The newscast “Especial 9-N,” produced by TV3 (Catalonia) in association with TV3's news channel 3/24, presents transmediatic components by combining multiplatform journalistic coverage and citizen participation in online social media. The program aired on November 9, 2014, the date of the non-binding referendum on the sovereignty of Catalonia, held by Generalitat, the regional government. This chapter discusses in what measure the editorial strategy adopted optimized social engagement with the news and favored the circulation of broadcast journalism on online social media. The analysis was based on the systematic observation of the program and its records on online social media, to assess the nature and the intensity of the communicational activity. It was concluded that TV3's institutional identification with aspects related to the region's sovereignty, in the context of significant social mobilization around the theme, fostered transmedia circulation and social engagement with the news story.
TopIntroduction
Multiplatform distribution and citizen participation in online social media characterize most contemporary television programs, be they journalistic or not. The dissemination of television content on online social media integrates the joint action of producers and consumers through the recognition of a certain televisual syntax scattered across the networks. According to Jost (2010), televisual syntax involves aspects such as broadcasts defined by immediacy, the broadcaster’s institutional identification, and references to the program schedule, the latter constituted of content related to news, entertainment, and education. Therefore, televisual syntax is a relevant parameter for the transmediatic configuration of television, for it enables its recognition on several digital connections, as will be discussed here within the scope of the newscast “Especial 9-N” [9-N Special], produced by TV3 in association with TV3’s news channel 3/24. Both channels were owned by group TVC in Catalonia, Spain.
Televisó de Catalunya [Catalonia Television] (or TVC)—the first television network to broadcast exclusively in Catalan—is a public communication company created in 1983 to disseminate Catalan language and culture. This institutional perspective guides the network’s six television channels, one radio station, one news website, and an online video-on-demand service, all associated with Televisò de Catalunya. TV3 is the company’s main news channel, as well as the oldest. TV3 broadcast for the first time on September 10, 1983, one day before the celebrations of Diada, the National Day of Catalonia. Since the network’s first transmission, therefore, TV3 has publicly presented itself in favor of sovereignty for the region.
Acting from this institutional standpoint, TV3 proposed differentiated programming for coverage of the public consultation process and non-binding referendum that took place on November 9, 2014, about the sovereignty of Catalonia. The consultation process, which became known by the social designation “9-N,” was convened by Generalitat de Catalunya, the regional government that functions locally, without the agreement of the central Spanish government. This situation caused significant social mobilization in Catalonia, with an impact on social engagement with the journalistic coverage of 9-N, as will be presented below.
Among the journalistic coverage of the event, the news program “Especial 9-N,” broadcast on November 9, 2014, by TV3 in association with TV3’s news channel 3/24, received special emphasis. Created in 2003, news channel 3/24 inaugurated its news portal in 2007. According to Micó and Barbosa (2009), the idea was to adapt to new consumption habits, related to the transition from a massive public to a fragmented audience. Therefore, the coverage presented by 9-N, born of cooperation between TV3 (broadcasting) and 3/24 (narrowcasting), was based on the experience with multiplatform production the news channel had accumulated and on the identification of TV3’s institutional profile with matters pertaining to the sovereignty of the region.
The “Especial 9-N” program assumes transmediatic characteristics when it integrates multiplatform journalistic production and citizen participation in online social media networks. The program’s production combined efforts from television, radio, news portals, and online social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Among the editorial measures which sought to stimulate the expansion of the journalistic narrative through social participation, we emphasize the invitation to use the hashtag #9NTV3 in contributions that would feed the collaborative experiment “El Mapa del 9-N” [The 9-N Map].
This chapter discusses in what measure the editorial strategy adopted optimized social engagement with the news and favored the dissemination of broadcast journalism on online social media. The analysis was based on systematic observation of the program and its records on online social media networks, to assess the nature and the intensity of the communicational activity.