It is no secret that media and the news are not always the most reliable; however, in certain regions of the world, citizens are truly unable to rely on the news to report honest and factual information. This has become a growing concern in the Latin American region where citizens are growing more aware and alarmed at the news being reported and how biased and manipulated it is. Studies have shown that Latin American residents more often than not do not feel that they can trust the news outlets within their region and individual countries. Based off of a 2024 Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute, people who have expressed trusting, "most news most of the time," have experienced a drastic 16% decline over the past six years within Brazil (Osborn). This is followed by a 14% decrease in Mexico and an 11% decrease in Argentina, some of the largest states in the region. This decline in trust in the media and news more recently goes to show the increase in dictatorship and a decrease in democracy within many of these states as leaders and political parties continue to grow in power and silence those who oppose their views, beliefs, and goals.
The news is supposed to deliver factual information and stories to be able to inform the public of important news, updates, and events that are taking place locally, nationally, and globally. It is supposed to communicate important information to citizens in order to keep them up to date on everyday events and educate people on what is occurring around them and throughout the world. If people are unable to trust their news outlets, there will be a drastic decrease in proper and factual information being spread. The spread of misinformation and bias targeted material will increase greatly, causing distrust and spreading lies. This will greatly impact the overall strength of the community and the nation as people do not know what to believe and what is real or false. This is certainly an imperative topic as it faces the political realm of these states and provides the people in power with much say and direction over the news. Throughout Latin America, "political polarization and skepticism about the credibility of news are often interconnected," (Osborn). This connection leads to political bias and the inability for opposing parties and politicians to properly run for office and take part in a free and fair election, which further dissolves the democracy within these states.
This is an extremely important topic as media and the news hold such a grasp on society and people. The power that media can have over a population is truly something and the fact that citizens are losing trust in such outlets, truly goes to show the overall decline in democracy, freedom, and genuine, factual news. It will be interesting to see how the decline in trust for the news and media will impact elections and political unrest as I'm sure citizens will eventually grow tired of not being able to rely and count on real news to tell them what is going on in their streets, their cities, their nation as a whole, and the world around them. It will be important to keep an eye on this, as well as other regions throughout the world that face distrustful news outlets in order to stop the spread of misinformation and reinstill informative, factual, and unbiased news.
Osborn, C. (2024, June 21). Why Latin Americans are Losing Trust in the News. Foreign Policy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/06/21/latin-america-media-disinformation-trust-reuters-study/
It is not too surprising that distrust in the media has declined in certain regions of the world. While many might think that the United States is the epicenter of "fake news" due to the popularity of this term being used by certain politicians and public figures, it is hard to imagine living in a place where you cannot rely on the news at all. Did the article mention anything at all about how this issue might be mitigated or fixed? I wonder what will be done going forward of if this issue will just continue to get worse in Latin America.
ReplyDeleteThis was super interesting to learn about, Sarah Grace! We hear so much about fake news and media distrust in America, but I don't see a lot of discussions about the same issues happening in other countries or continents. The statistic you included about media distrust declining by 16% in Brazil was really surprising to me. I'm certainly going to do more research into citizen trust in their media outlets from around the world.
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