New screens? New languages? Spanish Broadcast News Content in the Web

Abstract

This paper examines how Spanish television networks are adapting to the Internet’s potential and how they are using the Web as a platform to elaborate and distribute news content. The redesign of the leading commercial networks Telecinco´s and Antena 3’s websites and the launching of an online news service by public channel RTVE indicate that Spanish broadcasters are increasing their convergence with online operations and are developing stronger journalistic offerings. This paper compares the online news services in each of these three networks, with the objective of finding similarities and differences, as well as outlining their main strategies. Using a content analysis methodology, the essential characteristics of online journalism are analysed in each website: multimedia, hypertext, interactivity, user-generated content and social networks. It is also enquired to what extent the journalistic content available in these websites is adapted to the online language or it rather maintains the basic audiovisual structure of conventional television narrative. The production of television and online news also shows an increasing level of newsroom integration in these media. Journalists’ changes in the working systems and routines, as well as their attitudes towards converged news production are explored, with particular emphasis on how it might influence the quality of their journalistic output.