Communication & Society

Classification of Mexican audiences by their interest in digital news content and socioeconomic characteristics

María-Elena Gutiérrez-Rentería, Cristina Eccius-Wellmann, Alfonso Vara-Miguel — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 10:15:17 +0000

The news industry faces challenges due to the global macro and microeconomic environment. The current digital situation leads to the study of the characteristics of the audience interested in news content products. The central aim of this research is to classify the main attribute interest in digital news content in Mexico of the audience’s market by the attributes of age group, education level, and income level. This research is based on a survey of 2,005 digital news consumers in Mexico, directed in 2022 by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford for the annual Digital News Report Study. The statistical method used is data mining with decision trees that classify the audience by the attribute of interest in the news as the dependent variable and attributes of age groups, education level, and income level as independent variables. These findings confirm the segmentation of digital news consumers’ audiences. The classification in which the attributes of age groups, level of education, and income level are considered simultaneously concerning audiences’ interests indicates that some of the predictions made show that some attributes may not be significant in some subsets, except for age group. The lowest average interest in the news is between 18 and 24 years, and the highest average interest in the news, which is nearly very interested, has audiences over 35 years.

Speculative fiction and political ideologies: meanings given by the audience

Mayte Donstrup — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 09:17:04 +0000

Speculative fiction is based on one main question: what if? This paper addresses the question of how audiences interpret such interrogative. In particular, our main interest lies in knowing how the different political ideologemes that may inhabit speculative fiction are signified. Thus, in this study we have focused on the genre of dystopia. To this end, a total of five focus groups were carried out. Specifically, the ideologemes tested in the reception study belong to socialism, conservatism, neoliberalism, liberalism and religious fundamentalism. The significance of these ideological values is empirically grounded in extensive qualitative research.

The fallacy of interactivity on Twitter: the case of Andalusian political parties in 2020

Irene Liberia-Vayá, Bianca Sánchez-Gutiérrez, Alberto Hermida — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 09:10:01 +0000

The advent and spread of social networking sites have been the object of study of most of the research performed on political communication over the past 25 years. However, more recent inquiries have indicated that the political establishment still has not fully exploited the interactive potential of these media. Against this backdrop, this paper presents the results of a systematic study of the communication between the main political parties in Andalusia (the most populous region in Spain) and the citizenry on Twitter, with the aim of confirming whether or not it is really interactive and participatory. To this end, the spotlight is placed here on those parties most active online and on the way in which they foster interactivity, the subjects that they broach and the functions of their messages. The data were obtained from a content analysis of the tweets (n = 10,729) posted on the official profiles of the main Andalusian parties in 2020. The results indicate that there was no interactive communication with the citizenry, despite the fact that they were in much need of reassurance owing to the unprecedented situation to which the COVID-19 pandemic had given rise. The Andalusian political parties still use social networking sites for the one-way dissemination of information, which shows that they are not, in practice, horizontal and participatory spaces of communication, as the cyber-optimists, defending the innovation hypothesis, predicted.

The Affective Configuration of the Public Problem of Depopulation: From Resignation to Obstinance

Vanesa Saiz-Echezarreta — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 09:02:27 +0000

Participation in public problems involves diverse strategies, including the challenging and transformation of hegemonic affective configurations. By exposing and disrupting the established emotional norms, actors gain affective agency, enabling resistance against the prevailing status quo and facilitating active engagement in democratic deliberation. To explore this idea, we present a sociocultural analysis of the Empty Spain Revolt (Revuelta de la España Vaciada) as a compelling case study. Employing semiotic-enunciational discourse analysis, we focus on the affective-emotional dimension, utilizing the movement’s Manifesto and photographs of banners from the March 31, 2019, demonstration in Madrid as our primary sources. Our research reveals the emergence of affective agency through three gestures: 1) Indignation as a Catalyst: Indignation serves as a driving emotion, stemming from frustration due to perceived neglect. This emotion fosters the assignment of responsibility to political parties and fuels demands for immediate action. 2) Pride and Urban-Rural Dynamics: The appeal to urban subject emphasizes the interdependence between urban and rural areas, advocating for justice, equality, and rural dignity. 3) From Resignation to Obstinance: The transition from a resigned figure to an obstinate figure shifts the enunciative agency. The resolute voices of the obstinate subject sustain a collective identity and enable a politically active subject. Our analysis underscores the pivotal role of affects and emotions in shaping public problems and in the articulation of actor. The process of dismantling existing affective configurations and presenting alternative ones not only influences encyclopedias and imaginaries but also impacts collective agency and power structures. This study offers insights into the intricate relationship among affect, discourse, and sociopolitical change.

Pause and pitch: the influence on political candidates’ perceived integrity

Ana-M. Arboleda, Luciana-C. Manfredi — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 08:42:36 +0000

This study evaluates speech pause as a stimulus that influences voters’ perception of a political candidate. Previous research has explored how speech attributes like pitch influence voters’ perception of integrity. However, the existing studies overlook interphase pauses as a key component in communication. In a between-groups experiment, we manipulated the interphase pauses in a speech given by four mock political candidates and evaluated the effect on voters’ perception of the candidates’ integrity. The results suggest that interphase pauses influence the perception of a leader’s integrity, but the candidates’ pitch moderates the effect. Specifically, candidates with a low-pitched voice are perceived as more integral if they use short interphase pauses, whereas candidates with a high-pitched voice may benefit from making natural pauses (0.5 seconds). This is the first study to evaluate how speech pause may influence the perception of integrity. The findings are relevant for designing strategic political campaigns and overall communications through a spokesperson.