Why is the media #AFRAID?
In Brazil, there is no attempt to restrict freedom of expression. What there is, however, is a technological transformation (from print to online) and a cultural transformation (from paid to free journalism), coupled with a political shift across the continent. And that is what frightens traditional media outlets.
247 - #VejaComMEDO. This Saturday, once again, a hashtag related to Veja magazine reached the top of the trending topics, the most discussed subjects on Twitter. In a report this weekend, the magazine attributed the defamatory campaign it claims to be suffering on social media to "bots," "insects," and "trained PT supporters." So many bots, so many insects, and so many PT supporters!
In parallel to this movement of criticism and reaction from the country's largest weekly magazine, major newspapers such as O Globo and Folha de S. Paulo also published editorials defending Abril publishing house, which was allegedly suffering a defamatory campaign on social media. In Veja itself, Senator Aécio Neves criticized the attempt to "censor" the press.
In practice, what is happening is the opposite of censorship, state control, or any kind of restriction on journalistic activity. What we see today is a flourishing of communication in Brazil, with the emergence of new media, such as 247, and the active participation of readers and internet users in the opinion-forming process.
The real transformation of the media, and what frightens the families that own the media outlets, is of a different nature. Several revolutions are underway. These include:
1) Technological – There is an accelerated migration from print to online. Brazil is already one of the world's largest markets for smartphone sales, and the same will soon happen with tablets. Pew Research, from the United States, predicts that, in five years, several newspapers will no longer be able to circulate in print.
2) Cultural – There is also a shift from a paid to a free journalism model. Traditional media outlets argue that the only way to guarantee quality content is to charge for it. They just don't mention that most of the cost comes from the printing process – not from the journalistic production itself.
3) Politics – In Latin America, the political axis has undeniably shifted from the center-right to the center-left in the last decade. And this has generated social well-being. However, the major media outlets, which built their empires in the past, still carry a certain nostalgia for a more aristocratic era, in which media families dictated the public agenda.
In the digital age, the reader is in control. And traditional companies are threatened by inevitable changes. That's why not only Veja, but everyone is afraid.