Our paper focuses on the political economy of the Haitian media, i.e., on the material (economic and technical) working conditions of the media and the work of journalists in relation to power structures. The Haitian media system has changed over the past six decades under the influence of three sets of factors: linguistic, democratic, and technological, which are leading to significant changes in the economic model of the Haitian media and in their relations with political structures. In our study, we analyze the political and economic logics that under and cite the functioning of Haiti’s media. We examine both the elements of transformation and continuity in the Haitian media system under the influence of political and economic structures. This study is part of a multiple theoretical perspective, including the systemic applied to the media and the metaphor of the public communication contract. It is based on observational, maintenance and documentary data. We consider, on the one hand, elements of change in relations between the actors of the system and on the other hand we try to highlight the structural inertia of the media system especially its different forms of politicization and the continuity of the predominance of an economic and political elite in the media space. We analyze the relationship between the economic model and the politicization of the media, which leads us to consider the conditions of economic precariousness of journalists and the different strategies put in place by them to try to get out of poverty.
