Technology at the Service of Journalism and the Media in Pandemic: The Case of Television in Spain During the Period of Confinement

ABSTRACT

Confinement during the coronavirus crisis led to the need for forced teleworking—total or partial—in those work sectors where it was possible. One of them was the media, where they had to combine face-to-face work with online work. Media such as television had to adopt formulas based on technology to develop their work, to present programs, and to contact their information sources virtually. One of the main resources used was the videoconference. The application of this technological tool for interviews or television debates turned the living room of journalists and news sources into a makeshift set. The objective of this paper is to analyze the role played by technology in the strategies developed by the different public and private television channels in Spain to overcome the situation and continue broadcasting. The methodology of the research is based on the analysis, through case study, of the television channels La 1 and La 2 of TVE (public) and Antena 3, La Sexta, Telecinco, and Cuatro (private). As the main results, we can highlight that many television programs have been broadcast from the presenters' and collaborators' own homes. Others were temporarily stopped being broadcasted because the conditions were not suitable for recording and it was not possible to work virtually. In other cases—as TV news—, on-set activities and videoconferences were combined, resulting in a mixed face-to-face and virtual format. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.