February 18, 2020

The obituary of Agustín Edwards shows how the media, in this case the newspaper, can portray Latin American events. The portrayal of events affects how people consume their own culture and everyday life, and therefore how they form opinions on everything they read. “For much of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the Edwardses used their political and economic prowess to shape Chile’s politics and policies, backing right-wing candidates and governments.” If El Mercurio was helping shape governments, it was definitely helping by the way that Chileans consume their news and helping form structure in this way. Considering the fact that Mr. Edwards was using his political and business efforts to reach out the United States asking them to help stop Allende from ascending to power, it also shows that Mr. Edwards and his newspaper also affect how Americans consume Latin American history. When the coup occurred and El Mercurio pledged its allegiance to the new military leaders, the information they put out would be censored, bolsting the government’s power and the country’s consumption of news. The Mercurio Project shows that the newspaper was key in producing propaganda for the anti-Allende agenda. It is very interesting to look at how influential media, even before advanced social media and mass television, was in almost forcing the consumption of right-wing propaganda, in El Mercurios’ case. Media can be a way to distort, conform, and all around influence consumption of any topic and event. This is almost scary when you think about how many people only read one type of newspaper, watch one kind of news, and refuse to listen to the opposition. The impact that the media has on consumption is quite frankly terrifying.