Free-to-air television's decades-long dominance in the Brazilian media market continues to be challenged by digital platforms, as audiences consume more audio and video content from streaming services. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are being incorporated slowly but steadily into the daily activities of major media outlets.

The use of AI in Brazilian newsrooms spans an increasingly wide range of applications, including speeding up the translation of agency articles, transforming written content into short videos, and producing insights from vast amounts of unstructured data. The newspaper O Globo, for example, published a series of stories based on 600,000 speeches made in the House of Representatives and the Senate between 2001 and 2024. Over 255 million words and expressions were evaluated during four months using AI tools. Some of the country's leading media groups, including Grupo Estado and Grupo Globo, issued guidelines on using the technology, emphasising that editorial uses of generative AI should always be under direct human supervision. 

The discussion about the potential impact of artificial intelligence also reached the political arena. In December 2024, the Senate passed a bill regulating the development and use of AI in Brazil. The legislative proposal, which foresees copyright payment for content used to train artificial intelligence models, is now pending in the House of Representatives.

After a failed attempt to regulate social media in 2023, the topic gained momentum again last year when Brazil’s supreme court ordered a nationwide suspension of Elon Musk’s social network X. Judge Alexandre de Moraes banned it from operating after the company defied court orders regarding the removal of accounts blamed for disinformation. X was unavailable for more than a month but resumed service in October after the company met its legal obligations, including paying fines and blocking certain users.¹ While it was offline, Bluesky gained millions of users, at one point getting more than a million new users in just three days, but it is still no match for X in terms of popularity.

The tussle between Musk and Moraes gained huge press attention – Moraes has been vocal in defending social media regulation in order to hold digital platforms accountable for falsehoods, but some legal experts are worried he might be going too far. In August 2024, Judge Moraes ordered the arrest of right-wing bloggers Allan dos Santos and Oswaldo Eustáquio on accusations that both disseminated falsehoods on social media in an attempt to intimidate federal police authorities. Both are supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro; both have now left the country. The Economist Intelligence Unit moved Brazil from 51st to 57th spot in its Democracy Index 2024, suggesting that Moraes’s rulings could have a 'chilling effect on freedom of speech’.

In another episode that highlights concern about the political impact of social media in Brazil, an avalanche of digital misinformation forced the government in January to withdraw a new set of regulations aimed at combating tax evasion. Misinformation shared on social networks sparked concerns that, with the new rules, instant money transfers would be taxed – an entirely false claim. A video posted by right-wing lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira slamming the regulation amassed more than 300 million views on Instagram. Ferreira has more than 17 million followers on the Meta platform. 

Investigations into an alleged military coup attempt plotted by former President Bolsonaro and some of his top officials were an omnipresent theme in legacy media throughout 2024. But the subject lost ground in terms of media coverage following the inauguration of Donald Trump, as the US president announced tariffs on Brazil and other countries. However, the outcome of legal proceedings against Bolsonaro and 33 people charged in connection with the alleged coup plot to overthrow the government elected in 2022 will doubtless remain in the headlines in the year ahead.

The leading newspapers Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo are tackling digitalisation by creating a wide array of podcasts, with varying degrees of success. More recently, they’ve been investing in bi-weekly, and even daily, videocasts. A survey conducted by the Brazilian Association of Podcasters (ABPod) recently estimated the number of podcast listeners at almost 32 million, with video accounting for 42% of content production.²

Meanwhile, news consumption through television continued its downward trajectory, after being challenged by social networks and the growing popularity of YouTube. Last year marked the passing of legendary TV host and media mogul Silvio Santos, aged 93. Santos rose from humble origins to become the owner of SBT, one of the largest TV broadcasters in Brazil.

Rodrigo Carro
Financial journalist and former Reuters Institute Journalist Fellow

Trust in news (42%) seems to have settled into a ‘new normal’, with levels stabilising over the past three years. This after trust fell by 20pp between 2015 and 2023, a period characterised by growing political polarisation. The big TV news brands tend to attract most trust with audiences followed by newspapers of record such as O Globo, O Estado de S.Paulo, and Folha de S.Paulo.

Footnotes