Covid-19 has triggered not only a pandemic that endangers our social, economic, and health systems but also an infodemic resulting from the prolific spread of fake news, hoaxes, and misleading content. From a statistical-descriptive perspective and using content analysis, this research analyzes the information disorders, media language, and narratives that carry the disinformation generated about Covid-19 at an international level. The analysis focuses on determining its frequency of occurrence, based on the time it takes to be verified and establishing the relationship between the spread of the virus and the prevalence of disinformation on different continents. A sample of 582 fake news items included in the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) database on the novel coronavirus was analyzed. This information was divided into a general sample made up of 511 pieces of disinformation and a specific one on fake news spread through WhatsApp (n=71). The results partially confirm recent studies that reported a greater prevalence of information that reconfigures legitimate content and takes longer to be verified than fully fabricated content. Disinformation in textual form predominates over the production of images and audios. Video content required longer verification times in comparison with the other media formats. Disinformation about Covid-19 includes narratives with a dynamic and changing character as the pandemic expands. Likewise, a parallelism between the geographical evolution of the pandemic and the spread of the infodemic is detected, as well as specific disinformation patterns on WhatsApp, where more audio-based disinformation and a higher percentage of fabricated content is shared, sometimes for criminal purposes. Resumen La Covid-19 no sólo ha desencadenado una pandemia que pone en peligro los sistemas sociales, económicos y sanitarios a nivel global, sino también una infodemia donde proliferan las informaciones falsas, los bulos y las noticias sesgadas. Desde una perspectiva estadístico-descriptiva y utilizando el análisis de contenido, en este estudio se analizan los desórdenes informativos, los lenguajes mediáticos y las narrativas que portan la desinformación generada sobre la Covid-19 a nivel internacional. El objetivo del análisis se centra en determinar las frecuencias de aparición de estas noticias falsas, conocer el tiempo que tardan en ser verificadas y establecer la relación entre la expansión del virus y la prevalencia de la desinformación en los diferentes continentes. Para ello, se analizó una muestra de 582 noticias falsas incluidas en la base de datos sobre el nuevo coronavirus de la International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). Estas informaciones se dividieron en una muestra general compuesta por 511 piezas y una específica sobre la desinformación compartida a través de WhatsApp (n=71). Los resultados confirman parcialmente recientes estudios que afirman que las informaciones falsas que reconfiguran contenidos verídicos tienen más prevalencia y tardan más en ser verificadas que los contenidos completamente fabricados. La desinformación en formas textuales predomina frente a la producción de imágenes y audios. Los contenidos en vídeo registran tiempos de verificación muy superiores al resto de producciones. La desinformación sobre la Covid-19 integra narrativas con un carácter dinámico y cambiante a medida que la pandemia se expande. Asimismo, se detecta un paralelismo entre la evolución geográfica de la pandemia y la expansión de la infodemia, así como unos patrones desinformativos específicos en WhatsApp, donde se propagan más audios y un mayor porcentaje de contenido completamente falso, en ocasiones con fines delictivos.
Since the World Health Organization (WHO, February 2, 2020) reported that the spread of coronavirus disease has been accompanied by a "massive infodemic," the COVID-19 outbreak has become a national and international battleground of a struggle against misinformation. Fact-checking outlets around the world have been actively counteracting false and misleading information surrounding the pandemic. In this article, we conceptualize fact checkers in terms of the "interpretative power" that journalism holds in processes of political performances (Alexander in Soc Theory 22(4): 527-573, 2004, in: The performance of politics. Obama's victory and the struggle for democratic power. Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York, 2010). Drawing on virus-related fact checks from Poynter's International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) database, we make two arguments. First, we argue that the new phenomenon of specialized "fact checking" might be considered as a further explicitly differentiated element of Alexander's model of cultural performance, which fulfills a double duty: trying to contribute to further "de-fusion" (separating audiences from actors when the latter lack authenticity and credibility) on the one hand, and working to overcome it on the other. Second, we explain how new fact-checking practices have become a reflexive supplement to the news media of the civil sphere that might be able to help the civil sphere's communicative institutions to defend truthfulness in a manner that contributes to democracy.
In the 1970s, the publications of Alvin Toffler and Jean Cloutier were essential for the emergence of two concepts, prosumer, and emirec, whose meanings have been mistakenly equated by numerous scholars and researchers. At the same time, the mercantilist theories linked to prosumption have made invisible the models of communication designed by Cloutier. In this article, configured as a review of the state of the art made from an exhaustive documentary analysis, we observe that, while the notion of prosumer represents vertical and hierarchical relations between companies and citizens, Cloutier's emirec evokes a horizontal relationship and an isonomy between professional and amateur media creators. The prosumption presents an alienated subject, which is integrated into the logic of the market under free work dynamics and from the extension of time and productive spaces, while the emirec is defined as a potentially empowered subject that establishes relations between equals. The theory of the prosumer reproduces the hegemonic economic model by seeking solutions from the field of marketing so that the media and entertainment industries must face the challenges they have to face in the digital world. On the contrary, the emirec theory connects with disruptive communicative models that introduce new relationships between media and audiences and the establishment of logic of affinity between communication participants. En los años 70, las publicaciones de Alvin Toffler y Jean Cloutier resultan esenciales para el surgimiento de dos conceptos, prosumidor y emirec, cuyos significados han sido equiparados de forma errónea por numerosos académicos e investigadores. De forma paralela, las teorías mercantilistas vinculadas a la prosumición han invisibilizado a los modelos de comunicación entre iguales de Cloutier. En este artículo, configurado como una revisión del estado de la cuestión realizada a partir de un exhaustivo análisis documental, observamos que, mientras que la noción de prosumidor representa unas relaciones verticales y jerárquicas entre las fuerzas del mercado y los ciudadanos, el emirec de Cloutier evoca a una relación horizontal y una isonomía entre comunicadores profesionales y amateurs. La prosumición presenta un sujeto alienado e integrado en la lógica del mercado bajo dinámicas de trabajo gratis y a partir de la extensión del tiempo y los espacios productivos, mientras que el emirec se define como un sujeto potencialmente empoderado que establece relaciones entre iguales. La teoría del prosumidor pretende la reproducción del modelo económico hegemónico buscando soluciones desde el ámbito del marketing a los constantes desafíos que la industria de los medios y el entretenimiento deben afrontar en el mundo digital. Por contra, la teoría del emirec conecta con modelos comunicativos disruptivos que introducen nuevas relaciones entre medios y audiencias y el establecimiento de la lógica de la afinidad entre los participantes de la comunicación.
Esta investigación representa la primera aproximación a la historia del podcasting en España a través de la descripción de su origen y las diferentes fases evolutivas que ha mantenido en sus primeros catorce años de vida. A través del análisis de fuentes documentales y mediante la realización de entrevistas en profundidad a pioneros del medio, usuarios, podcasters y expertos en comunicación digital, se estudian los factores tecnocéntricos y sociocéntricos decisivos para su desarrollo hasta alcanzar su estado actual, caracterizado por la presencia de una robusta comunidad de oyentes y creadores, un complejo ecosistema y la creciente tendencia hacia la producción de objetos narrativos de carácter transmedia que abandonan el formato exclusivamente sonoro de los inicios del medio.
The current media ecosystem offers enormous participatory possibilities to media audiences that, in this way, have the opportunity to engage in the co-creation of media discourse in ways unknown during the 20th century. Following the marketing 2.0 theories, the creation of attractive user experiences is considered as one of the aspects that the media increasingly take into consideration in order to get profitable content. The aim of this research is to detect the factors that influence engagement in podcasting, a digital and interactive medium that, due to its transmedia and mostly amateur nature, develops dynamics of permanent connection between media creators and listeners. By conducting a total of 17 in-depth semi-structured interviews with pioneers of the medium, podcasters and listeners, a total of 13 factors that determine user engagement were identified. These factors are integrated in three groups: medium-centered (technology, asynchrony, topics, genres and formats, and podcast subcommunity’s size), user-centered (participatory culture, consumption situation and number of subscriptions, knowledge on the topic and about the podcast subcommunity, their own relevance in the podcastphere, and the perceived relevance about their participation), and podcaster-centered (skills, attitude and tone). These factors maintain relations of interoperability that build a grammar of engagement of the medium. This study provides some clues that can be exploited by commercial media that are opting for podcasting in order to build innovative experiences of interaction with their users with the purpose of increasing their audiences.
Disinformation is one of the great challenges threatening the health of the public space and democratic systems, which must be based on truth to facilitate decision-making by citizens. For this reason, the fight against fake news has attracted attention from professionals and researchers during the last five years. In the journalistic field, numerous fact-checking outlets have been established. They use the media at their disposal and, above all, social networks to make verified content visible. TikTok, an emerging social video platform (very popular among the youth population), is the latest tool to be explored by fact-checkers to make the truth public. In this context, this paper aims to (1) determine the characteristics of fact-checkers’ videos that drive their engagement on TikTok and (2) identify the factors that predict the number of likes, comments, views, times shared, and engagement rate of such content. All the videos published on this platform by the Spanish fact-checkers Maldito bulo and Newtral (n = 320) during the first 26 months of activity of both outlets were analyzed. Bivariate correlational studies, multiple linear regression, and binary logistic regression tests were applied. The type of content (verification versus explanation) has a greater impact on engagement than the topics of the videos. Verifications multiply the probability of a content getting an above-average number of likes, by 2.42. If the video is hosted by a woman, it doubles its chances of getting an above-average number of shares. Our results provide other valuable data that can help fact-checkers make their content more easily spreadable. Resumen La desinformación es uno de los grandes desafíos que cuestionan la salud del espacio público y de los sistemas democráticos, que están basados en el conocimiento de la verdad para facilitar la toma de decisiones por parte de los ciudadanos. Por ello, la lucha contra los contenidos falsos ha centrado la atención de profesionales e investigadores en el último lustro. En el ámbito periodístico se han fundado numerosos proyectos de verificación de hechos (fact-checking) que utilizan los medios de comunicación y, sobre todo, las redes sociales para visibilizar el contenido verificado. TikTok, como plataforma de vídeo social emergente y de gran calado entre la población juvenil, es el último instrumento explorado por estos proyectos para hacer pública la verdad. En este marco, este estudio pretende (1) conocer cuáles son las características de los vídeos (publicados por los verificadores) que logran más engagement en TikTok y (2) identificar los factores que predicen el número de likes, comentarios, reproducciones, veces compartido y la tasa de engagement de estos contenidos. Para ello, se analizaron todos los vídeos de los fact-checkers españoles Maldito bulo y Newtral (n=320) durante los primeros 26 meses de actividad de ambos verificadores en esta plataforma. El tratamiento estadístico se ejecutó mediante estudio de correlaciones bivariadas, pruebas de regresión logística y regresión lineal múltiple. El tipo de contenido (verificación versus explicación) tiene mayor impacto en el engagement que las temáticas de los vídeos. Las verificaciones multiplican por 2,42 la probabilidad de obtener un número de likes por encima del promedio. Que el presentador del vídeo sea mujer duplica sus posibilidades de ser compartido un número de veces superior a la media. Nuestro estudio, pionero en el análisis del fact-checking en TikTok, ofrece además otras claves que pueden ayudar a los verificadores a difundir mejor sus contenidos en el espacio público digital.
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