Native Digital Media and Their Virtual Communities: Strategies for Interaction and in Participation Social Networks

Abstract

Virtual communities are constituted as places of interaction of the actors that make up the digital ecosystem. The proliferation of social networks and user participation are influencing media communication strategies, particularly digital native media. The object of study of this work is the virtual communities that native digital media establishes on social networks. The main objective of the research is to understand the virtual communities of native digital media from a representative sample that allows evaluating the production and interactions they establish with their audiences and the relationships with other media. It is also interesting to know both the production of the media and the level of interaction with their audiences. The method used is digital ethnography based on the analysis of the selected native digital media platforms and their social networks. The research results show social networks as necessary extensions and main places where digital native media interact with their audiences. The media analyzed coincides in the networks they use to expand the communicative and participation experience. There is a specific and differentiated use of each of the social networks integrated into the ecosystem of information brands. It can also be concluded that most of the accounts followed by the analyzed media are ideologically or business-wise, creating, therefore, an “echo chamber” effect in the form of information bubbles in line with similar ideological lines.