Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This article presents a theoretical conceptualisation of the pervasiveness of mechanisms of economic and political power in modern media, as represented in José Ricardo Morales’ play Cómo el poder de las noticias nos da noticias del poder (1971). This article focuses on two interconnected research questions: 1) What are the specific rhetorical strategies hybridising corporate-political discourse in the media that are represented by José Ricardo Morales in his play? 2) How do the rhetorical strategies and discourses represented in the play contribute to a new understanding of the impact of media intervention, both by corporate media and politicians, on audiences/readers today? This article critically analyses and discusses Morales’s unique, oblique critical approach to the media, and the political and discursive challenges made in the play. These orientate contemporary sets of beliefs while re-signifying the material and symbolic configurations of the Western globalised social fabric. The analysis shows that the dramatic piece contains a predictive discourse in presenting the role of journalism, both defying national literary canons and anticipating several issues related to media intervention by corporate media and politicians in the 1970s, especially in the Chilean context.

The aims of this study are to analyze the presence of endorsers in DS advertising on Spanish radio and the health-related product information of endorsements on full service Spanish radio. To this end, the content analysis of all radio spots broadcast throughout the year 2017 is conducted, deriving a corpus of 165 different radio spots belonging to the product category of dietary supplements, broadcast a total of 10,566 times. According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model, endorsers are a peripheral cue and increase advertising persuasion. The main results show that the most prevalent type of endorser in DS radio spots is the anonymous spokesperson, followed by celebrities, and that endorsers use explicit claims more frequently than implicit claims. Additionally, experts and celebrities use rational appeals more frequently while emotional appeals predominate in endorsements by typical consumers. Thus, rational appeals are prevalent in endorsements voiced by the most credible endorsers: experts and celebrities. That is, the higher the social recognition and credibility of the endorser, the greater the weight of direct, explicit and rational arguments in the message, while less attention is given to emotional appeals.

Spanish series production between 1990 and 2010 (from the analogue switch-off to deregulation and the arrival of new TV channels and platforms) stands out for a large number of “based-on-real-events” dramas. These include historical events, traumatic events of little historical import and biographical accounts of eminent figures. This paper analyses the veracity of archival footage and other media resources (press, radio) included in these series and the way in which they used. A quantitative and qualitative analysis, combined with an extensive literature review, shows that some of the apparently real historical footage and images integrated into these series are in actual fact fake. The viewer’s possible confusion in decoding these images would suggest that the use of archival material in fictional drama brings it closer to genres traditionally considered non-fiction. Finally, the inclusion of real (and fake) archival footage in audio-visual accounts of past events appears to fulfil an ideological function.

There is a trend in female film production in the 21st century in the context of Spain towards a type of cinema that we could classify as haptic. It is a mode of representation concerned with multisensory expression in film images. In this article, we shall study this haptic visuality in the works of four filmmakers: Isabel Coixet, Paula Ortiz, Mar Coll and Carla Simón, whose films in this century exemplify the trend. The method chosen is textual analysis, which will provide us with the necessary tools to study matters concerning representation (framing), narration (nuclei and catalysis) and communication (spectatorial subject). These three analytical categories together will enable us to set out the representational parameters of haptic cinema in filmic texts. The results obtained reveal that the elements related to framing (handheld camera usage, grainy images, and the recurrent presence of close-ups) help to express the characters’ subjective, sensory world. As for the narrative model, a prevalence of catalysis and descriptive function can be seen, which helps the characters’ affections and emotions to be widely expressed. Likewise, inferences and ellipsis help weave filmic discourses that involve the audience cognitively, constructing a communicative model that fosters interpretational openness and a kind of interpellation that seeks affective and intellectual communion with the spectatorial subject.

This article examines the presence of women filmmakers in Spanish independent cinema by assessing the national circulation of their works in the alternative distribution and exhibition circuit where gender studies are almost inexistent. Along with other neighboring countries, independent filmmaking enjoys a growing cultural weight within a national cinema conditioned by digitalization and the domination of multinational corporations in the aftershock of the economic crisis. The study, based on a representative sample to quantify female directors, carries out a cross-sectional examination in three areas within independent film circulation that, in turn, endow them with such status: festivals, specialized VOD platforms and independent film distribution companies with catalogs for release in traditional movie theaters or the cultural sector. The chosen timeframe is 2013-2018, from the moment independent cinema, branded as other cinema, achieves increased visibility, and establishes itself as an alternative to the commercial cinema in Spain up to the most recent year with available data. The research shows that, although there is a more significant proportion of female filmmakers than in commercial production, it continues to be a minority in the 20% range. Such underrepresentation does not only affect the cultural value of women’s work but also raises questions on the nature of a type of independent film practices that lay claim to cultural diversity.

How to make sense of post-truth? As the erosion of truth seems to be on the rise in contemporary societies, apparently threatening the deliberative function assigned to their public spheres and the health of democratic systems, it has become a necessity to deal with this controversial phenomenon. This paper provides a genealogy for post-truth, shedding light on its roots. It focus on three different dimensions of “post-truthfulness:” the philosophical dimension, which relates to the long theoretical debate about the possibility of truth, the conclusion of which is largely skeptical about a strong position on universally recognizable truths; the affective dimension, which takes into account the insights provided by contemporary literature on emotions; and the technological dimension, that is, the digital transformation of the public sphere. The convergence of these currents explains the rise of post-truth democracies. However, as the last section tries to demonstrate, a distinction between different types of truth is required, lest post-truth theories end up producing a nostalgia for something that never existed. After all, liberal democracies are themselves skeptical, their relationship with truth being unavoidably complex and ambiguous. Thus, distinguishing between post-truth and post-factualism can be useful for organizing the democratic conversation from a normative and practical standpoint.

Televised politics have become an essential focal point in the planning of the electoral campaigns of any political party. Television is the main source of information during electoral processes and politainment programs have become decisive engagements for candidates. This paper carries out a diachronic analysis of the evolution of the audience of Spanish televised debates in order to verify whether this format is worn out. The sample includes ten electoral debates between presidential candidates held before April 2019. In addition, it focuses on the integration of other platforms in the broadcasting and viewing of the electoral debate, e.g. Twitter. The results of this research show the interest of the Spanish audience in this format, from the first broadcast in 1993 up until today, turning them into real television milestones. Likewise, the candidates have also increased their presence on television through other entertainment formats in order to show furthermore human and emotional facets to the electorate. This recent media exposure of political leaders has also been followed by the Spanish citizens.

Homeland security and defense are common themes in superhero films. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is formed by more than twenty films made over the course of a decade (2008-2019), during the government of three different Presidents of the United States. In this paper we analyze the diminishing representation of real defense forces in the MCU films. How the interference of the superhero is used as a narrative excuse to suggest a lack of or deficiencies in the law concerning freedom and defense is also studied, as well as how the films make a metaphorical discourse about the historical reality after September 11th.

The United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union (broadly known as Brexit) is one of the most outstanding historical events of the 21st Century to date. Two major figures have led this process politically: Theresa May and Boris Johnson, the two Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom since 2016. This paper, however, focuses on the former, as she is a female politician in a controversial situation, and thus the way she is presented can serve an example of how women in power are represented by the media. This research was designed with the aim of discovering the roles attributed to Theresa May by Spanish digital media throughout this process. The fact that people in Spain are becoming deeply concerned with women’s advances in society was motivated the desire to test how Spanish media represent female leaders, such as May. To complete this study, fifty-four publications from three different Spanish digital media leaders of audience (El Mundo, El País and El Español) were taken as a reference. The methodological procedure used was Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), based on semantic relationships, and although some comparisons between relative and absolute frequencies were made, the general approach is basically qualitative. Through this analysis, it has been discovered that Theresa May is presented in a different way depending on the remaining characters, usually masculine, who participate in the action. These differences are mainly observable between those articles in which May relates to her European counterparts and those in which she deals with her British colleagues.

New technologies allow politicians to spread their messages omitting the role of mediators. In this context, the Internet has also promoted the emergence of a new actor, digital opinion leaders, who go beyond traditional politics and seek to set the public agenda. One of the main questions nowadays is whether social media, and in particular Twitter as a consolidated tool for political communication, is only used as a sounding board for their political statements, spurring the messages of populist forces. With this in mind, the main objective of this research is to explore the influence of the far-right in the public debate of political leaders on Twitter, analyzing the specific case of the Andalusian regional elections held in December 2018. These elections can be considered a political turning point, with an extreme right party winning seats in a Spanish regional election for the first time in 35 years. In this paper we analyze if Vox used a differentiated strategy via this social network compared to the candidates of the traditional parties: PSOE, PP, Ciudadanos, and Adelante Andalucía. Using content analysis on Twitter as a method, this research determines how Vox candidates worked as influencers of the digital political debate, despite being extra-parliamentary. Vox marked the agenda for the rest of the leaders, while generating great expectation among the audience.