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The impact of artificial intelligence on people’s lives is demonstrated today. Previous literature has shown that the use of a specific technology is directly linked to the individuals’ intention to use it. The aim of this paper is to study the factors that determine the adoption and use of artificial intelligence and big data in Spain, using a research model based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), proposed by Venkatesh et al. (2003). This work addresses the specific gap in the validation of the original theoretical model of UTAUT in two dimensions, with respect to the adoption of artificial intelligence by citizens and with respect to the factors that influence this adoption, evaluating the previous ones and proposing some new ones considering the current context. The methodology used is based on a national survey, and it analyzes the research model using the statistical technique of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), which details the mediating and moderating relationships between constructs. The results show that Intention to Use has a direct positive influence on the Use of artificial Intelligence and big data, confirming previous literature. Performance Expectancy is the strongest predictor of Intention to Use, and indirectly of the adoption of artificial intelligence and big data applications. Effort Expectancy, in its application to the adoption of AI and big data by citizens, is an indirect determinant mediated by the Intention to Use, but its total effect (direct + indirect) is not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consolidation of digital television via subscription video on demand (SVOD) services has created an unprecedented increase in the consumption of serialised TV shows, which has had direct consequences on the content production sector. Faced with an increasingly demanding, hyperconnected and discerning audience and a supply of content never previously seen, television production and distribution strategies are involved in a process of change and adaptation. This paper seeks to analyse the production of Spanish television series created to be distributed on SVOD platforms. The aim is to know the role that production companies play in the creation of television series for SVOD so as to identify strategies and cooperative alliances between production companies and platforms and to detect possible patterns and trends in the operations of the audiovisual market. Using a mixed methodology that combines quantitative study with qualitative data analysis, the 88 Spanish TV series and miniseries that premiered on SVOD platforms from 2016 to 2021 are analysed, taking as a starting point the year in which these platforms began operating in Spain. The results confirm a trend towards cooperation between independent production companies and the platforms themselves, while no presence of in-house production is observed. Likewise, the atomisation of the role of production companies in the context of SVOD is shown, a phenomenon that already existed in generalist television production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent and spread of social networking sites have been the object of study of most of the research performed on political communication over the past 25 years. However, more recent inquiries have indicated that the political establishment still has not fully exploited the interactive potential of these media. Against this backdrop, this paper presents the results of a systematic study of the communication between the main political parties in Andalusia (the most populous region in Spain) and the citizenry on Twitter, with the aim of confirming whether or not it is really interactive and participatory. To this end, the spotlight is placed here on those parties most active online and on the way in which they foster interactivity, the subjects that they broach and the functions of their messages. The data were obtained from a content analysis of the tweets (n = 10,729) posted on the official profiles of the main Andalusian parties in 2020. The results indicate that there was no interactive communication with the citizenry, despite the fact that they were in much need of reassurance owing to the unprecedented situation to which the COVID-19 pandemic had given rise. The Andalusian political parties still use social networking sites for the one-way dissemination of information, which shows that they are not, in practice, horizontal and participatory spaces of communication, as the cyber-optimists, defending the innovation hypothesis, predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defence diplomacy and public diplomacy are two diplomatic practices often treated in the literature as two disconnected realms. While the former focuses on the peaceful and cooperative use of armed forces, the latter emphasizes on the advancement of strategic communication in the international policy of actors. However, it is possible to bridge the differences between the two using the concept of soft power. By doing so, defence public diplomacy can be understood as a set of practices developed by states seeking to influence and attract third states while employing military force within these parameters. This paper contributes firstly to the conceptual debate bridging both types of diplomacies. Secondly, it selects a case study, Spain, to examine the perceptions of three different Spanish elites involved in the formulation and implementation of defence public policy: politicians, the military and defence industry managers. This paper adopts a qualitative methodology, including in-depth interviews, focus groups with experts, and manual content analysis of primary documentary sources. The results show that these elites agree on the importance of defence diplomacy for the achievement of state goals but continue to understand it fundamentally from a classical diplomatic prism. They also discuss the inclusion of new concepts, such as deterrence, as part of a defence public diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years we have witnessed a resurgence of populism, which has relied on the virality of social networks to deepen its roots in society and spread its ideas. This paper analyses the populist strategies used by all parties to viralise their messages in the online environment, regardless of ideology. The present research has also examined the possible existence of complementary strategies used by the parties' organisational profiles and those of their leaders. To this end, a content analysis has been carried out regarding the publications made on Twitter during the 2019 election campaign. The posts have been delimited to those made by the parties and candidates that attained the highest percentage of representation in the Congress of Deputies, which include the PSOE, PP, Vox, and Unidas Podemos. The findings show that all the parties under study resorted to this type of strategy. The parties closest to centre of the political spectrum, both right and left, used mostly a populist strategy aimed predominantly at attacking their adversaries, while Vox and Unidas Podemos articulated their discourse beyond this argument, with Vox appealing to the emotions of the nation and Podemos positioning itself as the peoples' advocate. Furthermore, a complementary strategy used by both the parties and their leaders has been identified, which fosters the expansion of these kinds of populist ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the concept of the impact area as the intersection between the common issues of the personal agenda and the public agenda. Expanding the concept of agenda-setting effects, which focuses mainly on the relation between the public and media agendas, we have examined the congruity of the public agenda and the personal agenda as a contingent condition for the strength of these effects. The concept also distinguishes between the top-priority issues of the public and personal agendas, setting out that the general public's search for information about these top-priority issues highlights the need for orientation. We used data from Spain to focus on the national elections (2011, 2015 and 2019), plus the beginning of the pandemic (2020). The study includes a content analysis of the El País daily newspaper for the four periods and a variety of surveys and representative electoral barometers. To those data we have added an analysis of the main search topics on Google Trends for each of the four years. The results reveal that variations in the relationship between the public and personal agendas are linked to the strength of the agenda-setting effect between the media and public agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper aims to shed a critical light on the moral panic surrounding multiple-perpetrator rape (MPR) in Spain, by exploring the interplay between official statistics of this type of crime, and the depiction in the media. The concordance between media representation and the statistical reality of crime raises questions: (1) how multiple perpetrator assault and its assailants are represented in media narratives (content analysis) is examined, including the content, framing, and underlying themes within the media coverage, with a particular emphasis on the role of nationality, and (2) this representation is compared to official crime statistics (Ministry of Home Affairs report on crimes against sexual freedom and indemnity in Spain (detentions/accused) and the statistics of the sentences passed by various Spanish Provincial Courts between 2005 and 2020 from criminal justice data), and to what extent, they align. If they do not align, do news portrayals influence a moral panic? In conclusion, the idea of tabloid justice (Fox et al., 2001) is not present in the three largest Spanish daily newspapers from 2005 to 2021. There is a misrepresentation of non-Spanish nationalities having the highest rates, Romanians being underrepresented and the French being overrepresented. Media coverage perceives tourists as a certain danger, and is questioning the idea of certain non-Spanish immigrants as 'folk devils.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The medicalisation of childbirth is a worldwide trend, that has its roots in past centuries. Despite being a widely studied phenomenon, the attempts taken to prevent its spread have rarely been addressed. This research presents the measures taken by the health authorities against the medicalisation of childbirth in Spain, in the early twentieth century. The episode was linked to a famous obstetrician, Miguel Orellano, who published several papers advocating a new method of conducting a delivery. This method involved a great deal of unnecessary intervention that turned delivery into a major surgical procedure. We will see if the health authorities have achieved their goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current transitions towards fair and sustainable models of social and economic relations represents a vital process for the maintenance of the ecosystems and the ways of inhabiting them. This paper is an empirical and epistemological study whose aim is to consider how to develop a responsible communication strategy with the eco-transitions sector. We take a specific region of Spain, Castilla-La Mancha, as a field of experimentation and case study. The analysis is based on a sample of 55 active eco-transition projects, out of a total census of 156. Our position assumes that communication strategy goes through several phases. Firstly, access to empirical and census-based knowledge of this sector; secondly, establishing a type of indicator that can measure the functioning and internal dynamics of these entities in terms of eco-transition; and thirdly, the expansion of responsible, realistic and proactive media coverage, which can encourage messages that contribute to an ever-increasing number of people moving towards eco-social issues. In order to measure the "internal health" of these entities, including the "communication environment," we have elaborated and implemented the Eco-Transition Indicator (ETI), a measurement tool that allows us to place a project or initiative within a frame leading towards fair and sustainable models of social and economic relations. While the sector shows good "health" in some aspects, the results point very clearly to the need to strengthen the communicative strategy of the eco-transition initiatives and projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the compliance of Spanish crime reporting with the principles of the 2016 EU Directive on presumption of innocence, which aims at preventing the publication of information that might bias the public and the jurors against the suspect. A content analysis applied to a sample of 200 crime news stories published by eleven of the most popular print and online news platforms in 2018 reveals that the Spanish press coverage of crime is centered around the pre-trial and sentence stages, with little attention to the oral trial. The full name and the face portrait of the suspect appear in roughly one-third of the stories, but this overwhelmingly happens in news stories reporting on the court's decision, so that the presumption of innocence is generally protected. Interestingly, the legacy media are more likely to report on the victim's full name and the crime details that online digital media. One-fourth of the stories include accusations of guilt, as prosecutor attorneys and other officials are more frequently cited than defense lawyers. Although the Spanish press is largely compliant with the recommendations of the EU Directive, the lack of attention to the oral phase, where the arguments of both parts are deployed and contrasted, leads to a bias in the coverage against the suspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]