Cyberjournalism and Kelly Robledo-Dioses1 participation: taxonomy of https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1409-3773 interactivity in digital media Santiago Tejedor Calvo2 Ciberperiodismo y participación: taxonomía https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5539-9800 de la interactividad en los medios digitales Cristina Pulido Rodríguez3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32870/cys.v2022.8192 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8630-7529 Gabriel Torres Espinoza4 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2107-0932 Digital media have enhanced the user-media-content relationship. Now the challenge for cyberjournalism is to encourage audience participation and engagement, which is why interactivity is essential. To distinguish between the types of interactivity that can be applied in journalism, we analyzed 23 publications from the world’s most subscribed cybermedia. We found that the most used types of interactivity are personalization and social. But generative and navigational interactivity, with augmented reality and immersion, are almost non-existent, thus being challenges for the sector. Keywords: Cyberjournalism, cybermedia, interactivity, interactivity levels, active participation. Los medios digitales han potenciado la relación usuario-medios-contenido. Ahora el reto del ciberperiodismo es propiciar la participación y compromiso de las audiencias, por ello la interactividad es esencial. Para distinguir entre los tipos de interactividad que se pueden aplicar en periodismo, analizamos 23 publicaciones de los cibermedios con más suscriptores en el mundo. Encontramos que los tipos de interactividad más usados son la de personalización y la social. Pero la generativa y la de navegación, con la realidad aumentada y la inmersión, son casi nulas, siendo así desafíos del sector. Palabras clave: Ciberperiodismo, cibermedios, interactividad, niveles de interactivi- dad, participación activa. As mídias digitais melhoraram a relação usuário-mídia-conteúdo. Agora o desafio do ciberjornalismo é promover a participação e o comprometimento da audiência, por isso a interatividade é essencial. Para distinguir os tipos de interatividade que podem ser aplicados no jornalismo, analisamos 23 publicações da mídia online com mais assinantes no mundo. Constatamos que os tipos de interatividade mais utilizados são a personalização e a social. Mas generativa e navegação, com realidade aumentada e imersão, são quase nulas, sendo assim desafios no setor. Palavras chave: Ciberjornalismo, cibermídia, interatividade, níveis de interatividade, participação ativa. How to cite: Robledo-Dioses, K., Tejedor Calvo, S., Pulido Rodríguez, C. & Torres Espinoza, G. (2022). Cyberjournalism and participation: taxonomy of interactivity in digital media. Comunicación y Sociedad, e8192. https://doi.org/10.32870/cys.v2022.8192 1 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. kelly.robledo@uab.cat 2 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. santiago.tejedor@uab.cat 3 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. cristina.pulido@uab.cat 4 Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico. gabriel.torres@udgtv.com Submitted: 06/28/21. Accepted: 05/11/21. Published: 03/16/22. Comunicación y Sociedad, 2022, e8192, pp. 1-22. 1 K. Robledo-Dioses, S. Tejedor Calvo, 2 C. Pulido Rodríguez, G. Torres Espinoza Introduction Multimedia journalistic narrative entails one of the greatest professional and innovation challenges for the media of the 21st century (Sánchez- García & Salaverría, 2020). In this scenario, marked by the dissolution of the differences between cultural production and consumption (Scolari, 2019), interactivity is a field of study that responds to the main challenges of communication and journalism. According to Oblak-Črnič and Jontes (2017), since interactivity began to be analyzed at an academic level in 1980, many theoretical debates have been generated. The authors distinguish three perspectives: one focused on communication and the media; another, in the public and the user; and a third, in production and journalism. Technological evolution has generated new ways of interaction between users and devices in recent years (Tejedor et al., 2020). Journalism has been impacted by these transformations. The media is striving to redefine and reinvent its connection with the public. Along these lines, transmedia narratives encourage the participation and involvement of audiences (Mut-Camacho & Miquel-Segarra, 2019). Authors such as Jenkins (2008), Scolari (2013), Arrojo (2015), Rodríguez-Ferrándiz and Tur-Viñes (2015), Robledo-Dioses et al. (2017) and Irala-Hortal (2019) highlight the importance of interactivity in the conception and development of transmedia content. The created story is transmitted through various media and platforms, and the public feels the need to actively participate in this narrative world. There is a co-creation of content or, as Guerrero-Pico and Scolari (2016) defend, a scenario emerges that amalgamates the classic or official production (the canon) with the production of the fans (the fandom). The great challenge is to promote scenarios where audiences get involved and commit. For this, interactivity becomes a decisive resource. The generation of interactive spaces is linked to the development of creative and collaborative practices. Vázquez-Herrero et al. (2017) define interactivity as the “qualitative leap towards personalization, narrative expansion with user-generated content, and participation” (p. 410). The way in which the media facilitate this interactivity will promote social dialogue and will motivate or not the commitment of the Cyberjournalism and participation:... 3 public with the stories. This is how this research seeks to answer the following questions: What types of interactivity can be apply in journalism?; and which of these can be identified in the digital media with the most subscribers in the world? Towards a definition of interactivity Within communication studies, the concept of interactivity is one of the most important, but also one of the most confusing and elusive (Oblak- Črnič & Jontes, 2017). Recognized as one of the intrinsic characteristics of cyberspace (Hernández-Rodríguez, 2016; Kruikemeier et al., 2015), interactivity is, together with multimedia and hypertextuality, a term that has not been fully defined. Since the beginning of research on the internet, interactivity has emerged as an important feature of computer-mediated communication (Oblak-Črnič & Jontes, 2017). Thus, it is intertwined with the appearance and development of online journalism in the late 1990s (Young et al., 2018). According to Geidner et al. (2015), no other information media can provide an interaction like the one available on news websites. Online newspapers provide interactivity and user control derived from the non-linear structures typical of these new media (Omar, 2017). Newspaper companies have made an effort to include interactive resources in their content to differentiate them from print (Geidner et al., 2015). Despite what has been seen, there is also a conception of interactivity that transcends digital media (Tenenboim & Cohen, 2015) and that includes physical environments (Fourie, 2017; Marchionni, 2015; Rains, 2015). Beyond this, what is certain is that the irruption of algorithms in online communication and social networks completely challenges the notion of interactivity (Oblak-Črnič & Jontes, 2017). The configuration of the new media ecosystem enhances public participation, hence the important relationship between interactivity and transmediality. For Vázquez-Herrero et al. (2019), narrative and interactivity are the two elements that give life to transmedia projects. In this sense, although content producers can maintain control over the story, it is open to variations by the public (Pineda-Martínez & Ruiz-Mora, 2019). The user can become a fan with the possibility of generating a transmedia narrative, which even affects economic and K. Robledo-Dioses, S. Tejedor Calvo, 4 C. Pulido Rodríguez, G. Torres Espinoza cultural processes with which appropriations, resistance and identities are built (Bárcenas-Curtis et al., 2019). In this study, we understand interactivity as the result of the logical management of social environments (digital and physical), technical resources, and content structuring in order to break down the barriers between the story and the public, which can be linked to the theme, the plot and the characters, and even being a part of them. And since interactivity is the result of the application of certain processes, we classify the elements that allow it as elements of interactivity. This is what Herrero-Solana and Rodríguez-Domínguez (2015) call “degrees of interactivity”; what Varas-Alarcón and González-Arias (2016) call “traits”; or “interactivity options”, according to Schultz (1999). These range from the style of writing –rhetoric of immersion (Domínguez- Martín, 2015)–, to requirements such as the use of virtual reality glasses. In this sense, the platforms that enable interactivity are part of these elements of interactivity. In reference to these channels, in the definition of interactivity that we propose, we do not exclude social environments generated by analog media, unlike other authors (Geidner et al., 2015; Ksiazek et al., 2016; Oblak-Črnič & Jontes, 2017; Zamith, 2019), who consider online media as fundamental requirements for interactivity to exist. Analog media can also generate interactivity environments, since it seeks to eliminate the limits between receiver and transmitter/story. In this way, for example, promoting physical encounters between the public, and between it and the characters or structures of the stories, would contribute to creating a bond. Of course, with the logical limits that mark the same subject and the journalistic procedure. Building a taxonomy of interactivity Many authors have attempted to classify interactivity on the Internet. Jensen (1998) speaks of four dimensions of interactivity: transmission, consultative, conversational, and registration. According to the author, streaming interactivity allows the user to choose between a continuous flow of information in a one-way system; the consultative one allows to choose, upon request, among an existing selection of information produced in a bidirectional system. With conversational, the user can Cyberjournalism and participation:... 5 produce and enter their own information in a bidirectional system, through stored content or in real-time. And with registration, the media can store user information to suit their needs. Massey and Levy (1999) develop five dimensions of interactivity: offering a wide catalog of content to the public, enabling query channels and responding to readers, allowing the public to contribute information, facilitating communication between users, and reporting recent information immediately. Rost (2006) classifies it as selective and communicative, related to the power of the public for selection, in the first case, and for expression and communication, in the second. Chung (2008) establishes four styles of interactive presentation that consist of providing the public with various modalities of choice (media interactivity), personalized adaptation options (media/ human interactivity), opinion options and personalized stories (human/ media interactivity), and interpersonal communication opportunities (human-like interactivity). This classification is also used by Chung and Nah (2009), and Larsson (2011). Masip and Suau (2014) introduce three types of interactivity: selective, participatory, and productive. The first allows adapting the web content to the user’s preferences; the second allows the relationship between user-user, user-professional/ media, and user-content; and the third allows the collaboration of the user with the media (greater commitment). This typology has recently been used by authors such as Rivera-Rogel et al. (2016) and Suau et al. (2019). Varas-Alarcón and González-Arias (2016), based on the study by Zúñiga and Duque (2009), establish six dimensions of interactivity: feedback (readers relate to each other and to the environment through reactions and comments), adaptability (the reading can be adapted to the user’s needs), exchange (the user shares information with their peers and with the environment), links (presence of elements that allow the user to delve into the information), modifiability (the user can add information or correct existing information) and count (public record of the media in relation to interaction with the public). Ksiazek et al. (2016) focus on interactivity in online news videos and classify it into user-content (feedback) and user-user (dialogue) interactivity. On the other hand, Vázquez-Herrero et al. (2019), in the field of fiction, speak of three levels: low (follow/subscribe, react, K. Robledo-Dioses, S. Tejedor Calvo, 6 C. Pulido Rodríguez, G. Torres Espinoza share and comment on publications), medium (participate in a live video chat and talk with a character) and high (the user can decide the continuation of the story, participate in the filming, or generate their own content). Veglis and Bratsas (2017) establish three types of interactivity, a classification also used by Zamith (2019): transmission (few possibilities beyond the transmission of additional information about the elements), consultation (multiple views of the same data), and conversation (the user substantially alter the display by entering data). In this study, based on a detailed review of the literature on the subject, the following taxonomy has been designed (Table 1). Table 1 Taxonomy of interactivity Interactivity type Description and subtypes Customization Personalization of Consultative customization navigation and history Conversational personalization consumption Social Dialogue/ Horizontal dialogue: between users exchange of ideas between public Vertical dialogue: between producers/story and public-story, in and the user physical or virtual Diagonal dialogue: between user and environments characters in the story Generative or Production of content Recognized interactions/contributions: user productive by the user productions recognized by the media and/or the characters, which do not alter the plot Influential interactions/contributions: user productions recognized by the media and/or the characters, which do alter the plot User Generated Knowledge Content platforms Opinion and expression platforms Creative works Navigation Personal experience of Approach: feeling of witnessing story in per- being part of story, as son an on-site observer or Augmented reality: sensation of bringing the as an active participant story or its elements closer to the environ- ment itself Immersion/active presence: feeling of being an active character in the story Source: The authors based on Jensen (1998), Massey and Levy (1999), Rost (2006), Chung (2008), Chung and Nah (2009), Zuñiga and Duque (2009), Larsson (2011), Masip and Suau (2014), Ksiazek et al., (2016), Rivera-Rogel et al., (2016), Varas-Alarcón and González-Arias (2016), Veglis and Bratsas (2017), Suau et al., (2019), Vázquez-Herrero et al., (2019), and Zamith (2019). Cyberjournalism and participation:... 7 Methodology The research, with a descriptive, explanatory and exploratory nature, analyzes the interactivity of the cybermedia with the most subscribers in the world through a content analysis of one publication of each one. We apply the guidelines of the interpretation of texts (Andréu-Abela, 2002) to identify their basic components (López-Noguero, 2002). Methodological design The research selected the 25 digital media with the most paying readers worldwide in 2018 (Table 2), according to the 2018 Global Digital Subscription Snapshot study (fipp & CeleraOne, 2018). This report, presented by the fipp global media network and paywall payment firm CeleraOne, is one of the most comprehensive documents on global media subscriptions produced to date. The Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) was excluded from the analysis because its website does not allow automatic translation into Spanish. Likewise, Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper that offers all its content under subscription made with a valid social security number from the same country, was excluded. Of the 23 media with which we worked, one journalistic product was selected from each one, according to the following criteria: 1. Belonging to the multimedia, interactive or special reports section (depending on the name of the media). 2. Combination of at least two languages (textual, visual, sound, audiovisual, graphic, dynamic, etc.). 3. Free access, except for productions from media that offer all of their content through a prior subscription, or that the section of interest for this study requires membership payment. 4. Not a live update. 5. Content published between March, 2020 and June 3rd, 2020. This study considered selecting productions published since March, the month in which it was produced in a “normal situation” (prior to the Coronavirus crisis). 6. Attention time of at least five minutes performing all the actions that involve the complete consumption of the article (read, watch, listen, interact, etc.). K. Robledo-Dioses, S. Tejedor Calvo, 8 C. Pulido Rodríguez, G. Torres Espinoza Table 2 Digital media with the most subscribers in the world in 2018 Order Media Country of origin Number of online Monthly subscription subscribers price ($) 1 New York Times United States 2 800 000 $8.66 2 Wall Street Journal United States 1 389 000 $36.99 3 Washington Post United States 1 000 000 $10.83 4 Financial Times United Kingdom 720 000 $36.00 5 Bild Germany 390 498 $5.83 6 The Economist United Kingdom 350 000 $10.58 7 The Guardian United Kingdom 300 000 $6.70 8 Aftonbladet Sweden 250 000 $7.00 9 Times of London United Kingdom 220 000 $27.82 10 Le Monde France 160 000 $9.72 11 Verdens Gang (VG) Norway 150 000 $7.25 12 Folha de São Paulo Brazilian 150 000 $12.80 13 Mediapart France 140 000 $10.73 14 Gazetta Wyborcza Poland 133 000 $14.85 15 LA Times United States 105 000 $8.62 16 Corriere della Sera Italy 102 000 $11.69 17 The Athletic United States 100 000 $3.99 18 Clarín Argentina 100 000 $3.65 19 The Australian Australia 100 000 $23.34 20 Aftenposten Norway 100 000 $6.00 21 Dagens Nyheter Sweden 100 000 $10.89 22 Boston Globe United States 92 000 $30.03 23 Le Figaro France 84 000 $11.69 24 La Nación Argentina 82 000 $4.92 25 Welt Germany 79 992 $23.39 Source: The authors based on fipp and CeleraOne (2018). Cyberjournalism and participation:... 9 After applying these filters, on the list of publications obtained in each media, the product to be analyzed was randomly selected. Table 3 lists the products that made up the final sample. Table 3 Productions analyzed from the cybermedia with the most subscribers in the world Media Informative Product Link New York Monster or Machine? A Profile of the https://nyti. Times Coronavirus at 6 Months ms/2Xq9fOT Wall Street Coronavirus Hit on US Economy Might https://on.wsj. Journal Linger Until 2029; Cases in India Keep com/2ZeNK3c Surging Washington As states start to reopen, here’s where https://wapo. Post people are going st/2BpYyn3 Financial Coronavirus tracked: the latest figures as https://on.ft. Times countries fight to contain the pandemic com/3gLGBj0 Bild R-Wert liegt jetzt bei 0.95 (R-value is https://bit. now 0.95) ly/2BnkQ8R The Geopolitics and technology threaten https://econ. Economist America’s financial dominance st/3gLJ0dv The Guardian Donald Trump threatens to deploy army https://bit. as teargas fired so he can pose at church ly/36RatFY Aftonbladet Coronaviruset: Här är de senaste https://bit. siffrorna (Coronavirus: Here are the ly/2z12Qk0 latest figures) Times of George Floyd protests: Trump vows to https://bit. London send in military as riots engulf America’s ly/3gHRmD3 cities Le Monde Féminicides. Mécanique D’un Crime https://bit. Annoncé (Feminicides. Mechanics of an ly/2MorvC3 Announced Crime) Folha de Sao USA and China can evolve into https://bit. Paulo oligarchies, says Branko Milanovi ly/3eMEJV9 K. Robledo-Dioses, S. Tejedor Calvo, 10 C. Pulido Rodríguez, G. Torres Espinoza Media Informative Product Link Mediapart Justice for George Floyd, for Adama https://bit. Traoré, for everyone ly/3dzyUcP Gazetta Na wodzie wirus nie łapie. Płyną https://bit. Wyborcza kajakiem z Wigier do Gdańska. Zbierają ly/31wpU67 pieniądze na świetlicę dla dzieci (In the water, the virus does not catch. They go by kayak from Wigry to Gdańsk. They collect money for a common room for children) LA Times Huge, peaceful protests spread across https://lat. LA and end in more arrests ms/300CaLa Corriere Italo Calvino, tutti i racconti in una https://bit. Della Sera mappa (Italo Calvino, all the stories in ly/36TEAg5 one map) The Athletic One-way system, no spitting, bring your https://bit. own ball – inside PL training grounds ly/36Yj7mm Clarín 24 horas en bici con un delivery por https://bit. la Ciudad de la cuarentena (24 hours by ly/2XRjQkY bike with a delivery through the City of quarantine) The Cost of beating coronavirus: recession as https://bit. Australian nation braces for worse ly/2B7pTe2 Aftenposten Det store koronamysteriet: Hvorfor blir https://bit. noen steder så mye hardere rammet enn ly/2XW4SKE andre? (The great Corona mystery: Why are some places hit so much harder than others?) Boston Globe The virus’s tale https://bit. ly/2XuJEVf Le Figaro Construisons un modèle https://bit. épidémiologique (Let’s build a ly/3gXNMoq epidemiological model) Cyberjournalism and participation:... 11 Media Informative Product Link La Nación La velocidad del coronavirus. https://bit. Comparador por países (The speed ly/3gQQHyX of the Coronavirus. Compared by countries) Welt Wer macht das Rennen bei Hybrid- https://bit. Messen? (Who wins the race at hybrid ly/3eIiHUe trade fairs?) Source: The authors. The analysis of these journalistic products was based on Table 4, created from the bibliographic review on interactivity that was carried out. Table 4 Taxonomic analysis of interactivity Variable Category Personalization Consultative personalization Conversational personalization Social Horizontal dialogue Vertical dialogue Diagonal dialogue Generative or pro- Recognized interactions/contributions ductive Influential interactions/contributions User Generated Content Knowledge platforms Opinion/expression platforms Creative works Navigation Approximation Augmented reality Active immersion/presence Source: The authors based on Jensen (1998), Massey and Levy (1999), Rost (2006), Chung (2008), Chung and Nah (2009), Zuñiga and Duque (2009), Lars- son (2011), Masip and Suau (2014), Ksiazek et al., (2016), Rivera-Rogel et al., (2016), Varas-Alarcón and González-Arias (2016), Veglis and Bratsas (2017), Suau et al., (2019), Vázquez-Herrero et al., (2019), and Zamith (2019). K. Robledo-Dioses, S. Tejedor Calvo, 12 C. Pulido Rodríguez, G. Torres Espinoza Results The application of the taxonomic model on each of the productions of the sample (Table 5) allows us to see that the totality resorts to the development of the types of interactivity of personalization and social, and only one publication to the generative/productive one. This case is that of “USA and China can evolve into oligarchies, says Branko Milanovi” from the Folha de São Paulo newspaper. In it, generative interactivity materializes in recognized contributions and influential interactions, based on the invitation made to the user to collaborate with their own news and notify possible errors in the publication. Table 5 Types of interactivity developed by productions Interactivity type Number of media Percentage of use in that has developed it relation to the number of productions analyzed (23) Personalization 23 100% Social 23 100% Generative/productive 1 4.3% Navigation 0 0% Source: The authors. The analysis carried out also shows that the practices analyzed do not reach a maximum development of interactivity. Except “USA and China can evolve into oligarchies, says Branko Milanovi”, the productions do not invite the user to interact with the media through recognized or influential contributions, or the generation of their own content; and much less, reach navigation interactivity. What is missing is interactive productions that allow the user to have an approach experience to the addressed fact, or augmented reality or immersion. The total sample analyzed develops consultative personalization interactivity (Table 6). To do this, publications resort to tactics such as reading related content (21 posts), providing the option to follow hyperlinks (19), interacting with dynamic data visualizations (10), Cyberjournalism and participation:... 13 reading on another platform (4), deciding whether to read or listen to the footnote (2), read in two languages (1), select questions to get answers from the media (1) and read the trailer (1) or summary (1) of the post. Table 6 Development of personalization interactivity in productions Personalization Number of Percentage of use in relation interactivity type productions that to the number of productions develop it analyzed (23) Consultative 23 100% personalization Conversational 21 91.3% personalization Source: The authors. Conversational personalization interactivity is applied in the majority of posts (91.3%). Invitation to subscribe (21 publications) and the user can save the news in their personal profile (9). It is understood that this type of interactivity is directly related to media subscription (Young et al., 2018). Table 7 Development of social interactivity by productions Type of social Number of Percentage of use in interactivity productions that relation to the number of develop it productions analyzed (23) Horizontal dialogue 23 100% Vertical dialogue 20 86.9% Diagonal dialogue 1 4.3% Source: The authors. All of the productions analyzed develop social interactivity that allows the generation of horizontal dialogue (Table 7). That is, they offer the option to comment on the content on the website itself and also K. Robledo-Dioses, S. Tejedor Calvo, 14 C. Pulido Rodríguez, G. Torres Espinoza to share the news on social networks, and thus extend the discussion around the topic. Likewise, most of the publications (86.9%) facilitate the generation of vertical dialogue, thanks to the option to comment and, in some cases, the option to directly contact the author of the journalistic product, since, together with the name, it offers their contact details. One particular case provides the opportunity to rate the story as meh, solid or awesome (“One-way system, no spitting, bring your own ball – inside PL training grounds”), and another gives the option to report bugs (“USA and China can evolve into oligarchies, says Branko Milanovi”). Regarding the interactivity that leaves open the possibility of diagonal dialogue, it is only used in one of the publications: “In the water, the virus does not catch. They go by kayak from Wigry to Gdańsk. They collect money for a common room for children” from Gazetta Wyborcza. This production invites readers to provide financial support to the protagonists of the story. Reflection and discussion Based on the list of digital media with the largest number of subscribers worldwide, we selected 23 journalistic productions to analyze their interactivity management. The totality resorts to social interactivity and personalization interactivity. Regarding the first, we find precedents in research such as that of Suau et al. (2019), who, when studying the attitudes of Spanish citizens in relation to the participatory options offered by media websites, found that the majority of participants are attracted to participatory interactivity formats. Relating social interactivity to that of personalization, we find the reflection of Krebs and Lischka (2019): “A greater motivation for social-interactive use is positively related to greater public participation and a frequency of personalization” (p. 723). It is logical that spaces that promote dialogue between the public, and public-producers/ characters of the stories, result in greater participation; and also involve personalization processes, even more so of the conversational type, since a greater relationship with the media begins to take shape, which can take the form of actions such as subscriptions. A point that leads to an exchange of data in favor of a more personalized content offer. Cyberjournalism and participation:... 15 Along the lines of personalization interactivity, but this time of a consultative nature, giving audiences options to personalize their consumption experience is also very important because, in addition to improving user enjoyment (Zamith, 2019), to a certain extent they are made an active participant and responsible for how they consume. In this sense, current technologies are good allies to generate this type of personalization. And although studies such as those by Appelgren and Salaverría (2019) point out, for example, that now data journalists are abandoning interactivity “returning to linear forms of content presentation” (p. 641) –what is understood, does not give them an opportunity to the public to decide how they want to do better with the content–, we consider it valuable to promote this type of interactivity. Regarding generative interactivity, the study shows that only one of the analyzed publications uses it (“USA and China can evolve into oligarchies, says Branko Milanovi”). This makes us reflect on how the media involve users in the generation of content. It is necessary to look with real interest and make the journalist-reader collaborative practice a reality, in a process in which the contributions of both are intertwined, being clear that what makes the difference between both tasks are the values and code of ethics of journalism professionals (Hujanen, 2016). This collaboration can lead to “products related to user impulses, such as tweet interviews or group cyberinterviews; and the integration of these in the narratives, for example, by mentioning the sources taken from the Internet” (Barredo-Ibáñez et al., 2019, p. 12). Navigation interactivity, on the other hand, has not been achieved in any of the analyzed publications. And although the development of technologies that allow this type of interactivity (virtual reality being its maximum expression) implies greater expenses, media such as those analyzed could allow themselves to generate productions of this type. Although until a few years ago immersive productions were an emerging trend in the journalistic field (Domínguez-Martín, 2015), narratives such as gamified ones are now becoming common “in order to enhance the interactivity of their product” (González-Díez et al., 2019, p. 53). From what has been explained, we see that, indeed, interactivity is a practice of its own to continue under the deployment of a transmedia K. Robledo-Dioses, S. Tejedor Calvo, 16 C. Pulido Rodríguez, G. Torres Espinoza content logic. The basic points of a transmedia narration converge here: the logical use of various media and platforms, and the opportunity that thanks to these the public develops an active, creative, and conscious participation in relation to the story addressed. Conclusions It is understood that interactivity can be evidenced at different levels depending on the purpose of the producers, the target audience, the management of the content and the platforms, and the context in which it takes place. For this reason, this study proposed the construction of a taxonomy of interactivity in journalism based on a bibliographic review, which shed light on academic research in the field and previous efforts to classify interactivity. Thus, we established four types: personalization interactivity, which includes consultative and conversational; social interactivity, which encompasses horizontal, vertical, and diagonal dialogues; generative or productive interactivity, which considers recognized interactions/contributions, influencers, and user-generated content; and navigation interactivity, which can be approach, augmented reality or immersion/active presence. The analysis applied to the 23 journalistic productions that make up the sample, coming from the digital media with the most subscribers in the world, showed that the types of interactivity most used in publications are personalization and social. This shows that they do not reach the maximum development of interactivity, since they do not generate productions that, for example, directly invite the user to generate their own content or that offer them an experience of active participation in an event through the use of virtual reality. There is a lack of promoting interactive spaces that arouse interest and that seek to expand the content through collaborative exercises with the user. We consider that the results obtained are contributions at a theoretical and practical level, which serve to have an approximation of how the interactive transmedia narrative is being implemented in the digital journalistic industry. In this way, the taxonomic model raised on interactivity can be used to analyze and understand cases of this type and even undertake new ones. We recognize, however, that research Cyberjournalism and participation:... 17 can always improve. Thus, for example, the analysis sample of this work could have been broader, taking more products from each media, covering more thematic diversity and journalistic genres to obtain richer and deeper findings. Likewise, the developed content analysis tables can also evolve into measurement systems that imply giving ratings to the productions. In this sense, we also consider future lines of research that give continuity to the one undertaken here. We believe that it is worthwhile to study the transmedia management of interactive content from the perspective of the producers and delve into the content generation process. We also consider it valuable that studies are carried out focused on the implications and rewards of the application of transmedia storytelling and interactivity at a business level (resulting business models), at a professional level (practical skills required of the informant), and at a level of the audiences (intellectual acquisitions thanks to the consumption of this type of production, media skills that must be counted on and, even, the level of loyalty that can be developed with the media). Bibliographic references Andréu-Abela, J. (2002). Las técnicas de análisis de contenido: una revisión actualizada. Fundación Centro de Estudios Andaluces. Appelgren, E. & Salaverría, R. (2019). 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