Lack of confidence, trust in local media outlets
Report by Pew Research Center shows just 37 percent of Argentines believe stories cover political issues fairly.
In one of the survey’s questions, respondents were asked if they believe their local media outlets do agoodjobof re por ting the most important stories. In all countries, some 73 percent said the media did “well” or “somewhat well,” but in Argentina the figure slumped to 56 percent. Queries about whether the media reported the news accurately (62 percent worldwide, 45 percent in Argentina) or reported news about government leaders and officials well (59 percent globally, 38 percent for Argentines) fared no better.
T her eport’ smost notable overallconclu si on,ac cor ding to E va Matsa,i show overwh el mingt he desire is for unbiased news, but thatth is de mandfromtheglob al public isn’t matched by their e val uat ion ofhow media are performing.Th is is nos urpri se for Argentina, said Martín Becerra, a media and politics researcher atCONIC ET anda profe ssorat the universities of Quilmes and Buenos Aires. In general, Argentina“is nota countryw her et he public has a lot of confidence in the media,” he explained to the
Times in an interview. Argentine media outlets don’t choose what to cover based on the relevancy of the information to the public, Becerra argued, but on what’s the best decision to take politically. “In reality the media is very biased,” he said.
Another significant revelation for local ob ser ver sishowc los el y linked support for the current government in power and feelings about the economy are to approval of media. In Argentina specifically, 47 percent of those that support the Macri administration are satisfied with the news media, but among those that distrust the government, the number falls to 33 percent. That gap is greater than in the US, UK and Venezuela. Empirical evidence, some might argue, of the infamous “grieta.”
Much of Argentines’ lack of confidence in the media’s transparency and lack of bias depends on a person’s political leanings, Becerra continued. “The vast majority of those who oppose the government are critical of the media,” he said. “There’s a difference with the countries I mentioned because in Argentina the quality of political journalism is hampered by emotion.”
But Becerra also agrees that other factors in an Argentine’s daily life can impact their trust in media. “The social and political climate doesn’t offer much opportunity to trust in journalistic accuracy,” Becerra said. “An Argentine is more sceptical than a Canadian citizen, for example, because the Canadian lives in a more stable situation.”
BROKEN MODELS
Daniel Dessein, the president of the Association of Journalistic Entities in Argentina (ADEPA), attributed much of this disillusionment with the media to the actions of recent populist governments across the region and specifically Kirchernism in Argentina. “They try and break away from traditional model,” he said. “They try and start a conversation around the media and question the role of journalism. They make it sound like something secretive, that’s in cahoots with other industries.”
Dessein compared the atmosphere around the media in Argentina to the current situation in the United States, where President Donald Trump has persistently attacked media outlets and used his personal Twitter account to bypass traditional communication channels.
“Sometimes these constant battles can impact upon media entities,” Dessien said. “But journalism has come out of this stronger so far. There’s been an enhancement in how some people value journalism.”
If Dessein’s analysis is correct, that might help explain data from the rest of Latin America, the region most critical of its news media overall. In addition to Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and especially Chile struggle with confidence in media.
Though Venezuela’s media outlets scored higher than Argentina in all four categories of media approval, Dessein war- ned that a direct comparison was unfair beca use oft he differ ingpoli tic alsystems.T he press in Venezuela have faced numerous obstacles too in recent years, nor are they covering a well-functioning state.
Becerra said Argentina and Chile have very different media and political landscapes. For example, Argentina returned to democracy sooner and Chile is more conservative. Yet despite the differences, the two neighbours scored similarly on things like economic development and educational attainment.
“In this sense it’s possible Chile and Argentina offer a similar situation. In both countries there’s a huge concentration of media companies. They’re media entities that are very biased and partisan,” he argued.
This is a different state of affairs, for example, than in Brazil or Mexico, where standard of living measures are lower. Brazil has strong media approval rates for the region, which Dessein suggests may have been helped by the role journalists played in the massive corruption scandals that have ravaged nearly every aspect of Brazilian life.
DIGITAL DAYS
But Argentina does keep pace with Brazil in another category: digital news engagement. Brazil, with the secondmost Instagram, third-most Facebook and sixth-most Twitter users in the world, is known for its social media presence. But over half (51 percent) of Argentines get news from social media nowadays, 10 points more than Brazil. Plus, 39 percent visit social media sites multiple times a day, the fourth-highest rate of countries surveyed. Expanding to the Internet in general, 47 percent of Argentines get their news online, just one point behind Brazil and five points above the global median.
Both Becerra and Dessein worry about the effect this is having on media organisations. Beyond reducing revenue sources, they see social media as exacerbating the ideological gap and making it more difficult to discern trusted sources from unreliable ones or even outright fake news.
It’s unclear exactly how Argentines might think under a different administration, or in a different economic moment — this is the first time Pew has asked such questions globally. But for Dessein, the Macri administration is a sea change. During Kirchnerism, “the government attacked in a systematic manner,” and was constantly motivating its followers in a battle against the media. But now with Macri, “this is an agenda of normalisation,” he argued.
In Argentina specifically, 47 percent of those that support the Macri administration are satisfied with the news media.