Compiled with the help of Rodrigo Carro Financial journalist and former Reuters Institute Journalist Fellow.

Tensions between the far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and the press remain high after more than a year in office. In a market still largely dominated by commercial television broadcasters, TV news reach is being challenged by social media.

Note: Data are from more urban areas, rather than a fully nationally representative sample. These will tend to represent richer and more connected users.

Top Brands

Changing Media

For the first time since the survey started, social media overtook television in terms of media consumption for news. Smartphones news use is stable, while the use of computers declined. Print readership has halved since 2013 and the COVID-19 crisis is likely to hit the sector hard.

Trust

Trust in news overall improved slightly after a significant contraction last year amid an atmosphere of political polarisation following the election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. Tensions between the president and the press remain high, with a recent National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj) report showing that he made 116 verbal attacks on journalists last year.