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Community radio stations, owned, run and
editorially controlled by the public they
serve, constitute a reality that complements
publicly and privately owned networks.
Currently, there are more than 2,000
community radio stations broadcasting in
Latin America, 400 of which are affiliated
with the World Association of Community
Radio Broadcasters (AMARC). These
“alternative” radio stations may not have a
range beyond the neighborhoods, villages or
islands from where they broadcast, and
many of them are staffed by local
volunteers. In addition and unlike
commercial radio, which makes money from
advertising, community radio stations are
not profit-oriented, though sometimes they
accept small advertising fees in order to
survive (Roncagliolo, 1999) . Finally, the
most important function of these radio
stations is to contribute to the creation and
the evolution of indigenous and local
content and to foster local development
through increased ownership.
Multimedia
Multimedia is situated at the crossroads of a
large number of technologies and economic
sectors. Because this industry is under
continuous development, available data
quickly become unreliable and out of date.
The multimedia sector combines content
(text, pictures, sound, music, graphics, data,
animation, full-motion video) to create a
variety of communication products. The
sector includes the advertising industry,
video games industry, software industry, and
all media support. Even if relatively new,
this sector is experiencing fast growth,
depending mostly on the increasing presence
of personal computers and the rapid
convergence of computing and
telecommunications. It is important to
highlight that the use of these technologies
is also increasing in rural areas through the
diffusion of Internet-based local services.
As a sector of cultural industries,
multimedia provides creative new ways of
production. Other sectors of the cultural
industries use multimedia for a variety of
purposes ranging from fine arts, to
entertainment, to commercial art, to
journalism, to media and software services.
In this context, small businesses are an
important, if not dominant, force in the
multimedia sector. However, they often
lack the required skills in management,
funding, setting up strategic partnerships,
and distributing and marketing their
products and services. Although data are
not available, employment in the sector also
shows important dynamics, especially in the
areas of multimedia and software
Within the multimedia sector, the video
games industry plays an important role. In
particular, concerning the video games
industry and new media, LAC is a
contradictory and changing market. It is
difficult to talk about a proper LAC video
games industry; rather, it can be seen as an
industry that locates itself between local
representation of the global video games
industry and the “appendix” of the national
toys and games industries (Lugo et al.,
2002). This definition is confirmed by
market trends and the role of the players.
Thus, defining the video games market as a
“maquila” of the global industry seems to be
correct.
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Finally, the main stakeholders
perceive piracy as a major threat to the
future of the video games industry in LAC.
To date, this industry offers little
opportunity to create a local games industry
that can provide added value in terms of
software. To the contrary, “it seems
improbable that the region would have”
16
The maquila, also called Maquiladoras, are
industries managed by international corporations
in economically deprived areas that mainly
import spare components of certain products,
assemble them using cheap labor and export
them tax free to the US. The maquilas
significantly benefit from special government
treatment—presumably justified by the fact that
they are located in poor areas.