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PP 018
The Relative Importance of Twitter in the Interaction with the Audience. Comparative Study Between Catalan and Belgium Media
S. Pérez-Soler
1
, J. Micó
2
1
Universitat Ramon Llull, Journalism Department, Barcelona, Spain
2
Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain
This research attempts to analyze how social networks are used by professional journalists to integrate other voices -far from official ones- in their discours‑
es. Digitalization has transformed working routines; and also the production and consumption of contents, the relationship between media and citizenship,
and the organization and distribution of media companies. When every mobile phone can record video and take pictures, everyone is a potential news
source (Gillmor, 2004; Deuze, 2012). There are lots of good examples of crowdsourcing in investigative journalism. But is it the most common use that
journalists give to social networks? This paper, focused on the use of Twitter by the Catalan and Belgian journalists, argues that there is still a long way to
go. The corpus is a traditional newspaper and a "pure player" of each country –the media with the largest audience in a specific region of two countries
with a multilingual reality like Spain and Belgium. The methodology consists of a two-week observation in each newsroom and more than twenty in
depth interviews to different professionals, from editors in chief to journalists and social networks managers. Moreover a model study of the official Twitter
accounts has been implemented. It is called DIP and measures the average involvement with the audience. Only 2% of tweets analysed (a total of 965)
was to interact with the audience. The findings point out that most journalists and journalistic institutions have failed to take advantage of the explosion
in potentially newsworthy content facilitated by the growth in digital communication. The use of Twitter in news production process (research of informa‑
tion likely to become news, documentation and contact with sources) was similar in the four cases, although it was more intense in Catalan newsrooms.
Regarding the diffusion process, the distribution of own journalistic contents through the microblogging platform is the main use they give to this tool in
the four studied newsrooms (92.75% of tweets analyzed had this purpose). Despite its name, the participation in the media as we know it is still mostly
one-way: serving the news organization’s needs more so than the audience’s. The results suggest that instead of betting on two-way communication in
which journalists freely exchange tweets with the audience and engage discussions around certain hashtags as organizers actors of democracy, the media
use social networks to disseminate content, promote the brand itself and invite users to participate in the media driven spaces, all actions motivated by
economic interests. Interaction is virtually nonexistent, let alone even dialog or debate. The participation in the media, on everyone's lips, it is still a utopia.
PP 019
Reinventing the Newsroom to Connect with Audiences: Adaptative Journalists Are Wanted
B. Palomo
1
, D. Palau
2
1
University of Malaga, Journalism, Málaga, Spain
2
University of Valencia, Facultat de Filologia- Traducció i Comunicació, Valencia, Spain
The crisis of journalism has produced a reduction in resistance to change and the emergence of innovation departments and new consultancies over the last
five years (Salaverria, 2015). Media are no longer merely fighting to survive. Journalism companies are aware of the need to adapt to the public’s new
demands, because the adaptative journalism is a key factor to survive. Besides, advertisers are no longer interested in the number of pages viewed or
the number of unique visitors. They want media retaining users for longer in a context marked by the attention economy. During the last years, media have
developed several strategies to connect with the audience. Mass media use drones on occasion to cover demonstrations or even to reach inaccessible areas
(Culver, 2014; Holton, Lawson, & Love, 2014); documentaries have been made with augmented reality (Pavlik & Bridges, 2013); and robot journalism (Carl‑
son, 2015) is automatizing business news and some sports pieces in news agencies like Associated Press. If this is already the present, what does the future
hold in store for the media? This paper presents the insights of major players in the field of the future of media, covering the trends, the opportunities for
improvement, and the difficulties faced by recognized international media consultants and innovation managers from Argentina, Spain and the United
States. Our qualitative research, based on ten semi-structured in-depth interviews, aims to gather suggestions for succeding in the media business, offering
critical views on how to manage innovation and the relationship of media with their publics. According to our results, innovation managers show a prudent
and moderate attitude when they speak of the prominence of their profile in the media. Little by little, a culture of experimentation is being introduced in
companies, and although there are good intentions, the margin for action is limited. Some consultants believe that it is more difficult to change than to set
up a new medium, because it is easier to learn than to unlearn. Therefore, the main resistance to change is usually found inside the company, in the news‑
room, which tends to be a conservative space (Boczkowski, 2004; Domingo, 2008). Until now the media have moved more by intuition than on the basis
of knowledge, and this strategy must change if the media want to improve their relation with audiences. This attitude can also be seen in their activity
on social media, where conventional media tend to be more institutional in form and content, generating a pseudo-interaction (Palomo & Meso, 2014).
The newsroom organization also requires a new focus. Experts support the need to create multidisciplinary work teams. Journalists must learn to work
with programmers, database developers, web designers, and statisticians. Opening an account on Facebook and Twitter is not a synonym of an innovative
medium. Innovation is more related to continuous learning and the materialization of that knowledge. To obtain this label, investment in human talent
must become a priority, since the ability to launch new products or services will depend on such personnel.