This study focuses on the curation of newsletters specialized in Covid-19 news from the mass media of France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the USA. The newsletters of 21 media outlets –15 traditional and six digital natives– were studied during the peaks of the pandemic in April and November 2020. The study follows an evaluative method of curation quality, based on the analysis of the following parameters: number of curated contents, time range, origin, sources –according to organization type and morphology–, authorship, sense-making techniques, and hyperlink informational function. The results identify the main characteristics of news curation in these newsletters and their differences from general newsletters, as well as the sources used, and also make it possible to establish curation quality standings and to identify differences between countries and among legacy and pure digital news outlets.

Resumen Se presenta el resultado de una investigación sobre cómo se usan las redes sociales en comunicación política; en concreto, acerca de cómo utilizan Twitter los políticos y los periodistas en España. Mediante el machine learning y con una herramienta creada ad hoc para llevar a cabo un seguimiento del rastro digital (Digital Trace Data) se han observado y analizado los hiperenlaces que han compartido los diputados españoles de la XII legislatura y los principales periodistas del país, desde junio de 2018 hasta mayo de 2019. Los resultados revelan una relación endogámica entre periodistas y políticos. Así, la interacción tanto dentro de cada grupo como entre los dos se desarrolla alrededor de los principales medios españoles, por lo que ambos colectivos comparten información dentro de un bucle autorreferencial que provoca un efecto echo chamber y anula las posibilidades de expansión del conocimiento que proporcionan las redes sociales y el acceso al hipertexto.

Trump vs los medios. Tratamiento de la prensa desde la cuenta de Twitter del presidente de EUA

Putin’s Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and launched a massive invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This study is predicated on framing theory, which posits that the media contribute to the creation of individuals’ perceived reality. We analyzed how the European press presented Russian President Vladimir Putin during both episodes. Content analysis was used to examine a sample of 1009 opinion articles and editorials published in two leading newspapers in each of the five largest European economies. Subsequently, we quantified the frequency of the predominant frames as well as the tone (positive, neutral, or negative) the articles struck towards Putin. The results show that many more articles were published in 2022 than in 2014, and that the degree of negative views of Putin is also more pronounced in 2022. In both instances, historical motives were most often employed to frame Putin’s actions, such as Putin’s urge to reassert Russian influence in the former Soviet space and his reaction to the alleged lack of recognition of Russia as a superpower.

This paper analyses the use of storytelling by United States presidents in their war speeches, from the Vietnam War to the War on Terror. The study proposes a dual concept of storytelling in political communication: first, the global story that lies behind the presidential rhetoric aimed at justifying war; and second, the use of a specific technique consisting of inserting particular, personal stories into the speeches in order to communicate specific messages to the audience. The methodology used consists of an in-depth, interpretive, qualitative content analysis of a sample of presidential speeches. The findings confirm, firstly, that US presidents’ war storytelling aims to reinforce the political myth of America’s duty to preserve freedom, an argument that helps make the burden of the war understandable and bearable for the people, thereby reaffirming American collective identity. It is a reductionist narrative, as all wars are presented as having the same causes and goals. Secondly, the presidential use of personal stories is confirmed to have increased exponentially from the Vietnam War era. In most cases, these stories consist of a personification of some basic values attributed to the whole nation, by means of which these values are reinforced: heroism, patriotism, sense of duty, and, above all – again – the defence of freedom. The results also show that, in this aspect of their war rhetoric, the differences between George W. Bush and Barack Obama are at least blurred, despite their ideological and political differences.