Arc Polític

Abstract

The Arc Polític digital medium was born in 2021 with the aim of communicating and analyzing the Valencian political reality, in a project that combines new journalistic trends with political communication and current affairs. Therefore, it is a specialized medium with in-depth content, a characteristic that is observed in published reports and interviews, with an extensive analysis of different points of view. The main theme for this work has been the political management that affects the Valencian Community, focusing on the decisions made by the Conselleria, as well as the different parties that make up Les Corts, the representative chamber of the autonomous territory. Politics is one of the most important sections within the generalist media, which can be seen in the news that occupies the front pages of the main newspapers. Despite this circumstance, there are almost no specialized media on the subject within the Valencian area, and the interest for its creation lies in the lack of proposals at present. The added value of Arc Polític with respect to the existing proposals will be the in-depth information. While the generalist media stand out for their immediacy, this medium will have a more pause and analytical model, in tune with the new trends in demand that, due to the new payment models, increasingly require specialized and quality content. This digital medium begins in a complicated context, both for the media and for politics, due to the pandemic generated by Covid-19. This fact, however, reinforces the need to create a specialized website of these characteristics, since the health crisis has highlighted the importance of regional policies, since a large part of the decisions in the health field or restrictions are have developed differently in each Spanish autonomous community. Thus, analyzing the reasons and repercussions of these decisions has been one of the objectives of Arc Polític. It can be seen, for example, with the report on the increase in the rental price after the health crisis (Covid-19 A housing emergency) or in the parliamentary chronicles. Likewise, the objective of the medium was to oppose the accelerated journalism of many media, betting on a “slow journalism” focused on depth, since much of the 19 content is more extensive than the usual reports in digital media. In this way, it seeks to appeal to an audience interested in political news, looking for in-depth content and rigorous, contrary to the current trend, volatile reading and constant fluctuation between online content. Some of the main references for the creation of the medium have been El Temps, which also produces political information, although the geographical scope extends to Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. It also deals with national issues, and includes other sections, such as cultural. In the same way, an attempt has also been made to resemble the independent nature and in-depth content of El Salto, a medium that was born in 2017, which is why it shares similarities in the search for the online reader, the adaptation of content to reality and changing trends and the goal of creating a visually appealing page. Other examples can also be mentioned, with regard to competition or similarity of intentions, such as Critit.cat, Revista W or Revista Contexto. The content approach has had two basic criteria for selection. On the one hand, with the analysis of parties or political movements, within the area of political communication. On the other hand, with the reflection on different problems that were related to political issues, such as rents, environmental initiatives, policy on inclusion and immigration, the fight for an improvement in transport or political pardons. For this, only specialized sources have been used, be it from political parties, technicians from regional ministries, economists, platforms or experts. This commitment to specialization has made it possible to guarantee rigorous content, and has helped in many cases to the viralization of some of the pieces, for example, by interviewed political scientists, who were in contact with other media, such as La Vanguardia or À Punt. Regarding design and style, a modern and minimalist style has been adopted, in tune with current web design trends, taking into account that the appearance and accessibility of the medium is one of the main factors by which users are guided to stay on that page. This style has also been adapted to different formats to unite the 20 design with the Twitter and Instagram accounts, the two networks in which Arc Polític has had a presence. The use of videos, direct from Instagram, threads on Twitter or stories has made it possible to bring the content closer to a younger audience. The sections that the media has are: A fons; It is a section that contains the reports or in-depth articles of the medium, as its name in Valencian indicates. In this section we find different subsections, which correspond both to party analysis and to the different sections in political management. Therefore, we can find the section housing, economy, social policies, education and culture and environment and mobility. In other matters, there is also a specific interview section. These interviews have been presented in two different ways: with in-depth interviews, dealing with different issues or even the work carried out since the beginning of the legislature. For example, the interview with the minister Rosa Pérez Garijo. The second type corresponds to interviews that deal with current affairs, such as the interview with deputy Elena Bastidas, in which she is asked about the pardons to the inmates of the procés or the reconstruction of the Partit Popular. The intention has been to move away from partisan journalism and really analyze the issues that correspond to each area, which is why all the majority parties in the Valencian area have been given a voice: PSPV-PSOE, Compromís, Podem, Ciudadanos, Partido Popular and Vox. Now, taking into account that journalism does not consist simply in reproducing the statements, therefore all the in-depth reports have had an important data support, for example from the National Institute of Statistics or those provided by the Generalitat Valenciana, translated to the reader through graphs of own creation or of said institutions. Due to the context in which it has been developed, this work has had obstacles such as access to the Corts Valencianes, limited for certain media due to the limited capacity by Covid-19. This has conditioned the use of their own images, a problem that has been supplemented with images provided by the administration itself with consent. In addition, the political scope of the pieces required the consultation of sources close to the political nucleus, which at times have been difficult to obtain. 21 For example, when requesting interviews with Rafael Climent, Minister of Economy, Rubén Martínez Dalmau, Minister of Housing, or Francesc Colomer, of Tourism, the press officers have redirected us to lower positions. The same has happened with the president of the Alicante Provincial Council and the next popular candidate, with whom it has been impossible to contact for several weeks. Despite these problems, the work carried out has been satisfactory, and in recent weeks the project has experienced an exponential growth in the number of visits. A growth that accelerated from April, and that shows good expectations for the development of the project over time. In addition, according to analytics, in this time it has obtained a thousand pages viewed, mostly read in Valencia, Castellón, Barcelona and Alicante. In addition, according to estimates, young people spend the most minutes reading the web, a very positive figure if we take into account the volatility of digital reading. Thus, it can be said that the project still has expectations of expansion, for example in new platforms that are beginning to have an important boost in political analysis, such as Twitch. In addition, this work has allowed to begin to have contact with these political, journalistic and academic nuclei, which in the long run will serve to facilitate the creation of information. Arc Polític aims to become one more actor in the political conversation and attract interested readers, so that they trust the project and what it offers