ABSTRACT
What anglophone academic circles refer to as ‘media practice’ is known among Latin American scholars as popular communication/popular culture. This chapter introduces six Latin American communication theorists who we consider pioneers in the study of media practices as popular culture; strongly grounded in the Global South, these six pioneers build theory from and with the South. The chapter includes Brazilian Paulo Freire, Spaniard-Colombian Jesús Martín-Barbero, Mexican Carlos Monsiváis, Argentine-Mexican Néstor García Canclini, Mexican Rossana Reguillo, and Ecuadorian Bolívar Echeverría. Here we explore how each of these authors understands popular culture practices as embodied experience, or how people embed media in their everyday lives, and how such practices express issues of submission and resistance against hegemonic forces.
