Specialists and academics warn citizens of the need to verify the information generated on social networks through reliable sources
A representation of the Inter-American Press Society (IAPA) visited Ecuador evaluating together with the authorities of the different public powers the situation of the freedom of expression in the country and the concerns generated by the attacks on journalists and media outlets that remain in the impunity.
Just a few weeks ago, the Barometer of the Americas presented its 2023 report in which it recorded that Ecuador is one of the Latin American countries that has the greatest distrust in the media. According to this report, only 37% of Ecuadorians stated that they had trust in the media.
Ecuador is located next to Argentina among the seven countries of Latin Americaof the 18 evaluated that have the least confidence in the media, surpassed by nations such as Trinidad and Tobago with 21% confidence, Peru with 25% and Colombia con 33%.
On the other side of the scale are countries like Dominican Republic y Brazilwhere trust in the media exceeds 50%, that is, more than half of its citizens say they trust the media. Dominican Republic is the best evaluated with 59% and Brazil con 52%.
Distrust in social networks
Francisco Rocha, director of the Ecuadorian Association of Newspaper Editors (Aedep) highlighted that despite the stigmatizing discourse that has been generated in recent years in Ecuador against the media, “traditional media are the verification reference of the news.”
He pointed out that currently “there is an element that confuses and it is worth differentiating between the media and the social networks. Now that traditional media are entering social networks, they have positioned themselves as the reference for verifying news.”
He stressed that despite this, the media must continue “working to confront what has been faced in the last 15 years and today is also supported by political groups.”
Rocha warned that in the absence of elements that confront the parties, these organizations try to turn the media into political actors.
Traditional media consumption
The academic of the University of San Francisco de Quito and member of Reporters Without Borders in Ecuador, Eric Samsonexpressed some doubts about the results of the study and indicated that currently his first question would be to know the number of people who express their distrust, but at the same time do not consume the content of the media.
“I ask myself some questions, for example, of that percentage of people who do not have confidence, how many consume them? How many follow the news on TV or radio? It seems to me that many of them do not consume media”, he noted.
From his perspective as an academic, Samson suspects that “many people who say they don’t have trust in the media, does not consume them. And in that sense, how can you evaluate or judge something that you do not consume?”
Samson highlighted that currently the trend is for social media users to look for media that supports ideas and “people consume media that more or less fits their way of thinking. Republican people in USA consume FOX for example. The trend is increasingly common for people to consume news that corresponds to their vision.”
The media are not so plural
The journalism professor of the University of the Americas (UDLA), Roberto Moreanohighlighted that when reviewing the numbers of the Americas Barometer we must keep in mind that the media may have agendas that are “not so plural, nor so open.”
For Moreano, “those two things are happening. On the one hand, the media agenda which reaffirms to us that the media are not as plural, nor as open as in concept they should be and on the other hand, the creation of these new themes, such as democracy of media, or audience democracy, which speaks of the media having a linking component to the political system and the social system.”
He noted that the media also have visions regarding the economy, social matters or the ideological view“then, the media are capable of framing and creating positions.”
Moreano recalled that the media also become shapers of public opinions that can be aligned with that framework and that approach.”
When reviewing the concept of trust, the professor explains that “audiences place trust in the media and trust has to do with the credibility or not of an event, that is, audiences tend to say that it is credible or not.”
Moreano warned that young people are currently exposed “to media that explore issues based on causes, environmentalist causethe feministand the trend is that young people identify more with these media that are ideologically aligned to its causes, which is not usually the case traditional media”.
Moreano noted that in a highly polarized society like Ecuador’s, “there are a large number of sectors of the population and audience that are not identifying with the media and maintain a very critical position,” especially after the strikes. nationals of 2019 and 2021. (ILS)
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