In August 2016, Catalan journalist Ismael Nafría and his family traveled 5,330 miles from Barcelona to Austin, Texas to spend a year at the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas, as part of its Journalist-in-Residence program. During that time, he wrote and published the book “The Reinvention of The New York Times,” coordinated a series of stories on journalistic innovation in Latin America (also published as an e-book) and has now launched a weekly newsletter on digital media innovation.
Oil spills in the Amazon, indigenous peoples fighting for their native territories, protected areas threatened by oil drilling and illegal mining activity, the great impact of livestock farming on the forests of protected areas and natural disasters were the most popular issues for readers of digital site Mongabay-Latinomérica in its first year.
Chilean-Venezuelan journalist Braulio Jatar, who has been in jail since Sept. 3, 2016, has been released and is under house arrest.
Digital media sites are growing and many are becoming profitable — transforming, in every sense, the way journalism is made and consumed in Latin America. This was one of the most important findings of the study “Inflection Point,” that analyzed 100 digital media ventures from four Latin American countries, conducted by the organization SembraMedia with support from Omidyar Network.
Fiquem Sabendo, an independent data journalism website founded by Brazilian journalist Léo Arcoverde, celebrates its two year anniversary in May with hundreds of reports and more than one thousand applications to the Law for Access to Information.
“Innovative Journalism in Latin America,” the new free e-book from the Knight Center, is now available in English and Portuguese.
In a global context in which the demand for traditional newspapers decreases and in which the use of information and communication technologies grows, journalists are forced to develop ingenious ways in which to deliver their products.
Women are leaders at more than 60 percent of digital media sites in Latin America.
Founded by a social scientist, an engineer and a journalist, Brazilian news site Nexo was born as a multidisciplinary venture, with the aim of innovating in the form and approach of information. The proposal: leave aside breaking coverage and bet on journalism of context, made by professionals from different areas, that explains the news through multimedia, interactive and data reports.
When Periscope launched in March 2015, it was not long before print and digital media saw an opportunity to cover events live and in real-time, a space previously dominated by television news companies.
In the final days of March 2017, several journalists were assaulted during anti-government protests in Venezuela, but recent attacks on journalists in this country have not been exclusively physical. Earlier in the month, a series of cyberattacks forced several Venezuelan independent media outlets to temporarily shut down their websites.
Mexican daily newspaper Norte of Ciudad Juárez took down its website Norte Digital on the night of April 4, two days after publishing a farewell editorial in its last printed edition. Both the digital and print versions of the newspaper were closed by director, Óscar Cantú Murguía due to a lack of security for the practice of journalism in the country.