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In the eighteenth century, during the context of imperial rivalries, the circulation of information became a crucial element for success in warfare and politics. This article argues that the adaptability of postal communication systems played an essential role in military and political decision-making in a Caribbean space characterized by its dynamism and connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes, from a critical perspective, the case of the campaign realized to promote an Yves Saint Laurent perfume (Libre) starring by an international recognized singer, in order to reveal the paradoxical background of its staging. The campaign gravitates around the iconographic motif of fire and underlines the dangerous nature of Freedom, in the general context of an Emotional Advertising work that aims to promote ethical thinking amongst consumers, beyond the visual pleasures and attraction generated by its images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to analyze the distinctive characteristics of research production in the field of communication in Latin American scientific communication journals. Meta-research is necessary because it allows re-evaluating the field and offers new horizons in knowledge production. Two studies were conducted: 1) Bibliometric analysis of 116 journals in eight databases and 24 publications in the Web of Science and Scopus; 2) Content analysis including that of 407 articles over a period of 10 years (2009--2018). The findings demonstrate a research trend in the Latin American region toward international standards, evidenced by a preponderance of empirical over essay studies. Universities in the region published most of the journals in the field and circulation was predominantly biannual. Contrary to expectations, the most widely disseminated topic was health communication, partly owing to a large sample of Brazilian journals. Within the empirical research, the qualitative approach was predominant. The interview was the most widely used research method in the region. Finally, the most used theories were agenda setting and framing. Imminent challenges arise, i.e., to strengthen indigenous theoretical production and to position the region's themes and reflection more decisively in knowledge production at a global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a compendium of good practices detected from the application of the Social Profitability Indicator in Communication IRSCOM to a group of 12 community and indigenous public interest stations in Colombia during the year 2022. The IRSCOM-RADCC (Radio Comunitaria Colombia) is a tested methodology that is specified in 33 indicators and is designed to collect quantitative and qualitative information on the internal functioning of the media in relation to six categories of analysis: management, social capital, territorial and citizen articulation, programming, Internet activity and infrastructure. The information collected goes through a weighting process that results in numerical scores for each of its variables allowing to observe strengths and weaknesses. The tool facilitates the collection of qualitative information in the form of good practices for each of its variables, thanks to the results of the semi-structured interview that accompanies the IRSCOM implementation methodology. The results have shown ingenious ways by radios to self-manage, as well as loyalty participation, both in management and in the realization of programs. There is also a growing interest in diversity and differential aspects in the configuration of social capital and in the programmatic contents as well as a high level of linkage with the social fabric. All this makes them the axis of territorial structuring and enhancement of proximity communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As it happens with disability and diversity in real life, relegated and barely visible, research on these issues has not been a priority in the field of communication. However, and given its social relevance, it is necessary to observe the academic production that has addressed these topics. Thus, the objectives of the study consist of detecting the keywords and bibliographic references most used in the area, as well as analyzing the context of production and the theoretical-methodological instrumentalization of this kind of research. For this, two closely linked studies were carried out: first, a bibliometric analysis of 316 articles published, from 2012 to 2022, in journals indexed in Web of Science and, second, a content analysis of a probabilistic sample of 174 papers. The main findings describe a growing area driven by female authors affiliated with not only Anglo-Saxon universities, but also Spanish ones, who publish their work in English and in journals mainly of the USA. Likewise, it is an empirical production focused on the analysis (quantitative and qualitative) of the information disclosed on social networks and television regarding aspects such as accessibility, Paralympics, digital divide or mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the reconfigurations of Noelle-Neumann's (2010) original theory and presents an analysis categorization for the contemporary spiral of silence, which involves four mechanisms: 1) accumulation; 2) consonance; 3) ubiquity; and 4) anonymity. In order to avoid excluding the term social and analyzing meanings and technologies separately, the results in this paper were presented from a sociocultural matrix reception study with eight unionized teachers and eight neo-Pentecostal evangelicals residing in the city of Curitiba (PR). Once determining that algorithms are relevant towards defining new cultural patterns of social interaction, we found the need to investigate consolidated theories in the field of communication and journalism in the light of algorithmic mediations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of Communication in Spain is analyzed, contextualizing Spanish output at a global and local level between the years 2000 and 2020. Based on a descriptive bibliometric analysis of the Communication category of the Social Sciences Citation Index database, part of Web of Science, the impact of the main countries is identified. The weight of the output in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) database between 2015 and 2020 is also studied. An analysis of the output by universities in Spain for the period 2010–2020 is also carried out, comparing it with the impact and the works in the first quartile. The results reveal that Spain has been the fourth country in terms of output in Communication in the last decade and that Austria stands out as the country whose works have the greatest impact. It is also observed that 67% of Spain’s works in Communication are published in journals that are indexed in ESCI. The impact of Spanish universities is very close to the world average. The Universitat Pompeu Fabra stands out, publishing the most articles and, furthermore, being the Spanish university with most papers in the first quartile of the JCR in Communication between 2010 and 2020. The study of the Shanghai Ranking by area includes eight Spanish universities, only three of which have output in Communication that comes mainly from professors in this area. The role of the Spanish journals Comunicar and Profesional de la información is notable, as they publish a large fraction of the output by Spanish universities in the Communication field. Finally, this paper presents the challenges of research in Communication, as well as those related to its bibliometric analysis, and a reflection on the problems that affect scientific production and research in this subject area. [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]

The search for other possible types of journalism has been present in the successive historical stages of the contemporary period since the birth of modern journalism. From the appearance of muckrakers to the new American journalism or precision journalism, there have been proposals that have enriched journalistic technique and contributed to the emergence of new journalistic roles. However, on many occasions “Adamism” emerges, and we face current challenges as if history had just begun and the past had left no trace. This brief paper examines the emergence of recent proposals that, in the digital scenario, raise the banner of impartiality to combat the lack of trust and low credibility that journalism offers to some sectors of the public. In addition to constructive journalism and solutions, as well as new transparency measures, the focus is on two new and recent publications: Factuel in France and The Messenger in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media have established a new way of communicating and understanding social relationships. At the same time, there are downsides, especially, their use of algorithms that have been built and developed under their umbrella and their potential to alter public opinion. This paper tries to analyse the YouTube recommendation system from the perspectives of reverse engineering and semantic mining. The first result is that, contrary to expectations, the issues do not tend to be extreme from the point of view of polarisation in all cases. Next, and through the study of the selected themes, the results do not offer a clear answer to the proposed hypotheses, since, as has been shown in similar works, the factors that shape the recommendation system are very diverse. In fact, results show that polarising content does not behave in the same way for all the topics analysed, which may indicate the existence of moderators –or corporate actions– that alter the relationship between the variables. Another contribution is the confirmation that we are dealing with non-linear, but potentially systematic, processes. Nevertheless, the present work opens the door to further academic research on the topic to clarify the unknowns about the role of these algorithms in our societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Couple relationships, as the fundamental basis of family relationships, is a crucial dimension within the lives of people that also impacts on their happiness and wellbeing. These relationships are underpinned by mutual caring and attachment bonds, which, properly developed, entail a source of emotional and social support. This support also contributes to build the identity, improve the social competence, and, ultimately, strengthen own and family well-being. This topic is likely to arouse the interest at a social and scientific level and is addressed from several disciplines such as Psychology, Sociology, Pedagogy, or Social Work. This interest has provided this topic with a broad overview in the related research, being addressed from different paradigms and study prospects. This study is aimed at analyzing the research conducted on couple relationships from 2000 to 2018 in Spanish-speaking countries. Therefore, we present a systematic review of 83 scientific publications retrieved after an extensive search in the main databases (WOS, SCOPUS, Dialnet Plus, Redalyc, and ISOC) and the search engine Google Scholar. Specifically, the study specifies the dimensions and variables that have been the subject of study among these relationships, their objectives and methods (with particular emphasis on the instruments used), and the sample type and size the authors deemed necessary. In addition to the year of publication and the geographical delimitation, it was also included as criteria the publication format (only scientific papers) and papers with a Social Sciences content with topics not related to violence. Results suggest that most researchers follow an entirely quantitative methodology, tend to use validated instruments, have samples up to 250 participants, and address traditional topics such as satisfaction, sexuality, and communication in couples. Also, the predominant trend is to focus on a single thematic content, being lower the presence of studies addressing the interaction between two topics (e.g., satisfaction and communication), and even least common those studies that extend the dimensions analyzed to three or more. Regarding the content, the papers reviewed confirm the thinking that the couple's well-being and their satisfaction has a multicausal nature, which goes beyond the couple, since it includes the influence of the couple's social and cultural context. In this regard, specific socio-demographic characteristics such as having children, gender, and relationship duration seem to have a greater impact and arouse more interest than others. To complement this work, it is also included other topics usually related to how the couples are shaped and the satisfaction perceived, such as, for example, the fear of intimacy and anxiety, the sense of humor, the psychological well-being, and living with a positive family context. Furthermore, the publications addressed allow to locate emerging topics, such as the use of technology and its impact on the couple relationships, and also reveal the absence of studies integrating new structures of couple relationships, like polyamory. In conclusion, this review helps to get a general overview of the topic studied in order to suggest further research or expand the research already conducted. Similarly, the information provided encourages researchers to replicate the studies analyzed with different samples (location, age, sample size, etc.) and with more ambitious methodological design given that, though exceptionally, there are results which buck against the current predominant trends, and to complement this study focused on Spanish-speaking research with English, French and Portuguese publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emoticons have become a common phenomenon in email correspondence between students and professors. Even though the use of emoticons in formal writing is considered inappropriate and unprofessional, more and more students are using these nonverbal communication tools to add context or emphasis to their email messages to professors. This paper examines the association between the use of emoticons and professors’ perceptions of higher education students’ email messages with and without emoticons in two countries, Serbia and Slovenia. The students’ emails were collected and assessed on several levels. The students’ messages were examined with particular attention to the appropriateness of the students’ writing style. In addition, the students’ level of digital literacy, their attitude toward a professor, and gender differences in the use of emoticons were examined. Furthermore, an online questionnaire was used to identify characteristic differences between students who use emoticons and students who do not. The results show that messages with emoticons are rated lower on several dimensions than messages without emoticons. In addition, students who use emoticons show lower digital literacy and perceive their professors as more understanding and helpful. Emoticon use is not related to gender. The results suggest that students should avoid using emoticons even if they have a positive attitude toward their professor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the present paper is to systematize the contributions of more than 15 15 years teamwork around the understanding of communication as a field of complex inter and transdisciplinary reflections, built on the research practice of the Center for Cuban and Caribbean Social Studies “Dr. José A. Portuondo ”, from the Universidad de Oriente (Cuba). To systematize the results, a large volume of data contained in 49 undergraduated and postgraduated investigations, 60 scientific articles, 8 books, 15 book chapters, as well as the empirical experience accumulated in dozens of communities, cultural projects, social institutions was analyzed., local governments, unions, companies, scientific events among others, where research results have been socialized and introduced. A complex conception of communication of a socio-anthropological and micro-cultural nature is proposed, which is already located in the analysis of the media, cultural management, socio-cultural relations, politics and local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the use of holograms and avatars in communication and political marketing. It explores its origin, types, extent, examples and real cases of its use in various areas; technical difficulties at the current stage of development; its application as a technique of persuasion in the political scenario, and some legal and ethical problems. It also reflects on how 5G and the creation and use of metaverses will be spaces that will consolidate these tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the importance of the emotional content in the communication campaigns of universities to attract students for a research stay. To do so, 201 Spanish students that have finalised their Erasmus internships were interviewed. Besides, a biometric experiment was carried out with the Noldus Face Reader software that analyzes facial expressions. As a result, it was found that the prestige of the university is not so relevant, being the transmission of emotions of happiness considered the most important element for students when choosing a university. The results and their usefulness for the educational marketing are discussed in a dedicated section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication skills are a universal element of training. This is true of healthcare personnel who, as human beings, act within a personal, family and emotional context. The aim of this paper is to identify the level of communication skills among a group of third and sixth semester students of a surgical instrumentation programme in Bogotá. A mixed design was used; evaluation tools were employed and the two groups of the programme were observed. The main findings showed that the skills of the two groups of students in the programme were acceptable. According to this categorisation, the level of performance was considered to be standard, meaning there were errors in reading comprehension, writing and speaking, spelling, and use of punctuation marks; in addition, the students’ understanding of concepts in verbal, non-verbal and written communication was partial. It is concluded that it is important to consider incorporating activities in the classroom to promote the development of oral and written communication skills, given that healthcare staff need to talk to patients and other staff members, as well as to write notes and reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the use of holograms and avatars in communication and political marketing. It explores its origin, types, extent, examples and real cases of its use in various areas; technical difficulties at the current stage of development; its application as a technique of persuasion in the political scenario, and some legal and ethical problems. It also reflects on how 5G and the creation and use of metaverses will be spaces that will consolidate these tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the importance of the emotional content in the communication campaigns of universities to attract students for a research stay. To do so, 201 Spanish students that have finalised their Erasmus internships were interviewed. Besides, a biometric experiment was carried out with the Noldus Face Reader software that analyzes facial expressions. As a result, it was found that the prestige of the university is not so relevant, being the transmission of emotions of happiness considered the most important element for students when choosing a university. The results and their usefulness for the educational marketing are discussed in a dedicated section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically addresses the conditioning factors and considerations underlying the projection of Digital Humanities, as an operational discipline, to the field of educational praxis. The colonisation of this new area of competence consolidates the trend of translation of Digital Humanities, from its consideration as a methodological apparatus at the service of research, to the environment of professional praxis in various areas of knowledge. In order to address this issue, a conceptual delimitation is layed out to characterise the Digital Humanities in the academic environment, as opposed to the common use of the concept of ICT in Education. From this perspective, the development of new epistemic cultures is addressed in terms of the new ways of thinking implied by the flows and channels of knowledge reception in digital educational environments, as well as the need to integrate the Digital Humanities into these ecosystems in order to design and implement tools and sources of information semantically adapted to the needs of the environment, in relation to the different curricular requirements or pedagogical perspectives of each academic context. Finally, a brief allusion is made to how all these issues come together in what is known as "digital didactics", understood as the set of strategies that inspire the new teaching-learning processes, optimising the pedagogical possibilities offered by new technological developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facebook was involved in one of the most important scandals of recent years owing to its legal, political, social, and ethical implications. The Cambridge Analytica case, which has still been insufficiently addressed as an object of study in its full complexity, highlights the incalculable value of user data and the potential for their manipulation. This marked the beginning of the decline of Facebook's reputation owing to a combination of negative situations and that has continued since. This paper analyzes the case and its implications in terms of the concepts of reputation and crisis, highlighting the importance of a positive image and its impact on different stakeholders, and points to the rebranding as Meta as a false closure of a crisis of confidence that continues today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass media effectively construct images and stereotypes about social issues, especially in the case of advertisement, which is the strongest infopersuasion tool. With regard to disabilities, these representations are particularly sensitive. The discursive field in advertisement is greatly complex because of the diversity of interrelated elements that intervene in it and because of the convergence of semiotic and symbolic layers that participate in the process of understanding the message. This research aims to analyze the institutional advertisement discourses about people with disabilities since the creation of ONCE Social Group. To that end, this paper relies on two methodologies: a socio-semiotic analysis of the institutional marketing campaigns by Fundación Once broadcasted between 2018-2020 combined with open-form interviews with experts in the field of disabilities communication through three different perspectives: research, advertisement, and communication management. The results of this research suggest that the social advertisements of this organization contribute to configure their brand identity and offer a plural communicative proposal to enhance the social and professional integration of the collective. The institutional advertising discourse of ONCE Social Group ¡incorporates growing social values as well as a narrative that does not discriminate between individuals with or without disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the fictional brand Wonka through the use of the reverse product placement tool. It has an exploratory-descriptive methodology that has required a bibliographic review and in-depth interviews with the experts responsible for the brand. The results illustrate its treatment in the market reflecting on its transmedia identity. In this way, a vision on the application of this technique is constructed through the study of a case of an advertising practice that has been little investigated in the academic field. [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]

Te objective of this paper is to contribute to the current theoretical and conceptual debates that address the technopolitical phenomenon. Specifically, it addresses the processes of appropriation and use of information and communication technologies that the new indigenous movements carry out in the Latin American continent, whose central purpose is to confront the colonial matrix of power that governs the functioning of the modern-modern-colonial-capitalist world system. It is found that technopolitics emerges as a praxis of antagonistic struggle in contexts of intercultural conflict, which demands the design of research agendas that attend to the specificity of local processes that, "from below", dispute the meaning of interculturality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media are already part of the communicative routines of most organizations, including communication agencies. Nevertheless, given their duty to serve other companies, these agencies should have an advanced understanding of these platforms, not only in their most profound sense but also in a time-advanced one. In other words, agencies should test emerging social media with the aim of knowing them in-depth and determining whether they serve their communicative purpose. It should be noticed that investment in digital advertising and actions with influencers are greater and greater. Besides, they are platforms that not necessarily remain unalterable, but some of them achieve their life cycle, even disappearing. On this matter, it is necessary to check if agencies really are working on the most recent social networks or only on those which are already consolidated. For such a research, the quantitative method, based on the content analysis, was adopted within a descriptive study. It was used on a sample of the ten communication agencies with the highest billing which operate in Spain. As secondary research objectives, it was considered to analyze the use that agencies do of social media which they are present in, to determine the existence of online content strategies, as well as to value the interaction level of these companies on online channels. The results show that most of analyzed agencies offer web 2.0-related services, such as digital strategy, online content management, monitoring and influencers relations. Social media talking, except for a few cases, communication agencies prefer to maintain a presence on the most consolidated social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube). Furthermore, those are the ones that usually have links on their websites. This does not mean that agencies do not use the more recent applications, but that, mostly, they do not do this for their benefit as a brand. Otherwise they keep them in the background. In fact, some agencies use current platforms, such as Twitch or TikTok, publishing suitable content to their characteristics, which means that agencies know their possibilities, although their use is not still usual among them. Among the commonly used social networks, the activity of these agencies remains along the lines of what has already been concluded in previous academic papers: the purpose of information dissemination prevails with a self-promoting role. Communication agencies keep their social profiles updated and, during the month of research, they constantly published content, especially, information about themselves or about the communication sector, followed by news of common interest, clients news and projects carried out. Finally, although they published content frequently, the interaction with other users is low and, when it happens, it usually has, as mentioned, a self-promoting intention. In conclusion, communication agencies, as other kinds of organizations, are used to introduce social media work in their routines. However, it cannot be said that they are early adopters, at least to self-use. Probably, public relations professionals are researching and going deep in these new platforms, but in a private way, so agencies cannot, or prefer not to show their know-how by doing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents one of the most important and updated problems of the English teaching-learning process: to improve written expression in English. To do so, some empirical methods were implemented and they revealed, as a result, the weaknesses that persist in most school institutions regarding the development of this practice. Thus, the research offers a proposal of some learning tasks to improve the students' writing abilities. Some methodological considerations and requirements are also included to structure the proposal, as well as certain didactic reflections for the English written expression development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crude oil is a highly complex natural mixture consisting predominantly of hydrocarbons [alkanes (paraffins), alkenes (olefins), and aromatic compounds] and other elements such as sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen. In Cuba, work is being done on the exploitation of new oilfields deposits in the Northern Cuban Oil Belt. The goal of this paper is to characterize the crude oils from the point of Reservoir Geochemistry, using the high-resolution gas chromatography technique and the study of the physicochemical properties, in samples from six oil wells from the western sector of the Varadero oilfield. The fingerprints of the crude oil were obtained, the star diagrams were constructed to establish the possibilities of communication between the wells, from the ratios between compounds. The main results obtained show the existence of better communication between wells VW1003 and VW1007 with a difference of 1.91%, with the rest of the wells studied behaving differently. In addition, the physicochemical properties of the oils were studied, the results of which show that they are extra-heavy oils, with high content of sulfur and asphaltenes and. These properties show the similarity in their commercial quality with the crude oil discovered in the other blocks of the Varadero field, characterized by heavy, extra-heavy, highly sulfurous crude oils, belonging to Family I of Cuban crude oils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a hyper-fragmented environment of channels, platforms and content, brands are finding increasingly difficult to reach Generation Alpha in a relevant and differential way. This paper aims to study the variables that determine the choice of brands in the digital context by children between 6 and 12 years old. To study this preference, a survey of 1,357 children was carried out, applying different statistical tests to determine which variables are predictive in the selection of brands. Among the main results when choosing a brand are that the brand must be trendy, famous, that it helps them to meet people and that it is their best toy. Socialisation processes and the need to communicate with their friends are the main reasons for children to incorporate brands into their digital universe. Therefore, companies that want their brands to be part of the life of Generation Alpha in an authentic and unique way, must favour communicative contexts of interaction where the brand is an excuse to socialise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two guidelines published in the context of COVID-19 pandemic are comparatively analyzed. The objective is to show the ways of the discursiveness regulation and the orientation of those recommendations on language, from a glotopolitical perspective. WHO-PAHO and the Colombian Government were in charge of these issues aimed at the sectors in charge of managing the health emergency. The analysis combines a lexicometric exploration of lexical associations and concordances with inductive inferential interpretive procedures. The results show that the change from the discourse of risk to the discourse of harm reorients the regulations on communication towards the discipline of public and private saying. It is concluded that the type of language used by public health institutions replaces the explanations and analysis required in these circumstances and unifies the points of view through a deeply political discourse that, however, does not seem to be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses a collection of engraved plaques from Golfo San Matías (Río Negro province) in order to assess design recurrences which might point to the presence of ornamentation rules and/or visual information coding among the hunter-gatherer peoples who produced and used them. Then, 170 plaques from Patagonia and other regions of Argentina are systematically compared using the presence of shared motif types as the main criterion. Data are assessed using a theoretical model with expectations which link design variability/standardization, ornamental laxity/structuration and informational heterogeneity/redundancy. Results show that plaques display low design standardization, which is compatible with a low redundancy communicative function (heterogeneous content) and/or with an ornamental function with lax rules. Moreover, the shared repertoires document several inter-regional links, which are verified using different lines of archaeological evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]