YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok versus TV news: who takes the cat to the water of information

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Before the digital revolution turned the world upside down, there was an established information ecosystem that manifested itself with a circadian, natural and predictable regularity.

The morning person would get up listening to the radio and drink coffee with the newspaper.

Throughout the day, the time signals solemnly marked, every 60 minutes, the hour on the hour and the obligatory radio news post.

, the television newscast, consumed as a family as a ritual that accompanied lunch and dinner, completed the recommended daily intake of news.

All these references to the classic information system are still valid, but today they have lost the monopoly of communication and attention.

Social networks and platforms have not only atomized the public conversation, but have introduced new players that compete in influence through novel formats.

updates

and always keeps the fire of controversy burning on the networks.

Meanwhile, the traditional formats fight to preserve their influence by defending the protocols of journalism and incorporating, as far as possible, the innovations offered by the new media.

Mobile alerts are also competition

One of those classic formats is the television news, an unavoidable reference since the small screen replaced the radio in the 1960s as the center of the average home.

Today, in the midst of the era of platforms and mobile devices, screens have multiplied and general television has lost the unanimous following of the broadcasting era.

The new generations now give their time to social networks like Instagram or TikTok and platforms like Twitch.

"We are all exposed to a series of

that until recently were unthinkable," says Carlos Franganillo, presenter of the second edition of the news program on La 1 de Televisión Española.

«Today, the newscast not only competes with the chain next door but with mobile alerts, Instagram, Facebook and a multitude of platforms.

So one of the challenges of the information industry is to capture the most precious commodity of our time, which is attention.

Franganillo (Oviedo, 1980), who wanted to study cinema as a young man, ended up rebounding

television, but today he is one of the most respected journalists in Spain.

A member of the TVE staff since 2008, he was the correspondent in Moscow in 2011 and Washington in 2014, from where he returned in 2018 to present the 9:00 p.m. newscast.

The day after our conversation, he will travel to Ukraine with a news team.

A few days later, from Kiev, with the sound of anti-aircraft sirens in the background, he will carry out a special newscast that will be unanimously praised: «The technological and communication revolution that we are experiencing forces us to activate ourselves, to experiment and sometimes to change our minds. Models.

This revolution tends to be seen as a competition that leaves traditional media in the gutter, and if we are poorly positioned it will surely be so, but it also opens up many possibilities for us, including reaching new audiences around the world.

In this game of looking for innovation there is a risk component, and sometimes it can border on ridicule, but I think it is important to try to find new paths.

Some will be wrong, others right.

The question is not to lose the essence of what news is, the journalistic sense of the prioritization of information by a group of professionals.

To give up that would be to enter into a total atomization, like a menu for all tastes where each one is chopping what he wants and the journalistic criteria loses its value ».

In favor of the traditional format

For Franganillo, a newscast must preserve a traditional format, “although introducing new features, trying to modernize the narrative, knowing that the same product will have other lives through other channels.

It is about using the technology at our disposal in a responsible way and always thinking about what it can contribute informatively.

On that basis, the field is open to play."

They know something about applying innovation on Antena 3. The Atresmedia channel, which many years ago opted to make news one of the pillars of its programming, is perhaps the one that takes the most advantage of digital services to present information in a more attractive.

Today, their news programs accumulate

audience leaders.

«Antena 3 was a pioneer in betting on 3D and saying things in a different way.

We were also the first to get up from the table.

At first it was a shock, but now it is the most normal thing, almost everyone does it”, says

, director of the desktop edition for five years, 56 months of uninterrupted leadership, with an average of 21.5% and 2 4 million audience last season.

"We are the only 3:00 p.m. edition with more than two million viewers every day," boasts this journalist from Cádiz who was forged at CNN+ and who has been part of the Antena 3 news services since 2008.

What is the formula for success?

"A lot of dynamism, many faces and a lot of directness, concise, precise and didactic information explained in natural language", he sums up.

"The audience rewards closeness and clarity, but above all honesty."

After participating in the photo session that illustrates these pages, we got into a taxi with her.

The driver recognizes her instantly: "You're the one on the news," she exclaims.

"Thank you for watching Antena 3, gentleman," replies Golpe, defending the colors.

The taxi driver, a man close to 60, has only been in service for a couple of weeks.

He has a business, but things go wrong and he has been forced to put in hours behind the wheel to earn a living.

Thinking of him, and with the data from the report on poverty in Spain presented two days later in the Congress of Deputies by the European Network for the Fight against Poverty and Social Exclusion, which puts the number of Spaniards at risk at 13 million of poverty or social exclusion,

The pulse of the street

“We have looked for concrete examples so that this man could see himself reflected,” the journalist explained a few days later, “people who are not in the queue for hunger, who have university studies and who work, but who cannot make ends meet.

In my edition we have always put the accent on the problems of society.

and we want to be part of the conversation.

In Antena 3 they have verified that this type of information is the one that most interests the viewer.

«You can see it by analyzing the daily curve», a graphic expression of the tyranny of the audience, «but at the same time it is very descriptive of what interests the public.

The curve goes up with those kinds of stories and goes down when we start talking about politics.

There is a very clear disaffection of citizens towards politicians.

We do not stop giving this information, which is key, but we put the accent on other issues.

And I think it's a formula that works."

All this supported by a very dynamic style that is already a brand of the house.

«

, and I want to convey that this is done by a large team of people.

If a colleague has a good story, I want him to tell it to me, and not in a teletype voice.

I like that there are many faces in the news, that experts come out, that we do not stay in the headline, but that we go deeper and tell not only what happens, but why it happens.

The news on TV, no more than a minute

With the viewer's ability to concentrate on waning progression, Golpe is convinced that attracting their attention and not boring them becomes one more informative obligation.

«There is a moment in which

of sitting watching the news -this is also said by the curve- and with the tools at your disposal you have to convince him to stay.

When I started at CNN+ you could do a wonderful two-minute international report.

That is now inconceivable.

The pieces do not last more than a minute.

But it is not necessary.

The images, or an on-screen graphic explained for 30 seconds allow you to tell what is necessary effectively.

This is how we are coming together with the new forms of communication ».

But without abdicating the demands of journalism as always.

«We do not report any image or information to the news without having

.

Although the sources have changed, the verification process is the same.

We are not infallible, we make mistakes like everyone else, but those who follow us know that this is a sign of identity that distinguishes us from other types of media and formats that have proliferated recently », he concludes.

As in Antena 3, the social part has an important weight in the rundowns of Informativos Telecinco.

«There is always a close story, a theme of its own that echoes some claim or problem.

Stories in which our viewers can see themselves reflected, beyond the backbone of any newscast, which is still the political agenda and now, unfortunately, international conflicts," says Alba Lago, 10 years in the information

of the Mediaset chain and a year and a half sharing a table at night with the great journalistic icon of the house, Pedro Piqueras.

For a generational issue, social networks and new media are part of the personal and professional experience of this 37-year-old Galician journalist.

For this reason, she warns, “I don't think we should fall into digital agoraphobia, quite the contrary, I think we should go hand in hand.

In the same way that the social network is nourished by the quality of the television content that is replicated on it, we can be nourished by the advantages that a medium accessible to everyone at any time of day can give you

But we must not give in to the temptation to think that everything moves on social networks.

Let's not forget that there are millions of people in this country who continue to be informed through radio and television.

The rigor of always but with new ways of counting

Nor do you fall into the trap of “trying to compete immediately.

We

and credibility”.

For Lago, in a context of "digital hyperconnection" in which "television in general is balancing" to relocate, the news takes on special value.

«The user does not stop receiving digital stimuli, at all times headlines arrive from no one knows what source or what medium.

Television news was suffering a kind of mid-life crisis, and it took the pandemic to put it back on center stage.

In the end, in a context of uncertainty, the viewer seeks

».

Informativos Telecinco maintains its traditional format, and this "is something that at this time has added value," says Lago.

However, he believes that it would be a mistake to become complacent or cling to familiar formulas.

«In this profession you are constantly learning.

You have to

.

Younger people offer different points of view and new ways of doing things.

We have to count on them, because if we block the regeneration of the profession we lose quality and opportunities.

Now that accurate and rigorous information is needed more than ever, this is the last thing we want."

Among this new generation of professionals, with one foot in the usual media such as La Sexta, and another on platforms such as Twitch, stands out

, known on the networks as

.

This 32-year-old from Alicante found himself reporting for Spain on the 2016 Democratic primaries while studying for a master's degree in Boston.

Since then he has become a reference for information about the United States.

Today he maintains La Wikly, an ambitious newsletter on American news, broadcasts daily on Twitch, manages digital extensions on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and works for Newtral.

"Journalism is not on Twitch or TikTok"

"It is a multi-platform job on many levels, but always journalism," he says by phone from New York.

«Explaining things is the basis of what I do.

and studying to inform my audience ».

To encompass everything, Doménech works 16 hours a day, “but I do it because I want to.

My work freaks me out and I don't like delegating too much.

It's something I'm reflecting on, because I don't want to die at 40, but it's hard to stay on top of everything without spending an inhuman amount of time."

Doménech does a sui generis journalism, with a personal brand, which depends on the content created by conventional media and journalists.

«I have specialized in

into a new format», he clarifies.

He believes that this mediating figure that he represents is here to stay.

“This personalized and personalized approach, of someone who writes a newsletter and puts it in your inbox, is part of the future, but”, he admits, “it cannot be understood without writings from competent journalists and editors.

That's not journalism, and that's what's succeeding on the new platforms.

Journalism is not on Twitch or TikTok.

3.8 million followers on TikTok

Ac2ality

Another example of informative mediation in the networks is represented by it, which, with 3.8 million followers, is the most important TikTok news profile in Spanish.

Every day, his young team chooses the six most relevant topics in digital media and turns them into accessible and educational one-minute videos.

It all started a couple of years ago, when one of its founders,

, worked as a fellow at the United Nations.

"I had studied Politics, I liked to be informed, but when I read the newspapers many times I did not understand what they wanted to tell me," she explains.

«The idea of ​​doing

arose , and Gabriela, one of my current partners, suggested that we do it on TikTok.

We started with the videos and in a very short time we had many followers.

We were first, we got the algorithm right on time, so we have a very strong organic momentum.

Now it is impossible for any medium that gets on the platform to have so many followers.

None of them is a journalist by training, but it is not something that worries them.

“We are very careful, we use sources and we try to be objective.

It is clear to me that

, because I know that I do my job well, "she proclaims.

"Current, timeless, atypical and emotional information"

The one who did study Journalism is

, the 28-year-old from Almería behind Es.decir, a “diary” on Instagram that has nearly 750,000 followers.

After finishing her degree in 2018, given the difficulties in accessing a job, she decided to create a profile from which to practice the trade in her own way, offering "current, timeless, atypical and emotional information", as it reads. her description.

"It arises from a mixture of vocation and from encountering a journalism that does not represent me," she says, dominated by clickbait and misleading headlines that "stain the work behind the information and the reputation of the trade."

Sheila selects news, gives it a

and offers it in a simple way, using content from the media and social networks or information provided by other users.

magazine

as one of the hundred most creative people in Spain in the business world, Sheila, however, has not won a euro with Es.decir until August of this year, thanks to some sponsorship and her participation in talks and journeys.

She has rejected more than one advertising proposal "because

than put something that clashes with my ethics."

To balance her accounts, she continues to work as a community manager for various companies and has set up an online fashion store.

These new narratives have something in common: they recycle, parasitize, or recombine journalistic content created by others to offer digestible material to a young audience that has lost the habit of directly consuming information or distrusts traditional media.

The result is a

to favor its viralization.

«It is very tempting to create an offer à la carte for the client, even trying never to contradict him, reinforcing his point of view or his prejudices, to get more traffic.

The tyranny of the consumer is indeed a threat to journalism,” warns Franganillo.

The new communication experiences in the networks offer interesting lessons in terms of format, but perhaps the keys to good journalism, the honesty that Golpe talks about, the rigor and credibility mentioned by Alba Lago, the inalienable hierarchy of Franganillo, continue to be the same as always

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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