La mirada argentina: ¿Desvíos o desvaríos de la prensa gráfica? El caso Página/12

Abstract

As Sartori (1998) and Taylor(2000) state, the current trend in commercial news seems to be the removal of any critical function from documentary photography, in order to produce images of sensationalism or entertainment. In fact, pushed by a competitive market and other forms of communication, many newspapers have become more entertaining and trivial than concerned with public knowledge, controversy and debate. Some of them have even learned to conceal their real intentions and make sensationalism look serious (Sampson 1996). But what happens when the fabrication and invention of images are overtly exposed on their front-cover, with no intention whatsoever of hiding their manipulations? This article examines this practice on the front-pages of Página/12, a famous “left-leaning” daily published in Buenos Aires, Argentina, since 1987. Exemplifying with pictures and cartoons reproduced on Página's first page between 1998 and 2003, this paper analyses (1) their particular conventions and discursive effects, and (2) how they project a variety of connotative meanings that defy concepts of truth or authenticity, to end up questioning the hegemonic discourse of neoliberalism in Argentina during the 90s.