Alternative and Traditional Media on Twitter: Ecuador National Strike of 2019

Abstract

The constant demands of citizens to be informed in real time have made Twitter an ideal tool for mass use. This social network has originated a new user of social communication, and is used to present public images and appeal to the population, at the same time that it is displacing the pre-eminence of traditional communication media. During the national strike in Ecuador in October 2019, alternative and conventional media used this platform to inform, generate debate, carry out calls and mobilizations, and position perspectives. This study analyzes the tweets and hashtags published on the most viral days of the strike. A mixed methodology was applied, i.e., qualitative and quantitative. The techniques applied were discourse analysis and the systematic review of each hashtag. The sample was taken from the hashtags published by traditional and alternative media from October 3 to 13. As the main result, it was concluded that the published hashtags had a high impact on informing users and, to a certain extent, on the calls that were made.

1. Introduction

The mass media are no longer the only source for users to know relevant news about their environment. Now, digital social networks have taken a prominent place, especially Twitter. This network was created by Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams in 2006 to distract and entertain, according to Gordillo-Tejada (2019). However, its impact has transformed this application into a source and a space for opinion—i.e., users have changed “the perspective” of “creators”.

Twitter stands as the political social network preferred by many users, including politicians, experts and researchers, among others (González-List 2022). Social studies consider it a medium that consolidates political communication while breaking the routine, because it facilitates the rapid communication of brief messages and promotes the dissemination of informal and spontaneous speeches, while allowing direct listening and conversation (Campos-Domínguez 2017). On Twitter, public institutions (Meunier Rosas 2012), political parties (López-Abellán 2011), and social movements (Saura et al. 2017) share their opinions and establish peer-to-peer communication with associates, sympathizers, or militants.

Social studies consider that Twitter consolidates political communication (making it less routinary), facilitates the rapid dispersion of messages, and promotes informality and spontaneity (González-List 2022). Users find on Twitter their right to express their voice about a reality. Their participation does not require affiliation to parties, accounts, or other users, but only affinity and an argumentative stance. Opinions, offered in texts with a limited number of characters (280), appear in real time (Coronel and Mier 2011). All these factors allow an increased number of users can participate in the network due to all these factors. According to global statistics (Twiplomacy, Twitter Couter and Statista), the number of Twitter users reached 345 million in 2022.

The freedom of participation and the breadth of reception demand responsibility from users when issuing and publishing their judgments. The application has certain control guidelines that prevent xenophobia, racism, gender discrimination and other forms of segregation. Through tracking algorithms, offensive words are identified through tracking algorithms. (Bonilla-Soria and Chávez-Peralvo 2014; Bayón 2017). Even Twitter canceled the account of former U.S. President Donald Trump for committing constant violations of its terms of service to him(Jean and Sánchez-Montoya 2022).

In terms of public projection, the use of social networks in the campaigns of several political actors has been observed. This has been the case since U.S. presidential candidate Barak Obama achieved a triumph at the polls after shaping his image to reach a young audience that had a negative perception of the political-governmental sphere (Villanueva-Baselga et al. 2017). In Spain, the work of Jivkova-Semova et al. (2017) analyzes the management of official and party accounts created during the campaign and observes the “quinical humor”1 used to humanize and bring the public figure closer to the audience. Likewise, Martínez-Roland and Piñeiro-Otero (2016) analyze the online conversation during the celebration of that election debate.

It is worth highlighting on Twitter the use of the algorithm called the hashtag, a textual construction preceded by a hashtag symbol (#) (Chae 2015). This combination, which originated in 2009 on Twitter, groups information, messages, and any semantic construction under a topic, building a nested network that is easy to search (Calvo-Rubio 2018; Barrezueta-Pico 2019). According to some analyses, various citizen actions in recent years have used encrypted messages as hashtags, congregating people under the same objective (Xiong et al. 2019). Regarding the generating capacity of social mobilizations, the work of Giraldo et al. (2018), entitled “The thematic of #NIUNAMENOS mobilization on Twitter”, indicates that the platform has become a space for deliberating, where the activism of contemporary social movements is concentrated. They analyze the incidence of this hashtag to impact the population that joined the march. The formula combined the messages, turning them into a coordinated opinion. This unification moved the groups to protest and express their feelings. The work of Mora-Bonilla (2015) analyzes Twitter and Facebook as engines of social movements in Spain, since they are not controlled by the central power. The population communicates for the sake of citizen action, using hashtags and adjusting to legislation that allows peaceful and unarmed movements to call for citizen reaction against economic measures, layoffs, embargoes and clientelism of the government.

1.1. Tweets in Ecuador and Andean Countries

In Ecuador, the number of people with internet connection is 77% in urban areas and 57% in rural areas, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC 2021). Citizens with a Twitter account constitute 3.5 million, nearly 20% of the population (Mentinno 2022). Many scholars and researchers have mentioned the impact of this network in the latest social movements that have occurred in Latin America.

Barrezueta-Pico (2019) determined in the 2017 Ecuadorian elections how the winning candidate used this medium to present a summary of his work project, achieve more followers for his candidacy, and co-opt votes in his favor. His strategy was to draw an “almost personal” approach with voters, who could ask questions and receive an almost immediate response, which popularized and expanded the awareness of the proposals to a larger audience. From this perspective, the use of Twitter tended to use the emotional with a political intention, as has happened with the account of former President Correa (Gordillo-Tejada 2019).

In their work, Cabezas-Coello (2017), examines the Yasuní case and evaluates the impact of social media on the success of the popular consultation initiated by the “yasunidos” group. The collective aimed to gather signatures and draw attention to the government’s plan to exploit the Yasuní ITT, annouced on 15 August 2013. Meanwhile, Farías-Alvarado (2017) in Peru analyzes the potential of tweets and hashtags to solve the conflict that arose from the implementation of the Conga mining project (Cajamarca) in 2010, as the cause of environmental deterioration on four lagoons that supply water to 200 villages.

A concern for the role of social networks and the action of citizens in a strike is observed in Aguilera (2017), who conducted a study in peasant action to position their opinion in a non-traditional medium. The work of Valdez-Vélez (2019) makes a pioneering analysis of this social network by relating the new journalism, sociopolitical needs, and the achievement of mobilizations. These possibilities of information exchange observed on Twitter made us consider it a novel tool compared to traditional media that no longer meet the information needs of the population. When using and creating hashtags, the population has the possibility of self-expression, becoming a particular creator that has nothing to do with the conventional media. On the other hand, they also see on Twitter a more immediate possibility to receive information from multiple perspectives, which allows them to compare, evaluate, take a position, and decide. For this reason, its review has displaced that of the mass media.

Valdez-Vélez (2019) proved the greater effectiveness of Twitter to disseminate information, compared to conventional media. He identified the way in which Twitter was configured during the police uprising, the frequency with which tweets were issued to identify the moment of more activity, and the highest percentage of messages to determine whether they corresponded to information or opinions. It was concluded that people prefer Twitter instead of conventional media to obtain information in situations of political crisis, which calls for a reinterpretation of the role of journalism in the digital era and the networked society.

It is not only private citizens that use Twitter to communicate and be informed of events, as journalists also use this tool. In this sense, a significant contribution is observed in Bayón (2017), who makes an overview and a defense of the journalistic use of this social network, which generates obligations and creates an active and critical citizen of the environment. According to Bonilla-Soria and Chávez-Peralvo (2014), journalism in the 2.0 era facilitates the exploration of news that inspires journalists to investigate and verify its appropriateness for dissemination in traditional media. In this regard, Twitter accounts serve as a resource for journalism.

Samaniego-Mendoza (2014) argues about the prevalence of this new way of reporting, which should be supported by the ethics of the journalist’s profession, his/her investigative skills, and truth-seeking work within society. The author analyzes traditional journalism and the new form of journalism, observing the involvement of viewers. These are more participative and active in the new journalism, changing both public opinion and the activity of the researcher-journalist.

In the journalistic use of social networks, and Twitter in particular, there are channels or stations created to inform, which have no relationship with the traditional media. These are known as alternative media. However, the active entities of the hegemonic mass media also use Twitter, both to interact with the population and to receive certain data to enrich their programs (Bonilla-Soria and Chávez-Peralvo 2014). These are the large news networks that make up the traditional media.

1.2. Protest in Ecuador

It is interesting to dwell on the events of the last quarter of 2019 when some actions ended with protests in the streets and clashes between public and civil forces in different countries of the continent: Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina (Palacios and Sánchez-Montoya 2022; Vanegas 2022). These demonstrations, uprisings, and strikes were carried out against the neoliberal model and the tactics of populist governments with their economies governed by the programs and strategies of the International Monetary Fund (Ramírez-Gallegos 2020).

A sequence of civic actions commenced in Ecuador on 3 October 2019, focused on the repeal of Decree 883. In these massive mobilizations and calls for action, social networks had a significant impact. The same did not happen with the traditional media. With these, immediacy, and freedom of participation of many users, are not possible; indeed, a reported case or fact loses follow-up and permanence in memory when it is only reported at certain times (Samaniego-Mendoza 2014). In addition, mass media are censored by government entities, which imposed, during the events, the transmission of content according to the actors in power (Gordillo-Tejada 2019; Calvo-Rubio 2018).

A significant number of users looked for alternative media to keep abreast of the actions, as evidenced by the number of visits and their consideration as a trend in a specific time (Chejín 2019). Through Twitter, demands, accusations, debates and protests were made, evidencing the positions of various sectors (Chaguay-Arellano and Meza-Cedeño 2022). This, together with the ease of corroborating what was witnessed with images and videos, resulted in Twitter gaining the largest number of impressions. Likewise, the use of hashtags made the messages go viral around the world. Some of the hashtags that became trending topics were #Teleamazonas, #MasacreEnQuito, #EcuadorEnCrisis, #LeninNoCedas, #AguanteLenin, #LitardoConvocaYa, #ParoEnEcuador, #Quito, #women, #indigenous, #ParoNacionalEC and #ToqueDeQueda.

Considering the increase of citizen participation in social dynamics through social and digital networks and the displacement of the traditional press as the only source of information, it is important to rigorously analyze the incidence of the use of Twitter in social mobilizations in Ecuador during the national strike of October 2019. The purpose is to understand and explain the construction of hashtags as a convening mechanism during social demonstrations. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to analyze the incidence of hashtags that were used and went viral during the period of the national strike mentioned above, as an alternative source of communication that tended to cover the mobilization, as opposed to traditional media.

The hashtag analysis proposed here is linked to a field of research that arose from the moment the Twitter platform was created and had an impact on the lives of users in multiple social spaces. The studies have two main trends: the first one recognizes the importance of the network in the new information society as (a) a user that expresses and mobilizes on it, (b) a means for political projection, and (c) a form of citizen call that generates social mobilizations. The second trend projects the network as a factor of change with respect to traditional journalism that has been based on writing and dependence on the issuer or the media (Bayón 2017).

Regarding the configuration of a user who expresses and mobilizes on Twitter, it can be said that this platform has become a resource or tool for social expression shortly after its creation, because users have used their messages as a way of evaluating their realities, expressing their points of view, and sharing similar criteria. Given the way new technologies have been introduced into everyday life, it is not surprising that both native and migrant informational users have turned their attention to the role of these media for producing news and consider it a more suitable way to learn about reality.

As for Giraldo et al. (2018), Twitter is a space for deliberating, because it involves a good part of the activism of contemporary social movements. This leads to supporting for the participatory nature of Twitter consumers, as they no longer seek only one piece of information, where they have a unilateral version, but the comparison, evaluation, and choice of multiple perspectives. This explains why social networks become arenas of conflict, where both supporters and opponents of the various positions appear (van Haperen et al. 2022).

Moving on to the other determining point in this research, it is possible to frame the October 2019 national strike in Ecuador on the basis of the information offered by Ramírez-Gallegos (2020). This author indicates that after the arrival of Hugo Chávez to the presidency of Venezuela, populist governments increased in Latin America. His perspective, which renewed the idea of the masses and a possible economy more in line with Amerindian ideologies (closer to the earth), caused voters to put aside years of conservatism or extreme forms of communism and socialism to give way to new representatives with approaches related to a more equitable democracy. This was the case for Rafael Correa in Ecuador, whose presidency lasted three constitutional periods, and Evo Morales in Bolivia.

Already in power, figures who proposed novel perspectives changed their campaign proposals, and inconsistencies in the management of internal policies appeared, so that social outbursts, uprisings, and strikes in several countries, such as Puerto Rico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, among others, arose during the last quarter of 2019. Among the claims levelled against the leaders were accused of mismanagement and causing economic deterioration, among other grievances. Those who exercised power in the State obtained benefits that did not consider the working classes, expanding the size of the informal market on a daily basis, eliminating the middle class, and increasing poverty in the population (Ramírez-Gallegos 2020).

In Ecuador, the desire for change, with the support of the ruling populism, made possible, through elections, the rise to the presidency of Lenin Moreno, former vice-president in the government of Rafael Correa. However, after his arrival in office, there was a change in internal policies that showed options more in line with a neoliberal capitalist philosophy of extraction, investments, and monopolies, where family and middle-class economies have disappeared (Ramírez-Gallegos 2020).

Thus, with the decline of oil and immigration, the country suffered a crisis that made it return to old conventions. By April 2018, the government announced an agreement with the IMF, with the aim of receiving approximately $4.2 billion in soft loans. In exchange for these medium-term loans from multilateral entities, the State was to restructure the domestic economy (Le Quang et al. in Ramírez-Gallegos 2020). This meant the reduction of public spending, the elimination of fuel subsidies (through Decree 883), and the approval of reforms to the Labor Code, among other measures that triggered a rise in prices and a drop in domestic purchasing power. The implementation of the adjustments resulted in the extended and indeterminate strike on 2 October 2019 (Ramírez-Gallegos 2020).

According to Ramírez-Gallegos (2020), the events of October 2019 in Ecuador can be considered a sign of protest against neoliberalism. Identity rituals to express discontent were observed in mobilizations. Minor groups such as indigenous youth, women and other minorities who were considered as feminized or infantilized by the dominant classes (A’Lmea-Suárez 2021), protested and let their voice of social and ethnic rejection be heard (Ramírez-Gallegos 2020). In this framework, alternative media become relevant insofar as they offer a heterogeneous perspective of reality, emitting messages from different sources.

2. Materials and Methods

The main objective of this research was to contrast the tweets and interactions of traditional media outlets with digital alternative media in Ecuador, during the protests that occurred in the country in October 2019. To do this, two exercises were carried out: the information of both sets of media on Twitter was compared to quantify the impact of those publications, and the ideological bias of the media was evaluated qualitatively. To meet these objectives, first, the interactions and use of hashtags in the set of selected accounts were compared, and a textual and discourse analysis of the tweets with the most interactions of each studied medium was then performed. The research hypothesis was that traditional media had more interactions due to their high number of followers and the more professional information treatment, while digital alternative media would prove to be lagging in interactions due to their lower number of followers and less prolixity in information production.

The corpus was composed of messages grouped under the hashtags emitted on Twitter from traditional and alternative media during the national strike in Ecuador. The period was from 3 to 13 October 2019, especially considering the days that Twitter had the highest level of activity. The analysis focused on the content of the messages that were broadcast, the hashtags that were trending, and the network’s ability to report.

To understand the synergy of a hashtag, it must be clear that it starts from a centrality; this is the degree of repetition or generalization of content (words) in a corpus of text and the degree of relationships that the words with greater reiteration establish among themselves. The more times a word is repeated, the more thematic centrality it has.

The traditional media outlets with an important presence on Twitter were identified as Ecuavisa Noticias, El Comercio and Teleamazonas. The three media outlets are owned by two open-signal television channels and a newspaper that have historically been relevant in news production from a conservative perspective. Meanwhile, the alternative digital media outlets studied were La Posta, Wambra and Radio La Calle. These only have a web presence and on average have been in existence for less than 10 years. However, despite their relatively recent creation, they have grown steadily on their social networks.

The research had a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach. The qualitative approach sought a comprehensive view of the impact of Twitter messages on people’s behavior in the face of the national strike in Ecuador, according to the different scenarios where they occurred. The deductive quantitative approach allowed reviewing of the statistics of the tweets that were grouped according to the hashtags that became a trend. In this way, the objective and subjective events that occurred were considered.

The procedure was the following: a search on Twitter of the accounts of the traditional and alternative media mentioned: Ecuavisa Noticias @EcuavisaInforma, El Comercio @elcomerciocom, Teleamazonas @teleamazonasec, La Posta @LaPosta_Ecu, Wambra @wambraEc, and Radio La Calle @radiolacalle. The following formula was used to look for the most representative hashtags: (media name) since: 3 October 2019 until: 13 October 2019; and to make it more specific by day: from: (media name) since: 3 October 2019 until: 4 October 2019. Tools were used to measure the impact of hashtags, such as Getdaytrends and Trendinalia Ecuador (Trending Topics). Finally, the results were interpreted according to the stated premise and related to the conclusions of previously mentioned studies. The following matrix (

Table 1. Matrix to analyze hashtag.

Tweet	Type of Tweet	Special, references, answers, links, without links, automatic answer
Capture of the tweet	Media	Traditional or alternative media
	Description	How the medium is defined
	Followers
	Location and links
Date	When did the person join Twitter?
	Hashtag for engagement
	Place on the trending topic during the strike
	Interactions:	Comments:
		Retweet:
		Likes:
		Shared:
		Total:
	Analysis of the Tweet and hashtag
	Interest of the audience	Incidence of the hashtag
	People or event mentioned
	Observations

) was used to analyze the hashtags that had the most views.

3. Results

Ecuador’s national strike lasted 11 days, from 3 to 13 October. When observing the communication behavior on Twitter and searching for the most representative hashtags, it was found that the most viral days were the 11th and 12th, and that traditional channels have more followers than alternative channels: Teleamazonas’s followers number 2,000,300, El Comercio 1,900,000, and Ecuavisa 1,500,000. None of the alternative channels tops one million followers; La Posta has 258,700, Wambra 42,600 and La Calle 37,200 (

Table 2. Hashtags of selected means of the most viral days of the 2019 national strike of Ecuador.

Alternative or Tradicional Media	Mean	Followers	Hashtags	Date
Alternative	La Posta	258.7 thousand	#ToquedeQueda	12 October 2019
			#Quito
	Wambra	42.6 thousand	#MasacreEnQuito	12 October 2019
	Radio La Calle	37.2 thousand	#EcuadorEnCrisis	11 October 2019
			#LeninNoCedas
			#AguanteLenin
			#LitardoConvocaY
			#ParoEnEcuador
Traditional	Ecuavisa Noticias	1.5 million	#Quito	12 October 2019
			#mujeres
			#indigenas
			#ParoNacionalEC
	El Comercio	1.9 million	#ToqueDeQueda	12 October 2019
	Teleamazonas	2.3 million	#Teleamazonas	12 October 2019

).

However, two of the alternative media were found to have the most interactions: Radio La Calle, 7008, and Wambra, 3290, while the one with the least interactions was the traditional medium El Comercio, with 400. It stands out that of the three types of interaction, the ones that took place most frequently across all media were those that involved fewer personal opinions, i.e., Retweets and Likes. On the other hand, the interaction with comments had the lowest frequency, even for Radio La Calle (308), Wambra (190) and Teleamazonas (471), which are the media with the highest total of interactions (see

Table 3. Analysis of the hashtags of the most viral days of the 2019 national strike of Ecuador.

Mean	Hashtag	Position in Getdaytrends	Position in Trendinalia Ecuador	Interactions				Video Reproductions
				Comments	Retweets	Likes	Total
La Posta	#ToquedeQueda	No record	77 (04h45)	33	267	370	670
	#Quito	No record	283 (00h15)
Wambra	#MasacreEnQuito	1 (from 05:00 to 15:00)	15 (12h15)	190	1800	1300	3290
Radio La Calle	#EcuadorEnCrisis	1 (23h00)	142 (02h55)	308	4200	2500	7008	127,300
	#LeninNoCedas	2 (23h00)	33 (09h05)
	#AguanteLenin	3 (22h00)	130 (03h15)
	#LitardoConvocaY	2 (22h00)	72 (04h55)
	#ParoEnEcuador	No record	228 (01h10)
Ecuavisa Noticias	#Quito	No record	283 (00h15)	97	294	561	952	32,400
	#mujeres	No record	No record
	#indigenas	24 (07h00)	71 (05h00)
	#ParoNacionalEC	26 (07h00)	60 (05h40)
El Comercio	#ToqueDeQueda	No record	77 (04h45)	24	144	232	400
		No record	283 (00h15)
Teleamazonas	#Teleamazonas	5 (23h00)	90 (04h25)	471	1000	809	2280	87,700

).

Adding the number of interactions between the alternative media and the traditional media, it was found (

Table 4. Number of interactions in traditional and alternative media.

Channels	Comments	Retweets	Likes	Total
Traditional	592	1438	1602	3632
Alternatives	531	6267	4170	10,968

) the former had many more interactions (10,968) than the latter (3632). However, the alternative media have more Retweets and Likes, while the conventional media has a slightly higher number of comments.

On the other hand, the word counter indicated in the traditional media studied the position by number of repetitions of the 220 hashtags used (http://www.morethanbooks.eu/cuenta-palabras/?pagina=3&#) (accessed on 1 April 2022), showing that the hashtag in position 1 had 28 repetitions, while those in positions 10 to 15 obtained 7 (

Table 5. Word density of hashtags in traditional media.

Hagshtag	Quantity	Percentage
quito	28	5%
guayaquil	21	4%
ecuador	14	3%
moreno	13	2%
teleamazonas	11	2%
protestas	9	2%
atencion	8	2%
masterchefecuador	8	2%
yosoybettylafea	8	2%
medidaseconomicas	7	1%

Note: The decimals of the percentage are rounded. Source: www.contadordepalabras.com, 25 October 2022.

). The rest of the hashtags obtained 6 to 1 repetition.

It was observed that the hashtags related to the national strike that were most repeated referred to places where the events occurred, to the leader, and to the traditional media itself. In addition, in traditional media, some of the most frequent hashtags corresponded to issues unrelated to the protests.

As for the alternative media, the word counter indicated the position by number of repetitions of 115 hashtags used (http://www.morethanbooks.eu/cuenta-palabras/?pagina=3&#, 25 October 2022), observing that the hastag in position 1 had 20 repetitions, while the hashtag in position 6 had 7 (

Table 6. Word density of hashtags in alternative media.

Hagshtag	Quantity	Percentage
paronacional	20	8%
paronacionalecuador	16	6%
quito	14	5%
ecuador	10	4%
paronacionalec	8	3%
paquetazo	7	3%
paquetazodemoreno	6	2%
elparosigue	5	2%
parodetransporte	5	2%
Cotopaxi	4	2%

Note: The decimals of the percentage are rounded. Source: www.contadordepalabras.com, 25 October 2022.

). The remaining hashtags were duplicated between 1 to 6 times.

It is observed in Table 6 that the hashtags related to the national strike were the most-repeated references to the strike itself, to places where the events occurred, and to the cause of the protests. In addition, in the alternative media, among the most frequent hashtags, there were no mentions of topics unrelated to the protests.

4. Discussion

As previously explained, Twitter is used as a space for the projection of political figures, as a generator of social mobilizations, and as an alternative source to traditional journalism. Within the tweets on the days of the October 2019 demonstrations in Ecuador, the discourse primarily aimed to achieve one of these objectives. A selection of these tweets is presented and the impact they had on public communication is analyzed.

The first case selected is a tweet from the alternative media company Wambra (

Table 7. Analysis of the impact of Twitter in alternative media 1.

Tweet	Type of Tweet	Broadcasting of the Media
Date: 12 October 2019 Getdaytrends: (Trend #1 since 05h00 until 15h00)	Media	Alternative Media Wambra @wambraEc Community Digital Media
	Hashtag for engagement	#Quito #MasacreEnQuito
	Location in the trending topic during the strike	#Quito Trendinalia Ecuador 283 #MasacreEnQuito Getdaytends 1 Trendinalia Ecuador 15

). It should be noted that Wambra was the medium with the second-highest number of interactions during the national strike, well above the threetraditional broadcasting companies, which indicates that alternative journalism displaced the conservative media during the peak days of the national strike.

Wambra’s tweet was published on 12 October, one of the most viral days. Its content states: “In #Quito while the curfew is in effect/a loud explosion was just heard in the Assembly sector/The explosion was heard as far north as the capital/Indigenous operation denounced a “massacre/#MassacreInQuito”.

Getdaytrends measurement indicates that the tweet was trending #1 from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. The hashtag #Quito, according to Trendinalia Ecuador, was ranked 283rd in trending topics (popular topic) and #MasacreEnQuito was ranked in 15th position, according to the same tool, and in 1st position, according to Getdaytrends.

On the other hand, the text of the tweet aims to inform about an explosion, its intensity, the place of occurrence, and the reaction of the population. It does not indicate the cause of the event, or a priori establish people guilty; it simply informs about the event. What is relevant is that the voice of a traditionally silenced sector of the population is heard, i.e., it points out what the indigenous organization denounces. In this sense, it is observed that communication on Twitter allows propagating opinions and feelings contrary to those established by the hegemonic media, that hide the voice of a sector of the population indicated by A’Lmea-Suárez (2021) as inferior.

In addition, the tweet reveals how this type of communication is functional to social mobilization, like that exposed by Giraldo et al. (2018) on the #NIUNAMENOS mobilization, by Mora-Bonilla (2015) on the participation of social movements in Spain on Twitter, by Cabezas-Coello (2017) on the popular consultation on the network, and by Aguilera (2017) on the positioning of the opinion of peasants in Colombia.

Wambra’s second tweet was published on October 11, also one of the most viral days (Figure 1). Its content is: “Indigenous march stands in front of @AsambleaEcuador with their hands up and shouting “We want peace, we want peace”/According to the leadership, there was never an intention to take over public buildings, the march was interrupted in the Alameda Park #ParoNacionalEc”.

Another impact is being an engine of movement. In Wambra’s text (Figure 1) it is inferred how the population responded to the call for mobilization by standing in front of the Assembly in a peaceful way and requesting “peace”. As Valdez-Vélez (2019) analyzes, a new journalism emerges in moments of political crisis to satisfy sociopolitical needs and to report on mobilizations. It should be added that Wambra uses an efficient rhetorical strategy, when the protesters are going “with their hands up.” With this, the user can clearly infer that the march is peaceful and has not resorted to violence. In addition, images are used, showing the verisimilitude of what is reported about the mobilization; they are people wearing indigenous clothing, with their fists raised and grouped in large numbers.

However, it is pointed out in the same tweet that the march was interrupted, even though there was no intention to take over public buildings. As A’Lmea-Suárez (2021) points out, a sector of the population considered inferior is silenced. They are not allowed to advance; the force of the legitimized system stops them. Hence, the intention arises to communicate what is real and denounce the repression of the right to peaceful protest. In this sense, the importance of the alternative media in situations of social conflict is observed. Wambra reports the presence of an important social actor in Ecuador, the indigenous population, contrary to what the hegemonic media usually do.

The third tweet selected Is from the alternative media Radio La Calle (Figure 2). It was the medium with the highest number of interactions (7008) during one of the two days with more interactions (11 October), again reinforcing the assumption that alternative media may have displaced conservative media during the October 2019 national strike in Ecuador.

The text of Radio La Calle’s tweet is: “This is the exact moment in which the cowardly and infamous police attacked the people who were outside the @Asamblea Ecuador. It should be viral; this is the dialogue of @Lenin Moreno. #EcuadorEnCrisis #LeninNoCedas #AguanteLenin #LitardoConvocaYa #ParoEnEcuador”. The text has an image in which a group of people are seen in front of the Assembly, but the violent action of the State security forces is not clearly observed. There is a value judgment that falls on the police force, which is “cowardly” and “infamous”. On the other hand, a statement is made about the presidential figure. Lenin Moreno does not open the opportunity for dialogue, through the rhetorical figure of irony—the government’s dialogue is the violent attack on those who express discontent.

A forceful reaction to the legitimization of silencing is observed in response to the tweet through what Espósito (2012) calls “communitas”—i.e., an oppressive system acts to stop legitimate social demonstration, but repression acts under the discourse of “dialogue” and the fact of physical attack. This reinforces the importance of alternative communication through social networks as a way of expressing different perspectives on news events in political matters. This communication allows the obtaining not only of the “truth” of the group that represents the voice of the dominant sector, but also of the traditionally invisible group.

Samaniego-Mendoza (2014) argues that journalism through social networks, specifically Twitter, is an important mechanism for the profession, since, as seen in the Radio La Calle tweet, there is more possibility of involving users than traditional journalism. This is because, in this case, the message of a tweet of 1.36 min and 123,300 reproductions reached viewers more directly.

Nonetheless, as Bonilla-Soria and Chávez-Peralvo (2014) argue, it is not only the alternative media that have an impact on social and political events on Twitter, but also the hegemonic mass media, that interact with the population through this medium.

Table 8. Analysis of the impact of Twitter on traditional media 1.

Tweet	Type of Tweet	Broadcasting of the Media
	Media	Tradicional Media Teleamazonas @teleamazonasec
	Hashtag for engagement	#Teleamazonas
	Location in the trending topic during the strike	Getdaytrends No registers were found using the hashtag. Tredinalia Ecuador: 90
	Interactions	Comments: 471. Retweets: 1 thousand. Likes: 809. Total: 2280
	Audience interest	The incidence of hashtag

shows the analysis of a tweet from Teleamazonas channel, which has been operating since 1974 and has been a pioneer in the incorporation of technological advances in communication. Thus, although alternative media could displace traditional media through social networks, this displacement is difficult to the extent that large corporate media also use digital resources, specifically Twitter, for their journalistic work.

Teleamazonas’ tweet says: “This is the moment when vandals entered #Teleamazonas to destroy vehicles and infrastructure of the channel. 25 people were inside the facilities at the time of the aggression”. The hashtag #Teleamazonas was ranked 90th according to Trendinalia Ecuador. The content shows an offense, rather than a value judgment, as was the case for the Radio La Calle tweet previously mentioned. By calling the participants in a protest “vandals”, it can be observed what A’Lmea-Suárez (2021) analyzes with respect to the coexistence of groups with diverse power in the same territory: there are the inferior and incapable, those who demonstrate against the established order, next to the educated and insatiable, those who maintain the established order.

The image referred to in the message shows, contrary to the images of Wambra and Radio La Calle, a small number of people in front of Teleamazonas facilities. This is intended to disqualify a majority, which on the tweets of the alternative media was observed to be active but peaceful, attributing to it behaviors that did not happen. It is necessary to highlight that “the moment in which the vandals entered” is not observed in that image, corroborating Bourdieu’s approach, exposed by Ignatow and Robinson (2017), according to which traditional media manipulate the discourse to reproduce and maintain the preeminence of the hegemonic system.

Traditional media tweets replicate what they say in broadcasts through other channels—they do not say anything new. However, as van Haperen et al. (2022) explain, what is interesting in this case is that social networks become arenas of conflict for both supporters and opponents of the various positions. Just in this Teleamazonas tweet can be seen the counterpart of the alternative media tweets mentioned above. The same can be seen in a tweet from Ecuavisa (

Table 9. Analysis of the impact of Twitter on traditional media 2.

Date: 12 October 2019	Media	Tradicional Media Ecuavisa Noticias @Ecuavisainforma
	Hashtag for engagement	#Guayaquil #GibiernoZonal
	Location in the trending topic during the strike	#GibiernoZonal Tredinalia Ecuador 177
	Interactions	Comments: 37 Retweets: 133 Likes: 171 Total: 321
	Audience interest	The incidence of hashtag

) published on 12 October, the most viral day during the national strike.

Among the analyzed tweets, this last one ranked fourth in terms of interactions, following two interactive media and one traditional media. According to Trendinalia Ecuador, the hashtag #GobiernoZonal ranked 177th. The content of the message is: “In #Guayaquil, clashes between protesters and security forces resulted in 2 detainees. Difficult moments were experienced near the #GobiernoZonal”. The hashtag #Guayaquil, which refers to the place where the events took place, is one of the most repeated in traditional media. As can be seen, the message does not refer to the actions of the communities, of the demonstrators, or of those who claim their rights and demand the revision of a law, but to a confrontation that has no apparent cause. The information is manipulated to reduce the responsibility of specific actors, since it is not indicated who arrests whom, but rather to spotlight that confrontations lead to the arrests, although it is obvious that the police arrested two demonstrators. This tweet minimizes the repressive intensity of the State forces, their work involves surveillance and maintaining order.

5. Conclusions

The initial hypothesis of this research was that traditional media had more interactions and a more professional informative treatment compared with alternative digital media. However, quantitative results show that even though traditional media have 10 times more followers on average than digital alternative media, the number of interactions is higher, on average, in alternative media. How can these results be explained?

When comparing the texts of the traditional media tweets posts with those of the alternative media, it is evident that in the latter, the purpose of their treatment of the news is to inform and give voice and space to the citizenry, especially to the indigenous sector. They present the facts from the perspective of the protagonists, which is related to their action and struggle to achieve an end: to present their rejection of the economic measures, with respect to the repeal of Decree 883.

The traditional media tended to give a negative tinge to the protests, creating rejection towards the insurgents who were supposedly violent. This increased with the curfew, which made the protests be seen as an irrational action and a delay to modernity and the welfare of all. The indigenous mass was again seen as the cause of backwardness, as were the women’s and youth movements (A’Lmea-Suárez 2021).

It has been evidenced that the traditional media fall into disinformation and give priority to their interests. In addition, they leave aside part of the professional ethics that should look for the benefits common good after society in general. Their choice of news topics inscribes the demonstrators as vandals and silences the true motivations of their protests. It is a tactic of androcentric societies that makes the protesters look like a negative part of the system.

The alternative media, through the Twitter miniblog, has shown that it is in line with the stipulations of journalism ethics: to inform with clarity and truthfulness, being an ideal source to cover the news and meet the expectations of users. This, together with the immediacy and the coverage they provide is in real-time leads them to gain more credibility. In this way, they contribute to the construction of a new form of citizen participation.

In summary, there is a difference between the hashtags issued on Twitter from traditional and alternative media during the national strike of October 2019 in Ecuador. The incidence of the messages in the alternative media had a greater concern to inform; although the call for mobilization occurred, it was not their priority during the time analyzed.