Search

Digital games are one of the most engaging forms of media. Players can have a first-hand experience and the possibility of feeling immersed within a digital setting where agency is exerted. This paper seeks to understand the role of digital games as new means of communication and their potential to convey messages that may defy gamers to question the moral grand narratives that shape contemporary societies. In a moment when many countries have opted to close or limit the circulation in their borders, it is important to think about the role played by the border as a historic liminal entity for the representation of societies and communities, distinguishing those who belong from those who do not. The representation of the border in digital games have tended to follow one of the main tropes explored in other media: the border as a physical space that set boundaries between different nations and different regions of the world. In order to assert the potential of digital games to offer a more comprehensive representation of the border as a liminal space, the case of Papers, Please! (2013) will be analyzed. Based on a qualitative methodology, having content analysis as primary data collection method, the paper intends to contribute to the discussion on how history may narrativized and, eventually, reinterpreted in digital games. Papers, Please! analysis will be centered on the relationship that is set between player and border, that is presented as a liminal space where the game's action takes places entirely. Moreover, the paper intends to discuss the role that has been played by digital games in the representation of serious topics and how they have evolved as communication tools beyond their role as entertainment products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic led hospitals to work differently regarding legal procedures and eHealth services and brought a changing and fluctuating healthcare environment that affected communication among clinicians, patients, and families. These organizations were forced to make their corporate communication initiatives more efficient and interact with stakeholders differently, especially with patients and media companies. This paper aims to understand better hospitals' main corporate communication initiatives during the Covid-19 pandemic. We show that the most important communication initiatives implemented by hospitals during the COVID-19 outbreak were related to the following main areas: a) professional management of corporate communication, b) transparency, c) human values, d) hospital's brand, and e) online corporate communication. During the pandemic, there was a lack of professional corporate communication in hospitals and the need to execute more than merely conservative communication strategies. There is a solid need to make hospitals' corporate communication initiatives more professional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the influence of functional value in the relationship with suppliers, functional value in communication with suppliers and functional value in business activities on the attitudinal and behavioural loyalty towards the WeChat social network by Chinese entrepreneurs based in Spain. To this end, several research hypotheses were proposed and tested by studying a sample of 57 Chinese entrepreneurs based in Spain. The results obtained from the regression models carried out show the key importance of the functional value variable in business activities on both types of loyalty; the functional value of communication with suppliers only exerted a significant influence on attitudinal loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maturation of artificial intelligence technologies, such as Machine Learning algorithms, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), and Natural Language Generation, is transforming the way users interact with technology. With the increasing prevalence of voice interactions, it is crucial to understand the process of training conversational agents. This systematic review examines how human data is collected for training these agents, with a specific focus on datasets obtained directly from human participation in real-life contexts of need and use. The study follows the PRISMA guidelines, and searches were conducted in Scopus, Web of Science, and ProQuest databases in English, covering the period from 2005 to 2020, to provide a comprehensive overview of published practices until July 2020. A total of 22 papers were included in this review from the search iterations. The primary findings of these papers indicate a common use of learning from demonstration/observation and crowdsourcing methods in system training and dataset cataloguing. Additionally, techniques such as handwriting and sentence labelling, as well as Wizard-of-Oz based studies, were employed in the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of artificial intelligence and its place in the new disinformation strategies is perhaps one of the most difficult issues to focus on nowadays, since we are at the beginning of a process of definition and ways of exploration. In this paper, first of all, we analyze the different approaches that are being applied to the regulation of artificial intelligence and that may affect the different disinformation strategies that are being identified. Secondly, we study how artificial intelligence is being used to identify disinformation content. In this regard, from the point of view of verification processes, one of the main challenges is when identifying deepfakes (images and video, mainly) linked to news cycles. From this perspective, a typology of deepfakes is proposed and its main characteristics will be described according to the verifications carried out by the Spanish fact-checking organizations. Finally, a set of recommendations will be presented to work from a media literacy point of view with the identification of deepfakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout all European countries, disinformation, the prevalence of false narratives and the rise of online radicalism are recognized as profound instances of "dysfunctional communication" driving contemporary societies toward populist polarization and conflict. As traditional guardians of knowledge authority and epistemic commons, the news media takes a bold stance in combatting disinformation, even though the profession is facing significant challenges in terms of business and trust production. How should journalism education respond to the increasing epistemic uncertainties and develop the essential skills and capacities for digital information verification, while fostering the commitment for ethical communication and serving the public good? This paper discusses the development and teaching of contemporary journalistic professionalism as a social process sustained via different digital mediums and contextualized within real-world events. Using the example of the pilot study, it suggests that within contemporary journalism education, there is a growing requirement to cultivate a collaborative ethos among journalists and sources, starting within the university setting. The experience gained from the source verification class, tested with Lithuanian journalism students in a collaborative learning situation, reveals fact-checking practices that anticipate the development of epistemic capacities and self-efficacy, crucial for resilient journalistic professionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our pilot project, Son Mis Datos (It's My Data), is among several initiatives that have arisen over the past few years to address the need for personal data literacy in an era of increasing datafication, platformization, algorithmic decision making and digital transformation. The vast majority of these projects have emerged in Europe, North America and Australia, often in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and regulatory initiatives such as the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Given this period of experimentation with community intervention, there is little clarity about what constitutes a successful personal data literacy initiative, particularly for the Latin American context, given its particular experience with digital transformation, unique tradition of communications theory, and position within the global economy. In this paper we explore and critique the goals of other personal data literacies as a foundation for our own set of evaluative criteria. We then turn these criteria on the Son Mis Datos initiative to explore the assumptions, successes and shortcomings of our initiative. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for how to pursue personal data literacy work that is culturally relevant and grounded in the needs and perspectives of local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizens increasingly use online platforms, and in particular YouTube, to get informed. This paper addresses the role of YouTube’s recommendation system in science communication to assess whether YouTube's recommendation system is creating filter bubbles on the climate change issue. It, therefore, contributes to the growing literature that finds that such filter bubbles actually do not exist. The paper shows that users are likely to get content with similar opinions, at least for a few recommended videos in a row. In addition, it was observed that the same promoters of climate denial appear over and over again in different recommendations. Given all that, YouTube can lead to the creation of filter bubbles where users do not have access to all relevant scientific information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recents studies suggest the existence of a European Public Sphere, especially in the face of events of significant importance. In the scope of the Covid-19 crisis, this paper aims to study the platformization of the discussion on European topics by political agents such as politicians and political parties. Focusing on four Southern European countries - Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain - that have a common past history in their relationships with Europe (PIGS), we analyze political agents' posts with the highest reach. The study was conducted on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube over a period of three months, between September and November 2021. Regarding the platformization and the success of communication strategies, overall right-wing politicians tend to be more effective in capturing the attention and mobilising the participation of social media users on Facebook and Twitter. Different political groups stand out in the discussion of different European issues on different platforms. However, for most countries, the Economy, related to Europe, was the main subject with the highest reach addressed by the political actors, thus reinforcing the idea of Structural Europeanization. However, with most posts having a national scope, this does not contribute to strengthening the construction of a European Identity (Normative Europeanization). These findings are aligned with previous literature regarding European issues being first and foremost used as leverage for national political struggles, especially due to national and populist movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital media can provide an essential contribution to the development of local communities by creating digital environments that facilitate the sharing of information, dissemination of knowledge, and construction of organizational learning. Digital media can also promote interaction and collaboration processes among different regional agents, fostering a continuous flow of territorial-based innovation. The study reported in this paper was carried out within the research activities of the CeNTER project, aiming to deepen the knowledge about the conditions that influence the dynamics of community-led territorial-based innovation in the Centro Region of Portugal, focusing on the areas of Tourism, Health, and Wellbeing. As part of this project, a mobile application is being designed, aiming to strengthen the relationship among agents of local communities/entities and to promote mediation mechanisms among all stakeholders in the process of territorial-based innovation. This paper presents the main concepts underlying the development of the CeNTER application and the outcomes from a usability evaluation of the mobile app prototype. The first section discusses the most relevant topics that this paper covers. In the second section, an overview of the theoretical background in digital media used to promote territory-based innovation is presented. The third section describes the concept of the CeNTER application and the main features of the prototype/mobile app. The fourth section addresses the methodology adopted for evaluating the prototype and the fifth presents the main outcomes of this process. Finally, the sixth and final section presents the main conclusions about the potential of the CeNTER application, and current and future research activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to clarify the role of social networking sites (SNSs) in building the reputation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The point of start is that although it is not always infallible, SNSs have a vast potential in the digital environment, however, itis important to cope with the fact that SNSs used in SMEs are marketing-centred, engagement is promoted only with customers and is short term and results centred. The paper opts for a literature review to discuss the concept of engagement, reputation, and propose some SMEs limits to get reputation. Although SNSs have the power to manage corporate reputation, it is not always possible if they don't take into consideration some important issues related to the nature of SMEs and the nature of SNSs. In this sense, SNSs constitute a perfect context to get reputation for SMEs, but only if companies understand two special points: the three sequential dimensions of the concept (the dialogic dimension to start the communication and get interactivity, cognitive dimension for generating good and positive content, not neutral, and emotional dimension to make up a profound link with the organization) and how to manage it in a the proper level with all stakeholders notonly customers through a strategic communication approach (not a punctual action) in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norbert Elias is an author traditionally absent in communication studies. His relevance for this field has begun to be defended recently, an argumentative line with which this paper is also identified. The article has two interrelated aims. First, present the main dimensions of Norbert Elias' analysis on human communication. Second, critically examine several current studiesthat, in communication studies, take this author as a theoretical reference for their research. To achieve the first aim, it is analysed Theory of the Symbol, a book originally published in 1989, where Elias collects his reflections about the communicational and symbolic dimensions of human being. To achieve the second goal, the paper is focused on the concept of Communicative Figuration, recently developed according to an eliasian perspective, and currently applied in several studies devoted to the topic of mediatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the importance of the negativity bias in the media, and how this dimension appears today with new forms and a deeper reach. From a sample of 160 young adults, he appreciates the relationship between interest in political issues and the choice of the main source of information, in order to question, in light of this choice, the differences in satisfaction with democracy that individuals have. It starts from the hypothesis that the privileged consumption of information on social media or conventional media will have different effects on satisfaction with the functioning of democracy. Quantifies the activity levels of individuals on social networks (publications and shares), crossing them with the levels of satisfaction. Having assessed these data, and confirming the underlying hypotheses, the paper suggests the existence of a negativity bias about political issues in social networks, built by many of its users, which tends to promote dissatisfaction in those who use them as a main source of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adverse effects of the opening of the economy during the 1980s and 1990s in Latin America brought about a debate about the reform of the welfare state. However, the path to follow is still uncertain. This scenario has forced the emergence of socio-technological innovations to tackle problems such as socioeconomic inequality and technological unemployment which neither the market nor the state have been able to solve. The aim of this paper is to review the way in which the Mexican welfare state has impeded the alleviation of poverty and technological unemployment making, in consequence, the creation of an enabling technology-based social innovation environment a priority. For that purpose we carried out a documentary analysis as part of a broader research study which assesses empirically the role of the Mexican state in creating a technology-based social innovation environment as a way to alleviate social illness such as poverty and technological unemployment. We conclude that empirical approaches to the links between social innovation, the labor market and poverty are indispensable to advancing the discussion about the design of the provision of welfare in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the conjecture that traditional political communication patterns and strategies are broken within social network sites, this paper investigates the presence of Portuguese political parties on Facebook during a year with two major elections (European and Legislative), both from the posting activity aspect and the user engagement. The following research questions are formulated: Is it possible to identify distinctive styles adopted by different parties or to demonstrate that their audience acknowledges them in a different manner? If such distinction is possible, can it be correlated with the party's foundation time, relative size, or positioning within the political spectrum? Our analysis shows that the common assumptions that older parties do not behave like newer ones fail when tested against the collected data. We also observe higher levels of user engagement attracted by newly founded, minor, and right-leaning parties, compared to their older, major, and left-leaning counterparts, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-government protests that swept across Cuba on July 11, 2021 were the most massive ones after Cuban Revolution's triumph. Social media played a key role as vehicles to extend and document the events. They were also an informative resource towards traditional media insufficient coverage. That context encouraged the dissemination of fake news, which were then placed at the very center of legitimacy disputes regarding the social uprising. The paper aims at explaining the political uses of fake news during the protests. To do so, it was analyzed both Cuban government's appropriation of the term, as well as the fake news with political content that circulated on Facebook during the protests. The application of political discourse analysis's method from a qualitative perspective allowed us to identify five political uses of the fake news concept by the Cuban government and seven in the fake news with political content that were analyzed. It is concluded that the fake news concept was used as a strategic rethoric resource by the Cuban officials in order to 1) strengthen a defensive discoursive position that polarizes the "us" towards "them", and also to 2) prevent the collective political dispute regarding the idea of "truth" via the intentional reading and appropriation of news facts, of which practices such as the digital blackout and the nonrecognition of the protests by the official media derived. Also, we indicate that signification processes derived from fake news with political content's effects intensified polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instagram has become an important tool to contact the audiences both in commercial and political communication. Of special interest is the use of this social network by politicians, who can use the image to portray a humanized version of themselves: it is not the candidate but the person who is talking to citizens through impacting images posted on their personal profiles. The present study posits that Instagram is a key tool for self-representation. This paper offers a specific study about the use of Instagram by the five main candidates in the Spanish general elections in 2019. The main aim of this paper is to study if the Spanish candidates showed themselves on Instagram in a more humanized way during the electoral campaign. Departing from Goffman's theory about the presentation of the self, a content analysis has been carried out as methodology, where Goffman's concepts have been operationalized. The analysis was applied to a total of 473 Instagram posts, covering both a pre-election period and an election period. Results show that Spanish candidates tend to show themselves as professional politicians, but some candidates of new parties increment their humanization in the elections period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media have become a strategic tool for hospitals interested in boosting their corporate communication and achieving several organizational objectives such as improving patient's engagement or reinforcing their own corporate reputation. These platforms help hospitals adapt their communication strategies to a new context (new patients' demands, increasing competition between health organizations, development of health technologies, etc.). This paper aims to analyse Twitter's impact in branding initiatives led by hospitals. To do that, we carried out a literature review about corporate communication, branding and social media; and then, we analysed Twitter's corporate profiles of the best US hospitals in the treatment of oncological diseases. This paper concludes that hospitals interested in effectively using Twitter as a corporate communication tool for branding initiatives need to carry out a strategic reflection before launching any initiative on this platform, improve Twitter's integration with other social media platforms and mobile applications, and facilitate better collaborations between health professionals and communication experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work deals with the recent economic evolution of print press industry in Galicia. In addition to the general economic crisis of 2008, the sector has suffered its own structural crisis caused by the emergence of the Internet. To study the impact of this double crisis and the response of firms in the industry, we have conducted a financial analysis of 13 Galician newspaper publishing companies during the period 2008-2018, focusing on profitability and its main components. The results show a fall in turnover that extends throughout the whole period, including the economic growth phase, a symptom of the decline of paper as a journalistic medium. However, after a crisis stage characterized by negative profitability, companies were able to recover thanks to a reduction in the volume of total assets and operating costs more intense than the drop in sales, becoming smaller and more efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a study on how Czech news consumers adapted to the personalization of news. Our study is the first one that tries to deepen the existing knowledge about Czech internet users’ reflections of the algorithmic news contents’ personalization. The goal of the research was to gain insight into consumers' perceptions of news personalization and to identify the needs and competencies they require to protect their personal data. The research is based on three focus groups consisting of 27 participants, two of which were ordinary users from the Czech Republic, and one consisting of experts from the same country. The qualitative analysis reveals that respondents see news personalization as a loss of control over search mechanisms and information delivery. They express doubts about the credibility of personalization and describe the respective algorithms as a "black box." The study outlines defensive tactics used by users to resist personalization algorithms, and the data indicates that readers view the process of algorithmic news personalization as a threat to the management of their personal data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the interest and political participation of Madrid pre-university students in the new political Spanish scenario. A wide bibliographic review of international and national studies is developed. The results of a survey involving 250 pre-university students in Madrid is also are analyzed. The study results reveal that support of parties and leaders is very low. However, the interest in politics and the evaluation of the vote are very high. Besides, unconventional mechanisms such as social movements, strikes, demonstrations and the social networks achieve an important support. Young people get informed about politics through digital newspapers, televisions and social networks. The paper concludes that Madrid's pre-university students have interest in politics but they feel disaffection towards parties and their leaders. The distancing and rejection is directed to the functioning of democracy, not to democracy itself. It is urgent to renew and regenerate the conventional political structures to reconnect with this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some critical formulations developed in the higher education space of the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) about the implementation process of the interdisciplinary research perspective. The sense and significance of the concept of integration in the interdisciplinary implementation process, as well as its perspectives, challenges, and intellectual provocations, well describe the power struggles that both the institutions and the academic-scientific communities studied have historically experienced. In the analysis of the relations of knowledge and power exhibited by the actors and academic groups themselves, this theoretical essay seeks to answer what are, and what do they consist, the regional political initiatives that aspire to generate and promote a "new" institutional functioning of the implementation process of interdisciplinary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to characterize the main themes of COVID-19-related posts delivered by WeChat official accounts targeting Portuguese news and explore their subscribers' information needs and preferences. Furthermore, the current study set out to evaluate the influence of the coronavirus situation in Portugal on the number of posts, view frequency and total engagement on the WeChat platform. Following the selection of COVID-19-related posts published in 2021 by four official accounts targeting Portuguese news, Chi-square tests were conducted to quantitively describe the differences between the four developmental stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal. Negative binomial regression was employed to establish an association between categorical variables and count data. Regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between COVID-19 infection cases in Portugal and the metrics of selected posts. A total of 3292 COVID-19-related posts remained. The posts regarding the latest epidemic situation in Portugal, COVID-19 vaccination and the economic news were more prevalent. However, the predominant posts were not consistent with followers' information demands, and the most in-demand information did not generate more engagement. In addition, thematic categories were found to be significantly associated with view frequency and total engagement. Furthermore, a significant difference in thematic categories was identified among the four developmental stages, which in turn was related to the overall engagement of posts. The COVID-19 official case counts in Portugal are predictive of post frequency, view frequency and total engagement. The results of this study support the view that social media provided diverse information sources for the Chinese community during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is evidently clear from the findings that communicators have to leverage the characteristics of social media not only for delivering real-time news but also to gratify public information needs and attract more followers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature produced in the last 15 years stresses changes in citizens' involvement in civic and political participation arising from digital and social technologies. When it comes to young people, literature also hints those concepts such as citizenship and participation, as well as the ways of experiencing them, are different in the eyes of young and older generations. Based on the results of a research that approached school as a privileged space to discuss citizenship themes through media creation and production, this article focuses the meanings adolescents attribute to citizenship and participation, as well as their roles as active citizens with a voice. Three specific questions are analysed: What do participation and citizenship mean to young people? What do they understand by 'citizen'? How do they think citizens can express their voices? Action research with secondary school students, aged 15 to 18, attending two Portuguese schools was conducted. This paper explores the results of the exploratory questionnaire (N=197) presented in the diagnosis phase and the group discussions conducted in the reflection & evaluation stage. The results of the univariate statistical analysis of the questionnaire and content analysis of the group discussions indicate that even though young people share concrete ideas about what citizenship means to them. Dataset also points to a a lack of involvement in civic/political movements and associations and a widespread disbelief regarding the impact of their citizen voice, especially when expressed through traditional forms of participation. Moreover, there seems to be a significant - and tendentially negative - impact of adults with prominent roles in their lives on adolescents' opinions and perspectives. The conclusions stress the importance of further exploring concepts of citizenship and participation from a family context point of view and of adopting youthcentric perspectives when reflecting on issues related to youth citizenship and participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media platforms are no longer limited to digital natives, but include digital immigrants too. The senior generation also navigates into social media and has a fair share of participation as well. Therefore, the impact of new mediated spheres has targeted not only youngsters but all age groups, though the user experience, contribution and struggles vary based on their digital competencies and media literacy. Popularly, social media is studied and viewed as something related to youngsters who are born in the digital age. The senior generation is equally important, but the practice patterns, participatory aspects, and their challenges in mediated platforms need to be explored as the transition from conventional to digitalized media has made them make some changes. They also need to step forward to adopt media literacy, whether self-taught or assisted, as formal adult media literacy options are limited. This paper studies the ways adults use social media, specifically senior adults, how they participate in interactive mediated spheres, their struggles and vulnerabilities having insufficient skills, their media literacy level, and how they tackle the issues. For that, in-depth interviews have been conducted with twenty-five senior adults and data has been transcribed and analyzed through content analysis. The findings allow us to conclude that most senior adults also navigate into the digital space and use one or more social media platforms. Their purpose, using patterns, contributions and challenges are different, and insufficient media literacy options limit their choices to tackle their issues in mediated spaces. It's an exclusive phenomenon to design, include and engage this particular age group in media literacy programs and assist them in developing digital competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In November 2020, the Procedure against disinformation was approved in Spain and it provoked an intense reaction on social networks and in the media about the repercussions it could trigger on freedom of expression. To analyze this case study and to observe the confluence of the concern of society and journalism about the informative disorders, a combined methodological approach was designed. First, a multi-stage sample of more than 35,000 tweets with the hashtag #Ministeriodelaverdad has been selected, from which a quantitative and qualitative analysis has been carried out. Second, a content analysis was carried out in the main media in Spain, both press and television (ABC, El Mundo, El País, El Confidencial, El Independiente, Eldiario.es, LaSexta, Telecinco y RTVE. We found that the hashtag was promoted by conservative and anonymous political accounts which - with a greater degree of polarization - led the debate and fed the echo chamber with opinions and audiovisual contents. In the media, the editorial bias determines the acceptance of this measure and the plurality. Little similarity is found between the political sources represented in the media, mainly belonging to the bipartisanship (PP y PSOE) and experts from different areas, and the network, where among those identified there is a total predominance of liberals and far-right. This paper allows us to observe the changes in the construction of the public sphere that social media are inducing and, in the matter of the fight against informative disorders, reflects on the importance of the information media leading the shaping of public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the informative coverage made by the newspapers El País, El Mundo and La Vanguardia in their printed editions on the investiture session of Pedro Sánchez as President of the Spanish Government. For this purpose, all the text related to this issue published between Friday 3 and Wednesday 8 January 2020 were analyze through a content analysis (n=333), which consider variables such as the location, the type of the texts, the topic addressed and the prominence of headlines and graphics. The results show that this topic aroused a remarkable interest among the analyzed newspapers, which provided their coverage with a great opinion and interpretive value. Furthermore, other features that define the informative coverage of these newspapers are the moderate use of graphic elements, the predominant attention to PSOE and Unidas Podemos, and the configuration of the agenda setting around the same issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine the indirect effects of social media among Moroccan citizens on nonelectoral participation using the wave V data of the Arab barometer. The wave V of this data was obtained in 2019-2018 by surveying 2400 Moroccan citizens. Using the SEM, the results of testing the hypotheses indicate that, first of all, social media has a direct and significant positive effect on poor government performance and corruption perception among citizens. Second, the results point out that social media indirectly and significantly increases political distrust among individuals through poor government performance and corruption perception. Finally, the results show that political distrust significantly increases non-electoral participation. Thus, given the significance of all relationships in the research model, it can be argued that social media has significantly increased non-electoral participation among citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the Culture section of the printed media with the aim of specifying the coherence between the theoretical proposals of the researchers and the practical exercise of the profession, as reference the case of Spain. A bibliographic review of theoretical and empirical proposals is developed, to relate the works that suggest how this specialization should be and the research results who describe what it is like in practice. Is there a gap between the two? And if so, where are the differences? Digital pressure favors imbalances between scientific and academic contributions and work routines. This approach serves as the basis for the case study in the printed versions of El País, ABC and El Mundo, where the comparative content analysis method has been applied. We observe the weight of the section in relation to the rest of the newspaper, issues, journalistic genres and complementary elements used. The paper concludes that there are coincident theoretical aspects and others that remain in utopias, as well as the evidence that this specialization is in process of transformation and innovation, partly influenced by its digital environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we intend to provide visibility to students’ experiences of lockdown and draw attention to the impact of the digital world. We used an approach in which this phenomenon is taken as a total social fact that is mirrored, theoretically and methodologically, by the most recent contributions of Digital Sociology. This paper shows part of the results of an exploratory study that focuses on the digital experience of 43 young first year undergraduate students of Católica Porto Business School. These students reflected, while writing biographical narratives, on their experiences during the first wave of the Covid-19 outbreak, which forced a period of lockdwn. The data collected allowed us, on one hand, to understand the role played by social networks during a period of imposed physical isolation during which face-to-face contacts were discouraged and, on the other hand, what was a unique experience, worldwide in scope, of the implementation of distance learning. Results show that these students, born in a generation which emerged in the internet era and which, to that extent, have a strong relationship with the digital world, had in the social networks an ally against isolation and physical remoteness. Results also reveal that these students have come to associate these media with feelings of discomfort and exhaustion. At the same time, the imposition of distance learning without any kind of preparation on the part of schools, teachers and students had consequences that were predicted to be disastrous. However, the dissatisfaction of these students with this form of teaching is practically generalised, not only due to the lack of preparation of schools, but also to the difficulties of adjustment of teachers, in an environment in which students felt more susceptible to distraction mechanisms and in which they admitted it was more difficult to maintain concentration during classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the intersection of social and digital inequality studies, this paper presents the results of a finished research about Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) appropriation among high school students from the City of Buenos Aires (CABA). From the results of an own survey and in-depth interviews, this article studies the digital capital accumulation in young people with the objective of analyzing the influence of social origin on the appropriation of ICT and the scope of social and digital reproduction. The results present a typology on youth appropriations, describing the expected destinations from the digital appropriation trajectories by social class and the dissident cases in which young people from different social classes have appropriated ICT in an “unexpected” way, when students of the same social class have trajectories with different destinations from the influence of digital scaffolding. The role of these scaffolds in the ICT appropriation processes constitutes the main finding of the research since they make possible the change of trajectories and social and digital mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the evolution and current situation of the topic Journalistic Production in the training of journalists when fifty years of university studies in Spain are marked with the creation of the first Faculties of Information Sciences. From the research field and from the university training field, a delimitation of Journalistic Production with respect to other areas has not been conducted yet. Our main goal is to know the representation of the subject Journalistic Production in the training proposal of Spanish public universities within the framework of the European Higher Education Area. We carry out a content analysis of the lecturing guides of 282 courses belonging to the study plans of the degrees and double degrees in Journalism of 22 Spanish public universities, where we quantitatively observe the offer of specific contents of Journalistic Production by kind of subjects, credits, courses and knowledge areas and, also, qualitatively the jargon of the subjects and the specificity degree in the treatment of the contents. We conclude that there is a stable presence of contents on Journalistic Production, although they are perceived as fragmented and scattered in varied courses, as well as a lack of recognition in the terminology of subjects and a low or very low level of specificity in the contents lectured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ideology and political ideologies in general have been addressed both from theoretical and applied perspectives by media and communication scholars in an attempt to reveal whether pluralism is present or absent in the media. However, the complexity of such a task has proven to be high as well as very problematic. The efforts to systematise the study of ideology in the media in order to make it objective and systematic have been scarce. This paper tries to contribute to such systematising by providing a method to analyse political ideologies in the media that aims to be objective and replicable in the political context of Western democracies. Our work was inspired by previous studies that were mostly conducted in the field of political sciences and political communication. The main goal of this paper is to reach a deeper comprehension of ideology, in general, and political ideology in particular, and to conceptualise a method that aims to be instrumental in the analysis of the media from the viewpoint of political ideologies but without being restricted by traditional labels that may reproduce cultural biases. The theoretical-analytical method here suggested addresses ideologies in newspapers to identify worldviews according to four general values: individualism, communitarianism, egalitarianism and elitism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though media industry studies are on the rise, there is a major issue: the concept itself is "fuzzy". The goal of this paper is to shed light on the concept. To do so, the paper analyses existing approaches, combining academic references as well as sources commonly used by practitioners (e.g. the OECD, the EU, DCMS). It allows to give three delineations to the media industry: (1) A novel theoretical delineation, (2) a sectoral delineation, and (3) a delineation through the NACE statistical classification system. The main research findings are: (i) the development of a so-called circling model that shows how "mediated content" is at the core of the definition of the media industry; (ii) through the convergence tendencies, many different media activities can play a supporting or facilitating role; (iii) a list of NACE codes to guide statistical analysies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the use of Telegram as an electoral communication tool in Spain, focusing on the messages sent by the five major parties in the country (PSOE, PP, Vox, Unidas Podemos and Ciudadanos) during the campaigns corresponding to the general elections of April 28 and November 10, 2019. This research paper steps outside this somewhat still narrow area of methodology by combining two different research techniques on a methodological triangulation: traditional content analysis and data mining processes using Python. Results, which show how political parties in Spain use Telegram mainly as a mobilization tool while expressing closeness with the candidate, are contextualized thanks to the implementation of Big Data analysis techniques that improve and allow for an in-depth investigation and understanding of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is considered important or even necessary for a continuous exchange of scientific information that all relevant stakeholders can access the inner-scientific communication. The traditional publication model, however, does not provide an inclusive flow of communication but rather favours researchers affiliated with resource-strong institutions, oftentimes located in the Global North. Hence, there are increased efforts to establish an alternative, open access (OA) publication model. Since such a model can only be successful if scientists themselves support and use it, this paper presents a two-tier study examining the factors that might shape scientists' decision (not) to choose an OA option for disseminating their own work. Based on (semi-)standardized surveys of scientific organizations and individual researchers in the field of biomedical and health informatics, it provides an overview of individual and institutional frame conditions that influence the dissemination and reception of scientific knowledge. In order to account for regional differences, it draws on a global sample, comprising respondents from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North America. Overall, the findings provide a heterogeneous picture of how OA is perceived and practiced. Respondents appreciate the convenient way to access OA articles as readers and the opportunity to reach broader (non-academic) audiences as authors. However, due to high publication fees and concerns regarding quality and reputation, a positive attitude towards OA does not necessarily translate into willingness to choose this publication model. Especially researchers from low-income countries benefit from a barrier-free communication mainly in their role as readers and much less in their role as authors of scientific information. This is also evident at the institutional level, as OA policies or financial support through funding bodies are most prevalent in Europe and North America. These findings call for more attention to inner-scientific communication as part of (science) communication research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today social media play an important role in the disseminating of journalistic content. Thus, audience engagement is becoming an important factor for media organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether post time and post type factors affect audience engagement in Facebook posts. We analyzed 2,630 posts of the Greek national broadcasting corporation (ERT). The findings indicate that the variables post time and post type affect user engagement in the posts. The user seems more positively involved in posting in the morning than in the afternoon, as well as being more active at the outset of the week. Posts that include a photo or a link motivate for user engagement. Based on the findings, media organizations can fine-tune their posting strategy in order to achieve higher user engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper offer an exploratory vision of the strategies and behaviors of international communication on Chilean and Spanish universities. Through a survey applied to 66 Directors of International Communications, we found out that the International Relations Office is in charge of international communications in Chile, in an 86% of the cases. On the other hand, in Spain, in the 40% of the universities, International Relations Office performs this job, but in the 44% of the institutions, this responsibility also rely on two offices, International Relations and Communications. It seems they have not periodical plans of International Communications (only 29% of Chilean and Spanish universities has it), also budgets not appear very often (43% of Chilean and 36% of Spanish universities has it). Neither the team nor the responsible of international communication has preparation in Communications. In both countries, universities use traditional printed brochures, fairs and international missions and web sites as more common international communication activities. This paper presents some ideas of how the management of international communications is structured in universities and it suggest some future research lines that could help to increase the knowledge frame, for the professionalization of the International Communications in the Universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of public issues that become prominent as a result of their dissemination in the media poses a problem that should be addressed from a multidisciplinary scientific perspective. This paper examines some of the key concepts that played a significant role in Le Pen's and Macron's political campaigns during the 2017 French presidential election, and focuses on the detection of fallacies and turns of argument. The methodological approach of the study applies an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of some of the most common arguments and/or fallacies used in Macron's and Le Pen's media strategies during the election. In order to do so, three pieces of news about each candidate have been selected to be published with regard to Spanish native media, such us eldiario.es and elconfidencial.com, as well as national newspapers such as La Razón. The results allow us to identify some of the discursive guidelines that are common to political communication strategies in France, and to uncover the use of some of the most frequent fallacies shared by both candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the medium-term impact of influencers; prescribing figure who has gained notoriety thanks to social networks and where the minor has, on many occasions, a leading role: either for being content creator or for being the target audience for the messages. To understand the two profiles, on the hand, the communication strategies of the main youtubers are analyzed and, on the other, the perception of those who have been exposed to these for years are collected in three countries: Spain, Portugal and Ecuador. The data shows that young people have developed a self-imposed dependence on social networks, demanding content that, primarily, entertains them. On the other hand, Youtubers, despite their young age, strive to stablish their own transmedia narrative and appeal to fun to empathize with the audience and make their channels profitable. The young people analyzed do not feel influenced by these figures although they admit to following them and being aware of their news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on an analysis of the narratives present in a set of eight Instagram accounts devoted to sharing information on maternity in the Spanish context. In a qualitative approach that uses participant observation and content analysis (5184 posts), the main objective is to identify the narratives1 surrounding maternity and to elaborate their relationship with feminist discourses, thus comparing them with previous and current conceptions and representations of motherhood in media. A second aim is to understand the role of information and expertise in these spaces. The results reveal three approaches: affirmative and child-centred narratives, feminist counter-narratives, and discourses on professionalization and authoritative knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper focusses on two fronts forming a broad assault on journalism, extending from more autocratic settings to include liberal democracies, and leading to what is now widely perceived as a crisis in news. We analyze these two attacks by presenting a framework integrating their sources and causes. We argue that the first attack emanates from commercialized media, occurring at economic and normative level, and has created, at least in part, the conditions that have enabled the more recent attack, which is more directly political, associated with the re-emergence of forces that are loosely categorized as populist. What is new in the second front is the geography and the constitutional nature of the societies in which this antagonism has grown. It extends now to long-established representative democracies that have come to be governed, or where new influence is wielded, by emergent right movements and parties who seek to cast the press as the enemy within. Abuse and even mortal danger increasingly have become part of the occupational reality of news-making. We conclude that this development is inscribed in the current material conditions under which journalists work, as well as in the materiality of the media through which they do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the judicial proceedings concerning the film Letty Lynton (1932). The movie, despite being an emblem of the classical period of Hollywood, was banned in 1936, following a suit filed by two playwrights against Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for plagiarism. The lawsuit revealed a complexity that US courts had not addressed so far in copyright infringement matters, not least because the film was based on a true story that took place during the nineteenth century but also because the motion picture company had acquired the rights to a novel that also told the facts. The continuing resources and judgments ended after eight years with the ruling of the Supreme Court. This paper analyses in detail the examination of the case by studying three sources: literary materials relating to the film, judicial pronouncements generated by the demand for plagiarism and the media coverage offered by four contemporary trade papers. The results allow establishing a chronology of the process, evaluating the media coverage it got and identifying the impact both in the field of justice and in the Hollywood industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a review of literature and on a content analysis of nearly 12,000 photographs from 104 Instagram's users, this paper analyses the uses of photography as a self-representational device, comparing traditional vernacular usages with the new practices that emerged on Instagram. It seeks to understand the motivations underlying Instagram's uses, particularly focusing on its identitary functions, that helps to create visual self-representations in online environments. Identitary construction is understood as an active performance, in which each user is their own author, inventing and reinventing themselves at each moment, in a continuous flux of imagetic creation that expresses a sense of identity open to constant reinvention. This paper explores not only the creation of selfies, a practice analogous to the self-portrait, but also the parallel strategies used to avoid the discomfort often caused by direct self-representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to present and reflect upon some of the findings emerging from a research project entitled "Navigating with 'Magalhães': Study on the Impact of Digital Media on Schoolchildren" that was conducted at the Communication and Society Research Centre at the University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. The project focused on the politics of the governmental programme "One Laptop per Child" part of the Portuguese Technological Plan for Education, and the uses of the "Magalhães" computer, and other media, by children aged 8-10 years. This paper analyses the impact of this particular public policy on digital literacy of young children based mostly on the perspectives of parents and their modes of mediation. It also debates parents' and children's perspectives on parental rules on computer and Internet usage. It ends by concluding that the impact of this programme occurred mainly at the level of access rather than the social and educational uses and practices. It also highlights the importance of family in the way children access and use ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main subject discussed in this paper concerns the question: would more women journalists alter the gender perspective in news productions? The article is divided into three parts. In the first, the discourse is approached from a gender perspective, explained by Teun van Dijk (2017) and Linda Steiner (2017). The second part is reserved for a bibliographical review of some researches which emphasize gender differentiation in newsrooms. Some of them point out differences in media representations and take into account the number of women working as jounalists. However, more recent research contextualizes the socio-cultural insertion of media professionals, considering gender roles in society. Since the feminization of newsrooms is a phenomenon that happens at the same time happens the communicational crisis in the beginning of this century, five strategies proposed by Margaret Gallagher (2004) are presented. It is a manual to change the current scenario. The author's point of view comprises media than other the news and is based on gender perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, RTP's children's newscast, Radar XS, which was launched in September 2019 and is aimed at children of ages between eight and 12, is analysed through the lens of Social Semiotics and Critical Discourse Analysis. Bearing in mind the context in which the newscast is produced, as well as the visual, plastic and linguistic signs which are present in the programme, we have tried to understand the conception of a child underlying its production, and have looked for layers of meaning which may be hidden in the discourse. Pierre Bourdieu argues that the notion of a peasant can only be understood by taking into account its relationship with the city and the urban life. We believe the same happens with the child and his/her relationship with the adult and the adult world. Thus, Radar XS is analysed departing from a comparison with adults newscasts. We also revisited from Bourdieu's understanding of the field of communication as a symbolic market, by taking into account the power relations that exist in the communicative act: who speaks? What legitimacy does he/she have to speak? What ideology is behind the message? What space is given to the interlocutor? We concluded that Radar XS is an antagonistic object that, on one hand, conveys a view of the child as a subject with limited rights, but, on the other, empowers him/her. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the media coverage of the 2019 Women's Soccer World Cup, in Brazilian sports news websites (Globo Esporte, UOL Esporte, ESPN, Torcedores.com and Placar). It aims to map the space granted to this year's World Cup, in which there has been a significant increase in television media coverage, which included TV Globo, the country's leading network, compared to previous editions. The theoretical framework discusses the relationship between the concepts of agenda-setting and newsworthiness to interpret the large quantitative and qualitative growth in coverage on women's soccer, until recently practically invisible in the eyes of the mainstream media. The method used to process and classify the 926 units present in the corpus was content analysis, from which it was possible to identify patterns and thematic recurrences in the media coverage of the World Cup. Among the main results, we highlight a 533% growth in the number of news between the 2015 and 2019 World Cups on Brazilian sports websites. The research is a theoretical contribution to the Sociology of Journalism, Communication Science and studies about women's football in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of pre-electoral coverage of Carta Capital and Veja, Brazilian magazines, from search about "Elections 2014" on their online portals. The analysis period is from January 2013 to February 2014, so before the official candidacy definitions. It is considered that the press information have an important role in the public debate and, although Carta Capital and Veja still keep their printed version, they also produce content for the internet in order not to miss relevance. The objective of this paper was to compare the production of contents, the volume of quotes on the main candidates and the interactivity from publications of these two magazines on the Internet. From this, we believe it is possible to make inferences and considerations about the participation of readers and trends in the coverage of each vehicle in the electoral period. The method is a comparative analysis and the results show some differences and similarities between those portals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces some of the main elements that configure a paradigm shift in Communication, with the aim of providing a reflection on the ever-changing nature of both the World and our discipline. This is the time for publics and audiences; they embody the message's sense and its raison d'être. The present paper collects the results of two different research studies conducted at different times and with diverse actors and audiences, applying the eclectic method. Some of these findings are as follows: communication has changed due to the appearance of new screens (media) and new actors, who have now become "citizen celebrities". The Twenty First Century has arrived, bringing with it changes to our old paradigms. The new subjects act and live together in cyberspace; they select their own media and develop their own content. Reality is not really virtual, but it is enriched by these new screens (new media). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]