Language in social networks as a communication strategy: public administration, political parties and civil society

This paper studies the language of political actors on social networks from the concept of digital language with a communicative perspective. Attention is paid to tweets by political parties, public administrations and civil society related to Catalan politics over the last eight months. The main trends of digital language are confirmed for political language on Twitter, but are relativized by the majority use of a more formal register. In addition, the political language appears as hybrid, heterogeneous, multimodal, a continuation of the offline arena and with little narrative innovation. Within these general characteristics, the activation of innovative linguistic orthographic, lexical, syntactic or coherence elements draws specific strategies for each actor, without common features for the sectors but shows that they do converge at specific moments forming sociolects that seek to promote belonging to a community and protest against specific facts or the status quo.El artículo estudia el lenguaje de los actores políticos en redes sociales a partir del concepto de lenguaje digital desde una perspectiva comunicativa. Se examinan los tuits de los partidos políticos, las administraciones públicas y las organizaciones civiles relacionados con la política catalana durante los últimos ocho meses. Se confirman para el lenguaje político en Twitter la evolución general del lenguaje digital pero relativizado por el uso mayoritario de un registro formal. Además, el lenguaje político se perfila como híbrido, heterogéneo, multimodal, continuador de la temática off line y con escasa innovación narrativa. Los estilemas permiten detectar estrategias individualizadas e identidades lingüísticas con rasgos ortotipográficos, léxicos, uso de hashtag, iconos, enlaces o sintaxis propias de cada actor. No se detectan características comunes para cada uno de los tres sectores, únicamente algunos actores confluyen en momentos puntuales conformando sociolectos que buscan promover la pertenencia a una comunidad, la protesta contra hechos puntuales o contra el status quo

New trends in content and design at the Spanish cybermedia

In the last years, the cybermedia and the Internet itself have marked as medium and support of communication. Nevertheless, constant technologic evolution, the training of the newsroom people and the absence of a clear definition of the business model make continuous modifications in the final structure of the new media environment. This communication focuses in four important aspects: the hypertext –as a basis and essence of the Internet and the cybermedia as well–, the information architecture –as a managing system for big amounts of content–, the journalistic genres –as the main expression of the journalistic work–, and the design –the final layout of the product and, at the same time, the content access interface–. All these issues are continuously subjected to changes. In this paper, starting from the four axis mentioned before, we present an overview of the evolution of cybermedia in Spain and we suggest a perspective about the current situation of the sector

Online media landscape in Spain: a quantitative approach

As in other European countries, the online media have completed their first ten years in Spain. In this ftrst decade, the Spanish online publications have experienced a process of birth, development and consolidation of professional standards. Based on a quantitative methodology applied to a census of 1,274 online media, which was achieved by the research team in January 2005, this paper provides valuable data regarcling the degree of development reached by the Spanish online media. This research, carried out by professors from four universities (Navarre, Basque Country, Santiago de Compostela and Malaga), analyses such variables as the geographical distribution of online publications, media types and their contents, the correspondence with offline print and broadcast media, the linguistic diversity and the development of business models, among others

Creating an Index to Calculate the Level of Convergence of a Medium

Since the end of 1990's, media are undergoing great changes brought by digital technology, with the objective to optimize resources and enrich contents. The concept of convergence has a relevant significance in this process. We see the convergence as an integrating process of traditional separated media outlets and modes of communication that affect business, technology, professionals, and audiences at all stages of production, delivery, and consumption of contents of any kind (information, entertainment, and advertising). This paper provides a methodological tool for calculating an index over which reflects the level of convergence of a medium. This proposal, fruit of the work of a collective research project -which is currently carried out by a numerous group of Spanish scholars with public funding (see for details our website _www.infotendencias.com/objetivos_)-, is based on the following variables: relationships among newsrooms, media polyvalence, type of collaboration on contents development, and type of contents delivery

Four Dimensions of Journalistic Convergence: A preliminary approach to current media trends at Spain

Convergence is a very polysemous concept that has been used to describe various trends in journalism that have something in common: the blurring of the limits between different media, professional skills and roles. This paper proposes to analytically structure convergence into four dimensions: integrated production, multiskilled professionals, multiplatform delivery and active audience. This analytical grid can help in exploring convergence avoiding deterministic assumptions and allowing to map its development in different media companies as an open process with diverse outcomes. A sample of 58 Spanish cases is studied using the conceptual framework. Multiplatform delivery is the most popular convergence strategy, and in any given dimension developments tend not to radically change established professional routines and values. Integration and multiskilling dimensions seem to be closely related and mainly developed in local and regional media with small staffs. Delivery and audience strategies are more complex in national media

New trends in content and design at the Spanish cybermedia

In the last years, the cybermedia and the Internet itself have marked as medium and support of communication. Nevertheless, constant technologic evolution, the training of the newsroom people and the absence of a clear definition of the business model make continuous modifications in the final structure of the new media environment. This communication focuses in four important aspects: the hypertext –as a basis and essence of the Internet and the cybermedia as well–, the information architecture –as a managing system for big amounts of content–, the journalistic genres –as the main expression of the journalistic work–, and the design –the final layout of the product and, at the same time, the content access interface–. All these issues are continuously subjected to changes. In this paper, starting from the four axis mentioned before, we present an overview of the evolution of cybermedia in Spain and we suggest a perspective about the current situation of the sector

Spain. Multimedia Richness and Variety of Business Models

'El País', 'El Mundo' and 'La Vanguardia' are three of the most important newspapers in Spain. They are national leaders in the print as well as the online market for general information paid-for newspapers. Judging from the front pages of these newspapers on 8 October 2003, all of them update frequently the news on the Web, and at the same time, keep a close reference between their print and online content. All three online newspapers also paid special attention to hypertextual, interactive and multimedia content in 2003, and increasingly do so since. This might be considered one distinctive feature of the Spanish online press. Another peculiarity of the main Spanish online newspapers has been the coexistence of very different business models, from totally free to full payment models, even though these newspapers have very similar news offers

Spain. Multimedia Richness and Variety of Business Models

'El País', 'El Mundo' and 'La Vanguardia' are three of the most important newspapers in Spain. They are national leaders in the print as well as the online market for general information paid-for newspapers. Judging from the front pages of these newspapers on 8 October 2003, all of them update frequently the news on the Web, and at the same time, keep a close reference between their print and online content. All three online newspapers also paid special attention to hypertextual, interactive and multimedia content in 2003, and increasingly do so since. This might be considered one distinctive feature of the Spanish online press. Another peculiarity of the main Spanish online newspapers has been the coexistence of very different business models, from totally free to full payment models, even though these newspapers have very similar news offers