Ecuadorian mass media on Twitter during the 30-S

Internet and the massive deployment of mobile and wireless communication systems and devices are generating new digital environments that are drastically changing the way in which social ideas and debates are produced, accessed and disseminated. Online social networks are becoming the virtual public spheres by which the social and political events of this network society are being debated. Given this new digital and technological context, many researchers are questioning the processes of dissemination of the information generated into these virtual social structures and the validity of the traditional models of media influence in these environments. In this paper, we present the results of an empirical analysis of the dissemination of information on Twitter produced by two large Ecuadorian newspapers: “El Universo” (private newspaper) and “El Telegrafo” (public newspaper) during events of police insubordination on 30th September 2010. The results show that, given the restrictions imposed that day by the Ecuadorian government on the news broadcast from the private media, Twitter became on a space of diffusion and access of citizens to alternative views. In addition, it was observed that the information emitted during the 30-S by these newspapers, presented a structure of diffusion in multiple stages and multiple directions.