News platformization in Portugal: analysis of the dependence of the news media on social media and search engines

Abstract

The research aims to understand the news platformization process based on the identification and analysis of the dependence that Portuguese news media have on social media and search engines in the process of distributed discovery of news. The method replicated the dependency analysis model proposed by Nielsen & Fletcher (2002) and Tambini & Labo (2016), selecting the 30 Portuguese journalistic media with the highest average volume of web traffic between July, August, and September 2022. Thus, the different types of access were identified with the SimilarWeb platform, used in the literature as a reference source in webometrics. The data showed that 19 news media have more than 50% of indirect traffic dependent on the platforms. As for the total volume, we found that, on average, 56.26% of news access originates from social media or search engines; 36.05% from direct access; 7.05% from reference links; and 0.31% from email, sponsored search, and advertising. Considering mobile devices, the average dependency increases to 57.35% and, on desktop devices, it drops to 50.05%. We found that there is variation according to the type of media and its content: those specializing in football have greater direct access, and those specializing in lifestyle and celebrities have greater indirect access. Digital native media also rely more on platforms, as do media coming from Radio and TV. We conclude that platformization is a relevant phenomenon in the news ecosystem in Portugal, with significant integration of journalistic media content in these digital infrastructures. Thus, media will have to find ways to counterbalance the power of platforms, which, at the same time, improve connection with the user and increase audience reach, control data, interaction patterns, as well as online advertising, operating in a logic of increased dependency.