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Podcasting is all the rage. The distribution of audio content has recently gained great momentum on a personal, media and business level. In this context, brands have begun to see the opportunity to use this communication tool to connect with the audience and generate emotional bonds through attractive content. However, there are still few studies that take a rigorous look at branded podcast. This research explores the phenomenon of podcasting as branded content in Spain and Latin America, making a radiography of the current situation of the branded podcast, from a mixed approach, delimiting its features, observing some trends and making a proposal for classification (according to the type of brand involvement, according to formal criteria and basic descriptors of the podcast, according to content, functional and narrative criteria, and according to the nature of the sponsoring company and its relation to the production of the podcast). The search for and analysis of branded podcasts is the main work of this research, with a sample of 100 podcasts, differentiating the branded podcast from other typologies such as podcast sponsorship, corporate podcasts and institutional podcasts. Among the results we highlight the variety of styles and themes in their own sound content, all of them linked to a greater or lesser extent to the business sector of the companies. In addition, these podcasts are broadcast on their websites and audio platforms and are more educational and informative than entertaining. It is therefore an approach to branded podcasting with a proposal for classification that aims to be a first conceptualisation of this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing popularity of podcasting is an opportunity for the news industry to identify new ways of delivering journalism and to find solutions to the challenges of digital transformation. Podcasts are tools that help the media adapt to the digital sphere by giving prominence to audio to extend their journalistic influence in the sonosphere. Given its disruptive nature, and since it breaks with the traditional content choices available, the analysis of this article focuses on what is offered in the form of podcasts by digital native media brands in Spain. It looks at the extent to which they are committed to this audio content and the type of journalism-based productions they promote and publish. To do this, a qualitative and quantitative content analysis methodology was used. This included an interpretation of data recorded in the Digital media map 2021 (Mapa de medios digitales 2021), updated as part of the Diginativemedia project (2019-2021). An indepth study of a corpus -or sample-of 29 titles or series of podcasts published by 7 native news brands is also provided. These brands were selected because they publish podcasts and because, according to the Digital news report Spain 2021, they have the largest weekly reach among Spanish internet users. The results of the research show that only 1 in 4 digital media brands that offer podcasts (925) are native (232), and that it is the specialist native media outlets that are most committed to podcasting (140). Native media brands view podcasts as part of their journalism-based products and services, whose presence is beginning to grow as an exploration of their informative and expressive potential. In addition, it is podcasts that tackle current affairs using conversational formats -both audio and video-through serialised, original productions for the media outlet's website and to provide a range of platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to establish whether astroturfing was used during the Covid-19 pandemic to manipulate Spanish public opinion through Twitter. This study analyzes tweets published in Spanish and geolocated in the Philippines, and its first objective is to determine the existence of an organized network that directs its messages mainly towards Spain. To determine the non-existence of a random network, a preliminary collection of 1,496,596 tweets was carried out. After determining its 14 main clusters, 280 users with a medium-low profile of participation and micro- and nano-influencer traits were randomly selected and followed for 103 days, for a total of 309,947 tweets. Network science, text mining, sentiment and emotion, and bot probability analyses were performed using Gephi and R. Their network structure suggests an ultra-small-world phenomenon, which would determine the existence of a possible organized network that tries not to be easily identifiable. The data analyzed confirm a digital communication scenario in which astroturfing is used as a strategy aimed at manipulating public opinion through non-influencers (cybertroops). These users create and disseminate content with proximity and closeness to different groups of public opinion, mixing topics of general interest with disinformation or polarized content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]