4.1. The 1940s and 1950s

4.1.1. Radio

In 1948, during the Bogotazo, Radio Nacional (National Broadcasting Radio), was seized by the Liberal Revolutionary Militias who misreported that the conservative president Mariano Ospina Pérez had been ousted and the revolution had triumphed in several cities in the country with the military’s support. This report is accused of stimulating the riots that partially destroyed the city.

“From the radio stations, commentators high on violence incited their listeners to go out into the streets to protest Gaitan’s murder. Fed by what they heard on the radio, the angry crowd burned the city causing destruction that left more than a thousand dead that day” (Ethical Network, 2018).

The coverage of this event was mainly descriptive, not analysed, and the speaker’s view was transmitted. Through his altered voice, he gave importance to details; there was no contextualisation of the moment nor a projection of the implications that this would have, even so, initially, it is not possible to determine the speaker’s particular political stance. The strikingness of the incidents made him focus on the description of destruction and death. The information that reached the stations was alarming because it came from the centre of the capital and from individuals calling from places near the riots or who went to the studios. As a result, the speaker was aware that at that time he had the radio listeners’ attention and interest.

4.1.2. Written press

In 1948, during the Bogotazo, while on the radio the transmissions were live, the newspapers (El Espectador and El Tiempo) came later, for example, El Espectador, only circulated a four-page edition three days later, allowing them to obtain a broader picture of what happened. Despite this, the headline and the photo on the front page of El Tiempo, in itself is intimidating: “Bogota is semi-destroyed,” the content of the article in this edition is descriptive, it repeatedly questions the architectural future of the city and political future of the country.

In the information in the newspaper as well as on the Radio, it seems that at the outset there was no premeditation about the effects of these messages on the population, in spite of the dramatic and embellished nature of their descriptions.