Transmedia or repurposing journalism? News brands in the era of convergence
Compared study os Greek elections coverage by El País (ES), The Guardian (UK), La Repubblica (IT), and Público (PT).
Journalism is once again facing a context of technological and social changes. The current stage is characterized for being mobile, multi-screen, and visual. Citizens have adopted with ease the new mobile media for content consumption. Transmedia narratives emerge as structures that can help creators to adapt contents to all platforms and to open the door to new audiences. This article analyzes transmedia strategies in the news offered during the coverage of Greek elections (20-S) by four of the most important news media brands in Europe: El País (ES), The Guardian (UK), La Repubblica (IT), and Público (PT). Results show that mobile platforms have been incorporated into the news coverage following a repurposing strategy as regards web content. The increasing number of published stories, the prioritization of their updating, and the multimedia enrichment make the World Wide Web the main platform of the analyzed practices. The patterns for commenting and sharing do not match, but the most commented and disseminated include multimedia contents.
Keywords Greece, journalism, mobile communication, news coverage, transmedia, transmedia storytelling