“State of Journalism in Latin America” delves into the impact of AI, social media and hybrid working styles in 2023
- After successful surveys produced in 2020, 2021, and 2022, Latam Intersect PR have expanded its award-winning series to cover topics such as AI and Social Media
- The Latin American PR industry leader conducted the new edition of its survey between August and October 2023, asking dozens of journalists in ten countries about the changes that impact the news environment
In a non-stop news landscape increasingly shaped by rapid technological advancements, journalists must stay ahead of and deliver news that is more instantaneous than ever. A consequence of this is also reflected in the way society processes the constant flow of information. This survey, now in its fourth edition, delves into the perspectives of those responsible for informing us all. We hope to unpack how recent changes have affected journalists’ daily routines, how they navigate the ever-accelerating news cycle, and, of course, how these changes ultimately impact their readership. The findings prove to be not only insightful but also revealing of some unexpected trends.
“This new edition of our research ‘State of journalism in Latin America’, which continues to earn us awards and recognition for its important revelations about the behaviour of those who, using various sources of information, feed each of us with knowledge every day,” comments Claudia Daré, co-founder and director of the PR agency.
Remote Work – Three years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the largest proportion (44.4%) of Latin American journalists continue to work remotely, with slightly less (42.1%) working hybrid and the smallest proportion (13.5%) working offline. Compared to 2022, the proportion of journalists in the continent working offline has increased slightly (11.6% to 13.5%). Over half (51.8%) of Latin American journalists interviewed work mainly from home. However, this is slightly less than in 2022 (57.6%) with more journalists now working mainly on the street meeting people, conducting interviews (12.4% in 2022 increased to 17.9% in 2023).
New Channels – Social media continues to be the most important tool when it comes to the journalistic practice, with the largest proportion (61.5%) of journalists interviewed considering the social media of the organisation where they work to best fit this role, which is a similar proportion to last year (62.3%).
One surprise is that Twitter/X appears to be holding firm, for now, as journalists’ preferred platform for discovering breaking news stories. “With all the recent interest in Threads as an alternative to Twitter/X, it was interesting to discover that almost two-thirds (62.9%) of Latin American journalists use Twitter/X’s trending topics feature to suggest stories ‘at least once a week’ (32.5%) or ‘once a month’ (30.4%),“ Claudia comments.“Compare this with Threads, which less than a third (29.4%) of Latin American journalists pay attention to when creating stories,” she adds.
However, the survey has also highlighted interesting permutations regarding journalists’ use of social media that varies greatly from country to country, as Roger Darashah, co-founder and director of Latam Intersect, points out. “Just 7.3% of Chilean journalists use Threads to create stories, the lowest percentage of any country. However, almost half (46.2%) of Brazilian journalists use Threads to create stories. And it just so happens that 40.4% of Brazilians ‘never’ use Twitter/X’s ‘trending topics’ function to find stories, the highest percentage of any country.” He adds, “By moving from Twitter/X to Threads, could Brazil be leading where others follow? We’ll have to wait and see.”
New Technologies – While 82% of Latin American journalists consider AI to be helpful for their work, almost a third (29.9%) of those aged between 18-25 consider it a ‘threat’, the highest proportion of any age group. Just under a third (31.8%) of journalists use AI ‘everyday’ or ‘at least once a week’, another third (35.6%) rarely use it ‘about once a month’ and a final third (32.6%) ‘never’ use it.
“The rapid uptake of AI among the continent’s journalists is not exactly a surprise, given that an estimated 10% of traffic to ChatGPT comes from Latin America, but it was enlightening to see the variety of uses this profession is finding for it already,” Roger explains. “While it’s true a significant minority (34.8%) report that they don’t use it at all, the remaining two-thirds of journalists report using AI for a wide range of professional purposes, with ‘insights/research’ (25.1%) being the most popular, followed by ‘text translation’ (22%) ‘others’ (21.6%) ‘editing’ (16.8%) and ‘reducing texts’ (13.6%). And this is less than twelve months in; just imagine what the results will be like from next year’s survey!”
“Over the past three years, we’ve seen how this profession continues to adapt and evolve with remarkable resilience and ingenuity,” Claudia concludes. “So while AI and social media will continue to have a huge impact on all of our lives, we’re trusting in the continent of Latin America and its brilliant journalists to continue to put themselves at the forefront of this new era of news production and consumption.”
About LatAm Intersect PR
LatAm Intersect PR is a public relations firm specializing in corporate and consumer campaigns for clients across the Latin American region. ‘Intersect’ refers to our central tenet: in a world of big data and automation, the ability to connect with people on their terms, to inform and persuade them of a particular point of view through relationships, evidence and discussion is more important to businesses than ever.
We help clients leverage their intersections with audiences ranging from customers and employees, to business partners and investors across the region.
