Mapping the Media in the Americas

Today in the Western Hemisphere, media play an increasingly important role in transmitting information that citizens in a democratic society require to make informed decisions. Citizens receive information about candidates and election logistics, are informed of public services and government policy, and learn about current events in their communities, countries and the world, all from the media.

Creating an environment that promotes and enables the media to fulfill the functions required in a democratic society is an ongoing process and one that is impossible without information and analysis about the media industry and its interaction with other social and political variables.  Despite this need, there continues to be an absence of accurate information about the media in many countries throughout the Americas. Little is publicly known about the ownership structure of the media, the impact of media messaging on the vote, or the effect of media concentration and its potential threat to the diversity of ideas, freedom of expression and access to information.

The Mapping the Media in the Americas project was launched in 2004 in an effort to foster transparency  around the role and connection of media and democracy and provide basic information necessary to further investigate these important issues. The project set out to map the location, coverage and ownership structure of the media (television, radio, cable and print media) in 12 countries in the Western Hemisphere, along with key complementary information on election results, political finance and demographics. Since then, maps of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay have been created and are now available at www.mediamap.info.