Medios Nativos Digitales y Sus Comunidades Virtuales: Estrategias de Interacción y Participación en Redes Sociales

Abstract

Virtual communities are constituted as places of interaction of the actors that make up the digital ecosystem. The proliferation of social networks and user participation are influencing media communication strategies, particularly digital native media. The object of study of this work is the virtual communities that native digital media establish in social networks. The main objective of the research is to understand the virtual communities of native digital media from a representative sample that allows evaluating the production and interactions they establish with their audiences and the relationships with other media. It is also interesting to know both the production of the media and the level of interaction with their audiences. The method used is digital ethnography based on the analysis of the selected native digital media platforms and their social networks. The research results show social networks as necessary extensions and main places where digital native media interact with their audiences. The media analyzed coincide in the networks they use to expand the communicative and participation experience. There is a specific and differentiated use of each of the social networks integrated into the ecosystem of information brands. It can also be concluded that the vast majority of the accounts followed by the media analyzed are ideologically or business-related, therefore creating an “echo chamber” effect in the form of information bubbles in line with similar ideological lines.