The state of media development in Latin America

This article presents a recent regional report of the state of media development in Latin America. This is a guest article by María Soledad Segura and Bianca Nadina De Toni.

Latin America remains the most unequal region in the world. Wealth concentration, fragile labor markets, political polarization, and the rise of authoritarian governments create a particularly challenging environment for the media. In this context, organizations working to strengthen journalism and the right to communicate are operating in an increasingly complex landscape.

A regional report based on interviews with leaders of media development organizations across Latin America, as well as on a regional survey and desk research highlights the challenges these organizations face in terms of funding, equity and adaptation to changing contexts.

Resilience amid funding cuts

In terms of funding, the report notes that media development organizations across Latin America are experiencing a period of budget cuts, largely linked to reductions in or suspensions of international cooperation funding. This situation has particularly affected community media, national organizations, and journalists' associations, leading to staff reductions, office closures, and increasing difficulties in sustaining activities and projects.

Despite these challenges, the sector has demonstrated a significant capacity for resilience through networking, collaboration, and income diversification. "The logic was learning how to breathe underwater," summarized Naimid Cirelli of media development organization SembraMedia. However, the predominance of short-term project-based funding hinders strategic planning, contributes to precarious working conditions, and limits organizational sustainability.

In response, the report recommends strengthening support for journalism, communication, and media production across all formats, with particular attention to community, indigenous, independent, public, and non-profit media. It also highlights the need to strengthen comprehensive protection mechanisms for journalists, promote more flexible funding models, and ensure resources for institutional development and collaborative work among organizations.

Asymmetric relationships limit equity

In terms of equity, the report finds that vertical dynamics continue to shape the definition of funding agendas and priorities, with limited participation of local organizations in the spaces where strategic criteria are established. As a result, many organizations end up adapting their projects to priorities defined primarily in the Global North. "The agenda remains highly vertical," said Miguel Montes Camacho of Colombian civil society group Fundación Gabo.

Echoing this assessment, the report identifies inequalities in organizations' ability to sustain stable institutional structures and warns that growing competition for resources tends to deepen gaps between more established actors and organizations with more limited access to funding.

To address these challenges, the study recommends increasing the participation of local organizations in the definition of strategic priorities, strengthening their presence in regional and international forums, promoting consultation mechanisms before funding calls are designed, and advancing more flexible funding schemes that can better respond to local needs and contexts.

Adaptation to a changing environment

Media development organizations in Latin America have had to respond simultaneously to funding cuts, the expansion of digital platforms, the impact of artificial intelligence, the emergence of new actors such as influencers and content creators, and the spread of restrictive regulatory frameworks in a context of democratic backsliding.

Some organizations have successfully repositioned themselves in emerging areas such as digital media and fact-checking, while others — particularly those focused on media regulation, journalists' unions, or community media — face greater structural challenges in sustaining their work and adapting to the new conditions of the media system.

However, the report argues that the very notion of adaptation should be reconsidered. To what extent is adapting to contexts marked by censorship, journalists' persecution and platform concentration, possible and/or desirable? In this context, as José López Forero of ALER noted, in Latin America there is "a capacity to respond despite fear."

In response to these challenges, the study identifies several strategic priorities: Strengthening the comprehensive protection of journalists and organizations operating in authoritarian or violent contexts; promoting the regulation of digital platforms from a rights-based communication perspective with social participation; sustaining media development institutions; and strengthening support for digital media, fact-checking organizations, media literacy initiatives, and community media. It also highlights the need to incorporate new content producers into the sector's strategies.

Although the landscape presents increasingly complex challenges, the report emphasizes that the sector retains one of its key strengths: Its capacity for collective organization and resilience. However, ensuring the sustainability of media development in the region will require more than adaptation. It will require new forms of cooperation among international and local actors, greater local participation, and a renewed commitment to democracy and the right to communicate in tough times.

María Soledad Segura holds a PhD in Social Sciences, a Master's degree in Communication and Contemporary Culture, and a degree in Social Communication. She works as a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and as a professor at the National University of Córdoba (UNC) in Argentina. She has published nine books. She is a co-founder and director of the Argentine Network of Researchers in Communication and Culture with a Rights-Based Approach (RAICCED) and a member of IAMCR and ALAIC. Her areas of specialization include rights, policies, and inequalities regarding communication, culture, and the digital sphere; civil society organizations and social participation in public policy; and disinformation, denialism, and hate speech.

Bianca Nadina De Toni holds a degree and a university teaching qualification in Social Communication, as well as a degree in Folklore Research. She is a fellow at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and a doctoral candidate in Social Communication. Her research focuses on sustainability strategies for self-managed digital media outlets. She is a member of the Argentine Network of Researchers in Communication and Culture with a Rights-Based Approach (RAICCED). Currently, she serves as president of the Enfant Terrible Worker Cooperative — a digital media outlet based in Córdoba, Argentina — and as treasurer of the Federation of Digital Media Cooperatives of Argentina.