Moving Barriers to Investigative Journalism in Latin America in Times of Instability and Professional Innovation

ABSTRACT

Latin American journalism has experienced recent transitions marked by digital affordances, including a growth of investigative journalism. The region has also experienced more political and economic instability, giving rise to a wave of threats and harassment against journalists. This repeated cross-sectional study analyzes the changing perceptions of threats and attacks as barriers to investigative journalism, through surveys of journalists from 20 Latin American countries conducted in 2013 and 2017. It performs intra-regional comparison utilizing the hierarchy of influences model. It found that women and those with fewer years of working experience (individual characteristics) were increasingly likely to perceive threats and attacks as a main barrier to investigative journalism. It also found that those working for digital platforms and working more independently (organizational characteristics) were also increasingly likely to perceive threats and attacks as major barriers.

KEYWORDS:

• Latin American journalism
• newssafety
• investigative journalism
• hierarchy of influences
• digital-natives
• women journalists
• threats

Disclosure Statement

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