Internation Student Interview

For this interview I could have picked another international student to ask about the media in his or her country, but I decided to talk about my own country because I think there is interesting information to talk about. Even though Ecuador is small, its media and entertainment are growing more each day. As we all know, The United States exports its media widely to other countries, and Ecuador is part of those countries that get it. Throughout this entry, I am going to respond questions about the current media in Ecuador, South America. I would like to emphasize on politics and media also, because right now it is a big deal over there and gives a lot to talk about.

First of all, it´s essential to know that everything you can see here in the United States, you can see down there if you have cable (even the cheapest one). We can even get ABC, NBC and CBS if we want to. Almost all the movies channels are from here and just a few are from other countries. So in that way, teenagers and young people are almost the same as here, off course they have certain difference in culture, but watch the same TV shows and movies, listen to the same music and dress the same clothes. With music it´s the same. I remember when I was a little girl and came on vacation to the U.S. I would listen to music and when I went back to Ecuador I would have to wait around 1 or 2 months for that same music to appear there, but not anymore. When I go back on vacation now, the exact same music plays in night clubs or bars. Again, off course we also listen to our music very much, the one which belongs to our culture (Salsa, Merengue and Reggaeton), but American music makes a big part of our culture too.

Now, on national TV channels, it is very common to see a show created in Ecuador, but with the idea of another show, probably an American one. So we have our own characters, but the idea is the same. Now a days Ecuador is paying more attention to TV industry, and therefore creating and producing its own shows. Typically comedy shows, or sitcoms are becoming very famous, even around surrounding countries. Something that people enjoy very much watching are those shows that criticize and talk about famous people’s lives.

Concerning politics, Ecuador is going through a difficult situation with the new government. This is supposed to be a leftist regime that sometimes doesn’t like what someone says, so they do anything to stop that person from saying it, that’s why freedom of press is being affected. A lot of journalists and even TV personalities are not happy with how the government is handling media. A few months ago, the state took control of two T.V stations, with the claim that they belonged to a large company which owned taxes. Eventually the chaos stopped and it seems things in the TV stations are still how they were before.

In this video, we can see how the Ecuador TV stations were seized by government