Photographs, Visual Memes, and Viral Videos

Visual Phatic News Sharing on WhatsApp during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Spain, Italy, and The Netherlands

Bibliographic Data

ID22010652
AuthorsBerber Hagedoorn (0000-0001-7160-6630, University of Groningen, corresponding author), Elisabetta Costa (0000-0002-9697-9342, University of Antwerp), Marc Esteve Del Valle (0000-0003-4407-1989, University of Groningen)
Year2024
Volume12
Issue5
Pages656-679
Publication date2024-05-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDigital Journalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2167-0811 • E-ISSN: 2167-082X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21670811.2023.2250395
OpenAlexW4387048635
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited49

Sharing and discussing visual images in WhatsApp groups functions as a form of phatic news sharing to achieve a sense of togetherness and sociability. We explore how visual media content shared in personal WhatsApp interactions during the first strict lockdown months of the COVID-19 pandemic functions as phatic news. Our study addresses a gap in journalism studies in researching news-related and visual content from user perspectives. Our article provides insights into how the “semi-private” space of WhatsApp offers people a digital communication space to deal with becoming a news subject during the crisis: people appropriate news by shaping it into different visual forms which can be attractively shared on WhatsApp. We focus on working adults (aged 25–49) in urban areas in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. Visual phatic news sharing on WhatsApp combines public and private aspects, especially how people address issues of public concern through their private WhatsApp communication. Our conclusions reveal how WhatsApp functions as a sense-making practice and vehicle for ontological security in dealing with the fearful and unsettling crisis situation. The visual images shared are a hybrid form of communication, blurring boundaries between private life and public concerns presented on the news

Internet privacy · Journalism · Media studies · Multimedia · News media · Pandemic · Political science · Public relations · Shared space · Sociology · Visual Communication · Visual space · Communication and COVID-19 Impact · Computer Science · Digital Communication and Language · Medicine · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology

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