Quality,Innovation, and Financial Sustainability |
| |
| Authors: | Summer Harlow |
| |
| Institution: | School of Communication, Florida State University, USA (Current affiliation: University of Houston, USA). |
| |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurial, independent digital media sites arose in response to disruption in the journalism industry brought on by emerging technologies. This study explores this trend in Latin America from the perspective of audiences. Based on surveys of readers of entrepreneurial digital news sites in Guatemala and Nicaragua, this mixed-methods study offers a snapshot of who these readers are and what they are interested in. Results showed readers of the Guatemalan and Nicaraguan news sites valued equally quality journalism and innovation, but differed when it came to the importance they placed on the sites’ business models. This study also illuminated a new dimension of innovation, one from the readers’ perspective. While some respondents associated innovation with use of new technologies, in general readers defined innovation as unique (to the region) and alternative (to mainstream media) ways of doing journalism; their definition, unlike that of journalists, was not necessarily technologically driven. |
| |
| Keywords: | Central America digital-native media entrepreneurial journalism innovation surveys |
|
|
