El Chiguirre Bipolar

Posted in Blogging, Moderately Wired, Partly Free, Latin America, Social Networking, Facebook, Twitter, Online Video

By Susannah Vila with Juan Ravell

THE CHALLENGE

In 2008, a trio of 20something Venezuelan screenwriters boasted an internationally syndicated television show. Sony Entertainment Television had picked up their program as one of only a few original series to be aired in 26 countries throughout Latin America.

The show, "Nada Que Ver," was a collection of satirical sketches that poked fun at everything from telenovelas (soap operas) to game shows to politics. In one episode, they featured a caricature of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet. Soon after, an angry Chilean senator contacted Sony, leading it to remove the series from the air. "There was no government or official involvement, but it was censored. It was self-censored,” says one of the writers, Juan Ravell.

The disappointed trio knew they wanted to continue making political satire, but attempting to do so on television in Venezuela was a daunting task. In 2007, the government under Hugo Chavez had refused to renew the broadcast license of RCTV, a major opposition network. Soon after, a satirical newspaper piece had landed a comedian named Laureano Márquez within a hair of prosecution, and it did not look as if restrictions on media would be easing in the near future.

"The media situation in Venezuela is especially peculiar because of the high degree of government sponsorship. This makes for a lot of pressures on anyone creating media.” 

Inspired by the United States' The Onion and by satirical magazines from earlier decades of Venezuelan politics, the team decided to start both a blog, named “El Chiguirre Bipolar,” after an indigenous Venezuelan rodent, and an online animated series, which they would call “La Isla Presidencial.” But would the web-based venture be subject to the same censorship that ended their television show?

Juan and his writing partners, Oswaldo Graziani and Elio Casale, had to tread the line between outright criticism of the president—the kind that got some other media outlets shut down in Venezuela—and subtle satire, while simultaneously gaining a large enough audience to financially sustain their operation.

THE PLAYERS

“El Chiguirre Bipolar” and “La Isla Presidencial” were founded by Juan Ravell and Oswaldo Graziani, who are based in Caracas, and Elio Casale, who is based in Miami. All three are also television screenwriters. Ravell is the son of the former head of Globovision, the main opposition television network.

The three didn’t launch their current venture out of a penchant for political activism. All they really wanted to do, they say, is make people laugh.

THE TOOLS

Juan ascribes much of their success to the use of social media like Twitter and Facebook to lure readers to the site:

"We are using everything that’s free and out there. Twitter is amazing because people in Venezuela really love and follow our account. We have more followers than El Nacional, a newspaper that’s been around for 70 years. So it’s very useful to us. We try to put very relevant and funny things on our account, and we always include links to the site. The main source of traffic is our Twitter account. We try not to abandon the account; we try to retweet our followers so people feel we are reading them (and we are). We focus on talking to the audience."

The blog, hosted by the Google-owned Blogger, could not be more simple (and free). The team did have a leg up in their knowledge of video production (they use Adobe Flash, After Effects, and Final Cut Pro for editing), which surely garnered extra page views and followers—especially early on. The first episode of La Isla Presidencial has over 1.6 million views.

THE STUMBLING BLOCKS

“El Chiguirre Bipolar” has not been a direct target of any government censorship, but the political landscape in Venezuela has definitely affected the project—especially its ability to sell ads.

The writers suspect that the government knows that overtly messing with comedians or bloggers outright may hurt it more than help it. Instead, Chavez targets opposition voices online more subtly. Potential advertisers often decline to buy advertisements on the site even if the audience demographic is perfectly suited to them, telling the creators “that they’d love to advertise on the site but that it’s just too political...if they have an ad up," says Juan, "the government may look into whose ad it is and then go knocking on their door for publishing on the website."

This is no small stumbling block, considering that what little revenue “El Chiguirre” does bring in is from advertisements and tee-shirt sales.  

In December of 2009, when the group tried to create a book based on the blog, they deliberately left Chavez’s name out—although the book was critical of him—but they still were unable to find anyone willing to print it. Printers feared what might happen to them if they obliged. 

"We love our site. Our work—we feel like we are doing something really important. But it’s not economically viable.”

The trio must find time to create promotional videos and other commercial gigs in order to sustain “El Chiguirre Bipolar.”

THE OUTCOME

Despite economic obstacles, their following within Latin America is steadily growing. They started with 120 readers a day, and now they get between 10,000 and 20,000.

While most of the blog’s content is based on political news, the writers’ goal is not to overthrow Chavez or to only criticize the Chavez regime. They’re also very critical about the opposition, about themselves, and about the Venezuelan way of life.

Perhaps it is because of their subtle brand of satire, and the fact that their primary intentions lie in making people laugh rather than spurring political protest, that they have thus far escaped pressure from authorities.  

Yet that the government has restricted itself to implicit censorship may be due a combination of other factors peculiar to the Venezuelan context. For one, as Juan notes, the web in Venezuela is not under the same microscope that television and print publications are. As Chavez said on national television, “Eagles don’t chase flies.” He may simply not take “El Chiguirre Bipolar” seriously enough to act against it. How long will this remain the case?

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