Venezuela leads Latin America with the largest number of imprisoned journalists and extreme government-led media censorship. Our in-depth interviews with 25 Venezuelan journalists reveal that assisting journalists to combat government control are social media and technology platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter, which, in Venezuela, have moved beyond their ability to share and mobilise, and have become tactical media, the media of crisis criticism and opposition.
BoasTC (2005) Television and neopopulism in Latin America: Media effects in Brazil and Peru. Latin American Research Review40: 27–49.
2.
BrowneK (2005) Snowball sampling: Using social networks to research non-heterosexual women. International Journal of Social Research Methodology8(1): 47–60.
3.
CabreraS (2010) The informative agenda of Venezuelan television during the coup d’etat of April 2002. An analysis under the informative dimension of the Agenda Setting process. Unpublished Doctorate Thesis, Rostock University, Germany.
4.
CañizálezA (2014) The state in pursuit of hegemony over the media: The Chávez model. In: GuerreroMAMárquez-RamírezM (eds) Media Systems and Communication Policies in Latin America. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.157–177.
5.
CarlsonM (2018) Facebook in the news: Social media, journalism, and public responsibility following the 2016 trending topics controversy. Digital Journalism6(1): 4–20.
6.
ChadhaKSteinerL (2015) The potential and limitations of citizen journalism initiatives: Chhattisgarh’s CGNet Swara. Journalism Studies16(5): 706–718.
7.
CockburnP (2011) The night I shot Donald Trump. The Independent, Sunday, 8May, p. 35.
CoppedgeM (1994) Strong Parties and Lame Ducks: Presidential Partyarchy and Factionalism in Venezuela. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp.35–36.
12.
CorbinJStraussA (2008) Strategies for qualitative data analysis. In: Basics of Qualitative Research. Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory, 3rd edn.Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, pp.100–108.
13.
CreswellJW (2011) Controversies in mixed methods research. In: DenzinNKLincolnYS (eds) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, 4th edn.Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, pp.269–284.
14.
de CerteauM (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
15.
DingesJ (2005) Soul Search. Columbia Journalism Review44(2): 52–58.
16.
ForelleMHowardPMonroy-HernándezA, et al. (2015) Political bots and the manipulation of public opinion in Venezuela. arXiv preprint, arXiv:1507.07109.
GruzdATsyganovaK (2015) Information wars and online activism during the 2013/2014 crisis in Ukraine: Examining the social structures of pro- and anti-maidan groups. Policy & Internet7(2): 121–158.
22.
GuerreroMMárquez-RamírezM (eds) (2014) Media Systems and Communication Policies in Latin America. New york, NY: Springer.
23.
HemsleyJJacobsonJGruzdA, et al. (2018) Social Media for social good or Evil: An Introduction. Social Media + Society4(3): 2056305118786719.
KavadaA (2015) Creating the collective: social media, the Occupy movement and its constitution as a collective actor. Information Communication & Society18(8): 872–886.
27.
LewisSC (2012) The tension between professional control and open participation: Journalism and its boundaries. Information Communication & Society15(6): 836–866.
28.
Lugo-OcandoJ (2008) An introduction to the maquilas of power: Media and political transition in Latin America. In: Lugo-OcandoJ (ed.) The Media in Latin America. Maidenhead; New York: Open University Press, p.275.
29.
MartensCVivaresEMcChesneyR (eds) (2014) The International Political Economy of Communication: Media and Power in South America. London: Springer.
30.
McCrackenG (1988) The Long Interview, vol. 13. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
31.
MeikleG (2014) Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet. New York, NY: Routledge.
NelsonBA (2009) The Silence and the Scorpion : The Coup Against Chávez and the Making of Modern Venezuela, online edn. New York, NY: Nation Books, pp.1–8.
OpgenhaffenMScheerlinckH (2014) Social media guidelines for journalists: An investigation into the sense and nonsense among Flemish journalists. Journalism Practice8(6): 726–741.
39.
PlasJMKvaleSA (1996) Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Reporters Without Borders (2018a) Venezuela: Ever more authoritarian. Available at: https://rsf.org/en/venezuela (accessed 24 October 2018).
46.
SaldañaMHiggins JoyceVDMSchmitz WeissA, et al. (2017) Sharing the stage: Analysis of social media adoption by Latin American journalists. Journalism Practice11(4): 396–416.
SwansonDManciniP (1996) Politics, Media, and Modern Democracy: An International Study of Innovations in Electoral Campaigning and Their Consequences. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, p.240.
WallMOtis CampbellMJanbekD (2017) Syrian refugees and information precarity. New Media & Society19(2): 240–254.
52.
WallMZahedSE (2015) Embedding content from Syrian citizen journalists: The rise of the collaborative news clip. Journalism16(2): 163–180.
53.
WeaverDHWillnatL (2016) Changes in US journalism: How do journalists think about social media?Journalism Practice10(7): 844–855.
54.
WeisbrotMRuttenbergT (2010) Television in Venezuela: Who Dominates the Media? Washington, DC: Venezuela Analysis.
55.
Whitten-WoodringJJamesP (2012) Fourth estate or mouthpiece? A formal model of media, protest, and government repression. Political Communication29(2): 113–136.
