Abstract

ZUNINO, ESTEBAN; KESSLER, GABRIEL  and  VOMMARO, GABRIEL. Information consumption on social networks in times of a pandemic. Evidence from the Argentine case. Inmediac. Comun [online]. 2022, vol.17, n.1, pp.129-161.  Epub June 01, 2022. ISSN 1510-5091.  https://doi.org/10.18861/ic.2022.17.1.3231.

This article studies the contents of the most consumed information by Facebook users in Argentina, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigate: 1) the issues that generated the highest level of engagement in this social media; 2) the origin of the most relevant pieces of information; and 3) the type of framing that predominated in the treatment of topics associated with the pandemic. We show, first, that COVID-19 acquired greater relevance than the other issues on Facebook, although the level of engagement of users on the subject was related to several critical events associated with the pandemic. Second, the most relevant news came from media outlets with consolidated brands, so that news consumption on the social media was concentrated. Finally, geographic proximity, conflict, human interest and explicit affective features in the posts are features of the news that explain its relevance in the social media. The study consists in analyzing the news content that achieved the highest level of engagement (likes, comments and shares) on Facebook between January 2020 and June 2021.

Keywords : media consumption; social networks; media frames; COVID-19; Argentina.

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