The interweaving of influences The pandemic and the communication strategies of 12 actors through their accounts Facebook

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has monopolized communication and media information for months, becoming the first global social fact in the digital age. In a new and redefined communicative space, characterized by the pervasive presence of digital media, each information source needs to establish a specific positioning strategy in the crowded communication field. The article aims at investigating the impact of those processes on the production, spread and use of institutional information. It focuses the attention on the "communicative behaviors" of 12 Italian institutional, political and media players, analyzing their contents' production, the intensity and characteristics of this production and the communicative resources they used in managing their Facebook pages/profiles. In order to outline the players' digital strategies and to frame their positioning in the public sphere, different metrics were analyzed and the possible and meaningful connections among the different players and strategies were considered. From this study, a dense interweaving of voices seems to emerge, attesting the complexity of the communicative space, but also the "functionality" of each voice in a sort of inter-relational attitude.