Public Sphere and Political Communication Changes in Latin America

Digital Media and Democracy in Brazil and Mexico

Resumen

Digital media has brought consequences for democracies around the world. The ways media systems’ changes affect different contexts are a rich object of analysis favoring comparative perspectives. This essay deals with the Brazilian and Mexican cases. In the first case, we point to fake news, radicalization, and equalization as new implications for Brazil’s democratic dynamics. In the second, we focus on how Mexico’s government captured the country’s public sphere using digital media. Comparing the two scenarios, we make final considerations related to populism, the role of the media, and the use of digital media by new or non-conventional actors.