Photographs, Visual Memes, and Viral Videos: Visual Phatic News Sharing on WhatsApp during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain, Italy, and The Netherlands

• Published in: Digital journalism Vol. 12; no. 5; pp. 656 - 679
• Main Authors: Hagedoorn, Berber, Costa, Elisabetta, Esteve-del-Valle, Marc
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 27.05.2024
• Subjects: (audio)visual materials; COVID-19 pandemic; in-depth interviews; phatic news sharing; sociability; thematic analysis; visual news-related content; WhatsApp
• ISSN: 2167-0811; 2167-082X
• DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2023.2250395

Sharing and discussing visual images in WhatsApp groups functions as a form of phatic news sharing to achieve a sense of togetherness and sociability. We explore how visual media content shared in personal WhatsApp interactions during the first strict lockdown months of the COVID-19 pandemic functions as phatic news. Our study addresses a gap in journalism studies in researching news-related and visual content from user perspectives. Our article provides insights into how the "semi-private" space of WhatsApp offers people a digital communication space to deal with becoming a news subject during the crisis: people appropriate news by shaping it into different visual forms which can be attractively shared on WhatsApp. We focus on working adults (aged 25-49) in urban areas in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. Visual phatic news sharing on WhatsApp combines public and private aspects, especially how people address issues of public concern through their private WhatsApp communication. Our conclusions reveal how WhatsApp functions as a sense-making practice and vehicle for ontological security in dealing with the fearful and unsettling crisis situation. The visual images shared are a hybrid form of communication, blurring boundaries between private life and public concerns presented on the news.