Ricerc@Sapienza

The impact that social media platforms and technology company (search and internet related services) are exerting on online news media is much more relevant than that produced by the first wave of digital transformation, from paper to digital. Companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter and Snapchat are increasingly playing an editorial role in relation to and in competition with traditional publishers. Evolving beyond the function of news distribution channels, online platforms have the control on what kinds of contents can be visible to the public, on the commercial dynamics of information and on the new formats of journalism.
This transformation affects information’s validation and verification mechanisms, which are taking place within a more complex system of content distribution and visibility, where the logic of the algorithms are combined with those of networked social relations.
At the same time, publishers themselves are increasingly reaching their audiences not just through structured and coherent products but through the distribution of spreadable single content that platforms organize according to pertinent principles created through specific user-related metrics. Furthermore, platforms challenge the production of information through their affordances and ad hoc formats designed to narrate and promote content that stimulates engagement in social media: from Live, to Stories, to 360-degree videos to Instant articles, etc.
In this context, it becomes a priority to understand if and how much platforms modify the online news media ecosystem and the professional reality, taking into account the relationship between affordances and practices on the side of producers and audiences.