ABSTRACT
Television in Latin America has had a profound effect on society and culture. Television is a product that is “exported” from the region to more developed areas of the world and people, from vastly distinct countries and societies, learn about Latin America—for better or worse—through television, particularly via “telenovelas” or soap operas. The television effectively opened the world to people, particularly from the popular classes, who could only dream of owning an automobile, or traveling by airplane across continents. Globo Brazil is the second largest commercial television network—in terms of revenue—in the world. Latin American television networks are known throughout the world thanks to the power and prominence of the “telenovela” or soap opera. American Spanish-language television network, Telemundo, owned by Comcast, has been creating and airing its own line of telenovelas for the tens of millions of Spanish speakers in the United States market and beyond.
