AINARA LARRONDO / KOLDO MESO / ANNA TOUS // COORDS. SHAPING THE NEWS ONLINE A COMPARATIVE RESEARCH ON INTERNATIONAL QUALITY MEDIA AINARA LARRONDO KOLDO MESO ANNA TOUS (COORDS.) SHAPING THE NEWS ONLINE A COMPARATIVE RESEARCH ON INTERNATIONAL QUALITY MEDIA Livros LabCom Covilhã, UBI, LabCom, Livros LabCom www.livroslabcom.ubi.pt SÉRIE Jornalismo DIREÇÃO José Ricardo Carvalheiro DESIGN DE Capa Cristina Lopes PAGINAÇÃO Cristina Lopes ISBN 978-989-654-152-1 (papel) 978-989-654-153-8 (pdf) 978-989-654-154-5 (epub) DEPÓSITO LEGAL 381869/14 TIRAGEM Print-on-demand TÍTULO Shaping The News Online A comparative research on international quality media COORDENADORES Ainara Larrondo, Koldo Meso e Anna Tous ANO 2014 Contents Preface ................................................................................................................ 1 Koldo Meso Ayerdi, Ainara Larrondo (UPV/EHU), Anna Tous Rovirosa (UAB) Introduction. Why to Study the Internet (and Online Journalism) .................. 17 Javier Díaz Noci (Pompeu Fabra University) Quality News Websites: International Online Media Evaluation .................... 63 Germán Llorca Abad (University of Valencia) The International Online Media Agenda. New Media, Old Agenda ................ 79 Javier Odriozola Chéné (Pompeu Fabra University) Interpreting Current Events. Linguistic Indicators of Viewpoint in International Digital Media .................................................. 105 Dolors Palau Sampio (University of Valencia) International Criteria in Editorial Web Design ���������������������������������������������� 131 Bella Palomo (University of Málaga) Narratology of Online News .......................................................................... 171 Javier Díaz Noci (Pompeu Fabra University) Transmedia Storytelling in International Online News: Thematic and Mythical Recurrence versus Generic Regularities and Quality in the Digital Press ................................................. 193 Anna Tous-Rovirosa (Autonomous University of Barcelona) Journalistic Genre: Combinations and Regularities in News Websites ......... 223 Lia Seixas (Federal University of Bahia) Hypertextual Structure of Online News: A Comparative Research on Quality Media .................................................. 249 Ainara Larrondo Ureta (University of the Basque Country) Javier Díaz Noci (Pompeu Fabra University) Newsroom Convergence: A Comparative Research ............................................................................... 301 Javier Díaz Noci (Pompeu Fabra University) Preface Koldo Meso Ayerdi, Ainara Larrondo (UPV/EHU), Anna Tous Rovirosa (UAB) The progressive evolution of the online media over the last 20 years, from 1995 to the present, occupies a special place in the professional and academic field, and is now heading towards an unknown horizon filled with uncertainty for the profession. The work carried out by the Infotendencias group1, made up of thirty-two teachers and researchers from thirteen Spanish universities, consisted precisely in narrating that evolution. They carried out that work from the origins of digital journalism up to the present moment in which we are immersed, a key moment of reconfiguration and reinvention of the mass media. TheInfotendencias group has been succeeded by another, centered on active audiences, which aims to continue the work of that research group.2 The origin of this book can be found in the research activity of its authors that stretches back for a decade and a half; this has resulted in a certain consolidation of both a stable academic critical mass and, above all, a collaborative network that is increasingly advancing into the international sphere. The starting point can be found in an international project titled ‘The impact of the Internet on the Mass Media in Europe’ funded by the COST network, which is dependent on the European Science Foundation (2001-2006). This project, referenced as COST-A20 and headed by Professor Colin Sparks, managed to form an extensive European network of researchers in digital media made up of scholars from twenty-two countries. 1) http://infotendencias.com/objetivos/ 2) Active audiences and journalism: Involved citizens or motivated consumers? (CSO2012- 39518-C04-01) funded by the Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness of Spain (2012- 2015), http://www.audienciasactivas.com [Shaping the news online: a comparative research on international quality media, pp. 1 - 16] 2 Koldo Meso Ayerdi, Ainara Larrondo, Anna Tous Rovirosa The Infotendencias group, some of whose members are authors of this book, was formed in the year 2002 on the occasion of the project titled ‘El impacto de Internet en los medios de comunicación en España [The Impact of Internet in the Mass Media of Spain]’ (ref.: BSO2002-04206-C04-01, -02, -03, -04) funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology. This project was the first general study of the press in Spain following ten years of development of digital media in our country. Moreover, it served for defining the concept of online medium and its essential features. They were able to count on a significant international experience at the European level, as its main members took part in the COST A20 action The Impact of the Internet in the Mass Media in Europe, funded by the European Union and directed by Professor Colin Sparks. In the first years of the XXI century this resulted, amongst other contributions, in the publication of three books: Towards New Media Paradigms, Print and Online Newspapers in Europe and The Impact of Internet in the Mass Media in Europe. Subsequently, a second project (2006-2009), a continuation of the earlier one, ‘Convergencia digital en los medios de comunicación [Digital Convergence in the Mass Media]’ (ref.: SEJ2006-14828-C06), was set up with the aim of making an integral, systemic study of the characteristics, processes and consequences of convergence in the mass media In Spain. All of this was focused on four proverbial aspects of the convergent phenomenon: technologies, content, media and companies. In parallel form, the coordinated group began a fluid collaboration with a similar research network in Brazil. In fact, for four years until the end of 2010, there was an agreement of cooperation between the Education Ministries of the two countries, titled ‘Periodismo en Internet: estudio comparativo de los cibermedios España-Brasil, [Journalism on Internet: Comparative Study of the Online Media, Spain-Brazil]’, within the cooperation agreement signed with the Ministry of Education of Brazil (ref.: PHB2006-0005TA). A new project (2009-2012), funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, ‘Evolución de los cibermedios españoles en el marco de la convergencia [Evolution of the Spanish Online Media in the Framework of Convergence]’ (CSO2009-13713-C05), analyzed the impact of digital technological convergence on the content and productive and organizational processes of Spanish online Preface 3 media and verified how the adoption of new content management systems and business models had substantially altered traditional aspects of the journalistic profession. And today, as mentioned above, they are working on the Internet’s influence on audiences. The phase of disseminating the results of each of the research projects realized culminated in the publication of a monographic volume. These volumes have become a part of the specialist reference bibliography on digital journalism: Manual de redacción ciberperiodística [Manual of Online Journalistic Writing] (2003); Cibermedios. El impacto de Internet en los medios de comunicación en España [Online Media. The Impact of Internet on the Mass Media in Spain] (2005); Convergencia digital. Reconfiguración de los medios de comunicación en España [Digital Convergence. Reconfiguration of the Mass Media in Spain] (2010); Evolución de los cibermedios. De la convergencia digital a la distribución multiplataforma [Evolution of the Online Media. From Digital Convergence to Multiplatform Distribution] (2013). And this book is, for the time being, one of the latest results of this short but intense period of research activity that started over ten years ago. And it is the most decisively comparative and international in character. The timeliness and relevance of this book is explained by the fact that it recounts the point to which the news message is significantly changing due to the effects of the convergence processes in the mass media. In it, an attempt is made to explain how the journalistic discourse is presented. The book’s purpose is to set out for the reader precisely what characteristics best define the journalistic genres on the Web. We are in agreement with Thorsten Quandt when, referring above all to studies on the main characteristics of digital language applied to mass media, he states that ‘the impression that online websites do not fully use the potential of the Web might be due to a lack of a comparative perspective […]. The impression that online websites do not fully use the potential of the Web might be due to a lack of a comparative perspective’ (Quandt, 2008: 719). Our intention, then, is to show, through a multidisciplinary, methodological approach focused on analysis of message, discourse and content, how journalistic products are constructed on Internet. If we accept that the online mass media differ from what preceded them, then we must try to determine to what extent 4 Koldo Meso Ayerdi, Ainara Larrondo, Anna Tous Rovirosa and in what way the products and messages are also different.