The field of communication: a territory for intervention in social transformation

Abstract

This article offers a reflection on communication education in Latin America from a generational perspective. It examines the theoretical currents that shaped the academic trajectory of those trained in recent decades —from the critique of cultural industry and studies on media manipulation, to the shift toward cultural mediations and popular and alternative communication— showing how these perspectives made it possible to understand the media not only as transmitters of information, but as constructors of meaning and hegemony. It also addresses the challenges posed by new technologies and present-day cultural transformations, arguing that the appropriation of theoretical frameworks remains essential for grasping the complexity of social reality. The text concludes by reaffirming communication as a concrete field of intervention oriented toward social transformation, and not merely as an object of description or analysis