Instagram and TikTok have become the main gateway to information for young Latin Americans, who today receive information in a fragmented way between memes, short videos and content defined by algorithms, according to a study published in Bogotá this Wednesday.
The research, titled ‘Transitions: emerging information consumption in communication students in Latin America’, was carried out by the Red Internacional Investigar en Red in collaboration with the Politécnico Grancolombiano University and was based on the responses of nearly 3,000 students from 33 higher education institutions in the region.
The study shows an accelerated transformation in youth information routines, marked by rapid, visual and unplanned consumption, in which news appears mixed with entertainment and personal content within social networks.
“The majority of young people do not actively seek information, but instead come across news while browsing,” the report states.
Short and direct formats
According to the research, short and direct formats – such as short videos, synthesized headlines and pieces that “get to the point” – are the most valued and serve as the main point of contact with current events, in an environment where capturing attention in a few seconds is decisive.
However, this preference for brevity does not imply a rejection of depth because when a topic arouses interest, many young people expand the information on platforms such as YouTube or podcasts, where they find slower and closer explanations.
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Regarding informative language, young people favor informal, authentic and accessible styles, which brings them closer to content creators who explain current events in a conversational way.
In this context, humor and memes appear as resources that facilitate entry into complex topics and function as triggers for a subsequent search for information.
Ambivalent relationship with traditional media
Although young people recognize the credibility and institutional weight of traditional media, they also perceive them as repetitive, politicized or excessively negative.
Despite this, they turn to the press, radio and television when they need to verify data or understand facts with greater context.
The report concludes that journalism faces the challenge of adapting to an ecosystem dominated by brevity and algorithmic personalization, without giving up quality or trust, in a scenario where the news no longer comes from a newscast, but appears between a ‘scroll’, a meme or microvideos.
With information from EFE
