Jesús Martín Barbero, the great theorist of communication and the media, has died

On the night of this Saturday, the famous communication theorist, semiologist, anthropologist and philosopher died at the age of 87, Jesús Martín Barbero, in the city of Cali. He was one of the experts who made essential contributions to cultural studies in Latin America and although he was born in Spain, he has settled since 1963 in the capital of the Valle del Cauca.

Barbero, founded the Department of Communication Sciences at the Universidad del Valle. He was president of the Latin American Association of Communication Researchers (ALAIC) and an active member of the Latin American Federation of Faculties of Social Communication.

He was born in Ávila, Spain, in 1937. He studied philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy in Louvain, Belgium, where he obtained his doctorate in 1971, and did post-doctoral studies in anthropology and semiotics at the École des Hautes Etudes de Paris. He was Director of the Communication Department at the Universidad del Valle de Cali, where he stayed between 1975 and 1995. Between 1999 and 2003, he taught at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, in Guadalajara, Mexico.

He has been visiting professor at Complutense Universities in Madrid, Autónoma de Barcelona, ​​Stanford, Libre de Berlin, King’s College London, Puerto Rico, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Lima. In 2003, he obtained Colombian nationality.

He produced important theoretical syntheses in Latin America on postmodernity. His analysis of culture as mediations, the study of globalization from semiology, the alienating role of local media and in particular the role of soap operas in Latin America are some of his contributions. He was president of ALAIC (Latin American Association of Communication Researchers), member of the advisory committee of FELAFACS (Latin American Federation of Faculties of Social Communication).

On social networks, several journalists and researchers sent a message of condolence. “How can we not thank a man like Jesús Martín Barbero for his immense contributions to communication. My student, new to college and disoriented, will always thank you. Have a good trip, professor “writes José Guarnizo.

“Jesús Martín-Barbero is gone. An authority. Have a good trip to the teacher ”, the political analyst trills, Ariel avila. “Sad news for communication, for culture and for life: our teacher, the great Jesús Martín Barbero, passed away today. Wise, patient, irreverent and lucid. A powerful light and an illuminating word are lost. Have a good trip, Jesus! “, said the columnist Mario Morales placeholder image.

In an interview with Arcadia in 2017, the theorist spoke about the media in Colombia. “They fail because they don’t know how to tell us what happened after the ‘No’ in the plebiscite and what is happening today. The current situation is very complex, it has many faces and it is not easy to understand. Hardly anyone, including political parties, understands this. And not just here, a lot of the press in the western world is in crisis because information has ceased to be differentiated from advertising, and it is increasing. The Trump phenomenon and his actions is the perfect example “he said at the time.

And to the question of what do journalists need to do to say what is going well, replied : “Study and investigate. Like a scientist who never stops studying. Only in this way would citizens learn to perceive changes in customs in the multiple dimensions of social life. Like the old TV news, which not only showed two faces: true or false, but helped people perceive and value other faces and shades. Today there are no more and it is one of the causes of fundamentalism and Manichaeism which divides until breaking this country “.

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