Media Observatory: Native Digital Media as Communication Alternatives in the Coverage of the October 2019 Protests

This project focuses on analyzing the communication practices of three alternative Ecuadorian digital media outlets: Wambra EC, La periódica, and Infinito Digital, specifically examining their journalistic coverage of the events that took place in October 2019. The study is framed within the work of a university media observatory, employing a qualitative methodology based on Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) with a phenomenological approach to understand lived experiences in digital contexts. The goal is to evaluate how these outlets construct narratives from critical viewpoints such as community journalism, feminism, and the university perspective, contrasting them with the tendency of mass media towards simplification or bias. The methodology involves in-depth interviews with editors/directors and an exhaustive intermodal review of the content published on their portals. The research aims to reveal the ideological framing and journalistic quality, thereby strengthening the public sphere and the right to inclusive and plural communication, aligning with the tradition of media observatories as tools for critique and improvement of journalistic practice.<br/><br/><b>Goal</b>: <br/>The main objective is to demonstrate the communication practices of the alternative digital media outlets Wambra EC, La periódica, and Infinito Digital, by analyzing their narrative constructions regarding the October 2019 events from the perspectives of the popular and community sphere, feminism, and university journalism.<br/><br/><b>Research lines</b>: <br/>Popular and community communication