A semantic analysis of crowdfunding in the digital press

摘要

Purpose: The use of technology has helped to expand the availability of new forms of financing, as well as the development of fintech, among which crowdfunding has received an increasing amount of interest over the past few years. This study analyzes how the generalist digital press addresses crowdfunding and identifies the attributes linked to this phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach: The sample is defined in terms of a linguistic corpus that contains content related to crowdfunding drawn from the digital editions of the four most important Spanish newspapers from September 1996 to October 2020. Word association and co-occurrence analyses were carried out. Findings: The results reveal correspondence among social, academic and media patterns related to the crowd funding phenomenon. This correspondence shows how attributes such as "project", "platform" or "investment" appear to be very relevant and are linked to different co-occurrence scenarios. The relevance of the crowdfunding platforms in the ecosystem is identified and analyzed, showing the importance of their specialization. The differences and similarities between the media discourse for the crowdfunding ecosystem and the entrepreneurial phenomenon are also identified. Originality: This study provides empirical evidence that helps to identify the ways in which the media approaches crowdfunding through analyses of media content rather than public perceptions or an academic approach to the phenomenon.