Press and social networking services in the internet: approaches to the relations of two Argentine online newspapers with Facebook and Twitter

Abstract

This article describes the incorporation of the social networks resources on Internet into digital interfaces of the two main Argentine newspapers, Clarín and La Nación, as well as the ways in which these online newspapers manage and use their official accounts on Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TW). Such reflections are part of the first stage of a research project which aims to understand the relationship established, at present, between digital media and social networking, to account for the impact of the latter both the link to the press with his readership as in the press-public sphere relationship. As we have seen until now, these observed online newspapers use their official accounts on FB and TW for several purposes: to get viral spread of content; to establish a direct contact with the public; to get the audience involved and encourage their participation; to consolidate their own positions into the social networks; and to get users to control the quality of his speeches on the Internet. Besides, the incorporation of the social networks resources on these online newspapers would impact, specially, on news circulation process since a piece of news is no longer a stable unit and gets modified as the story travels through Internet social networks.