No abstract

En este artículo efectuamos un análisis crítico de 132 publicaciones recientes sobre la crisis de la prensa escrita. Encontramos que la discusión sobre el fenómeno se ha organizado principalmente en torno a tres grupos temáticos: la dimensión económica y financiera para entender la crisis, la descripción y el análisis de las dinámicas laborales de los periodistas, y el posible impacto de la crisis en el rol social y los valores de la prensa. Las investigaciones han sido heterogéneas en cuanto a sus enfoques conceptuales y al conjunto de técnicas utilizadas: fundamentalmente estudios de caso y, en menor medida, estudios comparativos. Además, se han centrado principalmente en las dimensiones productivas de la información, dejando mayormente de lado la recepción de las noticias y el consumo de diario en papel. Finalmente, en el artículo esbozamos un marco posible para repensar la crisis, pero también una agenda de investigación futura, desde y en Latinoamérica.

How and why do people still get print newspapers in an era dominated by mobile and social media communication? In this article, we answer this question about the permanence of traditional media in a digital media ecosystem by analyzing 488 semi-structured interviews conducted in Argentina, Finland, Israel, Japan, and the United States. We focus on three mechanisms of media reception: access, sociality, and ritualization. Our findings show that these mechanisms are decisively shaped by patterns of everyday life that are not captured by the scholarly foci on either content- or technology-influences on media use. Thus, we argue that a non-media centric approach improves descriptive fit and adds heuristic power by bringing a wider lens into crucial mechanisms of media reception in ways that expand the conceptual toolkit that scholars can utilize to analyze the role of media in everyday life.

This research examines the role of gender and class inequalities in the experience of reading print newspapers. We draw on data from two complementary sources: a survey of news, technology and entertainment consumption ( n = 700) administered in the greater Buenos Aires area, and 158 semi-structured interviews conducted in the City of Buenos Aires and other towns in Argentina. Our findings indicate that although news consumption in general appears to be evenly distributed, with no significant gaps according to age, gender, education and socioeconomic status, print newspaper consumption seems to be the preserve of older, more affluent, mostly male audiences in ways that reinforce patriarchal family patterns – it is usually husbands and fathers who decide for the entire household which newspaper is purchased and when that takes place. In addition, newspaper reading is carried on by those at the top of the income-earning pyramid, and reinforces class status mainly due to the persistent associations between newspaper readership, civic duty, and professional prestige. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of these trends for print newspapers and their role in society.