The Belgian theorist Armand Mattelart, a key figure in the political economy of communication, died on Friday in Paris at the age of 89, with a work marked by critical analysis of the media, mass culture and cultural imperialism.
Born on January 8, 1936 in Liège, Belgium, Mattelart studied Law and Demography before settling in France.
In the sixties he moved to Chile, where his thinking matured during the government of Salvador Allende. There, as a professor at the Catholic University of Valparaíso, he collaborated in initiatives to question the mass media.
His masterpiece, To read Donald Duck (1971)co-written with Ariel Dorfman, dismantled the ideologies in Disney narratives and cultural imperialism.
After the military coup of 1973, he went into exile in France and became an emeritus professor at the University of Paris VIII.
Author of titles such as Communication-World, Communication Multinationals and The Invention of Communicationemphasized that communication is an essential field of political struggle for social emancipation.
From Cuba, the Faculty of Communication of the University of Havana (Fcom) expressed its regret for his death on social networks, recognizing him as an “essential figure in communication and cultural studies.”
“His work,” adds the Fcom message, “marked generations and opened paths to thinking about communication from a critical, Latin American perspective committed to social transformation.”
In 2015, the institution awarded him an Honoris Causa Doctorate during the International Meeting of Information and Communication Researchers and Scholars (ICOM), together with his wife Michèle Mattelart, a recognition that underlines his global influence among academics from Latin America, Europe and Africa.
On that occasion, the University of Havana recorded the contributions of the prestigious academic and his close and fertile link with the scientific community of the Caribbean nation, review the newspaper Workers.
The then Fcom dean, Raúl Garcés Corra, praised the recognized prestige of Professor Mattelart, “always located next to the causes of poor countries and distinguished for his counterhegemonic thought and an intellectual work of relevant political commitment.”
Garcés Corra recognized that his works, “loaded with avant-garde thinking, have accompanied the training of several generations of Cuban students, and of others who have graduated from the classrooms of the island.”
