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Research on digital native media: an emerging topic in the field of digital communication

2023-02-22T08:02:41+00:00

Digital native media have gone through different stages since their emergence in the last decade of the twentieth century under the shadow of the evolution of the ‘network of networks’ and digital transformation. Despite the influence that legacy media have exerted on the models of many digital media, the efforts they have made to find their own way in the digital communication ecosystem have resulted in the introduction of new practices and strategies that have fuelled renewed debates on journalistic frontiers. The aim of this paper is to review the birth, evolution and current landscape of digital native media with special attention given to research in this field. This is an object of study with its own and differential characteristics in relation to legacy media, which attracts the focus of more and more digital communication researchers every day. To offer a current assessment of such research, a systematized review of articles published in scientific journals included in the Web of Science and Scopus databases was carried out. The results show that the conceptualization of digital native media, their mapping in media ecosystems and comparison with legacy media, the study of their typology and characteristics, research on their economic and organizational models, the analysis of their content, and their relationship with audiences are among the main objects of research. These media constitute a fundamental sector in the current media ecosystem, which will require multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives in their research to face the challenges of digital media, digital native media and digital journalism.

Revenue diversification strategies of online news organisations: subscriptions and memberships

2022-09-22T09:37:08+00:00

The funding model crisis for newspapers is a matter of public concern; and it is not only a business issue, but also a social and political one, as news organisations are considered to have an irreplaceable function in democratic systems. Technological and social changes have transformed the business model of news organisations so that, in a digital scenario with a strong competition for consumers’ attention, they have had to diversify their portfolio of income streams. In such a context, this study analyses the state of the diversification of revenue streams in the Spanish digital media market, using the available data from the total universe of digital media in the country. The article focusses on the two most common revenue streams related to user payment -subscriptions and memberships- and analyses the importance of four variables in this diversification of revenue strategies: their nature (digital native versus traditional), thematic scope (general versus specialised), territorial scope (local versus national), and the type of organisation that promotes it (traditional, new, or independent groups). The data obtained suggest that there are no universal formulae in the implementation of payment models for Spanish digital media. Specifically, there are significant differences in the revenue models between native and non-native digital media. Thus, payment strategies are more prevalent among non-native digital media than among native media. Furthermore, the non-native media that have opted for paid models tend to diversify their sources of income more than the non-native ones based on free model. Additionally, data show that paywalls and memberships are more usual among specialised non-native digital media and generalist native outlets. Also, payments are more often required by local and regional media than national outlets. From the ownership point of view, although the main Spanish media corporations are developing their revenue models, the pay-per-content model is also quite extended among organisations, associations, and foundations not linked with the traditional publishing groups. This study, due to its exhaustiveness, dimensions, and novelty, identifies in detail the current state of the implementation of the pay model for digital media in Spain, which can help and facilitate media managers in their decision-making.

Media entrepreneurship skills in Latin American universities social communication and journalism programs

2022-10-21T14:55:15+00:00

This study analyzes the social communication and journalism programs accredited by the Latin American Council for Accreditation of Education in Journalism and Communication (CLAEP) to identify the competencies and subjects whose expected learning outcomes contribute to general innovative professional profiles in media entrepreneurship. The study is a qualitative, descriptive study in which in-depth interviews were conducted with deans, program directors, and lecturers in communication, and syllabi and programs of the subjects that contribute to strengthening the components of entrepreneurship and innovation were analyzed. The main conclusions make it clear that entrepreneurial profiles should be strengthened since there are market opportunities for future communication and journalism professionals; there is no traceability in the projects developed in the different subjects in a way that allows for the strengthening of the entrepreneurial proposal; these reach an ideation and prototyping phase, which does not allow for the transfer of entrepreneurship to acceleration and growth units external to the program. Likewise, a proposal for the design of expected learning results is made for programs to use in their curricular designs to strengthen the profile and competencies in innovative entrepreneurship on the basis of eight categories: 1) identify the conditioning factors that determine entrepreneurship from its context, from the form they acquire to be recognized before the state and society as media and from the elements that configure their operational functioning; 2) understand the logics of the entrepreneurial ecosystem; 3) develop capacities in entrepreneurship; 4) manage media and journalistic projects; 5) design business models; 6) generate innovation processes, prototyping, and product testing; 7) obtain resources to accelerate entrepreneurship; and 8) establish growth and consolidation plans.

Media labs: journalistic innovation, evolution and future according to experts

2022-11-16T16:57:20+00:00

At the current crossroads at which both the media and journalism find themselves, innovation emerges not as a “nice to have” but as an absolute, urgent, and pressing necessity. In this context, labs are presented as a structured and –in a certain way– privileged space to do so. However, since there are also voices that are critical of these spaces, we ask to what extent they contribute to journalistic innovation and also what future these spaces may have. To find out, we conducted semistructured interviews with a nonprobabilistic sample of 18 experts in this field, because they are both associated with a lab and are qualified experts in journalistic innovation or they are academic researchers. The results show that labs can bring a media outlet both tangible and intangible benefits, ranging from increased audience, audience loyalty, and revenue to increased prestige and reputation. However, today their future is uncertain owing to a variety of factors, including the funding necessary but also the utopian nature of the idea that the DNA of innovation can permeate the entire media outlet when there is no space specifically dedicated to designing, generating, and disseminating it to the newsroom as a whole.

The science of team science (SciTS): An emerging and evolving field of interdisciplinary collaboration

2023-03-01T16:03:29+00:00

In recent years, collaboration within a team to solve complicated scientific and social problems has attracted growing popularity. In particular, many complex challenges and opportunities require expertise and skills across disciplinary, organizational, and cultural boundaries. However, rapid growth in the demand for scientific collaboration has outpaced changes in the factors needed to support scientific teams. Also, scientific results are not simply a combination of different working results; understanding how teams work and what causes them to fail or succeed is of the utmost importance. Thus, the Science of Team Science (SciTS), an emerging interdisciplinary research area, has emerged as a way of understanding and managing the circumstances that facilitate or hinder the effectiveness of large-scale cross-disciplinary, collaborative research, training, and translational initiatives. SciTS integrates various quantitative and qualitative research methods and is still advancing in its sophistication. Using bibliometric and information visualization methods, this paper clarifies the concepts and connotations of teams and team science. It sets out important events in the emergence and development of SciTS and summarizes the characteristics of the SciTS literature, identifying seven main research areas. The paper concludes with a discussion on the challenges facing the future advancement of SciTS and corresponding recommendations for breaking through these bottlenecks. Our goal is to deepen researchers’ understanding of SciTS and better inform the policies and practices that govern SciTS for more effective team science.

Which of the metadata with relevance for bibliometrics are the same and which are different when switching from Microsoft Academic Graph to OpenAlex?

2023-03-01T08:16:24+00:00

With the announcement of the retirement of Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG), the non-profit organization OurResearch announced that they would provide a similar resource under the name OpenAlex. Thus, we compare the metadata with relevance to bibliometric analyses of the latest MAG snapshot with an early OpenAlex snapshot. Practically all works from MAG were transferred to OpenAlex preserving their bibliographic data publication year, volume, first and last page, DOI as well as the number of references that are important ingredients of citation analysis. More than 90% of the MAG documents have equivalent document types in OpenAlex. Of the remaining ones, especially reclassifications to the OpenAlex document types journal-article and book-chapter seem to be correct and amount to more than 7%, so that the document type specifications have improved significantly from MAG to OpenAlex. As another item of bibliometric relevant metadata, we looked at the paper-based subject classification in MAG and in OpenAlex. We found significantly more documents with a subject classification assignment in OpenAlex than in MAG. On the first and second level, the classification structure is nearly identical. We present data on the subject reclassifications on both levels in tabular and graphical form. The assessment of the consequences of the abundant subject reclassifications on field-normalized bibliometric evaluations is not in the scope of the present paper. Apart from this open question, OpenAlex seems to be overall at least as suited for bibliometric analyses as MAG for publication years before 2021 or maybe even better because of the broader coverage of document type assignments.

Altmetrics can capture research evidence: an analysis across types of studies in COVID-19 literature

2023-03-15T07:06:51+00:00

COVID-19 has greatly impacted science. It has become a global research front that constitutes a unique phenomenon of interest for the scientometric community. Accordingly, there has been a proliferation of descriptive studies on COVID-19 papers using altmetrics. Social media metrics serve to elucidate how research is shared and discussed, and one of the key points is to determine which factors are well-conditioned altmetric values. The main objective of this study is to analyze whether the altmetric mentions of COVID-19 medical studies are associated with the type of study and its level of evidence. Data were collected from the PubMed and Altmetric.com databases. A total of 16,672 publications by study types (e.g., case reports, clinical trials, or meta-analyses) that were published in the year 2021 and that had at least one altmetric mention were retrieved. The altmetric indicators considered were Altmetric Attention Score (AAS), news mentions, Twitter mentions, and Mendeley readers. Once the dataset of COVID-19 had been created, the first step was to carry out a descriptive study. Then, a normality hypothesis was evaluated by means of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, and since this was significant in all cases, the overall comparison of groups was performed using the nonparametric Kruskal–Wallis test. When this test rejected the null hypothesis, pairwise comparisons were performed with the Mann–Whitney U test, and the intensity of the possible association was measured using Cramer’s V coefficient. The results suggest that the data do not fit a normal distribution. The Mann–Whitney U test revealed coincidences in five groups of study types: The altmetric indicator with most coincidences was news mentions, and the study types with the most coincidences were the systematic reviews together with the meta-analyses, which coincided with four altmetric indicators. Likewise, between the study types and the altmetric indicators, a weak but significant association was observed through the chi-square and Cramer’s V. It can thus be concluded that the positive association between altmetrics and study types in medicine could reflect the level of the “pyramid” of scientific evidence.

Gender perspective advances in the media: initiatives for its incorporation into the Spanish press

2022-12-13T10:04:07+00:00

Incorporating a gender perspective in the media entails implementing strategies to work with information in a democratic way. The mobilisation of Las Periodistas Paramos in Spain in 2018 influenced a change towards such a perspective, which is also one of the most relevant innovations identified in Spanish media. The purpose of this work is to draw, for the first time, a map of the initiatives adopted by the Spanish press to incorporate the gender perspective into its newsrooms. To do this, style guides and other initiatives aimed at providing guidance on the introduction of the gender dimension are examined, and semi-structured interviews are used to find out how four women journalists responsible for such an incorporation carry out their work. The results show a substantial, although also uneven, presence of initiatives in the 21 newspapers analysed. Most of the style guides –10 of them have one and nine of them have been accessed– are outdated, obsolete or being updated. Most also contain aspects related to the gender perspective, although they do not include this term explicitly and often do not adapt to today’s reality. In the newspapers that do not have a Style Guide or other types of measures, a sensitivity towards the subject is perceived. On the other hand, four newspapers have a gender editor whose main function is to ensure that the perspective is transversal and reaches all sections, genres and content. These professionals make a positive assessment of their still brief trajectory and agree that journalism has advanced considerably and done important pedagogical work in society in terms of gender, although it seems that this figure will remain necessary for quite some time.

Formula for the success of humor journalism formats on television according to their professional teams

2022-12-05T19:41:42+00:00

Success on television can be measured according to a series of variables. In this work, a theoretical review was carried out to determine its main factors, complemented with 34 in-depth interviews with the heads of the seven longest-running journalistic humor formats on Spanish television from 1990 to 2015. Owing to their importance in terms of broadcasting and support from society, these enable an evaluation of entertainment as it is linked to information, as both a societal need and technique for escapism, thus depicting the enhanced importance of the television medium in terms of how its content, characters, and structure form part of our collective history. The conclusions have a social character in revealing what the public has consumed, and an economic character, as they decipher what works on television, using a method based on five factors: content, technical execution, awards and reviews, audience, and context. The interviewees provide the keys to the success of the audiovisual cultural industry, characterized herein using 100 categories. For television professionals, success is a utopia that is achieved only by those who combine high-quality content and excellent technical execution, for which they receive awards and strong reviews that reinforce their image with the audience, whose numbers and opinion determine, together with the context, competition, and market conditions, their time on air. Their statements reveal that differentiation, talent, the backing of the network, and creative freedom based on tenacity are fundamental features. Achieving success is a complex task, with a proven formula that does not only represent a limitation but also enables innovative contributions from other genres.

Evaluating the content strategy developed by universities on social media

2022-12-13T10:02:10+00:00

Institutional communication is becoming a strategic instrument for universities, since it facilitates the relationships with their various publics and allows positioning of the institutional brand, which will contribute to building a distinctive reputation. The types of content disseminated by universities via their social media accounts will contribute decisively to these objectives, since the way in which the different topics are communicated may influence the publics’ perceptions of these higher education institutions. This research analyses the different types of content disseminated by universities (in Europe, the United States and Latin America) via their accounts on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn), to assess the main content topics that define the universities’ communicative positioning. A content analysis of the publications by universities on their social networks was carried out, representing an appropriate method to recognize the main themes and topics of their communication strategy. The results reveal two main thematic blocks of content: functional (teaching, research and social commitment topics) and institutional (organizational and contextual topics). Institutional publications are the most relevant block of content, far above the functional posts. In terms of specific topics, the organizational ones are the most common, well above publications on teaching or research, while contextual and social commitment content is used marginally. Most universities, in all regions and on all social networks, follow a dominant strategy of institutional content. So, the higher education institutions are mainly using social networks as a strategic tool for institutional positioning, more than informing about their daily activity.

Adaptations versus original film premieres trends in broadband society: a comparative analysis

2022-12-19T18:56:22+00:00

In the era of the Broadband Society, cloud journalism, and streaming, the film industry is trying to modify traditional distribution channels. The adaptation of literary classics was one of the most widespread practices to obtain well-known, quality material for new productions. The objective of this research is to understand empirically what differences are involved in industry’s major production and distribution companies’ choice between adapting preexisting material or creating an entirely new film, as well as the benefits of adaptations. The methodology is comparative and quantitative, consisting of collecting data on films from the five major distributors (Universal, Warner Bros, Disney, Sony, and Paramount) from 2010 to 2019 and analyzing variables to detect market trends related to adaptations during that decade. We observed a higher percentage of adaptations as well as correlations between adaptations and film genre, distributor and genre, adaptations and awards, awards and genre, and genre and the film’s evaluation, as well as between distributor and average budget, adaptations and budget, adaptation and opening weekend box office takings, genre and profit, adaptations and worldwide box office revenues, ratings and worldwide box office takings, and awards and worldwide box office takings; however, this was not observed between adaptation and profit and the breakeven point. It is concluded that, despite the fact that the trend of using this practice has not increased in recent years, it provides a great advantage compared with debuting new intellectual property.

The use of QR codes to fuel transmedia strategy in the ecosystem of audiovisual media groups

2022-09-30T10:47:56+00:00

The QR code (from the English quick response code) is a type of two-dimensional bar code that, when scanned, directs you to an internet site. Audiovisual groups, as part of their hybrid strategies and digitization actions, incorporate it into their television programs to provide them with interactivity and improve participation and engagement with their viewers. In this article, a radiography of the audiovisual ecosystem in Spain is created to show the use of this technology in linear television broadcasts and its impact. The methodology used for this is mixed: semi-structured in-depth interviews (with heads of this strategies from the 3 audiovisual and multimedia groups in Spain) and an analysis of its use in 150 news programs to find out the functions and themes for which it is used, and the frequency of QR codes used in television broadcasts. The results of this work are illuminating since, despite detecting very different degrees of use in each channel, high interest and actions to implement them are detected by all of them, both in the news and in other programs. As the most relevant conclusion, we observe that audiovisual groups create a digital ecosystem to generate a transfer of viewers between television born before the Internet and its new digital media, generating a great impact of digitization in the transformation of the media.

Polarization, virality and contrary sentiments for LGTB content on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter

2023-01-16T11:07:19+00:00

Digital platforms are spaces for social participation with significant value in the development of the identity of adolescents and emerging adults. The objective is to identify the behavior and visibility of LGBT content using Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter posts of such content from May 16 to November 16, 2022, collecting 539,389 posts. Social media monitoring techniques gathered the posts with the keywords “LGTB” or “LGBT” in Spanish and English, forming the database. The methodology is based on a mixed design: first, the database is analyzed using Big Data techniques and, second, the 10 most viral posts from each social network are selected. The results show that dissemination of gender identity in content and meaning is uneven across the various social networks. Twitter profiles have a higher number of posts (61%), polarization, and lower virality and exhibit visible LGBTphobia. Instagram has a number of posts (37%) and average virality, with positive sentiments. TikTok has fewer posts (2%), less polarization, positive messages, and extreme virality. The three networks consider the Pride demonstrations to be a symbol of the community because they destabilize and confront LGBTphobic oppression by occupying public spaces, opening the closet without stigma or shame, as is reflected on social networks. The behavior of LGBT content on these platforms is multidimensional, uneven, and differentiated, which demonstrates the necessity of ensuring respect for the diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity on digital platforms.

Misogyny and the construction of toxic masculinity in the Spanish Manosphere (Burbuja.info)

2023-02-01T20:39:20+00:00

The anonymity of the Manosphere has provided a fertile breeding ground for the spread of misogyny through increased hate speech on the Internet. In recent years, this virtual space composed mostly of men, has been the subject of numerous studies aimed at identifying the discursive mechanisms of identity constructions that underlie the denigration of women. This paper takes the findings from international research on the subject to address a phenomenon still little explored in Spain through the analysis of misogynistic comments on Burbuja.info. Economic forum. The analysis sample comprises 4,281 messages that include the lexeme “woman” posted over 2.5 years, 761 of which contain expressions that ridicule, disparage, or insult women. Thematic analysis demonstrates the repetition of misogynistic topics and tropes common in the most radical Reddit and 4chan subforums, such as hypergamy, objectification, and the constant disparagement of the world of women, not to mention criticism of feminism, left-wing political parties, and legislation on gender violence. The results obtained show that the “male identity crisis” is narratively constructed in the messages on Burbuja.info using the motif of sacrifice –the cornerstone of a monotypic story in which the purpose of the hero-man-victim’s journey is to punish the villain-woman. Furthermore, we also found that there are different configurations of identity related to attitudes toward women; these match up with the four most prominent masculinist subcultures identified in the leading literature on the subject: Men Rights activists (MRA), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), Pickup Artists (PUA), and Involuntary Celibates (Incels).

Evolution, trends and future of native media: From avant-garde to the epicenter of the communications ecosystem

2023-02-22T10:35:40+00:00

Over recent decades, digital native media have flourished as one of the most important communicative tools in the world, despite certain geographical disparities. Not only is this kind of media here to stay, but they have transitioned from being a feature of the avant-garde to occupying a central space in the digital ecosystem. Despite the diversity of models, difficulties in articulating business models that ensure sustainability, and their lack of financial muscle, native media have opened up renewed options for digital journalism in both the present and the future. By analyzing the current media landscape and a study of the main trends, carried out using a review of the published scientific literature and an analysis of cases from the last five years, this paper explores the horizons of the “new wave” of digital native media that will face the challenges of the second half of this third decade of the millennium. Of course, the future has not yet been written: digital media will have to build from the native space, observing emerging trends, modern technologies, and without giving up on providing quality digital journalism that is based in truthfulness, transparency, the involvement of users and the set of actions that serve the public interest.

Can ChatGPT improve communication in hospitals?

2023-03-13T11:24:17+00:00

Hospitals’ use of communication is a crucial aspect of patient care, yet medical material is often hard to read and understand for patients. Issues related to lack of standardization, use of jargon, reliance on outdated technology, poor coordination between health personnel, and shortage of healthcare workers lead to miscommunication, delays, and errors in patient care. By improving communication, hospitals can improve patient care and outcomes, and perhaps lower costs. This opinion piece compares current communication methods with the use of ChatGPT technology to explore whether ChatGPT can improve the efficiency and accuracy of communication in healthcare settings and, hence, improve patient care. While natural language processing (NLP) tools such as ChatGPT and other artificial-intelligence-generated content (AIGC) have tremendous potential to be very useful in healthcare, they should not be solely used as a substitute for humans and should therefore be used with caution.

Spanish technological development of artificial intelligence applied to journalism: companies and tools for documentation, production and distribution of information

2022-11-11T09:21:42+00:00

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been progressively expanding over the last decade, with its transversal application to the journalistic process and the engaging of media and technology companies in developing specific tools and services. This research offers a first catalogue of Spanish technological companies and institutions that develop AI systems applicable to journalism, with services and features grouped into three phases of the journalistic process: 1. Automated gathering and documentation of information; 2. Automated production of content; and 3. Information distribution and audience relations. The research uses a methodology of in-depth interviews with 45 innovation heads of Spanish-based companies and technological centres specialised in the development of AI (N = 25), and is supported by questionnaires to systematise four study categories: company profiles, tools, journalism-specific services and future trends. The results confirm a clear evolution of Spanish technological companies within the AI sector, with services and tools available for the whole journalistic process, mainly in the information gathering and content distribution phases related to monetisation; the automated news production phase is thereby overshadowed. The offering is diversified in terms of formats -textual, audiovisual, sound- and platforms, especially web and social media. The companies consulted testify to the profitability of its implementation and note a growing interest from the media, but warn of an uneven progress that reflects “slowness”, “distrust” and “lack of knowledge” regarding the application of AI.

Use of artificial intelligence in synthetic media: first newsrooms without journalists

2022-10-17T10:15:08+00:00

The boom in artificial intelligence and automated technology in the journalistic profession has given rise to what are called synthetic media (Crusafon, 2022), media outlets that produce and publish texts, audio, videos, and other news content through processes executed solely by algorithms, without any intervention from journalists. This research has several objectives: to identify the first synthetic media outlets already operating, to describe how these newsrooms without journalists work, to better understand the type of content they produce, and to find out whether these are isolated and ephemeral operations or if, on the contrary, they mark the beginning of a trend toward journalism without the direct intervention of journalists. To this end, we have used an exploratory methodology, enabling us to identify four synthetic media outlets, which have been taken as an analysis sample: JX Press Corp (Japan); Reuters News Tracer (United Kingdom), News Republic (France), and Videre AI (Spain). An analysis of the news content on each project’s web pages was combined with in-depth semistructured interviews with the heads of technology and communication of the three European ventures. The Japanese initiative has no human staff, so its chatbot was the only way to obtain information. The purpose was to learn about the initiatives’ news production process, their impact on the journalistic profession, and their viability. This analysis helps demonstrate that the journalistic world’s reliance on artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly evident and that communication agencies are the first companies to invest in developing and distributing synthetic content to benchmark media. These initiatives, although still limited, are the most recent step in the process of gradually integrating artificial intelligence into news production.

Letter. Journalology: an unrecognized science for a century

2023-03-28T08:43:04+00:00

The origin, evolution, and different meanings that various authors have given to the term “journalology,” defined as the “science of publication,” throughout the almost 100 years since it was coined, are discussed.