How do legacy and digital media curate coronavirus content. An assessment of newsletters from the USA and four European countries

Abstract

This study focuses on the curation of newsletters specialized in Covid-19 news from the mass media of France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the USA. The newsletters of 21 media outlets –15 traditional and six digital natives– were studied during the peaks of the pandemic in April and November 2020. The study follows an evaluative method of curation quality, based on the analysis of the following parameters: number of curated contents, time range, origin, sources –according to organization type and morphology–, authorship, sense-making techniques, and hyperlink informational function. The results identify the main characteristics of news curation in these newsletters and their differences from general newsletters, as well as the sources used, and also make it possible to establish curation quality standings and to identify differences between countries and among legacy and pure digital news outlets.