This article discusses the representation of news media in two crime novels by Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro: "Betibú" (2011) and "Las maldiciones" (2017). It proposes that in these two novels, Piñeiro addresses both the limitations and the possibilities of activist journalism in the twenty-first century. Piñeiro's work under analysis suggests that, while news today is packaged as entertainment and there is widespread oversimplification of complex issues for the purpose of defending certain private interests, there is also space for the media to positively intervene in social reality, through new technology used by savvy consumers and producers, and through a dialogue between journalism and literature.