Media Professionals and Democratic Resilience in the Global South: Navigating Information Disorder and Social Entropy

Gautam Gogoi, Bikika Laloo Tariang, Nikita Biswakarma

Abstract


This paper examines how media professionals in the Global South defend democratic values amid a systemic crisis of information disorder and social entropy. It argues that this crisis is not accidental but a structured phenomenon shaped by digital disruption, colonial legacies in the political economy of news, and escalating polarization. Case studies from India, the Philippines, Brazil, Nigeria, and Kenya demonstrate how political actors exploit these vulnerabilities to undermine democratic institutions. Journalists on the front lines face a three-pronged assault: economic precarity that enables media capture, physical violence sustained by impunity, and state repression through legal and digital controls. Despite these threats, media professionals have forged innovative counter-offensives, including fact-checking coalitions, technology-driven monitoring, grassroots media literacy, and efforts to decolonize journalistic practice. The paper concludes that safeguarding democracy requires a coordinated, multi-stakeholder approach to building sustainable, independent, and context-sensitive media ecosystems across the Global South.

Keywords


Information Disorder, Social Entropy, Media Resilience, Global South, Press Freedom, Political Polarization, Media Literacy, State Repression

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References


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