Conclusion
The media landscape of Nicaragua is polarised in three factions: On one side are the media controlled by the presidential family and on the other side those considered as independent. In between, the group of private media controlled by Mexican businessman Luis Angel González.
Television is the media of choice, while radio is mainly used to listen to music, to send greetings and messages and generally for entertainment. Yet, as it has been observed, Nicaragua’s new audience is more critical and interactive, increasingly demanding active communication from the media. This is why social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, are emerging at a national level, with a growth among young generations bringing their audience very close to that of television in terms of numbers.
However their popularity has increased the dissemination of fake news and the influence of political power, which has historically taken advantage of the means of communication to reach a greater number of followers. To address these issues, universities and journalist organisations seek to train new media professionals so that they can make efficient use of social networks when reporting for their outlets of provenance. It must be also noted that the issue of fake news mainly concerns social networks and digital outlets more than traditional media, which are still considered to be reliable sources.
The main loser in this landscape is the written press. The number of daily copies printed is decreasing along with sales, which have dropped by more than half as of 2019. For this reason the only two newspapers La Prensa and El Nuevo Diario started selling their content on the Internet.