In 2025, journalism globally faces serious threats due to restrictive laws – like we’ve seen in Latin America – that seek to curb the work of the press and civil organizations. In addition, the rise of influencers, the growing adoption of artificial intelligence in newsrooms, and the economic challenges for media will mark the course of journalism in the region and the world, altering the dynamics of news production and consumption.
This is according to the latest report “Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2025,” penned by journalists and researchers Nic Newman and Federica Cherubini and published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
The report gives readers a glimpse of what the global journalism industry can expect in 2025 and highlights how there has been an alarming decline in confidence in media thanks in part to increasingly polarized societies.
In Latin America, that confidence has been shaken by attacks from prominent politicians who have sought to undermine independent journalists, policing their actions with threats, lawsuits or the creation of new laws.
“There is a growing trend in Latin America to pass ‘foreign agent’ types of laws that mirror initiatives from Hungary or Russia. The goal is to crack down on civil society that exposes corruption, reports about organised crime and defends human rights or the environment,” Jazmín Acuña, co-founder and editorial director of Paraguay’s El Surtidor, said in the report.
Countries such as Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico have already passed or debated laws that interfere with the work of civil society organizations and in turn affect journalism. That’s because the economic crisis in the media industry has led to an increase in journalistic organizations funded by foundations and international philanthropy.
The results obtained from the Reuters Institute report are based on a survey of 326 media leaders (CEOs, editors, digital and innovation chiefs, among others) from 51 countries, conducted during the months of November and December 2024.
Although journalists from Latin American countries such as Paraguay, Honduras, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia were included as part of the sample, there are no other predictions or trends specific to Latin America presented in the report.
“We don't have enough Lat Am publishers in our sample to split them out in a meaningful way,” Newman told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR). But, he explained that most of the trends recorded are occurring across the board in most newsrooms around the world.
The phenomenon of influencers or content creators related to journalism is a prominent trend in several countries.
Twenty-seven percent of respondents said the trend towards personalities and influencers was bad for journalism, but 28% said it was positive.
Considering that 2024 was a super election year, the report talks about a pattern of presidential candidates avoiding giving interviews to traditional media and preferring to talk with YouTubers or podcast hosts.
Newman also told LJR that the shift in usage from Facebook and X to video platforms like YouTube, Instagram or TikTok is gaining speed and is a pattern that has been happening for some time in Latin America.
For a couple years, Reuters has shown that media outlets are producing more video, more podcasts and more newsletters and that they do not expect to increase the production of text articles.
“But there are many challenges for publishers looking to invest more in this area,” the report said. “Producing video does not come naturally to many print-based newsrooms and short-form video remains hard to monetize, with little opportunity to drive traffic back to websites or apps.”
Even so, further restrictions on social media use are expected around the world. For example, a ban and possible closure of TikTok in the United States would be unpopular with millions of users, depriving creators of one of their main platforms and having global consequences.
This year's report confirms that the use of AI technologies in the media continues to increase.
Sixty percent of respondents consider newsroom automation to be very important and several media outlets have deployed tools to develop new workflows.
Among its predictions, the Reuters Institute says that new uses of AI in newsrooms are likely to proliferate in 2025.
“Adoption is happening everywhere including Latin American newsrooms,” Newman told LJR. “Again the main focus last year was on experimentation in newsrooms with the shift to more audience-facing applications coming this year.”
Some examples include the creation of applications that convert texts into audio to generate summaries at the top of articles or to translate notes. Also, we’ll see the adaptation of more chatbots or search interfaces.
