THE MEDIA AGENDA RECONFIGURATION OF TELEVISED POLITICAL NEWS IN THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM. THE CASE OF THE PRE-CAMPAIGN OF THE 2024 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY AND LOCAL ELECTIONS IN ROMANIA

Abstract

In the context of continuous technological development, the current literature discusses the reconfiguration of televised news due to the impact of the Internet, with an emphasis on aspects such as the recursiveness of information and the fragmentation of media content. This study examines the ways in which TV networks integrate digital practices in creating electoral communication when they transpose televised political news to the digital environment. The analytical framework privileges theoretical approaches that discuss
media convergence in relation to practices relevant to news reconfiguration, such as hybrid communication and news (re)mediation. The research consists of 27 televised political news items, each with a duration of approximately one hour and 24 minutes, shared on the Internet by two 24-hour news TV networks in Romania (Euronews Romania and the news channel of Romanian Public Television, TVR Info, respectively) on their Facebook pages and websites, as a recurring practice. It considers the intense political negotiations in the public sphere in February 2024 regarding the merger of the local elections and the European Parliament elections. Through a qualitative thematic analysis, the study investigates videos (and their transcripts) of televised political news shared on the Internet and highlights a reconfiguration of the media agenda and the role of journalists as “loyal facilitator” and “interventionist”, through hyperlinks, information fragmentation, and repetitiveness. The research shows that televised political news is recontextualized through digital hybrid practices, highlighting a bias in televised political communication during a key campaign moment in Romania.