Web-native media in Galicia. Trends and characteristics of a booming model

Abstract

The social and economic reality of recent years has led to a series of changes in the media, evolving into new organizational, productive and distributive models. In this new reality, the presence of online media is growing in relation to traditional media, prompting its emergence as an increasingly important site of communicative influence and citizen participation. In Galicia, where the first digital newspaper appeared two decades ago, it is not difficult to perceive a continuous growth of web-native media. Such media has been born as a space that seeks greater diversity and freedom of information, whether in terms of geographical space, editorial models, specialization or language. Moreover, it is in this type of online media where citizen journalism is most present, offering spaces for participation and allowing citizens to be the drivers of many digital web-natives. The objective of this paper is to study this media reality, the trends of its development and its particular characteristics. The research is based on an exploratory study involving the identification and location of web-native media. The relevance of such media throughout the Galician media ecosystem is analyzed by applying both quantitative and qualitative techniques, so as to identify the representative characteristics of web-natives.