Examining the Venezuelan Election

1. How Society
Precedes the
Individual

2. Fairly recently, Hugo
Chavez has been re-elected for
another six year term that staples
his presidency in Venezuela. This is
obviously an event that will affect
millions of people within a society.
Such an event will be
communicated to the masses
through many different media
outlets.

3. • I have chosen three
different newspapers
that covered the Hugo
Chavez’s re-election
to examine through a
communication
perspective. I have
articles from the NPR,
CNN, and LA Times.

4. • The theory of Society precedes
the individual will be used to
understand these different media
sources.

5. • The theory explains that
there must be social
relationship with society
that produces individual
behavior. I felt this was an
appropriate perspective
because of the relationship
an election has on the
society and the individual.

6. • Let’s start off with the article from LA Times
“Venezuela President Hugo Chavez wins
election, officials say”. This article begins with
the fact that Hugo Chavez wins by convincing
voters to vote for him. These voters are of the
lower class and allow him to maintain office
even with problems such as a flaccid economy,
rising crime, and polarized society that scissors
through the country. This is an interesting way
to begin the article. Even though the economy
is not doing well, crime is increasing, and there
are conflicts within society Hugo Chavez still
regains the people’s trust to direct society. It
doesn’t seem as if the article is trying to
undermine Hugo Chavez, but just state the
hurdles he overcame in order to regain his
Presidential position.

7. • Saussure, Freud, and Durkheim said
that society creates meaning into the
individual. Looking into this
introductory of the article again it
can be questioned what made these
voters choose Chavez for another six
years. From this perspective it
would say that individual was
influenced by society. That doesn’t
seem like a far-fetched idea when it
comes to a political election.

8. • Advertisement is probably
bombarding ideas down the
individuals’ throat painting a
picture of how it thinks society
should look. The individuals
would feed off of these ideas and
construct a vision of their society
should be.

9. • Depending on what
interest the voter the most
they will use these
preconceived ideas to
pick a candidate based on
how effective they get
their message across.

10. • Although the people have the
power to elect who they want in
office, why do they elect that
person. Is society creating
meaning within the individual or
is the individual thinking on their
own? It would seem that if the
society you are in is mostly poor
and have a bad economy then
you will be shaped by these
ideas.

11. • The article then goes on
to say that Chavez goes to
twitter to thank God and
his supporters. This
brings me to another way
of looking at it.

12. • Chavez is an individual with the
responsibility to take care of his
society. He reaches out through
twitter as an individual to reach
millions of people.

13. • Where is Chavez getting his
meaning from. As president
he has to cater to the needs
of the public, therefore
relying on society to give
meaning to his work. When
Chaves sent out his twitter
message, it shows he
recognizes the greater role
society plays.

14. • The article finishes by saying
Chaves has transformed Venezuelan
society. This perspective gives the
impression that an individual can
give meaning to a society. Chavez
delivered free medical care, housing,
education, and cut-rate groceries to
the poor. Chavez has the opportunity
to give meaning to his society,
through his individual beliefs. Is
Chavez doing this because he really
believes this is what’s right or is it
because he is influenced by society
and responding to its needs.

15. • “Venezuelan election
officials: Chavez
reelected as President,
defeats Capriles
President, defeats
Capriles”.This article
begins by saying
Chavez beat his
opponent Henrique
Capriles Radinski.

16. • It explains how Capriles criticized
Chavez for inconsistencies,
infrastructure shortcomings, and
corruption. Chavez battled back by
highlighting his accomplishments within
housing, education, and health
initiatives. This is similar to the LA
Times article. Here we have Chavez
being tested by his policies by his
opponent and he still wins. It reports
that Chavez has been President since
1999. Could this have been enough time
to instill his way of government that the
people just accept this way of society?

17. •
The article explains this has been the
highest participation in the election ever.
There was a heavy emphasis on
controlling the violence. Chavez had
troops stationed at the polls to prevent an
outbreak of violence. It evident that
violence is a big part of this society. How
does that work with the theory? If the
military is watching over the citizens to
prevent violence that mean society is
stressing a meaning of peace. If citizens
are still willing to engage in violence
does that stem from the individual.
Maybe an act to break away from the
confides of society.

18. • Violence would communicate a
rebellion against what society
wants them to do. Violence
doesn’t have to be the only way
of rebellion, so why violence. Is
it being communicated through
the community therefore
stemming from society?

19. • This has been Chavez closes
opponent he has ever had. Chavez
won the election by ten percent,
which shows there was a large
percent of the country that wanted a
change, but even a larger percentage
who felt things will be better as they
were. The culture that Chavez has
instilled is still heavily influenced
throughout the country. It seems
through these articles more time
than not society precedes the
individual.

20. • The last article is from NPR
“Chavez Wins Another Term As
Venezuela’s President”. This article
begins like the rest explaining how
Chavez faced his most challenging
opponent in years. After words, it
says that once Chavez won he was
carried through the Presidential
palace singing the national anthem.
This is interesting to look at that
wasn’t mentioned in the other
articles. It seems almost routine to
sing the national anthem, especially
during this moment.

21. • What’s interesting is the values that
the nation stands for. I don’t know
Venezuela’s national anthem, but
I’m sure it contains values that the
country stand for. This is another
example reinforcing societies
influence over the individual. A
person sings the national anthem
proudly and embraces it. This would
seem to say that people hold these
values dear and it develops
individual attitudes.

22. • Alex de Tocqueville said that American
society tended to make people downplay
social institutions. Although this isn’t
America, it’s still a Democracy. As
much as an individual may ignore that,
it becomes evident how society is
influential through these articles. What
is also seen is that the individual has the
chance to influence society. The article
goes on to say that the President
controls much of the televised airwaves,
and billions in oil profits that were used
for giveaways like new apartments and
appliances.

23. • The President is one person with
a lot of power to sway a nation
in a certain direction. With
heavy control over televised
airways, it’s almost scary the
influence he has. Wrapping up
the three articles, there were
many examples between the
relationship between individuals
and society. It’s an interesting
relationship that draws from
each other.

24. • It seems society has the more
heavy influence based on the
articles, but individual still has
the opportunity to break into a
new way of living.

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