Use of social media in the most visible Argentine academic communication journals: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Academia.edu

Abstract

As part of their mission to disseminate information, scientific journals have social media accounts where they publish a variety of content, such as calls for papers, news, and testimonials from people who participate in them, to mention the most common. It is pertinent to ask about communication journals, given that one would expect to find planned and strategic use of social media in them. This paper describes how the most visible Argentine communication journals have adopted and use social media. The initial corpus consisted of thirteen journals, selected on the basis of their thematic relevance, activity, frequency of publication, and presence in databases, directories, and indexes at various levels (national, regional, and international). Of this initial corpus, only five journals remained with accounts on general social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and on a specifically academic network such as Academia.edu. A seven-month period (December 2024-July 2025) was studied, which allowed for a particular focus on the most common type of post: announcements of new issues. This empirical-descriptive study is an initial exploratory approach. It highlights that Instagram is the social media platform of choice. This finding differs from previous studies that point to Facebook and Twitter (now X) as the networks of choice. It also provides characterisations of post types, formats and posting routines.