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

The journalistic state of emergency that occurs during a health crisis is characterised by a substantial increase in the number of news items and a heightened risk of incurring in journalistic dysfunctions. These may vary between different sections of a newspaper. This study has examined 124 front pages and 151 editorials from El País, La Vanguardia, El Mundo and El Periódico published between 17/04/2020 and 17/05/2020 by applying inductive content analysis. 26% of the front pages contained journalistic dysfunctions of at least one of the 8 subtypes described. However, these were only found in 14% of the editorials, mostly being linguistic in nature. The editorials tended to convey a message of rigour, prudence, and calm. This seems to concur with the journalistic theorem affirming that, during a serious health crisis, the most truthful and reassuring information is to be found in editorials rather than on front pages, which are more alarmist and sensationalist. A new corollary is proposed for this theorem: journalistic dysfunctions in editorials increase in a polarised political context.

Ficha técnica: Esther Martínez Pastor e Isabel Serrano Maíllo (Coordinadoras)Editorial FraguaMadrid, 2022101 pp. ISBN: 978-84-70749-42-1

In recent years, both public institutions and sectors of civil society have used so-called “mini-publics” to combat citizens’ growing apathy towards politics. This paper analyses and explores the opportunities and challenges presented by this way of understanding citizen participation, in which ICT has played a major role. Two specific experiences have been compared: the G1000 in Belgium and the Citizens’ Assemblies in Ireland. Even though the political implementation of the consensual conclusions after the deliberative process ultimately depends on a specific commitment on the part of public institutions, these experiments are helping to introduce new ways of conceiving democratic legitimacy in political discourse.

This article is a review of the book Fake News, disinformation and other information disorders, written by Professors Ángela Moreno and Beatriz del Carmen Martinez Isidoro. Thus, its structure will be described, as well as its most important arguments, with the aim of showing the value of the work for our societies. 

Ficha técnica: Juan Carlos Alfeo y Luis Deltell (Editores)Editorial FraguaMadrid, 2021236 pp.ISBN: 978-84-7074-967-4

Technological transformation is driving the evolution of the media ecosystem, in which data journalism is consolidating as an area of development. Among the aspects associated to this journalistic modality, data visualization, news verification and investigative journalism stand out. In this context, newsrooms made up of interdisciplinary teams are flourishing, where technological skills are gaining ground. Using the focus group technique, we collected the qualified opinions of twelve journalists from Spanish media, whose daily work is related to data journalism. We completed this with two in-depth interviews with journalism professionals from The Washington Post and The Guardian, both pioneering media in its implementation. Our results indicate that the most valued skills are centered on database exploitation, big data analysis, visualization, and fact-checking. In Spain, data journalism is not advancing at the desired speed, because it is difficult to find qualified professionals and investments in technology is insufficient. In the Anglo-Saxon world, progress is remarkable, with a significant rise in the Graphics department. In both scenarios, data-related skills improve journalists' employability and career advancement.

The UN environmental campaign “Break up with plastic” is used within the Go Green! project to sensitize university students about the consumption of plastics. The research proposes: 1) know the affective-emotional responses and level of pro-environmental involvement of Education degree students after viewing it; and 2) identify their opinions about the persuasive capacity of the narrative, message and protagonist. The methodology is mixed: quantitative, as a non-experimental empirical study, with non-probabilistic sampling -project participants (N=296)-, with a descriptive and correlational nature, based on data collected with a questionnaire. And, qualitatively, through focus groups. The results underline that the message of the campaign supported by the storytelling technique generates a lot of interest and empathy with the protagonist. The narrative is highly valued and encourages great environmental involvement. Its pro-environmental impact is high, related to the level of ecological awareness of the students. It raises awareness and awareness to reduce the consumption of plastics, although not everyone changes their attitude. Concluding, the campaign transforms an informative message into a persuasive story, activating the interest of the audience. However, it is necessary to design more explicit campaigns that invite concrete actions and propose eco-sustainable behaviors that can be emulated.

One of the solutions that many journalistic media have embraced in order to adapt more effectively to the digital disruption is the creation of innovation labs. The aim of this paper is to gain knowledge regarding the organisation and structure of such labs among Spanish-language media, as well as the impact on innovation by the new, non-journalistic professionals who have joined their newsrooms. This research involves a multi-case study that compares the laboratories of five journalistic organisations: RTVE and El País (Spain), El Colombiano (Colombia), La Diaria (Uruguay), and Ojo Público (Peru). By analysing their innovation projects, and through interviews with their managers, the results indicate two different types of laboratories: those designed to renew the narrative formats of traditional media; and those that originate in the new media. Both engage in innovation at all levels of the company and interact with the target audience to generate new projects, which are sometimes unrelated to journalistic work. The majority of the professionals in these labs have a non-journalistic profile, which enhances the technological and visual potential of the new narratives, making the most of the data generated on digital platforms, and accurately aligning new products with the needs of the market.

Como agentes de innovación y de generación de conocimiento, las universidades aprovechan su elevado capital simbólico para extender a las redes sociales la labor divulgadora que ya realizaban a través de los medios de comunicación. Por su parte, la comunicación científica se ha caracterizado por una brecha de género en la que las mujeres, a pesar de las iniciativas para promover su presencia en el ámbito de la ciencia, logran una visibilidad reducida que repercute en su imagen social. Esta investigación analiza con una perspectiva de género los contenidos publicados en Twitter y Facebook por parte de tres centros universitarios de referencia, con el objetivo de conocer qué tipo de contenidos publican, las áreas científicas a las que pertenecen y el enganche que generan. Los resultados indican, por una parte, que la divulgación científica constituye una parte relevante de la actividad comunicativa que las universidades desarrollan a través de sus cuentas en las redes sociales. Por otro lado, los datos también apuntan a una presencia de las mujeres cuantitativamente menor y cualitativamente más subordinada, en particular en las áreas CTIM.  

We examine whether internationally relevant journalism innovations of the last decade support journalistic diversity and inclusion aspects and look at the degree of their editorial institutionalization. To approach an answer, thirty-eight guided interviews were conducted between the end of 2021 and summer 2022 along thirty-eight innovative journalism case studies among five European countries. We show that diversity is seen as a key journalism innovation in all five countries. We find that innovative journalism initiatives show diversity-relevant references and influence the degree of diversity and inclusion accessible to the audience in a positive manner. Thus, efforts to strengthen innovation in the media industry are an important building block for ensuring future journalism that does not want to distance itself from social reality. However, based on structuration theory considerations, we conclude that large numbers of innovative journalism initiatives are not sufficient to institutionalize diversity and inclusion. Instead, these aspects need to be defined explicitly as editorial quality goals which are anchored in an editorial quality management system.