Argentine media and journalists enhancing and polluting of communication on Twitter

Abstract

Since the emergence of the Internet, journalism has been experiencing a radical paradigm shift. Traditional media outlets have adapted the generation and spreading of information as the digital communication proposed new demands. Technological convergence has forced the media to encompass new languages and has also given it the possibility of reusing news content in several formats. Nowadays, there’s practically no news media without an online presence or content distribution through social networking sites. However, this virtual presence of the traditional media outlets on these newly formed, opinion-exchanging digital places does not necessarily seem to involve innovating their modes of interacting with the audience. On the other hand, personal users (individuals) are communicating in several networks with each other. In fact, we are a long way from stating that the coexistence of both institutional and personal users within the same virtual space can lead to the production of authentic conversations or a culture of sharing consolidation. In this research, we look into the behavior of Twitter users in Argentina, both corporate ones (media outlets) and personal ones (journalists), with the aim of establishing the tendency of the first group to work under the traditional ways of communication (one-way, asymmetrical, on a massive scale, underlining the act of saying), and if, on the other hand, the latter tends to adopt innovative ways to express themselves (conversational, symmetrical, personalized, balancing the act of saying and listening). We seek to stipulate how the media and its journalists use Twitter: as a suggestion to engage into a more participative way of communication or as yet another channel of massive distribution of information. An indicator of enhancing/polluting of communication (here understood as a public conversation) has been designed based on the distinction between the concepts of communication and information, and also of the conventional linguistic and pragmatic structure of conversation...