Abstract

The constant struggle to attract new readers has led the digital news media to adopt search engine positioning strategies within their newsrooms. Given that readers are increasingly opting to consume their news via search engines, such as Google or Bing, this study explores perceptions and applications of search engine optimization (SEO) in the online news media and identifies the future training needs of journalists in this sector. To do so, 33 semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals representative of three professional profiles: professional journalists, SEO consultants, and academics. Based on the data collected, we created five semantic categories – with 25 subcategories – and we correlated the perceptions of the SEO experts employed by the news media with those of the academics. The results highlight varying degrees of convergence and divergence in perceptions across these three professional profiles. Similarly, the results confirm the sector’s pressing need to attract readers by implementing search engine positioning techniques and, hence, its need to ensure future journalists are well trained in technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, in the use of SEO analytics and audit tools, and in the ability to identify search trends so that they have the necessary skills to win the struggle for more readers.

Abstract

When the first university schools of journalism and communication started in Spain in 1971, only a few European and North American countries had preferentially adopted an academic model. Variety was their dominant feature, exhibiting diverse professional cultures and sometimes political contexts. In countries with a long journalistic tradition such as the UK, learning on the job was the practice at that time. Labor unions were also prevalently responsible for the training of aspiring journalists in France and Germany. In contrast, in the USA, university journalism schools had been established some decades before. In addition, teaching and research in communication evolved via different paths in those countries that had a more noteworthy influence on Spain. The beginning of university-based schools of communication theoretically contributed to the establishment of a more suitable institutional platform for the delivery of communication research trends in the West. An analysis of historical, political, and institutional contexts converging in Spain in the 1970s is useful to describe how the first university schools were shaped in terms of both their incipient teaching and research challenges. A review of the literature covering both fields in Spain and other countries, along with some previously published archival sources, helps us to frame the case of Spain from a transnational viewpoint that considers the impact of contemporary foreign influences. The resulting broader comparative perspective provides a better overarching understanding of the case, even to the point of measuring the extent to which it can be considered a pioneer in this context.