Search

In recent years, fact-checking journalism has become one of the dominant strategies to tackle disinformation. For these entities to be effective and gain the trust of citizens, it is essential that they carry out their work under the principles of ideological neutrality, especially when they try to verify political discourse. This paper, groundbreaking in the Spanish context, aims to analyze the verification practices and possible partisan biases of political fact-checking in Spain through a specific study applied to Newtral, the main fact-checker specialized in politics in this country. The political verification practices used by this fact-checker since the beginning of its activity (October 2018-October 2022) were analyzed through quantitative content analysis. In a second phase, the same study was replicated, applied only to the discourse of the main national political leaders. The study used inferential statistics (chi-square hypothesis tests, correlational studies, Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test). No significant differences were observed between political parties in any of the variables analyzed in the phases of execution and verdict, neither in the general sample nor in the specific sample related to political leaders. However, greater attention is paid to the statements made by politicians belonging to Partido Popular, whose discourse is more checked, which could indicate a certain selection bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The audiences of generalist television’s newscasts reflect that the viewers’ interests and loyalties are constantly changing. Research shows that several elements influence the success of programs and formats, but in this paper, we draw attention to the factors that determine the credibility of newscasts. We also want to know how pluralism is safeguarded in newscasts, as we consider that credibility and pluralism are two intertwined values that influence one another. As credibility is a subjective value, it is required to find new information criteria that is suitable and of the utmost rigor. The main aim is to delve into whether there is a consensus on the basic parameters for the definition, identification, and assessment of credibility of nationwide public service media in Spain. Moreover, we are also interested in whether audience figures can be used to determine the degree of trust of newscasts. The analysis brings forward the observations of researchers, scholars and media professionals that offer a vision on the different approaches that integrate the multiple aspects affecting news consumption and interpretation. We conclude that credibility is a concept composed of multidimensional components, resulting from a process where different filters condition fact perception. That is why a story can have different meanings, related to the different point of views of citizens. [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]

This paper examines the data visualizations incorporated in the online versions of the main hybrid newspapers in Spain and the United States to find out their features and the role they play in the articles. In addition to this objective, the aim is to determine whether there are significant differences in the use of visualizations in the practice of data journalism in national and foreign newspapers. Through a content analysis, the articles published during the year 2021 in the web versions of El País, El Mundo, The New York Times and The Washington Post were analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological transformations and, especially, the accelerated process of digitalization have changed the profiles and production routines of the media. At the same time, universities have had to adapt their journalism curricula to new training needs. This paper analyzes the evolution of the technical-digital training of the journalism degree in Spain over the last two decades through a comparative study of three stages: before, during, and after the adaptation to the EHEA (2000-2010-2020). The research brings together, as valuable reference material, the curricular offerings of 112 programs and 242 subjects that show the educational evolution of the digital environment over the last 20 years, with a longitudinal and epistemological approach. The trends identified by this diagnostic work confirm, among other aspects, how the design of journalism curricula has evolved at a slow and asynchronous pace in digital training until the last decade and with disparate speeds between universities. Added to this is the conformation of a highly varied epistemological heritage that, beyond the specific names of the subjects, denotes a progressive commitment to digital and multimedia teaching, combining generic hybrid knowledge with more specialized training in terms of languages and formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication studies in Spain have now become consolidated based on their evolution over the last 50 years. The aim of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the current state of Spanish higher education in Communication. To this end, an analysis is carried out of the structure and composition of the undergraduate and postgraduate degrees (master and PhD studies) in Communication at public and private universities in Spain, paying special attention to the centers that host these studies, the people who contribute to their operation, and their offerings and distribution. Using a descriptive methodology and the content analysis technique, an analysis form is applied to the universities composing the system of Communication studies in Spain, based on their offerings and the information available and accessible on their institutional websites. The results reveal the difficulty of accessing such data and the lack of common criteria (or compliance) for presenting such information on official websites. The results reveal a greater offering at the national level but a wide dispersion of the higher education offering in terms of type, location, type of university, and territorial distribution. We also highlight the gender gap in terms of faculty leadership as well as among teaching staff. We emphasize the phenomenon of double or combined degrees, especially at private universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thie main objective of this paper is the conceptual study and characterization of slow journalism from an academic and professional perspective. As a methodological process, a total of 76 files have been analyzed, of which 58 correspond to publications of authors from the academic world and 18 to journalism professionals. Thie publications come from the academic world on information and journalistic quality, on digital journalism and narrative journalism, as emerging journalistic routines with potential and creative dynamics in the media sector. Thie other part of the analysis corresponds to 18 professional journalism experts. Among the most outstanding results is the preeminence of the academic world when it comes to studying the phenomenon, given that among those who practice journalism there is less production of works in this regard compared to those coming from the university environment. Also in academia there is a greater profusion of denominations to refer to the phenomenon in Spanish, although both in academia and in the journalistic profession itself the most commonly used term is the Anglo-Saxon term slow journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade there have been several debates about the relevance of online news comments. While some question the hate speech that is verified in these spaces, others highlight the possibility of exchanging opinions. This paper proposes a methodological tool to measure the quality of online news comments, using a sample of 300 comments on highly visible websites in Portugal (Público; Sapo), Spain (El País; 20 Minutos) and Brazil (UOL; Folha S. Paulo). The results determine that commentators tend to use a little personal argumentation (82.3%), although relevant to the discussion in question (60.3%), with few grammatical errors (14.7%) or aggressive interventions (31.7%). Following the Online Comment Policy Evaluation Model (Known in Spanish as MPONC), it is concluded that websites with quality comment moderation systems attract more relevant and timely interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]