News curation by email: Analysis of the Spanish journalistic newsletters

Abstract

Introduction: Newsletters or electronic bulletins are currently a product of growing importance in digital media and represent a channel that is highly conducive to the curation of content, which is one of the services that is considered to be most relevant in 21st-century digital journalism. The main goal of this work is to analyze the use of journalistic content curation in newsletters emitted by the Spanish press. Methodology: To achieve this goal, a study using an evaluative methodology has been carried out, based on an analysis system composed of parameters and indicators organized around two major areas or dimensions: Content and Curation. All the newsletters (84) from 16 relevant Spanish newspapers, both traditional and native digital, have been analyzed for two months. Results: The results provide a snapshot of the characteristics of journalistic curation in terms of the amount of curated content, its time range and origin, the information sources, the authorship, the curation techniques, and how links are used to provide information. Discussion and conclusions: Based on the results of this analysis, we can depict the typical journalistic bulletin, offer a ranking of the best Spanish newsletters and the media, and propose a conceptualization of content curation, revealing the existence of two types of curation: intellectual and automated.