The use of QR codes to fuel transmedia strategy in the ecosystem of audiovisual media groups

Abstract

The QR code (from the English quick response code) is a type of two-dimensional bar code that, when scanned, directs you to an internet site. Audiovisual groups, as part of their hybrid strategies and digitization actions, incorporate it into their television programs to provide them with interactivity and improve participation and engagement with their viewers. In this article, a radiography of the audiovisual ecosystem in Spain is created to show the use of this technology in linear television broadcasts and its impact. The methodology used for this is mixed: semi-structured in-depth interviews (with heads of this strategies from the 3 audiovisual and multimedia groups in Spain) and an analysis of its use in 150 news programs to find out the functions and themes for which it is used, and the frequency of QR codes used in television broadcasts. The results of this work are illuminating since, despite detecting very different degrees of use in each channel, high interest and actions to implement them are detected by all of them, both in the news and in other programs. As the most relevant conclusion, we observe that audiovisual groups create a digital ecosystem to generate a transfer of viewers between television born before the Internet and its new digital media, generating a great impact of digitization in the transformation of the media.