state-owned operator TVN (see http://www.tvn.cl/ ) . I finished a first part of that study as a MPhil thesis in 1996 and went back to Chile (where I became by chance an academic in my former university, see http://www.per.puc.cl/ ). Thanks to Nicholas Garnham's no-nonsense way of working and his swift response to all my requests (something rather uncommon among academic semi-celebrities, as I later realised) I was able to do this with no problem at all. In fact, I intensively enjoyed every day of my whole stay in the UK from 1993 to 1996 -both in the University of Exeter and in Westminster.
I returned to the CCIS in 1998 for the PhD using as a base all the research produced for the MPhil, plus extra material I gathered during a year and a half in Chile. For the PhD project, Jean Seaton was my supervisor. She was as helpful and efficient as Nicholas, apart from all
her other human and professional qualities.
While in Westminster I was always stimulated by the outstanding intellectual quality of my professors. At the same time they were totally accessible, not arrogant. They sought that each one of us developed a critical way of thinking of our own -a quite British intellectual tradition I reckon. It even took me a couple of months to realise how famous and respected worldwide was my supervisor Nicholas Garnham -I even asked him once about his first degree to check whether he was an economist. Shame on me and my juvenile arrogance!
At the same time, our CCIS lecturers did not elude a good intellectual fight when required -as many academic controversies they engaged in while I was there, such as the classical "Garnham versus the Cultural Studies bunch", or Steven Barnett fighting against huge vested interests for what he regarded the BBC should do.
A special recognition to Maria Way, who was the administrator of CCIS when I applied in 1994. I was initially turned down, but she was extremely helpful and sympathetic and helped me throughout the admission process (and always afterwards as well). The final kick was when she kindly reminded those in charge that, as a foreigner, I was paying the whole fee (300% or 400% higher than what a British subject paid) in a lump sum.
How the PhD experience has helped in professional development/career
As I ended up in academia, it has been extremely helpful. Our School of Communications at Universidad Catolica is the most reputed one in this country. Yet when I got my PhD in 1998 I was the second one to held such a degree among those graduated from this school (there were two historians with PhDs as well, adding up to four in total)
Publications
El impacto de las tecnologías de la información en las empresas chilenas respecto a España y Estados Unidos: resultados de la primera encuesta BIT-Chile 2005, Primer Informe proyecto Business and Information Technology-Chile, Facultad de Comunicaciones UC/Cámara de Comercio de Santiago, Santiago, 2006
Desafíos regulatorios para la adopción de la televisión digital terrestre en Chile, Consejo Nacional de Televisión, Santiago de Chile, 2005
Resultados WIP-Chile 2003-2004:¿Cómo está y dónde va el uso de internet en Chile?, Cuadernos de Información Nº18, 2005, pp. 101-111.
(with Soledad Herrera): Qué ocurre cuando se usa (y no se usa) internet: resultados del World Internet Project-Chile, Cuadernos de Información Nº16-17, 2004, pp.71-84.
Los medios de comunicación en las elecciones parlamentarias de 2001: ¿conspiración o simple mediocridad?, Cuadernos de Información Nº15, 2002, pp.84-99
Tiempo, medios de comunicación y Sociedad de la Información, Cuadernos de Información Nº13, pp. 121-131.
Hacia un Nuevo Comunicar. Proyecto de Mejoramiento Radial de Tortel (Editor and co-author), Facultad de Comunicaciones UC/ARCHI, Santiago, 2000
Radio en la era digital: la fragilidad de lo local, en Primer Foro de las Comunicaciones: Desafíos de la Sociedad de la Información en América Latina y Europa, UNICOM/LOM, Santiago, 2000, pp. 187-196.
¿Públicamente rentable? Evaluación de la TV pública orientada al mercado, Ediciones PUC, 2000.
Gestión de Radio y TV, Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, 1999.
Una medida de calidad: diversidad programática en la TV chilena 88-97, Cuadernos de Información Nº13, 1999, pp. 75-88.
Diversidad programática, "banalidad" y pluralismo en la TV Chilena: alternativas, problemas y posibilidades, Cuadernos de Información Nº12, Centro de Estudios de la Prensa, Universidad Católica de Chile, 1997, pp. 79-93.
El Aporte de los Medios de Comunicación a la Educación Para la Democracia en América Latina, en CELARE: Educación Para la Democracia: Un Desafío para América Latina, CELARE/Grupo de Río/CAF, Santiago de Chile, 1997, pp.223-249
¿Para qué sirve Televisión Nacional?, Cuadernos de Información Nº10, Centros de Estudios de la Prensa, Universidad Católica de Chile. pp.125-137.
Current position
Head of Research and Postgraduate Studies, School of Communications, Universidad Catolica de ChileDirector in Chile of the World Internet Project (WIP) & Business and Information Technology Project (BIT)
Contact details
Sergio Godoy E., MBA PhD
Subdirector Investigación y Postgrado
Facultad Comunicaciones
Universidad Católica de Chile
Alameda 340 - Santiago de Chile
Tel (+56-2-) 6862016
Fax (+56-2) 6862054
E-mail: sgodoye@puc.cl
Universidad Catolica de Chile
www.per.puc.cl
World Internet Project, Chile
www.wipchile.cl
