A Challenging Future for the Latin American News Media Industry

As society’s level of information and communication technologies (ICTs) development changes, journalists’ works tend to play an essential role in transforming the ways that people get informed. This chapter discusses how Latin American news media is paving the way for new technologies. A new form of capitalism nourished by modern technology becomes a threat to the development and adoption of innovations in the news media. In this respect, foundations and big tech corporations are responsible to fund the most innovative projects across the region, but this capital is limited in scope and time. Despite these challenges, there are small innovations moving forward in the Latin American news ecosystem. Ranging from engagement and solutions journalism to advanced levels of computational thinking, such as artificial intelligence and automated journalism, news media outlets are developing new strategies to better serve the audience. Thus, this new technological paradigm has opened the doors for novel newsgathering routines and groundbreaking dissemination processes, shifting to an audience-centric perspective. The future is uncertain, but technology, data, and journalism can be fundamental to the media industry’s sustainability and to regain the public’s trust.