Observatorio (OBS*)

Third-generation (3G) Mobile Television in Spain: Technological, Economical and Political Dimensions

Convergence introduces several transformations into Cultural Industries structures and dynamics. The option to receive television signal into mobile devices with 3G technologies is one of these changes. This article analyzes new phenomenon from Political Economy of Communication focus. Methodology is based on qualitative analysis applied to Spanish case study. As a consequence, all 3G mobile television technologic, economic and political dimensions will be studied. The results show that new method of television broadcasting is more positioned to potentiate economic factors than media integration based on convergence logics. This new system is contributing to reinforce the commodification of cultural industries. In conclusion, 3G mobile TV assumes decisive importance since besides placing as the forth screen it is helping to re-define classic concept of television.

Tears on the screen: Bodily emotionalism in Reality-Tv

Our contemporary culture is in many aspects obsessed with emotions and authenticity. The media figures as a key locus in this development. However, the function and display of emotions vary depending on media type and genre. The article studies the construction of bodily emotionalism in reality-Tv where corporeal signs such as tears confirm the display of emotional authenticity. It argues that authenticity appears to be synonymous with foremost the exposure of so called primary emotions, which are considered expressions for more direct and less controlled impulses. The specific value placed on tears in our culture is discussed in relation to televisions emotional script, the authentic claims of the genre and as a cultural longing after transparency where the ´truth´ resides within the body.

Movimientos juveniles, medios digitales y prácticas de ciudadanía en Fortaleza (Brasil)

El artículo analiza como la apropiación y el uso de las nuevas tecnologías de la comunicación por la juventud integrante de los movimientos sociales puede configurar percepciones y prácticas de ciudadanía relacionadas específicamente a demandas por el reconocimiento de la diversidad cultural y otras formas de visibilidad referentes a la periferia, que no son transmitidas por los medios hegemónicos. Estudiamos las apropiaciones y los usos de las tecnologías por jóvenes en el contexto de dos organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONGs): Aldeia y Encine, ubicadas en la periferia de la ciudad de Fortaleza, en el Nordeste de Brasil. Los resultados parciales de esta investigación apuntan a la configuración de una comunicación ciudadana que incorpora a la experimentación de las llamadas nuevas tecnologías, especialmente lnternet; la vivencia de dinámicas de redes, combinándolas con materialidades, modos organizativos y experimentales de hacer una comunicación alternativa y popular, ya presentes en la trayectoria de la comunicación alternativa y comunitaria desarrollada en las últimas décadas en América Latina.

The article analyzes how the appropriation and use of new communication technologies by the youth member of the social movements can configure public perceptions and practices related specifically to demands for recognition of cultural diversity and other forms of visibility periphery, which are not transmitted by the hegemonic media. Study appropriations and uses of technology by young people in the context of two Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs): Aldeia and Encine, located on the outskirts of the city of Fortaleza in northeastern of Brazil. Partial results of this research point to the configuration of a public communication that incorporates testing of new technologies, especially the Internet, the experience of dynamic networks combined with materials, methods of making organizational and experimental and alternative communication popular, already on the path of alternative and community communication developed in recent decades in Latin America

Pensando e fazendo webjornalismo audiovisual: a experiência do TJUFRJ

Nesse mundo mediado pelas tecnologias digitais, onde a comunicação tem um papel central e a experiência da realidade social é construída por meio de combinações de imagens e palavras, é importante pensar sobre a produção colaborativa de notícias porque esses processos subvertem a forma unilateral de distribuição de informação para uma reconfiguração da mediação jornalística na atualidade e podem gerar outros sentidos sobre a realidade social cotidiana. As narrativas não lineares têm o potencial de aperfeiçoar as práticas jornalísticas e incrementar a interatividade, o que requer, entretanto, leitores-telespecatores-usuários ativos, que tenham a capacidade de entender códigos e tecnologias da mídia, analisar as novas linguagens, produzir conteúdos com um mínimo grau de qualidade, e cidadãos que também tenham competências para interagir com as mensagens midiáticas. Educar para o pensamento crítico implica em habilidades para estabelecer relações criativas e consistentes com o que aparece na tela e a realidade do mundo fora dela. A capacidade de praticar e refletir sobre o jornalismo e selecionar informações, talvez, nunca tenha sido tão essencial. A experiência do laboratório e do site TJUFRJ, o telejornal online da Escola de Comunicação da UFRJ, que pode ser acessado no endereço www.tj.ufrj.br , é discutida nesse artigo como uma experiência capaz de associar a educação a processos de formação de audiências mais ativas, a partir de uma análise comparativa de diferentes experiências de produção de conteúdos noticiosos audiovisuais disponibilizadas no ciberespaço.

In this world mediated by digital technologies, in which communication plays a central role and the social-reality experience is built through combinations of images and words, it is important to consider collaborative news production since these processes challenge unilateral news-distribution schemes while proposing a rearrangement of todays forms of journalistic mediation, and they could produce new values in the everyday social reality. Non-linear news has the potential to improve journalistic practices and increase interactivity. Nevertheless, such improvements require active readers-viewers-users that are capable of understanding media codes and technologies, analyzing new languages and producing acceptable journalistic material, and citizens that are also qualified to interact with media communications. Educating to think critically involves the ability to establish creative relationships that are consistent with what we see on the screen and with the real world beyond it. The ability to practice and contemplate journalism and select information has conceivably never been so essential. In this article, the experiments of the TJUFRJ laboratory and website of the UFRJ School of Communications online news (www.tj.ufrj.br) are discussed as attempts to associate education with methods of training audiences to be more active, based on a comparative analysis of different forms of producing the audiovisual news available in cyberspace.

Estrategia para la implantación del Test de Valor Público en España: propuesta de procedimiento

En este artículo partiendo de la experiencia de otros países europeos se propone una estrategia concreta para la implantación del Test de Valor Público en España. Se trata de un mecanismo puesto en marcha en los últimos años con el fin de evaluar la nueva oferta de la radiotelevisión pública. El servicio público debe proporcionar un valor público que puede y debe ser medido y evaluado. Un Test de Valor Público debe ser aplicado antes de tomar una decisión para hacer cualquier cambio significativo: esto puede incluir la introducción de un nuevo servicio o su interrupción. El Public Value Test en Reino Unido incluye dos etapas principales: evaluación del valor público y evaluación del impacto en el mercado. Durante el proceso y antes de adoptar una decisión se realizan consultas con los ciudadanos y con el sector privado. El Drei-Stufen-Test en Alemania aumenta la importancia de los órganos de control interno sobre la radiotelevisión pública, sin embargo, existe la necesidad de incluir en el proceso a un organismo compuesto por expertos externos, sobre todo para las cuestiones de mercado. Otro aspecto por mejorar en el Drei-Stufen-Test debe ser la introducción de un mecanismo que tenga en cuenta las opiniones del sector privado.

In this article we propose a strategy for implementing the Public Value Test in Spain taking into account the experience of other European countries. This is a mechanism put in place in recent years in order to evaluate the new offer of public broadcasting. Any public service should provide a public value that can and should be measured and evaluated. The Public Value Test must be applied before making a decision about any significant change: this can include introducing a new service or discontinuing an existing one. The Public Value Test in the UK comprises two elements - a Public Value Assessment and a Market Impact Assessment. License fee payers and industry are consulted during the process and before any final decision is made. The Three-Step Test (Drei-Stufen-Test) in Germany increases the importance of the organs of internal control over public broadcasting, however, there is a need to establish a body that includes external experts, especially for market issues. Another aspect to improve in the Three-Step Test should be the introduction of a mechanism that takes into account the views of the private sector.

Migración hacia nuevas pantallas: transformaciones estéticas, narrativas en los productos de ficción para telefonía móvil y dispositivos personales en España

Los teléfonos móviles 3G, 4G y los dispositivos personales vienen siendo utilizados cada vez más intensamente por los jóvenes como medios para comunicarse y consumir contenidos multimediáticos. Los creativos audiovisuales han visto en esta nueva forma de relación interpersonal y social una oportunidad nueva de negocio y han lanzado al mercado algunas experiencias de productos de ficción diseñadas expresamente para su emisión a través de este tipo de plataforma. La presente investigación efectúa un análisis comparado de siete variables indicadoras de características narrativas, estéticas y de interactividad en una muestra de cuatro programas de ficción para teléfonos móviles emitidos en España. El estudio indica la presencia de algunos rasgos propios que pueden configurar un estilo audiovisual genuino que caracterice a la ficción para móviles y un aprovechamiento limitado de la potencialidad tecnológica e interactividad de los dispositivos a través de los cuales son difundidos. Se identifican tres elementos claves para el futuro de esta tipología de productos: el aumento en la potencia de los dispositivos, la variedad y capacidad sus prestaciones. La consolidación de un nuevo segmento de mercado dominado por las prácticas de consumo individualizado. Y, finalmente, el incremento de la oferta de tarifas planas y sin cables para el acceso libre a Internet de alta velocidad.

The cellular phones 3G, 4G and the personal devices are being use more and more as communication and multimedia contents devices by youngsters. The audiovisual content creators have seen in this new form of interpersonal and social relation a new opportunity for business and have launched fiction experienced products specifically designed for their transmission in those applications. This piece of research makes a comparative analysis of seven variables indicating narrative, aesthetic and interaction characteristics in a sample of 4 fictions programs for cellular phones casted in Spain. This research shows the presence of some specific features that may configure a genuine audiovisual style for cellulars fiction and the suitable use of the technological and interaction potential through which they are spread. We identify three key elements for the future of this typology of products: firstly, the increase in power of devices, the variety and capacity of their provisions. In second place, the consolidation of this new market segment is dominated by the individualized consuming practices. And, finally, the increase in the offer of flat rate and free high speed Internet wireless access.

Stroke campaigns design and evaluation: a 10-year review of scientific literature

Ictus es el nombre que reciben las manifestaciones agudas de un conjunto de enfermedades que tienen en común producir el taponamiento o ruptura de una arteria, lo que provoca que la sangre no llegue a una parte del cerebro y que las células cerebrales mueran; representan la tercera causa de muerte en el mundo occidental. La finalidad de este escrito es identificar las metodologías y estrategias de comunicación más adecuadas para la efectividad de los mensajes de prevención de episodios de ictus, centrándonos en si las campañas son evaluadas y en qué forma. Para ello, se hizo una revisión de la literatura científica de campañas de comunicación o intervenciones de educación comunitaria sobre ictus en cualquier revista médica de impacto en castellano, catalán, francés e inglés entre los años 1999 y 2009. La búsqueda de la literatura se realizó mediante palabras claves introducidas en las bases de datos Pubmed/Medline, ISI Web of Knowledge y Scopus y posterior búsqueda manual a partir de las referencias bibliográficas incluidas en los artículos seleccionados. Con posterioridad se rellenaron fichas-cuestionarios para el vaciado de los artículos. Los resultados demuestran que la evaluación de campañas de ictus es escasa y que esta suele ser cuantitativa y basada en el recuerdo.

Stroke is the general name given to the acute manifestation of a series of conditions that have in common the production of a blockage or rupture of an artery, causing the blood to be unable to reach the brain and the consequent death of brain cells; it is the third cause of death in the Western world. The goal of this article is identifying the most adequate communication methodologies and strategies for the effectiveness of messages trying to prevent a stroke episode: the focus will be on discerning if the campaign has been evaluated and how. In order to reach this goal, we performed a review of scientific literature about stroke communication campaigns or community education interventions in any impact journal in Spanish, Catalan, French or English between 1999 and 2009. The literature selection was based on a keywords search on various databases (Pubmed/Medline, ISI Web of Knowledge and Scopus) and a subsequent manual search from bibliography included in the selected articles. We created a database with a form per article, later on. Results show that evaluation of stroke campaigns is scarce and, when it exists, it is quantitative and based on remembrance.

Reorganización en los grupos multimedia españoles: la nueva cartografía

Este artículo pretende analizar la nueva ordenación de los principales grupos multimedia españoles, una vez que se han originado profundos cambios en el ordenamiento legal, que han propiciado e impulsado fusiones y absorciones entre importantes grupos multimedia. Además, a un contexto económico de gran inestabilidad, con un claro descenso en las fuentes de ingresos publicitarios, se le ha unido también el fin de la transición de la televisión hertziana a la Televisión Digital Terrestre (TDT), lo que ha introducido nuevos factores de competencia en el sector. Por otra parte, los grandes grupos multimedia españoles arrastran graves problemas estructurales que, pueden concretarse en la falta de internacionalización de sus compañías, la carencia de una sólida cultura de empresa, la existencia de un modelo dualizado, en el que las nuevas soluciones multimedia gozan de un absoluto predominio, y la excesiva deuda generada por los principales grupos, que supone ya unos 10.000 millones de euros, y que les aboca irremediablemente a operaciones de fusión para buscar mayores sinergias, reducir competidores en el mercado y renegociar en mejores condiciones esta enorme deuda. Nuestra hipótesis de trabajo es que los grandes grupos de comunicación españoles pasarán de un oligopolio mutante, compuesto hasta ahora por tres o cuatro grandes competidores, a una situación de duopolio, una vez que se hayan despejado las incógnitas que sobre ciertas fusiones o absorciones se ciernen actualmente.

This work try to analyse the whole reorganization which is taking place in the main Spanish mediagroups. The abundance of regulation changes, especially during 2009, with the approval of the new Audiovisual Law (by Royal Decree) and the state-owned TV financing model, the introduction of DTT Pay TV (50% of channels per player) has given green light to the first agreements between Tele 5 channel (Mediaset) and Cuatro (Sogecable), and also between Antena 3 y La Sexta; and finally to a new public Spanish TV status, which broadcast without commercials. In this new situation is not only possible mergers and takeovers, but since television is the main asset of the great multimedia groups, there will be a deep transformation of the forces and a clear trend towards bigger oligopoly; vanishing perhaps one of the main characteristics of Spanish multimedia groups (the mutant oligopoly), with two o three big groups which control the whole scene (always with the permission of the main telephone companies) and the conversion of the multiple familiar groups.

Networking, Multi-platformity and Intermediality: Polish Media Convergence Strategies

This article aims to explore and conceptualise modern convergence strategies. The Polish market will be examined. A multidisciplinary approach to the convergence intends to explain the in statu nascendi phenomenon, to discover different aspects of the convergence. Presented analyses concentrate on introduced convergence strategies in the Polish media.Media products of the Polish Media company ITI Group will be analyzed. The analyses are of symptomatic, not universal, character. They report of a growing importance of the phenomenon which is constantly under development, and which in Poland is in the initial stage. The analyses present different aspects of the convergence and constitute examples of new strategies on the Polish market, such as multiple-platform use, intermediality, or use of the economic and cultural synergy effect due to crossing production and promotion.

The Future of Alternative Media?

Alternative media, which have historically been created in explicit opposition to the mainstream, are increasingly drawing from mainstream practices to gain visibility in a crowded media market. However, the nascent field of alternative (or community) media scholarship has not fully embraced the intrusion of mainstream practices nor has scholarship added meaningfully to the debates surrounding future growth possibilities of alternative media within this competitive framework. The paper will apply previous hypotheses and research from the field of alternative media scholarship to a small sample of alternative blogs in New Zealand. The methodological aspects of producing these blogs and their resulting content will be explored against present research in an effort to conceptualize future media formats for the alternative press.

The Teen Series and the Young Target: Gender Stereotypes In Television Fiction Targeted to Teenagers.

This paper presents the key results arising from a study about representation of male and female characters of the teen series. The main aim of the study is to build knowledge about the images of young people portrayed in a television show featuring teenagers. The study has consisted in the analysis of the antecedents about gender representation on television fiction and the content analysis of the American teen drama Dawsons creek. The content analysis was conducted on a representative sample of 18 episodes of three seasons of the series, measuring 29 variables. The key findings on gender role representation are based on physical and social descriptors, personality traits attributed to the characters, and plot-related variables. Among the principal results, it has to be stressed the presence of traditional gender stereotypes within the socio demographical characteristics of the characters, especially the physical and social traits.

Estructura de propiedad y composición de los consejos de administración de los principales grupos de comunicación europeos en 2009

La independencia y autonomía real de los medios de comunicación, especialmente en su quehacer periodístico, está estrechamente vinculada a diversos factores, entre los que destacan la naturaleza de la propiedad empresarial y la libertad o presión bajo la que toman las decisiones los órganos de gobierno corporativos. Estos factores, tradicionalmente estudiados principalmente en relación a los lazos y dependencias establecidos por las empresas de comunicación con los grandes anunciantes, asumen una nueva dimensión con la financiarización de los grandes grupos de comunicación. Esto es, con la preeminencia de los objetivos financieros -supeditando a los profesionales o vinculados a la responsabilidad democrática- que experimenta la empresa periodística a partir del momento en que ésta empieza a cotizar en bolsa. Esta comunicación presenta datos recabados a principios de 2009 sobre la estructura de propiedad y los consejos de administración de los grupos propietarios de medios de comunicación más importantes de Europa. La finalidad de este ejercicio es identificar quienes son los sectores económicos conectados con la propiedad y los órganos de gobierno de los propietarios de los principales medios de comunicación que ofrecen contenidos periodísticos en Europa.

Free media, labour and citizenship rights in a democracy

India is the most populous democracy in the world. In the early years after attaining independence, as a new democracy, Indian development strategy was driven by what Francine Frankel (2005) calls the the Gandhian-socialist consensus that was predominantly value oriented. Frankel enumerates the areas of consensus - first, there was the general agreement that economic policy should aim for the progressive removal of inequalities in Indian society, and ultimately result in the complete disappearance of class distinctions. Second, the Gandhians and the socialists concurred on the need to limit sharply the existing scope of the acquisitive instinct in Indian economic life, and to create a new set of cooperative motives. The Nehruvian socialist state envisioned a strong industrial base under state ownership (Frankel, 2005) and wage labour was seen within the ethical context of productive employment and as a defining frame for good citizenship. This and the Constitutional guarantee of Fundamental Rights helped to give legitimacy to wage labours expectation of citizenship rights through provision of jobs, better working conditions, better social services and healthcare. By the 1990s, after economic liberalization, the basic premises of this vision were discarded even in populist political rhetoric, while the state embraced neo-liberal ideology and economic policies. The changed economic agenda impacted severely on the working classes. Primarily because of the nature of growth and specifically because of the pressure from the Indian industrial houses, the policies encouraged relaxation of the already weakly implemented labour laws. This paper will examine the role media played in debating these issues. As media are event oriented and not process oriented in their coverage, coverage of labour issues is unlikely on an ordinary news day. This paper, therefore, will examine the news and opinion pieces that have appeared in mainstream media when the CEO of a multinational auto component manufacturer, Graziano Transmissioni, located in Noida, India, died following an altercation with the dismissed workers of the factory. The paper will begin by giving a background to the industrial dispute that provoked the event, followed by the perspectives on the role of media in a democracy. Prof Noam Chomsky and Prof Amartya Sen are two of the great contemporary philosophers who have written extensively on medias role in society, though from different analytical perspectives. The coverage of the event itself in the media will be presented and the paper will discuss the coverage from the two theoretical perspectives on media expounded by professors Sen and Chomsky.

Análisis de la prensa como referente del comportamiento electoral: El caso Veracruz

La investigación fue realizada a través de un seguimiento cuantitativo y cualitativo de las noticias en la prensa impresa de Veracruz, para averiguar la influencia de la prensa en el comportamiento electoral, mediante el análisis de la tendencia de los medios de comunicación de 10 periódicos locales, mismos que fueron seleccionados a partir de su cobertura geográfica regional; el moniotero se llevó a cabo durante las elecciones para elegir diputados federales en 2009. El planteamiento teórico de la investigación se basó basa en el modelo psicosocial del comportamiento electoral, que coincide con las investigaciones de los medios de comunicación, cultura política y opinión pública, enmarcadas en representaciones sociales.

It is investigated through a careful quantitative and qualitative monitoring of the news in Veracruz, to figure out the influence of the press in the electoral behaviour through the analysis of the media tendency of 10 local papers, selected from their regional geographical cover, during the Elections to choose Federal Representatives in 2009. The Theory is based on the paradigm of the electoral behaviour in the psychosocial model that matches with the researches of the mass media, political culture, and public opinion, all these framed in social representations.

Unconscious Class Awareness: The reception of class dimensions in television fiction and news

Television depicts people from different social classes, with middle class characters often dominating. How do television viewers receive this? This article discusses the reception of social class dimensions while watching television, drawing on a reception analysis conducted in Sweden in the early 1990s. The aim was to analyse if and how Swedish television viewers perceive the social class position of characters and persons in different kinds of television fiction and news. Both qualitative reception interviews and a questionnaire were used. One main conclusion was that informants usually can give some classification of social position when asked about it but this was mostly not something that they reflected upon while watching. It is argued that this result can be understood as an outcome of both cognitive processes and class embarrassment. However, attention for social position was somewhat higher when watching fiction and lower when watching news.

National Broadband Planning and Market Liberalism: Regulatory Reforms for Citizenship?

Planning for the systematic upgrading to superfast broadband networks has emerged as a key communications infrastructure in many countries throughout the developed world. These governance processes combine centrally directed state measures with laissez-faire market or civil society organisation components. In some cases we are witnessing the kinds of arrangements typically encountered when governments pursue capital works initiatives in collaboration with privately controlled corporations. In this sense broadband networks can be another instance of public-private infrastructure partnerships, just as governments have constructed joint arrangements for the ubiquitous supply of telecommunications, transport, electricity, gas and water. Yet media and communications systems are simultaneously cultural industry sites that often represent a profound culture-economy disconnect. In such systems, because they culturally distribute public goods that work to shape peoples deliberation and participation in society, there is the tendency for conflict with the defining features of market liberalism (Keane, 1991). This dual life of media and communications systems, as both economic input to key infrastructure and foundational to political democracy is frequently highlighted (McChesney, 2008). And as is often argued, media and communications are not simply just another business (Shultz, 1994) when it comes to the provision of media content such as news and information. How is nation-state planning for new broadband networks that works closely with commercial interests likely to articulate those regulatory reforms for content provision that arise as legacy systems subside and new convergent media systems flourish? Which structural priorities are embedded in the planning statements for the development of national broadband systems, and can we make any assessments of the likely policy consequences for content provision by forms such as IPTV? In particular, the paper highlights examples of those traditional laws and regulation governing content provision for citizenship building (including media diversity, local content, must carry and fair use requirements) that will be placed under pressure in the mainstreaming of national broadband networks.