Sixth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Social media, initially conceived as platforms for bringing people together, is being used – together with fake news and big data – as a veritable weapon with a clear objective: to subtly and imperceptibly change our behaviour in order to provoke political and social changes that have nothing to do with democracy. Within this context, a long format digital journalism is being consolidated, one which is not contaminated, as an alternative to other styles: slow journalism, a narrative journalism, the different key points of which have been analysed via ten case studies, with in-depth interviews, a Delphi study and 2,000 questionnaires carried out in Argentina, Colombia, Spain and Mexico. Among the most notable results, we find that the digital press is the priority news media for 41% of men, whilst it is social media for 40% of women. Trust in the news entity is the main reason for consumption (61%). News professionals arrive at the conclusion that slow journalism is more necessary than ever in order to combat misinformation and information overload. They are optimistic about the future of this journalistic current insofar as they see a growing space in which it can differentiate itself from one centered on immediacy. Slow journalism reports the news from other more literary focuses that are more reflexive and analytical. Never before have so many people had so much media at their fingertips and never before has misinformation reached such global dimensions due to a lack of a critical use of the news media.