Online News Research

The progressive disappearance of  the  forums  as  an  already  archaic  element  of conversation on the cyber-media is a fact with the closure of one of the last ones that remained active as is that of the Vogue magazine. A closing that is preceded by insults and threats to blogger Lovely Pepa that are what has triggered this closure. Methods: This qualitative research has been conducted through  structured  surveys  to  47  users  of  the  Vogue  magazine  forum. Results  and  discussion: The results obtained highlight the importance of synergies above all of sorority that have been created in a female community that was part of a medium but that was completely independent of it. A group with  a  need  to  be  informed,  to  converse  and  to  address  richer  and  more  varied  topics  than  those proposed by the publication.

Serving as the introduction to the special issue on ‘Migrant narratives’, this article proposes a multi-perspectival and multi-stakeholder analysis of how migration is narrated in the media in the last decade. This research agenda is developed by focussing on groups of actors that are commonly studied in isolation from each other: (1) migrants, (2) media professionals such as journalists and spokespersons from humanitarian organizations, (3) governments and corporations and (4) artists and activists. We take a relational approach to recognize how media power is articulated alongside a spectrum of more top-down and more bottom-up perspectives, through specific formats, genres and styles within and against larger frameworks of governmentality. Taken together, the poetics and politics of migrant narratives demand attention respectively for how stakeholders variously aesthetically present and politically represent migration. The opportunities, challenges, problems and commitments observed among the four groups of actors also provide the means to rethink our practice and responsibilities as media and migration scholars contributing to decentring media technologies and re-humanizing migrants.

The use of Twitter as a tool for mobilisation has made digital social and political activism a growing area of interest in communication research. Scholars have underscored the effectiveness of Twitter in galvanising the opinion of broad sectors of the public and expressing the indignation of average citizens on issues of social concern (Bruns et al., 2015; Martínez, 2017). The rise of feminist social media activism has prompted a number of studies on the feminist movement’s use of hashtags to foster online conversations on specific issues (Jinsook, 2017; Turley & Fisher, 2018; etc.). This article examines the correlation between the degree of ideological commitment amongst social media users and the nature of their Twitter conversations on a given issue. The analysis focuses on Twitter conversations generated by feminists, influencers, journalists and politicians in reaction to the controversial sentencing of the Wolf Pack (La Manada) –a gang of men involved in a sexual assault perpetrated during the San Fermín festival in Pamplona. Big data techniques were used to explore the nature of messages containing four highly charged hashtags central to feminist discourse on this issue: #YoSiTeCreo (Yes, I believe you), #HermanaYoSíTeCreo (Yes, sister, I believe you), #Cuéntalo (Talk about it) and #NoEstásSola (You are not alone). Our findings indicate that the levels of ideological commitment of Twitter users participating in what was essentially a feminist conversation varied to an extent that impeded serious interaction amongst them, either online or offline. From the perspective of communication strategy, feminist hashtag activism would appear to be an intermediate step in a longer process of creating a higher consciousness regarding gender equality issues in Spain.

According to a growing volume of academic literature on the subject, transmedia fiction and non-fiction production is now one of the main areas driving innovation in media companies, thanks to the improvements it brings in numerous interconnected fields: narrative and content, management and productive strategy, brand promotion, etc. In this context the article focuses on transmedia linked to public broadcasting companies, starting with a qualitative study based on interviews with expert professionals from thirteen corporations in Spain, one operating at the national level (RTVE) and twelve at the regional level (A Punt Media, CARTV, CCMA, CRTVG, CMM, EITB, EPRTVIB, RTVM, RTPA, RTVA, RTRM and RTVC). The results show how professionals view the concept of transmedia production, its advantages, disadvantages and the challenges it poses, which depend on these corporations’ service and relationship with audiences. As the conclusions state, the keys factors for understanding the professional transmedia strategy of public broadcasting corporations are found in the characteristics of today’s media market, which is suffering from budget cuts and growing competition.