Com grandes poderes, vêm grandes responsabilidades: um estudo sobre o papel da regulação dos meios de comunicação na teoria democrática

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze how the main strands of contemporary democratic theory understand the importance of state regulation of expression for democracy. We build this thesis into four parts. In the first part, an exhaustive survey will be carried out on the theories of freedom of expression, discussing the different aspects that exist about the concept. In the second part, we add to the debate about the different democratic theories, questioning the role of expression in a democracy. The third moment of this thesis will be a return to media studies to understand how they conceive the political function of communication. Finally, in a fourth chapter, we explore the theory of regulation of expression, taking up the concepts and theories discussed in the previous chapters to formulate an analytical framework that better understands the facts, tensions, and failures of the theories themselves and allows us to discuss the role from state regulation of expression to democracy.