Seeking Transnational, Digital-native News From Latin America: An Audience Analysis Through the Lens of Social Capital

ABSTRACT

Digital-native news sites from Latin America are changing the region’s industry. These news organizations are accessed nationally and also across national boundaries. This study examined, through the theoretical lens of social capital, factors contributing to the creation of transnational audiences for these news organizations. A survey of audiences for these independent news sites in El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela indicated that economic and network capital predicted transnational digital-native news use. Transnational audiences were more likely to be younger, female, and with higher income than their national counterparts.

KEYWORDS:

• Audience research
• online journalism
• Latin America
• news audience
• transnational journalism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).