Emergence of Rebellious Digital Press in Chile: Divergence, Engagement and Impact

Abstract

This paper examines the divergence and impact of Chilean news media and their uses of Facebook as a tool to deliver news and information and engagement with their audience. It also looks at the emergence of new digital media organizations during the last decade in Chile as a response to a concentrated duopoly market in the country. To do so, this paper considers notions of technological and cultural innovation in the newsroom and the concept of media convergence form a technological point of view to explain the current situation of media and journalists’ habit us. Following Pavlik’s idea that “journalism has always been shaped by technology” (2000, p. 229), this article discusses that both new and old media had been influenced by the current state of the technology, and today they have to standardize their practices in order to maintain a fluent communication between the audiences and the news industry. Therefore, this article supposes that the convergence of digital practicesdoes not only affect journalism as a profession, but also present a challenge to transform the way journalism is practice and the way news worker do their jobs. A case study of Chilean media organizations is used to illustrate the change in the relationship between news and their public.