Communication Dynamics in Galapagos Islands: An Analysis of Perceptions in 2023

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-254-5_6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Mass Media; Social Networks; Galapagos

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the communication dynamics and the most used means of communication in the 4 populated islands of the Galapagos archipelago, Ecuador. Its 33,000 inhabitants live with limited access to quality telecommunications services and very few media compared to the mainland. During February 2023, 130 anonymous surveys and 20 structured interviews were carried out in the populated centers of the 4 populated islands: Isabela, Floreana, Santa Cruz and San Cristobal. The results of this diagnosis show that the use of social networks and instant messaging via WhatsApp progressed with the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing the risk of misinformation on the islands. The radio stations of each island continue to be the means of communication most broadly used by the adult public, but there are very few communications between islands or with the mainland through traditional media. After approaching the local radio stations and other scarce island digital media, it was identified that the media ecosystem in Galapagos generally lacks professional communicators. Local media depends on institutional advertising or paid programming, they do not promote the development of their own reports or investigative journalism, and their newscasts are based on interviews with political actors or local official sources and on press releases issued by public and private institutions present in the archipelago. In conclusion, the journalistic exercise in Galapagos is precarious at a professional level and communication is mainly reduced to social media specialized groups, meaning the population has adapted to the lack of local media.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Tania Orbe
AU  - Eric Samson
AU  - Luis Luengo
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/10/03
TI  - Communication Dynamics in Galapagos Islands: An Analysis of Perceptions in 2023
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Communication and Applied Technologies 2023 (ICOMTA 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 46
EP  - 57
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-254-5_6
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-254-5_6
ID  - Orbe2023
ER  -