Observatorio (OBS*)

In-depth study of the scientific productivity and visibility of Spanish Communication researchers in Scopus

El presente artículo pretende continuar la línea iniciada por estudios previos sobre el estado de la investigación en comunicación en España. Se realiza un análisis en profundidad de los investigadores españoles en comunicación presentes en la base de datos internacional Scopus con el objetivo de evaluar su productividad y visibilidad. Los resultados apuntan a una presencia limitada, con una producción científica baja, diversificada en múltiples líneas de investigación, poco colaborativa, más nacional que internacional, en español y poco citada. Se da una bipolarización entre dos perfiles: profesores consolidados y visibles y profesores no consolidados, productores incipientes, pero invisibles. Por género, ellos producen más y son más citados. Se recomienda la colaboración en redes interuniversitarias que potencien la publicación a nivel internacional.

The present article intends to continue previous studies on the state of the communication research in Spain. An in-depth study of the Spanish Communication researchers in Scopus international database is developed to monitor their productivity and visibility. Results show a limited presence and a low scientific production. In addition it is fragmented in multiple lines of research, it is little collaborative, more national than international, in Spanish and little visible. There is a polarization between two situations: visible full professors and untenured professors, emerging producers but invisible. Attending to gender differences, male researchers produce more papers and they are more visible than women. The creation of interuniversity networks that improve international publication is recommended.

Use Of Social Networking Sites And Instant Messaging Applications For University-Related Work And Studying

Social Networking Sites (SNS) and Instant Messaging (IM) applications have become very popular in the last decade. This article aims to investigate to what extent university students make use of SNS and IM in relation with learning and university-related work. In order to do so, a survey was conducted among 115 university students. Results show that answering surveys posted by other students (for their university work), being part of groups created for doing university work or studying and sharing university-related links are some of the education-related activities that students most perform on Facebook. Alongside Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and LinkedIn are the most popular SNS or IM applications when it comes to studying, doing and organizing university-related work. Some differences among male and female students can be inferred from the data though, although it was not the aim of this study to explore such differences and further research would be needed. The paper concludes that university students make good and ample use of SNS and IM applications for education-related purposes and a recommendation for lecturers to adopt these tools is made.

Gender stereotypes and children's socialization: Toy advertisements through Facebook in Spain

Los mensajes publicitarios son persuasivos. La presencia de estereotipos de género en los que se dirigen a los menores puede influir decisivamente en su proceso de socialización. Por ello, este trabajo se centra en la estrategia seguida en Facebook por los principales anunciantes del sector de juguetes en España durante la campaña de Navidad 2014-2015. Se analiza el objetivo del mensaje, el género de los menores, la presencia de adultos, la voz en off y el tipo de acción. Los datos obtenidos se comparan con los estudios precedentes, que se han limitado a analizar los mensajes en televisión y otros medios offline. Los resultados muestran una menor presencia de estereotipos y que las marcas han cambiado su estrategia, para adaptarla a la naturaleza de las redes sociales.

Advertisements are persuasive communications. The presence of gender stereotypes in those of them addressed to children can significantly influence their socialization process. Thus, this research focuses on the main companies of toy industry in Spain and on the strategy they followed in Facebook during 2014-2015 Christmas campaign. We analyze the objective of messages, the gender of children, the presence of adults, the use of voices, and the kind of interaction. We compare the data we obtain with some previous research, referred to television and offline media. The results show that there are less gender stereotypes and that brands have changed their strategies, because of the nature of social networking sites.

Identification of external factors that predict the state of municipal websites: a regional approach to the Spanish case

Los sitios web municipales se erigen, hoy en día, en vehículos indispensables para el establecimiento de una comunicación fluida entre los ayuntamientos y sus ciudadanos. Además de la prestación de servicios administrativos, aspectos como la actualidad política, la agenda cultural o los atractivos turísticos son elementos que todo portal oficial ha de incluir entre sus contenidos. Desde este planteamiento, el objetivo del presente trabajo es identificar una serie de factores externos que, en mayor o menor medida, predicen el estado de las sedes web municipales. Pese a que el foco del análisis de contenido efectuado se orientó al examen de los sitios de los ayuntamientos españoles (evaluados tanto en su contenido como en su diseño), la estrategia aquí seguida consistió en la agrupación de los municipios según las Comunidades Autónomas en que se divide el territorio nacional. Este procedimiento permitió cruzar los datos derivados de distintos índices, creados a partir de la computación de variables del libro de códigos, con cifras macroestadísticas como el PIB per cápita, los ingresos generados por la actividad turística o cuestiones referentes a la sociedad de la información de cada región.

Municipal websites are, nowadays, indispensable vehicles for the establishment of a fluid communication between municipalities and citizens. In addition to the provision of administrative services, aspects such as current political affairs, cultural agenda or tourist attractions are elements that every official site must include among its contents. From this approach, the objective of this paper is to identify a set of external factors that, to a greater or lesser extent, predict the status of municipal websites. Although the focus of the content analysis was oriented to the evaluation of the Spanish town councils sites (evaluated both in content and design), the strategy followed here consisted of the grouping of municipalities according to the Autonomous Communities in which national territory is divided. This procedure allowed crossing data derived from different indexes, created from the computation of variables of the codebook, with macro-statistics like GDP per capita, income generated by the tourist activity or issues related to the information society of each region.

Changing civil society in Spain through transparency and civic technologies

This paper addresses the role of open data in the development of civic technologies in Spain. We have analysed organisations that are using technology as a tool to improve transparency, democracy and citizen participation in public matters. During this research we run through the evolution of the use of technologies by civil society in Spain, we define the concept of civic technologies and propose a set of typologies, paying special attention to the source of data, with the final aim of knowing how often public open data has been used. We conclude by highlighting the need to increase the communication between public and private institutions and the organisations that use data in favour of providing useful information and making easier the development of civic technologies.

A Construção Mediática da Corrupção Política. Opinião e Informação sobre os casos BPN, Freeport e Face Oculta nos noticiários televisivos portugueses

Este artigo pretende contribuir para um melhor conhecimento acerca do modo como os comentadores abordaram nos noticiários televisivos do prime-time dos canais generalistas portugueses três dos casos de corrupção mais mediatizados nos últimos anos em Portugal: os casos BPN, Freeport e Face Oculta. Analisamos os temas, atores, tom e estilo dos comentários sobre os casos de corrupção e aferimos a conexão entre a narrativa do comentário e a da cobertura jornalística sobre os mesmos casos. O estudo permitiu concluir que a cobertura noticiosa foi o expectável ponto de partida dos comentários, mas em sede da opinião identificámos a produção de uma narrativa muito diferente da noticiosa. Os comentadores ordenaram e relevaram os factos de modo distinto e construíram uma narrativa conflitual, consubstanciada em tons negativos sobre o que entenderam ser o comportamento desadequado dos atores envolvidos. Propuseram uma versão dos acontecimentos em cuja narração encontramos histórias personificadas sobre a luta de poder nas e entre as mais altas instâncias das esferas política, judicial e de regulação portuguesas.

This research article aims at contributing to shad light on how television commentators address in prime-time TV newscasts three of the most well-known corruption cases in Portugal in the last years: BPN, Freeport and Face Oculta. Topics, actors, tones and the narrative style of the comments will be analyzed against the news narratives on the same cases. The study concluded that news coverage was the expected point of departure for comments, but the opinion narrative was quite different from the news story about the corruption cases analyzed. Comments were more adversarial, negative and judgmental against what commentators perceived as bad behavior of the actors involved. Commentators built a different version of facts and a personalized narrative about power struggle inside and between the heads of the Portuguese political, judicial and regulatory spheres.

The scientific rigor in online video The perception of experts about videos of air pollution on YouTube

Este artículo tiene por objetivo evaluar el rigor científico de los vídeos online sobre contaminación del aire, difundidos en la plataforma Youtube y publicadas en portugués y español en 2014. Se trata de una investigación realizada en colaboración con 17 científicos de Brasil y España, que evaluaron el rigor científico de una muestra de 100 videos, 50 en español y 50 en portugués. Los resultados indican que, según los científicos, los vídeos sobre contaminación del aire publicados en Youtube, tanto en español como en portugués, tienen un bajo nivel de rigor científico.

This article aims to evaluate the scientific rigor of online videos on air pollution, broadcast on the YouTube platform and published in Portuguese and Spanish in 2014. This research was carried out in collaboration with 17 scientists from Brazil and Spain who evaluated the scientific rigor of a sample of 100 videos, 50 in Spanish and 50 in Portuguese. The results show that, according to scientists, those videos about air pollution that have been published in Youtube, either in Spanish or Portuguese, have a low level of scientific rigor.

A internet como mídia política nos países lusófonos: análise dos websites dos parlamentos de língua portuguesa

A informação e a interação se confirmam cada vez mais como elementos para dinamizar as relações políticas e a própria democracia. Com base nesse pressuposto, o objetivo do artigo é analisar como se dá o uso da internet pelos parlamentos dos oito países de língua portuguesa, considerando seu potencial de mídia política na atualidade. Os websites das casas legislativas foram monitorados com o propósito de mapear as informações oferecidas ao público e os canais de interação. Os resultados indicam maior investimento na divulgação de informações sobre o funcionamento, a agenda de trabalho e a atuação das instituições parlamentares. O levantamento registra baixa oferta de canais de interatividade e participação cidadã. Predomina, portanto, a lógica unidirecional da divulgação.

Information and interactivity are increasingly being confirmed as elements for improving political relations and democracy itself. Based on this assumption, this article aims at analyzing the use of the internet by the parliaments of the eight Portuguese-speaking countries, considering their potential as political media. The websites were monitored to identify information offered to the public and interaction channels. Results indicate a more significant investment in the dissemination of information about how parliaments work, their role and their agenda. Research registers a low offer of citizen participation and interactivity channels. What dominates is, therefore, the unidirectional logic of divulgation.

The television market in Spain in the XXI century: concentration and precariety

El objeto de este artículo es examinar la situación actual del mercado televisivo español a la luz de las mutaciones acaecidas desde la segunda década del siglo XXI. Al profundo declive de la televisión pública (RTVE) se ha unido también la falta de viabilidad de los canales autonómicos y de muchos canales de TDT, así como de un proceso concentrador de los canales privados de mayor audiencia. Pero además, hemos podido observar como los grandes operadores de telecomunicaciones pasaban a desarrollar labores más propias de una “TV company”, y como también irrumoían en España empresas de VoD, como Netflix, HBO y Amazon Prime Video, que están compitiendo en el mercado de los contenidos de pago. El enfoque teórico se sitúa en la economía industrial, que permite adoptar una perspectiva microeconómica a la hora de interpretar el funcionamiento del mercado y la economía de sus contenidos.

This article aims at examining the current situation of Spanish television market in the context of the deep transformations occurred along the second decade of the 21st century. This scenario is determined by the sharp decline of public television (RTVE), the lack of viability of regional channels and many DTT stations, and the concentration process affecting most private channels. In addition, we observe how the major telecommunication operators have started to develop the typical tasks of a "TV company", as well as how VoD companies, such as Netflix, HBO and Amazon Prime Video, have recently emerged as competitors in pay-per-view television. Our perspective departs from industrial economy, which allows us to adopt a microeconomic perspective when interpreting the market operations and the economy of contents.

**A autoapresentação dos portugueses na plataforma de online dating Tinder**

As plataformas de online dating são uma realidade cada vez mais presente, no entanto é escassa a investigação relativa aos utilizadores portugueses. Desta forma a investigação desenvolvida no presente artigo teve como objetivo principal explorar as estratégias de autoapresentação mediada dos utilizadores portugueses e do processo de construção de perfis individuais na rede de online dating Tinder. O desenho da pesquisa mobilizou procedimentos de recolha de dados assente numa metodologia mista, combinando metodologias qualitativas e quantitativas, através da articulação da recolha de dados via observação não participante de 200 perfis (resultando num corpus de 701 fotografias e 87 textos), entrevista (10) e consequente análise de conteúdo. Como principais resultados e através da triangulação da análise dos resultados obtidos, foi possível observar singularidades, mas também padrões, nas práticas de autoapresentação e desempenho identitário, tanto em termos de imagens, como na informação textual. As diferentes estratégias envolvidas na autoapresentação demonstraram a reflexividade acionados pelos sujeitos num jogo dialético de expectativas recíprocas e leitura dos contextos mediados colapsados e audiências imaginadas. Encontraram-se fortes regularidades sociais, que demonstraram o carácter situacional da apresentação do eu que adapta as lógicas de ação a diferentes contextos. Foi assim evidenciada a “ordem da interação” (Goffman, 1983) num contexto mediado de autoapresentação pública cada vez mais colapsado em rede e em que as fronteiras com o privado (bastidores) são cada vez mais ténues.

Online dating platforms are a present reality, however, investigation regarding the Portuguese users is scarce. Therefore, the investigation conducted in the present article has the exploration of the strategies of mediated self-presentation from the Portuguese users and the process of building individual profiles on the online dating platform Tinder as a main goal. The outline of this research focuses on a mixed methodology for data collection, combining qualitative and quantitative methods, where data is collected via non-participant observations of 200 profiles (resulting in a corpus of 701 photographs and 87 texts), interviews (10), and subsequent content analysis. As main results obtained through data analysis triangulation, it was not only possible to observe singularities but also patterns in the self-presentation practices and identity performance, both in terms of images and textual information. The different strategies involved in the self-presentation demonstrated the reflexivity triggered by the subjects, in a dialect game, with mutual expectations and reading of the mediated collapsed contexts and imaginary audiences. Strong social regularities were found, which demonstrate the situational character of the self-presentation, which shapes the logics of action. The “interaction order” (Goffman, 1983), in a mediated context of public self-presentation, increasingly more collapsed in a web, and where the barriers with the private (backstage) appear to be more blurred, was evidenced.

Beyond the algorithmic and automated society. Towards a critical reappropriation of digital culture

El artículo apunta a una reflexión sobre los estudios y los discursos prevalecientes en el contexto de la sociedad digital contemporánea. El objetivo es de responder a la propaganda de la ideología 2.0 y a diversas prácticas culturales y económicas que fomenta, promoviendo una estrategia analítica capaz de diagnosticar los funcionamientos y las implicaciones de los dispositivos y de las gramáticas informacionales, e impulsando la difusión de una crítica tecno-cultural contra la gobernabilidad de las plataformas digitales más influyentes. Se trata de un tema crucial que involucra un cambio radical en nuestras actividades cuotidianas, científicas, económicas y cognitivas. Las ciencias sociales no deben dejar a los especialistas y empresarios del software la gestión de los datos y de los desafíos sociotécnicos contemporáneos, deben promover debates y prácticas para la génesis permanente de la “infodiversidad”.

The article aims at analyzing the studies and speeches prevalent in the contemporary digital society. The goal is to respond to the propaganda of ideology 2.0, as well as some of the cultural and economic practices that fosters, promoting an analytical strategy to diagnose the workings and implications of devices and informational grammars and thus challenging the spread of a technocultural criticism against the governmentality of the most influential digital platforms. This is a crucial issue that has to do with the radical transformation of our everyday, scientific, economic and cognitive activities. The sociology should not let to software experts and entrepreneurs the management of contemporary socio-technical challenges. It is necessary to promote and connect permanently the “infodiversity”.