Regenerating Journalism

Abstract

This study maps the emerging digital media landscape of online-native news sites in Latin America, interrogating to what extent these sites challenge mainstream, traditional journalism. Researchers identified and analyzed the region’s online-native sites, exploring their influence and “alternativeness”—in terms of ownership, funding, content, degree of activism, and organizational goals—and their “digital-ness,” in terms of the sites’ inclusion of multimedia, interactive, and participatory digital features. In general, results show that the most influential online-native sites are attempting to renovate traditional, outdated modes of journalism, serving as alternatives to mainstream media and aiming to change society, even if the sites do not necessarily self-identify as “alternative” per se. Their emphasis on using innovative, digital techniques is important for re-conceptualizing not just the role of journalism in a digital era, but also journalism’s relationship to alternative media and activism.