Transformation of the Colombian Radio in the Informative Sonosphere of the SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Changes experienced by the social environment because of the SARS-CoV-2 established a new roadmap in the news agenda that addresses the radio industry, convergence of sound semiotics with textual and visual elements to explore new narratives, and meet the needs of an audience focused on screen devices. Adaptation of the radio medium to the digital sonosphere of the audience invites to focus the attention of researchers on the transformation of productive routines in the context of the pandemic, and the analysis of the communicative content that is used to capture the attention of the public. This research took as the focus of study the five Colombian generalist stations, with national coverage—Caracol Radio, W Radio, Blu Radio, RCN Radio and La FM–through a mixed methodology; observation of journalistic coverage broadcast on the air, web-radio and digital platforms, a quantitative input that is contrasted with the qualitative analysis of the messages and the approach of the radio agents. Exploration of the investigative corpus warns of the presence of new styles, formats and narratives that bet on the interaction with the listener/user in the smartphone; journalistic work constituted by the principle of topicality and immediacy that is permeated by technological resources in the context offline and online. Technological innovation has imposed new forms of consumption whose logics no longer correspond to the analogue system of production, distribution and consumption of information; the normalisation of connectivity, ubiquity, timelessness and interactivity are values today inherent in the content broadcasted by radio.