The News: Buenos Aires (YO)

A newspaper featuring President Obama with President Macri during his visit to Argentina

There are always many different angles that a new place and culture can be perceived. It is from these angles that we draw conclusions and form opinions about our new surroundings. For this reason it is very important to take a long, hard and objective look at the information that is being presented to us. A good example of this is the news. These days there are so many news outlets present in a single city, much less an entire country that at times it can become almost daunting to read or hear the same story over and over again through different sources. At least, this is how I felt when I was in the United States. Often times in the U.S. the same news stories are told by different news sources, having difference in opinion but not of the story itself. This sometimes creates the feeling that the objectiveness or relevance of the story is extraneous and many people simply flock to their predetermined beliefs and the news outlets that support them without considering the facts as they are.

This is in some ways the case in Buenos Aires. While there is a diversity of news present, people often stick to their own ideological views. Even though there are many cultural differences of the news between Argentina and the U.S. which I will touch on later, in some ways there are similarities between the two that are no more than manifestations of human nature. I experienced this firsthand when President Obama came to Argentina as the first U.S. president to do so in 20 years.

Posters hung at a local university for an anti-Obama/U.S. rally

President Obama's visit to Argentina had been anticipated for a while in B.A. and there were many mixed emotions about his arrival. My own host family was very excited that the President was visiting. My host mother said it was a good sign and that it hopefully meant Argentina was moving in the right direction in terms of foreign affairs and relations with other countries such as the U.S. However, there were many Argentines that did not feel the same way. President Obama's visit to the capital city took place on the 24th of March which was the 40th anniversary of the military coup that resulted in 30,000 Argentines being wrongfully imprisoned, murdered or disappearing altogether. This coup was also one that the U.S. government discretely yet actively supported and many people here have not forgotten that. As a result there were protests, anti-Obama propaganda and people that were simply not in favor of a true relationship between the U.S. and Argentina.

Another example was that of former President Kirchner and her administration which was in charge just before President Macri. Last week a video leaked of people from Kirchner's administration laundering large sums of money. This was nothing short of a scandal that ended up all over the news for days. Interestingly enough, what surprised me most about the story was the response it garnered from some people in the city. While many people were upset, there were also those who felt indifferent. I found this disconcerting at first but then soon discovered that many people were not surprised because they knew Kirchner was not an incorruptible leader. In fact, during her eight year presidency many people found her to be dishonest and untrustworthy thereby making this story nothing out of the norm. At first I could only think of how outraged people in the U.S. would be if a prominent political figure was involved in a scandal such as this. Then I realized there would be people that would be astounded and enraged but that there would also be those who were simply more aware of the fallibility of our elites.

These stories, however, were certainly the climax of my deeper observance of the news in B.A. and the culture that surrounds it. From the 17th of March to the 24th, I alternated between the Desayuno news show, the Clarín newspaper and the Buenos Aires Herald news site. Each of these news outlets overlapped in the stories of today, but what I found most interesting was the rhetoric related to other countries and how Argentina was not only focused on Argentina.

Even though each of these news sources kept the public generally informed of the local current events, what was going on outside of the city/country was also a part of this daily diet as well. While none of the stories were extremely elaborate or giving an especially insightful view into the intricacies of lives abroad, there is an absence of separation when it comes to foreign affairs in Argentina that is so present in the U.S. Usually there needs to be some sort of scandal, tragedy or natural disaster for many people of the U.S. to turn their attention away from their own country. However, it is apparent that the interconnections between countries and their significance are of high value within the culture of being informed in B.A.

In many ways the news is the same here as it in the U.S., certainly in terms of execution, aesthetic and stories being presented around opinions and beliefs instead of only the facts being the focus. In other ways the news here is much more conscientious. While news such as this is also highly present in the U.S., this assessment is also reflected in the people of B.A. and their understanding of the much larger role foreign affairs plays in their daily lives. All the same, what I do believe is universal about news anywhere is that while it stands on a powerful platform it is always the people that make the decision about the stories being told, if they are worthy of our attention and more importantly our action.