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Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
ISSN: 1575-2844 http://doi.org/10.15178/va.2021.154.e1302
RESEARCH
THE «VENTRILOQUIST EFFECT» OF THE INTERNATIONAL
NEWS AGENCIES. THEORETICAL REVIEW AND INCIDENCE ON
NEW FORMS OF MISINFORMATION
El «efecto ventrilocuo» en las agencias internacionales de noticias. Revisión
teórica e incidencia en las nuevas formas de desinformación
Sabina Civila
1
. University of Huelva. Spain.
sabicivila@gmail.com
Bárbara Castillo-Abdul. Rey Juan Carlos University. Spain.
barbaracastilloabdul@gmail.com
Luis Miguel Romero-Rodríguez. Rey Juan Carlos University. Spain.
lromero2021@gmail.com
This work is supported by the R+D+I Project (2019-2021), entitled "Youtubers and Instagramers: Media
competition in emerging prosumers" with code RTI2018-093303-B-I00, funded by the Ministry of Science,
Innovation, and Universities of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by the R+D+I
Project (2020-2022), entitled “Instagramers and Youtubers for the transmedia empowerment of Andalusian
citizens. The media competence of instatubers”, with code P18-RT-756, funded by the Junta de Andalucía, in the
2018 call (Andalusian Research, Development, and Innovation Plan, 2020) and the European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF).
How to cite this article:
ABSTRACT
This research reflects, from a theoretical perspective, how most of the international
events that reach the rest of the media are disseminated through news agencies, causing
1Sabina Civila: Investigadora Predoctoral FPI en el Departamento de Pedagogía de la Universidad de
Huelva. Doctoranda en el programa Interuniversitario de Comunicación (UHU) en la línea de
Educomunicación.
Received: 20/01/2021 --- Accepted: 16/03/2021 --- Published: 10/05/2021
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M. (2021). The «ventrilocuo
effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence on new
forms of misinformation. Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación, 154, 25-45.
http://doi.org/10.15178/va.2021.154.e1302
http://www.vivatacademia.net/index.php/vivat/article/view/1302
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
26
Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
the well-known «ventriloquist effect»: multiple media, a single voice; and explores how
online platforms have fostered this phenomenon, causing a structural increase in
misinformation. In this sense, the research aims to understand the development of the
«ventriloquist effect» with the progress of «new media» and, as a consequence, the
increase of disinformation. For this grounded theory documentary analysis, the
methodological procedure was based on the bibliographic review of the literature in the
international reference databases (WoS and Scopus), carrying out an analysis of primary
studies to synthesize the information. The results indicate, among other issues, that
social networks foster spaces of structural misinformation in the current ecosystem. In
conclusion, the relationship between the "ventriloquist effect" and misinformation,
which arises from reticularly and information-digital decentralization, is determined.
KEYWORDS: Social networks - digital media - communication - ventriloquist effect –
fake news - digital age - citizen participation - digital press – media literacy
RESUMEN
Esta investigación reflexiona, desde una perspectiva teórica, cómo a través de las
agencias de noticias se difunden la mayoría de los acontecimientos internacionales que
llegan al resto de los medios de comunicación, provocando el conocido «efecto
ventrílocuo»: múltiples medios, una sola voz; y se indaga sobre cómo las plataformas
online han fomentado este fenómeno, provocando un aumento estructural de la
desinformación. En este sentido, la investigación tiene por objetivo conocer el
desarrollo del «efecto ventrílocuo» con el progreso de los «nuevos medios» y como
consecuencia, el aumento de la desinformación. Para este análisis documental de teoría
fundamentada, el procedimiento metodológico se ha basado en la revisión
bibliográfica de la literatura en las bases de datos internacionales de referencia (WoS y
Scopus), realizando un análisis de estudios primarios, con el fin de sintetizar la
información. Los resultados indican, entre otras cuestiones, que las redes sociales
fomentan espacios de desinformación estructural en el ecosistema actual. En
conclusión, se determina la relación entre el «efecto ventrílocuo» y la desinformación,
que surge como consecuencia de la reticularidad y descentralización informativo-
digital.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Redes sociales- medios digitales - comunicación - efecto
ventrílocuo - desinformación - era digital –participación ciudadana - prensa digital –
educomunicación.
O <<EFEITO VENTRÍLOQUO>> NAS AGÊNCIAS
INTERNACIONAIS DE NOTÍCIAS. REVISÃO TEÓRICA E
INCIDÊNCIA NAS NOVAS FORMAS DE DESINFORMAÇÃO.
RESUMO
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
27
Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
Esta pesquisa reflexiona, desde uma perspectiva teórica, como através das agências de
notícias se difundem a maioria dos acontecimentos internacionais que chegam ao resto
dos meios de comunicação, provocando o conhecido <<efeito ventríloquo>>: vários
meios de comunicação, somente uma voz, e se investiga sobre como as plataformas
online fomentam este fenômeno, causando um aumento estrutural da desinformação.
Neste sentido, a pesquisa tem por objetivo conhecer o desenvolvimento do <<efeito
ventríloquo>> com o crescimento dos <<novos meios de comunicação>>e como
consequência, o aumento da desinformação. Para esta análise documental de teoria
fundamentada, o procedimento metodológico foi a revisão bibliográfica da literatura
com as bases internacionais de referência(Wos e Scopus), fazendo uma análise de
estudos primários, com a finalidade de sintetizar a informação. Os resultados indicam,
entre outras questões, que as redes sociais fomentam espaços de desinformação
estrutural no ecossistema atual. Como conclusão, se determina a relação entre o «efeito
ventríloquo» e a desinformação que surge como consequência da reticularidade e
descentralização informativa-digital.
PALAVRAS CHAVE
Redes sociais - meios digitais - comunicação - efeito ventríloquo - desinformação - era
digital - participação cidadã - imprensa digital - educomunicação.
Translation by Paula González (Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Venezuela)
1. INTRODUCTION
News agencies are companies dedicated to preparing information and marketing it
(Bustor and Pastor, 1995). Starting from this premise, it can be said that the spectrum
of plurality is limited, giving way to what is known as the «ventriloquist effect»:
“multiple media, one voice” (Arráez, 1998). In other words, despite the existence of a
large number of media, most of the international information comes from the same
sources, either due to a reduction of their own correspondents or due to the inability
of the media to have ubiquitous journalists.
As a consequence, the information sent to the reader is weakened by three aspects:
(1) ethnocentric bias, (2) handling of other sources, and (3) the agenda-setting effect.
With the emergence and rise of the Internet and, therefore, digital newspapers and
social networks, the “ventriloquist effect” has increased in scope and impact, which
has generated consequences such as the expansion of biases. These concepts will be
the object of study in the text, reflecting on the relationship between ventriloquist
bypass and misinformation due to biases in the information age.
In this sense, documentary research is carried out that begins with the review of
recent academic studies and literature, which allows framing the research,
substantiating the field of study, and understanding the consequences derived from
the "ventriloquist effect" in the digital ecosystem. For this, an exploration of the WoS
and Scopus databases was carried out, under the search term misinformation and
news agencies. Once the primary list was obtained (nSUM=11274), the search was
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
28
Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
limited only to social science journals from 2015 to 2020 by criteria of thematic
relevance, emerging a total of 2089 documents. Once the first phase was carried out, a
second screening of the literature review and based theory was carried out, with which
the same epistemological, ontological, and theoretical forms would be correlated. All
this, through the analysis of content with an interpretative basis.
The results obtained indicate how the "ventriloquist effect" constitutes a dominant
idea, hidden under a supposed plurality that in reality is nothing more than the
paraphrase of different agencies and that is aggravated by the reach that the online
media and the lack of media literacy of the audiences can have, regarding criteria of
informative interpretation and understanding of biases.
Thus, the main objective of this research is to know the theoretical development and
impact on the communicative praxis of the «ventriloquist effect» concerning the
progress of new media, as well as to identify the increase in misinformation due to
biases as a consequence of the reticularity of the digital ecosystem, thus arising the
main research question (RQ1) how does digital evolution influence misinformation
and the ventriloquist effect?
2. MATERIALS AND METHOD
This research is exploratory and descriptive, establishing as a field of analysis the
impact of news from the same source (international news agency) and the relevance
that misinformation acquires due to biases with this phenomenon in the digital field.
To achieve the proposed objectives, a review of the current literature (2015-2020) on
digital media and disinformation is carried out. The development of the study is
structured in three phases: (i) Design the search strategy, (ii) the compilation of
specialized literature on new forms of misinformation, and, (iii) the analysis of the
extracted information.
To design the search strategy, the keywords that are related to the object of study
were identified, which makes it possible to delimit the number of articles resulting
from the preliminary search. Once the search criteria misinformation was carried out,
the selected words were: misinformation, digital media, news agencies, “ventriloquist
effect”, social networks, and digital age. That is, after the first initial scan, those
documents in which the previous words emerged were selected.
The reason why “misinformation” is selected as the search object instead of
“ventriloquism” is because when searching only for ventriloquism effect, most of the
resulting literature is related to studies on ventriloquism (the art of modifying and
imitating voices and sounds) since the term, although it has been used for more than
a decade, is not universalized in the scientific community of communication and
journalism.
This documentary review was carried out in scientific databases, following an order
by impact, starting with the main collection of the Web of Science (WoS) followed by
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
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Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
Scopus. These two databases are chosen as they are international and with selective
procedures based on quantitative impacts (citations), understanding that the emerging
documents in these repositories have had prior control, peer review, and scientific
visibility.
Exploration was carried out selecting the period 2015-2020 to provide the research
with a novel framework and detect the current development of the literature on this
subject in the last five years (see figure 1). To search, the following selection criteria
were taken into account:
a. Thematic relationship: 6525 documents were analyzed in Scopus and 4749 in
WoS, refining only those related to the object of study (Social Sciences-
Communication area, type of document article, and journal source). After this
screening, 1044 are selected in Scopus and 1049 in WoS.
b. Due to the novelty of the article: For this, the search was limited to the years
2015-2020, and the number of emergent citations in WoS and Scopus was taken
into account, with special emphasis on the most innovative. The geographical
scope is not delimited, considering all emerging documents, after screening,
regardless of their origin.
c. Due to its quantitative impact: The most cited (organization) were taken into
account. 18 documents emerge, of which only those with more than 20 citations
are selected. Although the newest articles (for example 2018-2020) are indeed
less likely to have this high-for-the-area number of citations, the citations
criterion is important because it shows that the article has become a research
reference for academics.
In Scopus, the search criterion misinformation was carried out. Following the same
dynamics as for WoS, for the refinement of the research, we opted for the selection of
emerging documents 2015-2020, from the area of Social Sciences, type of document
article, and type of source journals. Before the first screening, 6,525 documents
emerged, which after refining became 1044. For its part, the same criteria were applied
in the Web of Science (WoS), reflecting 4,749 documents in the first screening. For the
filtering, the period 2015-2020 was selected, only in the thematic area of
Communication, type of article document, obtaining 1,049 documents from this
screening (see figure 1).
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
30
Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
Figure 1. Emerging documents in WoS and Scopus (2015 - 2020)
Once the first screening was carried out, we selected those research that included
the keywords: misinformation, digital media, news agencies, «ventriloquist effect»,
social networks, and digital era in the «topic» or metadata (title, abstract, and/or
keywords). With these documents, a review of the literature and based theory was
carried out, with which the same epistemological, ontological, and theoretical forms
would be correlated.
The analysis consisted of an objective and exhaustive reading of the documents
resulting from the selection criteria used, through a mapping or revision matrix, to
reach the most relevant literature, extracting that information referring to our search
criteria and that lead us to the stated objectives. To carry out this data analysis, the
procedure used has been based on the content analysis with an interpretative basis,
justified as a qualitative instrument for collecting information.
3. RESULTS
3.1. News agencies
News agencies are the least studied media in Social Sciences, because of their origin,
the service to other media, acting as intermediaries between events and information
companies (Jiménez, 2011). Along these lines, De Bustos and Pastor (1995, p. 21) affirm
that "news agencies are the companies that are mainly dedicated to the elaboration of
all kinds of information to be sold later". Jiménez (2011), as a result of the classification
of the aforementioned authors, and according to various functions, makes a more
current classification (table 1):
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Scopus WoS
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
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Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
Table 1. Classification of international news agencies
By geographical area
By type of information
By property
International
They are those that began as
national agencies and made
the leap to
internationalization, hiring
journalists abroad to market
their content outside the
country
General
information
They are those that report about
any type of event
Public
They are completely
publicly owned, or
the majority of their
shares or
participation.
Global
They are those that have
coverage in all countries.
They have a large number of
correspondents and,
therefore, have a greater
chance of obtaining
newsworthy events.
Of specific
information
They focus their activity on
specific information.
Private
They are those whose
property belongs to a
natural or legal
person of a private
nature.
National
According to the definition of
UNESCO in 1953, these
agencies are those that only
collect national news and
distribute them in those
countries where they have
headquarters.
News agencies
In charge of sending news,
chronicles, reports, interviews to
the media.
Regional
Two elements are essential to
consider an agency as
regional, according to
Jiménez (2011): First, most of
the capital must belong to
entities, shareholders, or
participants of the
community itself. On the
other hand, the news of this
media outlet should be
focused on the regional or
local community.
Photography
agencies
They offer photographic and
visual elements.
Infographic
agencies
They are in charge of distributing
infographics and graphics to the
media.
File
agencies
They provide cuts and
documentation that have been the
result of previous interviews or
shows.
Documentation
agencies
They are specialized in preparing
data for sale to the media.
Source: Self-made based on De Bustos and Pastor (1995) and Jiménez (2011)
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
32
Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
The battle of the agencies for the coverage of international news is fought
fundamentally between four big houses: Associated Press, Reuters, France Press, and the
national one EFE (Gelado, 2009).
Any media professional or communication scholar knows that the role of press
agencies in the Spanish and world media panorama is much more important than it
transcends to the general public. Without them, the multiplicity of information and
entertainment to which mass communication has been subjected in recent years would
be difficult to understand (Frost, 2019). However, the fact that they have offered such
an exercise from birth to their powerful present, does not mean that they have not
brought a good number of consequences of doubtful desirability (Gelado, 2009).
An example of a negative consequence due to the indiscriminate use of news
agencies is that most of the large Spanish and foreign newspapers are fed by several
news agencies, but none of them is outside the western sphere (the example could be
extrapolated beyond our borders with a high probability of success); therefore, the
ethnocentric bias is guaranteed (Gelado, 2009). As Muro Benayas assures (2006, p. 22):
[…] Although impartiality and rigor are attributes that are part of the
imagination of all agencies, their practice is associated with a certain
worldview -Anglo-Saxon, Arab, Latin American, or Asian- that hovers
above the neutrality of its editors.
All this, in practice, translates not only into a much lower volume of news for certain
parts of the planet, which could be justified by the proximity criterion but also in the
creation of certain stereotypes referring to other cultures, at the same time that it
results in the difficulty of elaborating an honest portrait of the countries and cultures
with the scarce number of news articles dedicated to them (Gelado, 2009).
Chomsky and Herman (1990, p. 69) state:
“The mass media model acts as a propaganda asset through various filters,
among which the following stand out: 1) the size, concentration of ownership,
and orientation of the dominant companies, 2) advertising as a source of
income, 3) the dependence of the media towards the government and/or
companies, and, 4) the action of pressure groups on journalists”.
Similarly, the news that comes from international agencies and media outlets have
a certain influence on the impressions and attitudes of the people who receive the
message towards the country to which they refer (Camacho Domínguez, Romero-
Rodríguez, and Aguaded, 2018), especially because most audiences do not have access
to the plurality of information on international events (Wu, 1998; López-García, 2006;
Torres-Toukoumidis et al., 2017.
Ultimately, the only way to neutralize the bias effect of the agencies would be either
to multiply their number, diversify their origin, or make more domestic media
completely independent of their influence, even if this would imply getting rid of the
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
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Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
obsession with immediacy in which the vast majority has been immersed for some
time (Gelado, 2009).
3.2. The "ventriloquist effect"
After delving into news agencies and understanding what their most significant
tasks are, it is understood that these organizations easily determine the nature of the
international public, as well as public affairs and their treatment (priming, framing,
and gatekeeping) with consequences such as the spiral of silence (Day, 2018) or the
bandwagon effect. This is because both journalists and the public trust them basically
because they dominate news distribution channels (Tunstall, 2008), that is, their
credibility is based on the very foundations of their exercise (Rivera-Rogel et al., 2017;
Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Rivera-Rogel, and Romero-Rodríguez, 2020).
The “ventriloquist effect” according to Arraez (1998) is defined as “multiple media,
one voice”, that is, as a selection of news that is broadcast through multiple media, but
that comes from the same agency (paraphrased or not). Advances in studies on the
«ventriloquist effect» have led other authors to generate new definitions such as the
one offered by Torres-Toukoumidis et al., (2017) or Tejedor-Calvo et al. (2020) who
defend that this effect consists of informational perspectives that are based on public
opinion due to the lack of capacity of the media to generate other frames. With the
development of technologies, the concept is questioned and new ideas arise such as
the one proposed by Day (2018), which defines the «ventriloquist effect» as a political,
economic, and cultural dominance that has been in continuous growth and is in crisis
due to the emergence of new digital voices. Likewise, along the same lines, Frost (2019)
states that it is a threat to democracies, the plurality of thought, and the quality of
information, considering it a source of misinformation due to bias that must be
detected.
The economic crisis that began in 2008 was a severe blow to the media, news
agencies, and advertising in general. In Spain, between 2008 and 2013, a total of 284
media outlets were closed because advertising investment had fallen by more than
50%, generating economic losses and eliminating 11,151 jobs (Madrid Press
Association, 2013). As a consequence of this decline, the media chose to reduce
production costs, reducing their circulation and production, dispensing with their
workers abroad -correspondents-, going to international news agencies, and migrating
to digital platforms, which strongly affected the informative quality and result of the
final news of the media (De-Pablos & Mateos-Martín, 2004).
Due to the support of the media in international news agencies throughout this
period, it is essential to highlight the current role of news agencies and transnational
networks in the news oligopoly of matters that go beyond national borders. The
changes that the conventional media are undergoing, such as the press, radio, and
television, compete in the information ecosystem with social networks and digital
media. This situation has forced the national media to reduce the costs of news
production (De-Pablos & Mateos-Martín, 2004), which increases dependence on
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
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Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
international news networks –v.gr. CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, among others– and
international agencies –v.gr. Reuters, AP, AFP, EFE, etc.–. Aspinall (2005) points out
that the national media tend to have a large number of journalists displaced to key
places within the same territory, although the situation changes when it comes to
reporting on foreign affairs because for such tasks, journalists seem incapable of
personally covering the news, either due to the lack of support for coverage outside
their borders or because of the cuts in personnel.
This somehow originates a "ventriloquist effect", in which a single or few
informational perspectives are accepted as true by all the media, due to the inadequacy
of the media system to corroborate the facts with journalists in the place of the events
(Arráez, 1998). This phenomenon could also occur because the different media, as
stated by Rodgers (2003, p. 6), “draw from the same sources”. Other authors, such as
Arroyo and Yus (2007), do not hesitate to affirm that most of what we read in a
newspaper comes from the information that news agencies provide.
For his part, Cooper (1957) referred to this phenomenon in the 20th-century
meridian, when he explained how, at a wedding, the bride asked him what he did:
"Have you heard of the Associated Press?" to which the bride replied, “Of course! –
exclaimed the bride– My husband always reads it. In all the newspapers”. Therefore,
it can be said that these agencies and transnational media determine the agenda-
setting, the framing, and its different versions, generating the opinion matrices of any
event. Although there appears to be a "plurality of biases", in reality, it is nothing more
than the result of their paraphrasing -like a sounding board- in each media outlet or in
the information that is shared through social networks. This is exactly what causes the
«ventriloquist effect», which can be summarized as “multiple media, one voice”
(Arraez, 1998).
[…] This could lead to the unification of informational and programming
criteria, even when editorial lines seem dissimilar, so the multiplicity of
channels or options should not determine informational, ideological, or
freedom of expression pluralism, but that it could rather be a direct
reflection of a greater business concentration of ownership of these media.
This is, at the same time, illegitimate due to its effects, due to the continuous
exercise of a descending linear power that seeks that the receivers act in a
different way than they would with truthful information (Romero, 2011,
p.8).
Along the same lines, Noëlle-Neumann departed, at the beginning of the 70s, of
«consonance» as one of the origins of the uniformity of journalistic information (Dader,
2009). «Consonance» represents the similarity between the ideas, beliefs, and values of
the media, which would explain how under an apparent model of pluralism with a
multitude of headlines, a great homogeneity of topics can be hidden (Noëlle
Neumann, 1973).
This social edge is important in the academic field, not only in the one that is based
on the critical or Marxist theories of communication of Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse,
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
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Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
or Habermas, but also in the one that deals with control, which advances at a dizzying
pace, and the decrease in competition for the globalizing flow that it creates as a
transnational oligopoly of media, increasingly centralized in large conglomerates in
which realities are expressed in a single way of thinking, undermining plurality
(Rubido et al., 2009).
According to Gurevitch, Levy, and Roeh (1991) and Clausen (2004), the coverage of
international news is subject to certain frames, in the sense that international agencies
and media maintain determined cultural inclinations trying to frame (framing),
construct (agenda setting), and estimate-prioritize (priming) events from the dominant
discourse of their audiences, generally from the Western approach, where respect for
Human Rights, democracy, the rule of law, and institutionality, are conclusive
elements in the creation of the discourse. Through framing, the media connects with
the masses, defining the situation of an issue and establishing a position to generate a
debate. Framing allows us to identify how the media address a newsworthy event and,
in turn, determines the effectiveness of the coverage (Nwakpoke, et al., 2020).
Authors such as Seaton (2003) have been interested in the problem of the repetition
of news, a fact that, as mentioned in reference, comes from an excess of trust or even
dependence of the different media with the international news agencies. This situation,
whose consequences in the field of pluralism are as obvious as they are pernicious, is
intensified if we take into account other derived aspects. In particular, 3 aspects that
can weaken the information sent to the reader will be highlighted.
• Ethnocentric bias.
With an ethnocentric bias, we refer to the fact that both the main news agencies and
their audiences are generally Western, so the framing of the news is oriented to a single
society (Sanz, 2007). As Muro Benayas (2006) assures, although objectivity and rigor
are qualities that are part of the values of all agencies, their practice is affiliated with a
certain worldview -Anglo-Saxon, Arab, Latin American, or Asian- which is above the
bias of its editors (Muro Benayas, 2006). This encourages agencies to regularly offer a
different type of coverage for similar events, depending on where they happen on the
globe (Branston & Stafford, 2003).
• Other sources
International news agencies do not tend to ensure that their journalists can witness
all the events they write about (Fenby, 1978). Moreover, when the newsworthy reality
surpasses them, they use the resources of people who are in a position to know what
has happened. An example of this is the case of the magazine Der Spiegel, where one
of its journalists has written manipulated news based on data taken from other media
and film images.
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
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In this regard, Tuchman (1978) states that communication professionals use quotes
as protection to get away from events. This process of transfer of responsibility and
accountability does not have to end here (Bishop, 2001); For this reason, it is not
surprising that in an almost continuous process of paraphrasing, the final reader of a
news item can actually become the last link in a chain of sources that refer to sources
that, in turn, refer to other sources.
Television and radio networks or even Internet portals (Laso & Iglesias, 2002) seem
to be governed even more by the limitations derived from intense competition and the
exacerbated desire for immediacy, so that dependence on agencies can occur with even
greater intensity (Domingo Santamaría, 2006).
• Agenda-setting effect
International news agencies maintain a remote-control system, which has a
consequence that the increasingly high audience is exposed to an increasingly
diminished news agenda (Gelado, 2009). Therefore, if there are fewer "voices" telling
the rest of the media what is news and what is not, there is a greater chance that there
will be a greater number of events that remain outside the news agenda (priming that
generates gatekeeping and, in derivation, volitional omission and censorship). As a
consequence, it seems that the reality is that only a small number of events become
reviewed news (Hall, 1973).
On the other hand, the reiteration of the speeches in each one of the media outlets
only reduces pluralism, insofar as it makes the number of publications unimportant
since what matters, in the end, is the number of agencies that provide information to
the media (Gelado, 2009). According to the same author (op. cit., 2009), such repetition
contributes to the agenda-setting effect and also produces that not only themes are
repeated, but also that stereotypes are sustained.
3.3. Misinformation, "ventriloquism effect", and digital media
The Internet has meant, with its boom and popularization, not only positive aspects
but also problems such as oversaturation and infoxication, which will be discussed
later. This has caused a special change in the way of information consumption and the
crisis of the conventional media (Shenk, 2003). The appearance of social networks and
digital platforms brings with them characteristics such as immediacy, omnipresence
and ubiquity, interaction, and, in many cases, gratuitousness, pressing all media to
share these characteristics, which makes it difficult to distinguish between
information, rumors, and misinformation. According to López–García (2004), this
situation leads to abandoning the traditional media as the main source of information.
Content publishers on the Internet produce their own news reports but research on
news content in the digital realm shows that they generally mix it with a large amount
of content from secondary producers, such as push services, normally provided by
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
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major electronic journalism portals that provide a continuous flow of content and
information.
These Internet services originate their own content based on international news
agencies with little or no changes. Therefore, agencies reach audiences well through
their own websites, as well as all other major online news providers (such as Google
News). Although news agencies have historically tried to minimize their public
exposure, they now rely on popular appeal and brand names for digital audiences and
are now aggressively marketing their names in the "electronic journalism" sector. The
information provided, however, rarely comes from news agencies other than AP or
Reuters.
Global multimedia information conglomerates, such as the Associated Press (AP)
and Reuters, dominate Internet news for the most part in a low-key way, and their
superiority appears to be growing. Thousands of media outlets around the world do
original reporting on occasional mass stories, such as war, but international coverage,
in most other cases, is left almost exclusively to news agencies (Torres Toukoumidis et
al., 2017).
The convergence manifestations have given rise to a sector of electronic journalism
in which the production of information on public affairs is more concentrated than it
already was. Such trends indicate that a global information infrastructure that
contradicts popular thinking and dogma will be indifferent and unable to challenge
existing inequalities. What then happens with multimedia concentration is a large
number of secondary effects, typical of the current communication ecosystem, and
which causes the aforementioned "ventriloquist effect".
As can be seen from the above, like any change in the system, the overcrowding of
the Internet has brought about new problems, which have produced different
consequences:
- Oversaturation and infoxication of the communication spectrum (v. gr. Shenk,
2003, p. 396-397; Cornellà, 2010; Carr, 2011). This is due to the growth and
importance that social networks have acquired since they have become a
repository of information and a means of exchanging it.
- The decentralized distribution of fake news (v. gr. Lotero-Echeverri, Romero-
Rodríguez, & Pérez-Rodríguez, 2018; Sartori, 1998; Ortega, 2006), which,
although it has always existed in conventional media, through the Internet
reach a great impact and virality (Pauner, 2018). Fake news, according to
Quandt et al., (2020), is constructed through falsification of facts, accidental
errors, negligence, and intentional manipulation.
- Increase in the crisis of the conventional media that has fostered the reduction
of journalists' workforce (v. gr. Thom, 1992, p.14; López-García, 2004, p. 23).
- The multiplication of information without verification, which produces
misinformation. The term misinformation is used to refer to the intention to
manipulate people through dishonest information (Del Hoyo, et al., 2020)
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
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- The impact that automated bots and social media algorithms have had on the
population, segregating information to the tastes and interests of each user
(Frost, 2019; Tejedor-Calvo et al., 2020).
These aspects can constitute a perfect setting for structural misinformation in the
ecosystem, having an unsuspected scope and for which no social institution was
prepared (v. gr. Pérez-Rodríguez, 2003; Pérez-Tornero, 2005; Romero-Rodríguez, Valle
Razo, & Torres-Toukoumidis, 2018; Lotero-Echeverri, Romero-Rodríguez, & Pérez-
Rodríguez, 2018).
5. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION
As the review carried out exposes, the main news agencies are in charge of
disseminating the information by the rest of the media, causing the so-called
"ventriloquist effect." This result arises from the excess of recidivism information in
the diffusion channels. Consequently, there is news of global interest that is outside
the disclosure process (omission) and, therefore, outside the information spectrum.
Although some authors, such as Cooper (1957), already spoke about this
phenomenon and how false plurality affected societies, offering stereotyped views and
preventing the emergence of new or different approaches in public opinion, it is an
effect that continues to generate negative impacts on society. Moreover, with the
development of social networks, the "ventriloquist effect" is being magnified by the
scope that is generated in them regarding the reading of users and the plurality of
information on the Internet.
Furthermore, according to Frost (2019), it is observed how automatic bots and
Internet algorithms contribute even more to the spread of this effect, causing the
segregation of news according to the tastes of the receiver. On the other hand, other
authors such as Zhang et al., (2020) argue that with the multiple independent media
that appear on the Internet, the ventriloquist effect decreases, although the number of
false news and misinformation that go viral is, logically, on the rise due to content
decentralization.
However, the overuse of news agencies and, therefore, the continued development
of the "ventriloquist effect" has notorious consequences in the world of
communication, as well as in societies. As has been shown previously, some of the
consequences of this effect is misinformation, news that is not verified or to deceive
that is on the Internet and disseminated through social networks, to mobilize public
opinion towards a point in particular, or to profit from advertising revenue. Second,
there is informational oversaturation, which confuses due to the difficulty of human
beings to process a large amount of information.
The relationship between misinformation and the "ventriloquist effect" is close. The
multiplication of channels produced by the rise of technologies offers a "false sense of
information." Yes, misinformation is considered as a lack of information, and the
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
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definition of Arraez (1998) on the «ventriloquist effect» is selected: multiple media, one
voice, it can be concluded that a single news item disseminated by various media, does
not lead to plural and quality information, but to a state of intoxication where
everything is confusing, unclear, and limited by the consequences of this effect.
The "ventriloquist effect" leads us to misinformation because the reality is that not
all the events that could be news are reported, nor are different perspectives offered
than those that are on the agenda-setting.
According to Civila et.al., (2020), to avoid this type of social damage, it is important
to establish edu-communication and media literacy in educational and social plans, for
the population to interpret and understand the functioning of the media.
Edu-communication is a challenge in today's society because the development of
critical skills in the digital environment allows interacting with information
responsibly and ethically (Area, 2012). In multiple studies, it is evidenced that the
expansion of digital skills is essential to act critically in society. The time spent on the
Internet and the level of media literacy conditions the social attitude towards
newsworthy events (Ayoub & Garretson, 2017; Robinson & Martin, 2009).
The lack of pluralism in the media can definitely be a key object of study in the field
of edu-communication, as it is a phenomenon that can affect the perception of citizens
about certain issues.
In short, the concept of the "ventriloquist effect" has transformed as a result of the
years, changes in consumer behavior (now prosumer), and the emergence of new
channels and digital spaces for dissemination.
In principle, literature refers to news agencies and the purchase of information by
other media. In other words, all the available media outlets were fed from the same
sources. On the contrary, at present, this effect is spoken of as a misinformation
weapon that causes the lack of dissemination of other relevant news, based on the
algorithms that are produced in digital spaces, as a result of the readings and
interactions they receive. It is expected that the greater the number of active users on
social networks, the possibility of increasing the effect will be greater.
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AUTHOR/S:
Sabina Civila
FPI Predoctoral Researcher at the Department of Pedagogy of the University of Huelva.
Doctoral student in the Interuniversity Communication program (UHU) in the Edu-
communication line. Master in strategic communication and communication
innovation (Malaga, Huelva, Seville, and Cadiz), and Graduated in Advertising and
Public Relations from the University of Cádiz. Researcher at the 'Ágora' Research
Civila, S., Castillo-Abdul, B., y Romero-Rodríguez, L. M.
The «ventrilocuo effect» of the international news agencies. Theoretical review and incidence
on new forms of misinformation
45
Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. 2021, nº 154, 25-46
Group (HUM-648). She currently focuses her research on social media, edu-
communication, media literacy, and Islamophobia.
sabicivila@gmail.com
Orcid ID: 0000-0001-6059-9893
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=fZC19zMAAAAJ&hl=es
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sabina_Civila
Bárbara Castillo-Abdul
Doctoral student in the Interuniversity Program in Communication at the Universities
of Seville, Malaga, Huelva, and Cadiz, and doctoral student in the Social and Legal
Sciences Program at the Rey Juan Carlos University. Master in Communication and
Audiovisual Education, Communication Research itinerary, by the International
University of Andalusia and the University of Huelva (Spain) and Extraordinary Prize
for the Master's Final Research work awarded by the University of Huelva.
Postgraduate in Social Media Management from the Andrés Bello Catholic University
(Venezuela). University specialist in Organizational Communication from the
Monteávila University (Venezuela). Degree in Social Communication, mention in
Corporate Communication from the Santa María University (Venezuela). Professor at
ESERP Business School in Madrid and visiting professor at ESAI Business School,
Universidad Espíritu Santo in Ecuador. In the field of research, she has one year of Pre-
Doctoral In-Person Stay at the TEC of Monterrey and three months online. Member of
the work team of the national competitive R&D project "Youtubers and Instagrammers:
media competence in emerging prosumers" (RTI2018-093303-B-I00), funded by the
State Research Agency of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities of Spain,
as well as the project on Social Responsibility, Advertising Self-Regulation, and Health
on the Radio (RESAPS) (CSO2017-82267-R) of the Rey Juan Carlos University.
barbaracastilloabdul@gmail.com
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3711-1519
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=E74B2F0AAAAJ&hl=es
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barbara_Castillo-Abdul
Luis Miguel Romero-Rodríguez
Professor at the Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology at the Rey Juan
Carlos University (Madrid, Spain). Doctor in Communication from the universities of
Huelva, Seville, Malaga, and Cadiz. Master in Social Communication from the
University of Almería and Bachelor of Journalism from the Santa María University
(Venezuela). Associate editor of Revsita Comunicar and Revista Anàlisi. Associate
Researcher of the Ágora Group (PAI-HUM-648) of the University of Huelva and
member of the Euro-American Interuniversity Network for Research in Media
Competencies for Citizenship (Alfamed). His line of research focuses on the study of
misinformation, populism, and social control, as well as on Media Literacy and the
media competence of citizens.
Lromero2021@gmail.com
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3924-1517
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=El_8FwoAAAAJ&hl=es
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luis_Romero-Rodriguez2
