De Los Medios A Las Mediaciones ( 1987 ) Is Considered One...

De los medios a las mediaciones (1987) is considered one of the key works of Martà ­n-Barbero not only in the Latin American context, but worldwide. The book had been translated in four languages and, according to WorldCat, is held by 578 libraries worldwide. The Handbook of Latin American Studies describes De los medios†¦ as an Important contribution to Latin American cultural studies [that] focuses on popular culture within a general theory of hegemony. Also relates how mass media define national identities. As Herlinghaus puts it, it is â€Å"one of the most important books about the episteme of modernity and its mismatches† (Martà ­n-Barbero Herlinghaus, 2000: 147) and it is a treaty about how and what â€Å"the study of communication should shift from an emphasis on ownership and control, and on messages, to an emphasis on reception and consumption† (Hinds, 1994). Protzel called it â€Å"an etno-historiographic painting of popular massification, a cultural history composed by its own fragments† (Protzel, 1998, cited in Martà ­n-Barbero Herlinghaus, 2000: 30). This work is not only a result of Martà ­n Barbero’s erudition and his interdisciplinary approach, but it is also a product of his journey across Latin America and his meetings in several think tanks and universities in the continent in the mid-1980s. Martà ­n Barbero was eager to know what communication scholars were doing in the field, â€Å"he interviewed them, asking what we were doing and how, and what were our models†, remembers