The Media and Information in the Content Diet of Colombian Social Media Users

Abstract

The mass media are central to everyday life, a meeting point for citizens with the facts of the current social situation, and a space for the meaning, perception, interpretation, and construction of the notion of reality in the collective imagination. The impact of technology and communication platforms on the social fabric has opened up access to information and atomized trust and credibility in the face of the journalistic brand, an instance of crisis on the smartphone screen in which the media are relegated to the background and influencers, opinion leaders, and the protagonists of the facts themselves, in direct contact with the followers, gain relevance. The transformation configured in the users’ content diet aims to review the industry’s behavior on social networks to interpret why it is losing its place in the citizens’ consumption agenda. This research, which relied on a mixed methodology, downloaded messages from Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok profiles of two written, five audio, and two audiovisual media in a period of 91 days, and added them to what was carried out in the same period in 2019 and 2021. The corpus of the study made it possible to prove the composition of the communication, the operational tactics, and the thematic axis. The research concluded that the Colombian mass media need to innovate to establish productive routines that bet on digital native products, corresponding to the dynamics of networked consumption by an audience that concentrates all actions on screen devices.

1. Introduction

The situation created by the pandemic put traditional media back on the public’s radar. People’s need for information and the urgency to know what was happening in their immediate environment and in other parts of the world placed mass media in the collective imagination as being central to everyday life [1]. Journalism fulfills the social function of interpreting facts and contributing to the construction of an idea of reality [2,3]. In the context of isolation, the use and consumption of the network were transformed (Figure 1), the time spent on screens increased, and consumption routines were delineated. The political and social situation in the country shows that citizens’ trust in the media is once again fractured (38%) [4] (35%) [5].

The map of citizens’ actions in the network (Figure 1) shows that news has a powerful distribution channel in the form of social media platforms [10], consolidating new dynamics in the production and distribution of information from emerging narratives [11]. They practice narrating the facts of daily life, using temporary events and permanent elements to create communicative pieces. The production and distribution of content, in which the instrumental and technological aspects come first, are the points of management in the information agenda [12]. The convergence of scenarios, analog and digital (

Table 1. Channels through which Colombians obtain information.

Year/Channel	2021	2022	2023
Press	24%	28%	22%
Radio	16%	17%	14%
Television	58%	55%	48%
Online	87%	86%	80%
Social Networking	70%	72%	64%
Facebook	67%	65%	58%
WhatsApp	45%	40%	41%
YouTube	34%	34%	36%
Instagram	28%	29%	29%
X/Twitter	18%	18%	18%
Messenger	14%	13%	Not reported
TikTok	Not reported	10%	20%

Source: Author’s elaboration using data from Reuters Institute 2021 [15], 2022 [16], and 2023 [5].

), for the Colombian case shows a trend towards an informative approach through lives, podcasts, and other possible microformats that capture the attention of an audience immersed in their smartphone (penetration of 141.8% in Colombia) [9]. The connections between products corresponds to a cross-media distribution logic under transmedia narratives [13,14].

The work and relationship environment between the mass media and the public imposes a set of routines and competencies on journalistic professionals that become indispensable in their profile [17]. The media has mastery over a set of resources and languages corresponding to the platforms on which the content is distributed [18]. The success of the media brand is linked to the ability to tell stories, leaving behind the informative style guide supported by the traditional inverted pyramid [19] and adopting what Ramón Salaverría calls the immersive pyramid [20]. The triangulation of interactive, multimedia, and hypertext communicative strategies from the intensive use of data and the conception of products with a life of their own is supported by their own narrative, but the experience of the public increases if the user integrates them dynamically in his movement through each scenario [21,22]. Information architecture is designed by the author according to the relevance of the events, without forgetting the answer to the 6Ws (what, who, when, where, why, and for what) and proposing to the receiver a movement through each of the factual faces.

The media ecosystem in the era of instantaneity has substantially expanded the channels of presentation and the dissemination of communicative products (Figure 2), constructing the message with elements that adapt its narrative to the perspective of the facts under a will determined by the issuer. An audience forms actions and thoughts regarding proposed information via their smartphone screen (81%), the computer (34%), or the tablet (7%), in the Colombian case [16]. With technology, the audience, constituted as a user in the digital scenario, has modified the ways of searching for news. The content diet is marked by the chronology of publications on social platforms or the search for keywords on Google. The construction of public opinion, the perception of the world fragmented by infoxication [23], the flow of content that atomizes the environment with rumors and fake news [24] that overcome the validation effect, and the fact checking [25] that weighs on the traditional media are considered.

The multiplicity of events that occur in Colombia every day and every week emphasizes the urgent need for a critical reading of the media and the content offered for consumption [26]. Giving importance to the details and analyzing the particular characteristics of the facts that are put in communication from the social dialogue, allows the interpretation of memes, images, reactions, comments, and ideas that generate public conversation among the followers of a profile. Interpreting the point of view from which each nucleus, a micro-network of action, tells the story in a different way with the resources at its disposal. The information ecosystem that is woven in the network [27] is constituted by the design of multiple content structures that are uploaded on the platforms to be expanded with co-creation formulas independent of each user, products that interrelate and are the materialization of the common thought in front of a given fact.

In the digital media ecosystem, complex social interrelationships are instituted, traditional media lose control of informative agendas [28], the unidirectionality of the message is broken, and followers join the conversation as the producers, supervisors, and distributors of content. The organizational structure of the medium maintains the hierarchy of a productive body linked to the industry but adds to them external collaborators who contribute to the constant generation of content. From the news, documentaries, series, reports, chronicles, and special reports that are created for conventional distribution systems, we move on to posts, tweets, live streams, podcasts, videos, infographics, memes, and other products that generate a systemic dialogue around a narrative universe made up of a story from which parallel stories can emerge. A spiral of communicative proposals made up of multiple textual, audio, visual, and hypertextual formats creates a convergence of linguistic, semiotic, and argumentative codes where these narratives converge to complement each other [29].

We are facing a mediamorphosis [30] that is not only related to content, formats, narratives, and language, but also to the implementation of new technologies and strategies for dissemination and interaction [11]. The construction of tactics to conquer and build the loyalty of different audiences facilitates the adoption of a cultural environment that is embodied by the creation of content by participating communities. Media ecology [31], where relationships and interrelations between symbols, media, and culture are configured leads to the convergence of linear forms that make the transmission of information effective and interesting. The creative production of content adapts to the nature of the event using infographics, maps, photographs, videos, cartoons, virtual reality, or augmented reality, a range of options that are consolidated in formats designed to meet the expectations of the public that consumes them. Restful journalism [32] caters to a niche audience with shared values and has naturalized the permanent consumption of podcasts and sound interfaces, newsletters, live streams, push notifications, news bulletins, videos, holograms, and the data produced by artificial intelligence.

The automation of services [33], i.e., the management of information with the appropriate interpretation of algorithms [34], makes it possible to increase the possibilities of content distribution and to anticipate what user behavior will be like. The mutation of the phenomenon and the transformation of the media ecosystem in its transition from analogue to digital is a new roadmap in the face of the growing complexity in the fields of tension that intertwine between media, users, messages, and social networks. The presence of the media on multiple platforms, the reorganization of work areas, and the polyvalence of information professionals bring with them a technological, organizational, and professional convergence; a dimension of its own to face a multimedia structure and the capacity to produce a message using different elements and languages.

The research presented here is justified by the urgent academic need to understand the actions of the media industry in order to reverse the apathy of new audiences towards journalism and traditional Colombian media [1]. The digital and social news scenario is conditioned by the participation of users through screen devices and the social environment [35]. Consumption habits demarcate a reputation crisis for traditional media, but nevertheless, they are consumption referents in the face of political, economic, social, and sporting facts in moments of conjuncture, as demonstrated in the pandemic [1]. This paper will provide an approach to the importance of information for citizens and the role it plays in creating an image of global reality [3,36]. The convergence of conventional and digital media calls for an evaluation of the narrative strategies used in journalism in order to establish an effective dialogue in line with the demands of contemporary consumers.

The study of communication and information transcends the prioritization given to the media, the agenda of interests, and peripheral issues, and allows us to approach how the masses act. Focusing research attention on the influence of social platforms in a world that brought together consumer actions on smartphones, allows us to analyze instances in which citizens often lose their reason and become impulsively emotional. The aim of the work presented here is to investigate the transformations that have taken place over time: 2019, 2021, and 2023, and an operational strategy for the mass media to face the challenges posed by a public with consolidated consumer actions on social networks that are installed on smartphones. Taking a critical look at how information is discriminated, a response is given from the media industry to the demand for information events and the social interaction that occurs in the process of citizen information consumption.

The research was conducted based on the hypothesis that: the Colombian journalistic brand is losing space and field of action in the social collective because it has not managed to appropriate the resources offered by technology to produce innovative communicative proposals. The content produced by the media must face the connectivity of audiences and technological convergence, the need to originate disruptive products [37] that have a narrative dispersion [38], and the expansion of the story on different platforms, which narratively expands [39] its discursive thread, adapting to each scenario and encouraging interaction and the production of messages by the user. In their productive routines, the mass media set a strategy to achieve the objective of reaching audience goals through the convergence of resources (technical, human, operational, informative) between the conventional media and social scenarios that result in a mutual benefit and the creation of value in the service offered to the public [40]. Actions are executed from a structured tactic to be carried out at a specific time and place [41].

The media content is tailored to the audience of the communication product, catering to their preferences, hobbies, and requirements. This is achieved through operational endeavors to engage with a demographic that identifies with the medium, its editorial slant and interpretation of the facts, and the presence of the journalistic brand that is prolonged over time [42]. The productive line of the news industry assumes the creation of messages in a way that expands, extends, or amplifies the content in different scenarios with details that expand the knowledge of a fact with textual and extratextual elements [43]. Strategic planning leads to social interaction [44] and a dialogue of knowledge within the citizen collective, which can occur through the interactivity [45] of digital devices. The criteria outlined here inspired three questions concerning the actions of Colombian media agents positioning themselves as the hub of social conversation:

• RQ1: What is the composition of the Colombian mass media message on social networks?
• RQ2: What is the interaction of Colombian users with the messages issued by the mass media on social platforms?
• RQ3: To what extent has the narrative focus of mass media in Colombia transformed to capture the interest of users within the context of the country’s political and social events?

The questions posed here arise from three hypotheses that impact the media ecosystem and the industry’s relationship and interaction with the audience. H1: the Colombian mass media understand that, in order to remain relevant and present to users, they must be active on their social profiles, construct clear, short, concise, and direct informative messages in which the text, audio, and video converge as an advertising strategy that leads to a journalistic product that can be streamed or was hosted on the web media. H2: the relationship of the mass media with the users is permeated by an atmosphere of tension, hatreds, and loves that is expressed in the reactions to the messages that are broadcast on social platforms. H3: the adaptation of the mass media to the digital environment of the audiences has transformed the actions of journalistic agents, and the formality of professional work in the face of political and social events assumes the particularities of the social scenarios and the colloquial language of the citizen in the online dialogue.

The phenomenon under study here is broad and has several points from which it should be approached; for the development of this article, the focus will be on the media, their messages, and the interaction of users with the communicative proposal on social platforms. The corpus of the analysis in this work is broad, and concentrates on the actions of the media on Facebook, X/Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, in the years 2019, 2021 and 2023, compiling 774,901 digital pieces that are supplemented by data collected through surveys and focus groups in the second research phase. Although the audience is an important factor in the development of this research, by a strategic determination that corresponds to the limits of space in an academic article, it was determined to address the observation of this fact from the perspective of the receiver in a future work: the consumption habits and trends of users in the digital ecosystem versus the news industry.

The convulsing habitat of Colombians demands the coverage of news events and the production of journalistic products around which social interaction and the appropriation of cultural values flow. The digital ecosystem has transformed communication and the media industry’s interaction with the public and their information product [46]. The operational tactics of journalistic agents are moving across a map, offline and online, which corresponds to the convergence of analogue media and social platforms [47], adapting to the needs and habits of the population in search of regaining a presence in the citizen’s information agenda. The way news facts are told and narrated has been transformed [48], and through the use of artificial intelligence data or parallel realities can be researched that allow the construction of fragmented narratives, the writing of dramatic texts, and the recording of news videos which give an account of the chronology of events.

2. Materials and Methods

The monitoring of the operational transformation of the mass media in Colombia, approached by this research, was structured using a mixed methodology. A case study was conducted to provide a triangulated plan of the relationships between informative content, the public, and the media brand’s operational strategy. The characterization of the current moment, comparing it with the results of previous studies carried out in 2019 and 2021 [49], allows us to analyze the behavior of the actors in the communicative process from a quantitative and qualitative point of view [50]. The study corpus (

Table 2. Media under study and their digital followers.

Medium	Visitors in Web-Medium	Social Networking
		Facebook	X/Twitter	Instagram	YouTube	TikTok
Press
El Tiempo	11,290,805	6,202,733	8,547,580	2,673,820	2,040,000	183,200
El Espectador	6,453,175	4,154,775	6,684,766	1,966,960	877,000	139,300
Radio
Caracol Radio	5,561,291	1,058,377	4,150,559	664,440	703,000	41,500
W Radio	4,038,652	994,679	4,788,550	655,633	649,000	120,300
Blu Radio	7,589,656	2,308,576	3,478,581	1,386,421	507,000	180,500
La FM	3,687,019	1,379,969	2,915,414	429,710	155,000	206,800
RCN Radio	4,458,738	888,717	3,378,547	383,062	373,000	397,600
Television
Noticias Caracol	5,939,219	6,701,868	10,180,492	3,721,464	5,700,000	1,100,000
Noticias RCN	682,497	2,916,780	8,556,983	1,478,111	1,010,000	785,400

Source: Author’s elaboration based on comScore data and social network profiles.

) was selected based on Colombian information traditions, both analogue and digital, ascribed to two national newspapers, five radio stations with nationwide signal, and two news programs on private television channels.

The study’s quantitative methodology enabled the identification of recurring communication strategies, repetition frequencies, and the elements that make up the message that is taken from the mass media (grouped into written, audio, and audiovisual) and put onto the social platforms. The different parts of our research, which can be found in

Table 3. Digital study corpus.

Medium	Facebook	X/Twitter	Instagram	YouTube	TikTok
Written	44,966	87,676	4978	6728	228
Audio	179,525	348,245	15,665	7830	670
Audiovisual	28,558	40,104	3542	4322	734

Source. Author’s elaboration.

, were directly downloaded from individual journalistic brand profiles. The data set covers a period of 91 days, from 1 February to 2 May 2023. The numerical input obtained from the processing tables was contrasted with the qualitative elements resulting from a hermeneutic paradigmatic interpretation of the narrative, operational, ethical, and political inferences of the message by the researchers [51] using a data collection technique and participant observation [52]. Immersion in the textual, audio, visual, filmic, and technological components that make up the message uses specialized tools that constitute bridges to achieve a greater reach and build audience loyalty.

For the hermeneutic analysis, the written text, the image (portrait, video, iconography), and the sound were triangulated to study the research phenomenon as a whole [29,53]. Inspection of the convergence of semiotic codes in the sender’s tactic allows us to find, in the text, the discursive structures from which meaning is given to the facts in the construction of a notion of reality, to detect the use of video or image to provide statements that contribute to a rhetoric of the perceived and the conceived, and to determine the use of a chain of interpreters where the object is constituted by the thought or belief of the receiver. The multiplicity of support used in the broadcasting of the message to be carried through the screen devices makes it necessary for the media industry restructures its narrative format to effectively influence the public.

The researchers and research assistants processed the sample extracted from the social profiles of the media under study in 2019, 2021, and 2023. Based on the dimensions of analysis (Figure 3), the variables found in the message were tabulated, creating a database extracted from the corpus of the research study and its narrative expansion. The inspection of the content was connected to the coding of the units of analysis [54], which was triangulated with the descriptive and exploratory research factors that emerge from the deduction, verification and inferences of the reality observed in the quantitative and qualitative elements [55]. The results were ordered and systematized in an Excel table, with the purpose of analyzing the information, facilitating the integration, connection, and evaluation in which the information and statistical percentages were correlated in the SPSS-21 program.

In this non-experimental exploration, the messages were observed as they were broadcast at a given time, in their real context, which allows them to be analyzed in all their dimensions [56]. Observation of the proposed phenomenon was carried out, without manipulation, which monitored the online dialogue, opinions, and the composition of the message content [57], with the aim of evaluating the construction of the notion of reality from the informative need of the citizen (Figure 3). Optimization of the communicative proposal is aligned with new opportunities for a model of performance and services for the on-screen audience. The employment of methodological, quantitative, and qualitative, reasoning permitted us to acquiree a comprehensive and thorough viewpoint of the investigated phenomenon [58], connecting data that will support the construction of results, analysis, discussion, and conclusions.

The comparison of the established variables (Figure 3) enables us to confirm or refute the hypothesis and address our research questions. The data that were measured were given a significance, were interpretated to understand the dynamics of consumption, and were navigated via the multiplicity of communicative offers that shows how the mass media industry acts under a technological context in which the tripartite of content, professionals, and users converge. The tactics deployed by the journalistic brand highlight the need to read between the lines of the narrative structure used to impact the construction of the notion of reality in the collective imagination of a public immersed in the screen devices.

3. Results, Analysis, and Discussion

The internet and mobile phones in Colombia have experienced a steady increase during the period of analysis (

Table 4. The Colombian digital ecosystem.

	2019	2021	2022
Total population	49.66 million	51.07 million	51.96 million
Active Mobile	57.49 million	60.83 million	73.68 million
Internet users	34.00 million	34.73 million	39.34 million
Active social media users	34.00 million	39.00 million	38.45 million
Percentage of users with a social networking profile
Facebook	93%	93.6%	90.5%
X/Twitter	60%	59.2%	52.4%
Instagram	73%	82%	85.6%
YouTube	96%	95.7%	97%
TikTok	Do not report	41.3%	67.9%

Source: Author’s elaboration using data from Hootsuite 2019 [59], 2021 [7], 2023 [9].

). Furthermore, the digital map establishes paths for citizen behavior and engagement with the device screen. Social networks are an important meeting point for the users who subscribe to a profile. A flow of people who browse social scenarios to interact with communication products, chat with friends, or simply entertain themselves has been observed in the network. A transformation in the ways of interacting with the world and approaching reality has occurred in which the analysis proposed here, of the relationship of the information industry with the audience in scenarios that transcend the conventional media and surpass the traditional unidirectionality of the communicative process becomes important.

The results provided herein do not concentrate on the idiosyncrasies of individual journalistic entities. As per the objective to inspect the operational tactics of the mass media across 2019, 2021, and 2023, they were classified within categories in the sector: written, audio, and audiovisual. The study period marks three relevant news milestones that arouse the interest of users: social non-conformity, which has resulted in street protests, the return to normalcy in the aftermath of the pandemic, and the initial months of a left-wing government in Colombia. The path of the analysis proposes four stations that will guide the development of the findings: the creation of communities (

Table 5. Growth of followers in the study periods.

	2019–2021	2021–2023
Facebook
Written	30.00%	0.91%
Audio	21.25%	3.59%
Audiovisual	16.75%	−15.51%
X/Twitter
Written	12.98%	14.57%
Audio	14.05%	11.34%
Audiovisual	5.36%	62.23%
Instagram
Written	55.61%	17.07%
Audio	66.10%	17.71%
Audiovisual	41.69%	−4.23%
YouTube
Written	76.04%	43.73%
Audio	60.98%	65.88%
Audiovisual	66.23%	−68.65%

Source: Author’s elaboration.

) and content production, message composition, user interaction with the product, and the narrative axis in the thematic agenda.

The wide margin of growth (Table 5) experienced by the mass media’s social profiles slowed down compared to that seen during the confinement of the pandemic, except in specific cases. X/Twitter and YouTube server as the nexus between journalistic brand accounts and user profiles. The decrease in audiovisual media can be linked to Noticias RCN, an occurrence which, as Barrios-Rubio [1] demonstrates, may be connected to an identity crisis within the audience or the political ideology of an economic conglomerate that causes resistance, ultimately leading to a significant decline in its radio and television viewership. Based on the study findings, it is evident that, irrespective of the social media platform used, the profiles of traditional media serve as a reliable source for accessing the facts and information that form the agenda of the national news.

TikTok, as a communication platform, stands as a meeting point for the journalistic brand with the youngest layers of the population. The platform has become a focus of production, with a growth rate of 32.42% for written media, 68.34% for audio media, and 30.99% for audiovisual media by 2023. The content (

Table 6. Content published on social profiles.

	2019	2021	2023
Facebook
Written	9332	14,068	21,566
Audio	63,475	74,500	41,550
Audiovisual	5836	7172	15,550
X/Twitter
Written	25,442	29,644	32,590
Audio	146,550	134,750	66,975
Audiovisual	11,592	8032	20,480
Instagram
Written	786	1660	2532
Audio	2085	6700	6880
Audiovisual	534	692	2316
YouTube
Written	926	1832	3970
Audio	1205	4025	3700
Audiovisual	618	848	2856

Source: Author’s elaboration.

) generated by the mass media corresponds to the target audience surrounding social platforms in Colombia: 13–17 (5.3%), 18–24 (23.3%), 25–34 (28.8%), 35–44 (19.1%), 45–54 (11.3%), 55–64 (7.4%), 65+ (4.8%) [9]. Population niches that are identified with a particular language and characteristics of each of the digital scenarios and material that is generated by the media and will be described later in another section.

The transition of the industry to digital platforms does not show a stable supply of content in the social ecosystem; it is the written and audiovisual media that consolidate their presence on each platform, increasing the alternative of communicative proposals. TikTok, as an information scenario, contributes a series of elements to the social ecosystem that are structured to capture the attention of the youngest layers of the Colombian population: written (228), audio (670), audiovisual (734). The productive effort does not correspond, or is not directly proportional, to the growth of followers (Table 5). The progression of social profiles is comparatively slower and could be linked to the situational factors of the respective year; the pandemic and its consequential changes in lifestyle patterns of citizens varied the behavior observed in 2021, which stabilized in 2023, and returned to the characteristics of the old normal in 2019. The principle of action of the media industry is aligned with the behavior of an audience identified by other studies as digital, mobile, and social [29], which spends a significant part of the day, 9 h 1 min, on the network, and 3 h 31 min of them on social platforms [9].

3.1. Narrative Structure

Facebook is a meeting point and a connector between the media outlets and the micro-networks of users who engage with their content and journalistic branding. X/Twitter serves primarily as an informative communication channel with a constant, flowing stream of messages. Instagram operates as a platform for observing and engaging with visual images, enabling natural dissemination of visual and audiovisual content to younger audiences. YouTube and TikTok are important repositories of audiovisual content accessible via mobile devices. The structure of the informative communication is tailored to suit the unique characteristics of each platform, ensuring that the material can be accessed at different times and on any device [60]. On Facebook, users share informative articles, upload videos, and stream live content. X/Twitter provides updates on current affairs and articles of interest accompanied by infographics, images, or GIFs. Instagram displays aesthetically pleasing content through photos, and actively creates IG Stories and inspirational quotes. YouTube and TikTok curate special features such as interviews and live content.

The ubiquity of the message in each scenario facilitates the narrative composition that encourages interactivity, seeks to satisfy the digital user’s need for information, and responds to being present in the citizen’s leisure and entertainment spaces. The analysis of the study corpus shows an effort by the mass media to adapt to the consumption habits of an audience that identifies itself as mobile, transmedia, and multi-support [1]. The content diet leaves a digital footprint of the journalistic brand and is personalized for a network of followers who, as Barrios-Rubio and Gutiérrez-García [49] indicate, have a proactive social attitude. The media are at the forefront of an environment that gives the user control over consumption, blurring the linearity of the communicative process, as it is the content that rules (Figure 4).

The text highlights the issuing agent’s intention to manipulate the public’s emotions through the use of semiotic and psychological references (Figure 4), characters, phrases, places, and situations, all of which reflect the political and social landscape of the nation. In the narrative conception that the media work with, problems are personified in order to materialize stories, to show the unknown of a known event, or to describe the context of a particular situation. The necessary details are given so that the audience can imagine what is being referred to. The messages are developed using text, photos, and videos with the prioritization of components contingent on the specific platform used (Figure 4). The objective is to capture the reality of the facts from the image, still or moving, visual figures that resort to semiotic referents, and is supported by the discursive construction of the message [3].

The analysis of a media’s communicative proposal requires a contextual examination of the particular political and social framework in which the communication occurred. The informative purpose of the message is revealed through the sentence structure, the meaning, and the reference of what is conveyed, all within the context of time and space where the communicative act takes place. It is essential to consider the expression in which the message is conveyed. The media industry structures messages to reach society as a whole, but the discourse varies based on the evolving news agenda. This is exemplified in critiques of the government’s handling of various situations. Digital texts show cognitive order, apprehension towards, and interactions with an extra-linguistic reality. The usage of language creates a practicality that highlights the importance of the signs used, the semantic connection between the referent and its meaning, and the syntax linking written text with photographic, iconographic, or video elements that bolster the portrayal of reality.

The characterization of everyday problems is materialized from the image that accompanies the message, visual elements loaded with implicit meanings that arise from what is perceived and the interpretations that are superimposed on the coding and decoding of the figure. The analysis shows that certain elements in the sample contribute to a structural unit. When combined with the written message, this can create redundancy and influence the decisions made by the audience about what actions to take. The short descriptions that accompany the image in the message utilize linguistic elements, including personal and demonstrative pronouns, to attribute the facts to the involved actors. These elements are enhanced with details that provide a specific intention in a temporal and spatial location [29]. The inverted pyramid structure [19] adheres to the 6Ws and presents the most important details of the news upfront, without expecting users to navigate through different points for expansion.

A comparative analysis of the performance of mass media on social platforms during the years 2019, 2021, and 2023 reveals changes in terms of the visual composition of the messages, including narrative structures that pertain to the placement and arrangement of media elements, as well as a shift towards a more comprehensive use of tools offered by social platforms. Despite these modifications, the media sustain their traditional performance schemes and journalistic text structures. A review of the narrative structures of the messages (

Table 7. Elements that make up the message.

	2019	2021	2023
Written
Post with video	1664	3000	2288
Post with image	318	364	2582
Post with links	7292	10,692	16,576
Text-only post	58	12	122
Live	62	1560	1256
Audio
Post with video	4575	4450	3045
Post with image	3070	1175	1375
Post with links	54,370	68,850	36,885
Text-only post	1460	25	245
Live	375	4050	3000
Audiovisual
Post with video	1104	1852	1392
Post with image	204	176	88
Post with links	4490	5136	14,020
Text-only post	38	8	50
Live	64	1852	1232

Source: Author’s elaboration using data from Facebook profiles.

) makes it clear that Colombian journalistic brands, including audio media, need to revitalize the power of sound, appropriating in their content the resources of a mode of communication that has been consolidated in digital habits. Production logics must complement the defined catalogue, labelling, and segmentation with sound components in audiograms or quick information capsules that can be added to podcasts.

Table 7 shows that there is no difference in the proportion of elements used in Facebook and X/Twitter messages. Instagram focuses on still images and short videos that summarize information, while YouTube prioritizes live content. TikTok, on the other hand, utilizes microformats between 30 s to a minute and a half to initiate discussion on a specific topic or statement made by a character. An examination of the study corpus reveals that journalistic brands aim to enhance their followers’ engagement with their profile and editorial line through messages posted on social platforms. The objective is to increase the audience’s involvement with the media. The substantial volume of posts located in the “with links” segment evidences a desire to boost traffic to the journalistic brand’s website or other social profiles. However, upon examining the corpus, we identify a replication of the message with minimal variation or extension.

Colombia’s media industry must adopt the immersive pyramid proposed by Salaverría [20] and develop a communication strategy that integrates multimedia and interactive elements, thereby adding uniqueness to each product. This can be achieved by exploiting the diversity of data that comes from facts, exploring the combination of content from traditional media with native digital elements to promote channel diversification that adds value and builds loyalty within niches. During the study period, no exclusive online content was discovered, causing the researchers to draw attention to the reliance of the brand, credibility, and resources on conventional channels, which form the backbone of the business model replicated online. Video is central to the digital strategy, creating a communicative product for consumption on social networks through smartphone screens. Therefore, a commitment to square formats and subtitles supporting audio less consultation is essential (see Figure 4).

The collected material comprises published works on mass media profiles, communicative pieces that summaries the content broadcast or published on the analog channels, and edited material shared later in the day. However, exclusive content production for the network is uncommon, if not absent. The digital narrative seeks to reinforce interviews, its own material that provides context to the news that is part of the day’s agenda. The material shared on social networks is not independent of the commercial and promotional objectives of the journalism brand, which aims to raise visibility for its offerings in the public eye. Access to a communicative proposal via social networks connects the public with its environment and provides interactions that provide quantitative and qualitative metrics that create a path to follow to position the broadcast channel in the digital ecosystem.

3.2. The User versus the Communicative Product

The distribution of content on social networks establishes a consumption habit that, in the digital business model of mass media, requires constant traffic and interaction from users [27]. The audience, now constituted as a community, allows them to see their reactions as part of a range of points of view which are in common with the journalistic brand that give them group membership and identification with the material that is disseminated. In the digital environment, the creation of a community is constituted, a sum of micro-networks of action, where a connection is generated, creates a conversation that fosters knowledge and influences the construction of meaning in the collective imaginary. The circulation of niche content seen in the corpus of study gives a 180° turn to the concept of production for a large mass, giving way to the one-to-one, a space for the segmentation of knowledge by the user of the smartphone. The work on social platforms is capitalized with retention tactics deployed by journalistic agents, push notifications that alert the follower to the circulation of a communicative proposal.

A qualitative analysis of user responses to media messages in social settings reveals that posts, images, and videos construct a perception of the world, offering a specific rationale that confers meaning upon current events and their interconnectivity with other facets of social reality. The language used in communication adheres to conventions that provide meaning and a connection to the evidence and life experiences that readers are familiar with, either from personal experience or because they know those who participated in them. The contributions made by the followers of a profile, despite their brevity, convey a significant process of signification with subjective interpretation of meaning that represents irreducible aspects of current events. The standardization of communication elements ensures coherence without ambiguity in the statement, in contrast to memes and impassioned or ideological reactions from a subsection of followers on social media.

The interactions between users and the medium suggest that the world is a product of an individual’s ideology. The views presented in media products consumed by users offer alternate perspectives on the facts. This allows them to assess the validity of the information as it is often reiterated or supported by other users. The natural representation accounts for the determinations and sensations defined by the collective imaginary, beliefs caused by factors external to what is constituted by thought. The concept of reality is associated with nominalism, which leads to external factors, individual facts, and events, as well as impressions originating from the individuality of the journalists in broadcasting and the recipient users in the reception process.

The productive effort is rewarded with user engagement on the profile, particular reactions to the message and helps to expand the message on the social scene (

Table 8. Users and the message.

	Written	Sound	Audiovisual
Facebook
“I Like it”	7,239,538	8,110,565	6,081,440
Comments	2,780,182	2,748,800	2,099,456
Shared	1,208,200	1,328,920	966,296
X/Twitter
“I Like it”	1,026,118	1,459,395	881,142
RT	296,936	540,745	279,814
Comments	260,414	558,425	281,238
Instagram
“I Like it”	20,722,340	5,728,150	11,357,942
Comments	810,748	878,190	822,418
YouTube
Reproduction	98,590	295,410	181,578
“I Like it”	412,726	758,525	782,472
“I don’t like it”	0	0	0
Comments	102,616	231,245	247,654

Source: Author’s elaboration.

). One is at the forefront of an ecosystem in which media with different editorial stances coexist, places of expression and communication that have a significant number of followers (Table 2). Social platforms constitute a spiral of content where mass media, influencers, opinion leaders, protagonists of events, institutions, and even the followers themselves, compete for the attention of the audiences. The Internet serves as a hub for communication proposals that circulate freely. With numerous content generators, media outlets compete to capture a portion of citizens’ smartphone usage. It is a battle for attention in the realm of leisure and entertainment, rather than strictly for the consumption of information products.

Print journalism brands have adeptly adopted digital elements. Research has demonstrated that the adjustment of print media’s productive procedures and migration to digital platforms places them in the preference of users on the network and guarantees the continuity of their presence in the Colombian media ecosystem, with the alteration that this implies for their business model [49]. The competition to capture users’ attention is predominantly achieved through written media, and the vast quantity of messages delivered via communication platforms results in increased interactions from the public (Table 8). With social networks being an intermediary agent between the user and the content, it is striking that the distancing of radio from the digital scenario is constant. The dynamics of the audiovisual narrative provide an advantage to the media with a visual component, as they manage to capture the interest of the profile’s followers in a matter of seconds. It is apparent that the on-screen audience finds it easier to pay attention to a note than to long-form content (

Table 9. User reactions to lives on Facebook.

Demonstration	I Like It	I Love It	I Am Amazed	I Enjoy	It Saddens Me	It Makes Me Angry
Written	305,444	33,934	20,080	43,572	40,776	20,972
Audio	1,019,325	84,975	35,860	156,955	35,045	74,830
Audiovisual	1,782,834	154,732	110,556	135,990	166,106	147,234

Source: Author’s elaboration.

). A review of user interactions in mass media profiles shows that the phenomenon of social networks marks a meeting point with friends; it is the agora where connections are made, the point where everyone wants to be and express their opinions.

The manner in which users interact with mass media emphasizes that, between content production and distribution, a social network as an intermediary now exists. Communication platforms and Internet search engines act as a window into the attention economy, a market to which communication products are given away in exchange for a click. TikTok seems to be the point of greatest work in the last period, the opening of profiles is rewarded with the reactions to the videos posted there: 1,174,608 written, 2,939,945 audio, and 3,546,886 audiovisuals. Step by step, the productive effort of the pieces for the digital ecosystem captures the attention of the Colombian public; however, it is important to highlight that the high flow of messages is not supported by the performance of the profile in each of the social scenarios (

Table 10. Performance of social profiles.

	Facebook	X/Twitter	Instagram	YouTube	TikTok
Written	1.62%	0.11%	5.00%	1.18%	2.91%
Audio	2.93%	0.15%	2.35%	1.05%	3.84%
Audiovisual	1.28%	0.08%	2.08%	1.96%	1.57%

Source. Author’s elaboration.

).

Competition, which appears to be unequal, requires a “mea culpa” from the mass media, acknowledging a longstanding error that is now causing repercussions. The journalistic brands opened up to the conversation late; for a long time, they thought they were untouchable, they exercised a unidirectional power in communication, which resulted in them not being found as a search reference. The current divide between journalism and audiences [49] means that the future of each medium in the digital ecosystem will depend on its origin and essence, on how they adapt to the creation of products that adapt to the multiplicity of devices that are now connected to the network, and communicative proposals that capture attention and converge on the smartphone screen with leisure and entertainment.

3.3. Informative Diet in the Network

The presented data indicate that the media are presently facing challenges in their relationship with audiences. The actions taken by journalistic brands in traditional and social channels are likely to yield long-term outcomes. The abundance of information available on communication platforms is overwhelming citizens’ ability to read and comprehend it [23]. This creates a situation where research work and the verification and validation of events (Rodríguez Pérez, 2020) fail to differentiate themselves from the misinformation and propaganda spread by influencers, who have enormous influence over public opinion [1]. Analysis of the data gathered from the research corpus illustrates that the mass media has established an editorial policy for social profiles, with the intention of restoring credibility by providing high-quality content aligned with the principles of journalism (Figure 5).

In social scenarios, all journalistic brands cover the same subject matter, with variations primarily in how it is approached and presented. Digital content produced by the mass media frequently provides live coverage of events as they happen, in front of their audiences. Figure 5 illustrates the endeavor to establish credibility through serious and verifiable work. This is achieved through direct questioning of the President, the connection and significance of facts, the presence of journalists on site, and immediate coverage. The speed and volume of news generated daily in a country like Colombia does not render the media infallible. Consequently, they are prone to errors as evidenced in venues such as “El Espectador’s naked newsroom”. Upon reviewing the research material,

Table 11. Thematic roadmap addressed in the study periods.

2019	2021	2023
Ideological affinity of armed and social groups in protests in southern Colombia. Objections to the “JEP” and the peace process signed in Havana. Corruption. Political disputes between the government and the opposition.	Return to a new normal. Social nonconformism taken to the streets. Politic fanaticism. Vandalism in citizen protest. Political polarization.	Allegations of corruption and drug money against Nicolás Petro, son of the president. Radication of the government’s social reforms. The president called on the people to take to the streets to defend the reforms. Ministerial crises. The president on the balcony of the Palace of Nariño. Campaign contradictions with what is executed in power. Breakup of the government coalition.

Source: Author’s elaboration.

showcases a comprehensive range of topics. The communicative proposals presented aim to experiment with diverse ways of disseminating and generating content to engage the public.

Mass media publications on social media profiles demonstrate the fusion of evergreen, present, or dated content with diverse viewpoints. This creates a focal point where information coincides with web media, endorses the media’s traditional channel, and offers an opportunity for users to subscribe to push notifications on smartphones or newsletters via email (Figure 6). The branding of content represents the editorial stance of each media outlet through bespoke products that are associated with the journalistic brand but have yet to gain momentum in Colombia. This hybrid of advertising and subscription models aims to secure resources to financially support the industry. The distinctive approach of news products in social contexts appears to be characterized by promptness and proximity to consumers, organizing information that engages the public to spur dissemination of the content posted on social media. McLuhan’s dictum, “the medium is the message”, is more relevant than ever.

The written, audio, and visual elements comprising the narrative axis indicate a media strategy that seeks to establish a presence through a repetitive and pre-established discourse. The use of recurrent or standardized situations stimulates the audience’s imagination from an object of desire. Everyday life-based markers of intention make it clear how the transmitter aims to convey their purpose. In light of the presented schemes, the themes of expression in messages allow for the recognition of the issuer’s attempts to solidify a communicative act and establish a relationship with followers of a social profile, becoming a part of the world they share within a specific geographic scenario. The consumption of information agenda has altered consumption habits, leading to more time spent on social networks and encountering web-based media. Satisfaction of needs which results in affiliation or adherence to a profile founded on credibility and proximity to the journalistic brand.

The findings presented in this work offer a roadmap for the media industry. It is crucial to conduct a thorough analysis of the transformation of the journalistic brand and its agents in future research to comprehend the employed strategies aimed at maintaining the attention of the captive audience, and enticing new ones make use of with smartphone or laptop screens. This study, when extended to other media systems, will enable the identification of similarities and differences that accompany the journalistic industry in message structure, reality construction and resulting impact on the audience. The media industry’s perspective demands that the focus should be directed towards the recipient and their reasons for consuming information, habits of action, and proximity to written, audio, and audiovisual forms of media.

4. Conclusions

A survey of the Colombian mass media’s social ecosystem reveals a lack of strategic coherence in their approach to social platforms. What has been incorporated into today’s fashion is an important broadcasting channel within the business model, a meeting point with audiences on screen that revitalizes the value of the journalistic brand in the collective imagination. The digital communication strategy targets two complementary audience profiles: generation Z, aged 12–30, who are active on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube and are interested in a product that facilitates conversation, leisure and entertainment; and generations X-Y, aged 30–55, who follow formal pieces on current affairs through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube profiles.

The digital communication platforms have transformed the media landscape in Colombia, resulting in the consolidation of media holding companies. The joint work of El Espectador (written), Blu Radio (audio), and Noticias Caracol (audiovisual) shows a merging of digital newsrooms. This fusion has redefined the analog media product for social networks by breaking it down. Atomization of information in the Colombian social environment is approached by journalistic brands through production trends: videos, photographic images, brief informative textual introductions, and live broadcasts. Over a period of observation spanning 2019, 2021, and 2023, evidenced in this study, we can assert that the fundamental components of the message have remained relatively constant (Figure 6). Further, depending on the event’s nature, still images (highlighting the news’ central figure or location) are typically favored over video content. Despite their adaptation to the digital environment, media agents have made minimal changes to their actions. Although language is evolving slowly, the formalities in broadcasting journalistic messages remain unchanged. Therefore, the hypothesis of RQ3 is not completely fulfilled.

Live broadcasts are becoming more and more relevant and present in the productive routines for social scenarios, the mass media have understood that the audiovisual culture of the audience, on smartphones, prioritizes a communicative piece that can be observed and complemented with temporary text tools. The visual quality (composition, timing, color, semiotic references) of audiovisual content has become increasingly important over time, displacing the prominence of written discourse, which is becoming more concise. However, sound remains largely absent in the digital communication process. Despite its usefulness in other contexts, journalistic brands have overlooked the relevance of incorporating sound in the content they produce for social media platforms.

Communication platforms within the digital ecosystem provide a space for mass media to engage with users, observe their behaviors, and analyze trends and interests. These platforms also enable media outlets to expand and enrich the context in which their stories are presented to users. However, it is evident that journalistic brands must investigate links and stories, and pioneer in interactive, multimedia, and hypertextual products that offer numerous perspectives on data. The opportunities presented by technology encourage the enhancement of the communicative proposal’s experience, creating individual products across various media and platforms. Hyperlinks embedded in messages provide flat information that fails to surprise followers, as the same content is repeated at every point. In response, the media has realized the importance of maintaining their relevance and presence in the consumption diet of users by actively engaging with informative messages on social networks. These messages converge to create a journalistic product, as stated in the hypothesis from which RQ1 originated.

The initial hypothesis of this study has been confirmed, as the Colombian journalism brand is losing influence and reach among the public due to its failure to make use of the technological resources available for creating innovative communication proposals. Fragmented viewer attention on different screens, persistent interest in exploring diverse resources, and the social media phenomenon of zapping calls from traditional media to broaden their range of content. Journalists need to provide digital content that complements the main story with relevant information to give a context to the event and characters involved. Users form their understanding of reality through an emotional link to the political, economic, and social issues outlined by the media on their social media profiles. Aligned with the hypothesis that was put forward in RQ2, this study suggests that a relationship dynamic exists within the network, whereby interactions create an atmosphere of tension, animosity, and affection in response to the media’s informative message.

Audiovisual components play a fundamental role in expanding stories, shaping the creative universe and providing multiple options to reach the audience. The news plays a crucial role in connecting with the media industry and the public, but this temporal validity provides an opportunity to create communicative pieces that address the background and consequences of the central event. The interview, the report, and the dialogue, allow us to understand why what is happening now was unleashed, or to glimpse the consequences that this event will bring. What expressive formula will be effective in avoiding the fragmentation of audiences caused by the multiplication of content and channels is a question that will have to be addressed in future studies. In order for the industry to take a standardized and homogenized approach in the digital environment, it is imperative to categorize the types of content available on various platforms. This will help in identifying the interests and emotional needs of consumers, ultimately aiding in the creation of a system of codes for textual, audio, and visual content. The challenge posed by social networks must be embraced in order to maintain a presence in emerging consumer areas and achieve relevance in smart speakers and connected vehicles.