Imaginario social del metaverso en los titulares de medios digitales peruanos

This article explores social imaginaries about the metaverse by analyzing headlines from seven Peruvian digital news outlets. We conducted a qualitative analysis on a corpus of 69 headlines published by the digital sites of RPP, La República, Perú 21, Gestión, Caretas, El Comercio, and Agencia Andina from October 2021 to July 2022. We also conducted a content analysis under the framework of the Operational Model for the Observation of Social Imaginaries. Among the main findings is that the metaverse is an element underrepresented in digital news outlets, usually confined to the technology beat as a technical issue and regardless of the social impact it embodies. Four dimensions of content emerge from the semantic analysis, considering a wide range from the opportunities for entrepreneurship to the uncertainty generated by changes and the risks it entails for society. Digital news outlets play a role in promoting the imaginary through their headlines, in addition to being relevant in coining concepts about virtualization. The codes "Transformer" and "Inevitable" also emerge as key dimensions in this imaginary.