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A snapshot of communication research in Spain that uses qualitative methods as the dominant methodological perspective is presented. We conduct a content analysis to study the characteristics, objects and techniques that predominate in a census of 1,025 scientific productions from 2007 to 2018, which includes doctoral theses, projects and articles published in scientific journals. In the indexed publications, there is a certain lack of qualitative articles, despite the importance they have in doctoral theses and research projects. These researches use or triangulate qualitative methods, but not all techniques are used equally. Communication studies frequently resort to discourse analysis and in-depth interviews, but the presence of observations and discussion groups is minimal. The objects of study are also varied, although audiovisual formats prevail over journalistic formats and there is a growing interest in digital media and formats. Finally, at the author level, the results reveal parity, although the gender gap in the highest level studies is worrying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to analyze how the covid-19 pandemic affected the perceptions and uses of time of domestic workers in Spain, focusing, in particular, on the cities of Granada and Zaragoza. Our work derives from the project "El cuidado importa. Impacto de género en las cuidadoras/es de mayores y dependientes en tiempos de la Covid-19" (CUMADE) coordinated by Universidad Rovira I Virgili de Tarragona-Cataluña (Spain), and run by interdisciplinary research teams from ten Spanish universities between the months of September 2020 and January 2021. The research is qualitative, based on in-depth interviews, and designed to investigate the impact of covid-19 on the care of the elderly and dependents and, more specifically, on the domestic workers' sector. Temporality, so severely affected by the uncertainty and unpredictability of the new situation, provides an interesting axis for qualitative analysis of the discourses of women workers on the way in which the pandemic has conditioned their daily lives. To undertake this analysis, we base ourselves on the work of Ramón Ramos on las imágenes sociales del tiempo (the social images of time). This approach represents an original and novel analysis of the reality of domestic workers, while at the same time dialoguing with other recent work on this issue. The images of time as a resource, scenario, or horizon serve to analyze the discourse of our interviewees and show how time, understood as a social category, has structured and organized their lives. We consider what they have been able to do and what they have not been able to do, the distribution and intensification of tasks, their plans for the future, and the physical and emotional impact of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate crisis and the environmental emergency are a sign of uncertainty for the future of the planet. European and national educational directives establish the framework of action and the commitments that must be made by each agent to reach the new sustainable paradigm which is based on circularity. The school, as an institution of social transformation, faces a reproductive framework that feeds the consumer socio-economic structure, covering up the urgency of the problem. The aim is to identify the forces for change to improve the intervention mechanisms in the educational field in Spain aimed at fostering the involvement and the participation of young people. The qualitative methodology combines discourse analysis using Grounded Theory and prospective analysis using the scenario method. By means of a validated questionnaire, semistructured interviews and focus groups are conducted with technicians and managers, trainers of trainers, teachers, and researchers (n=53). The discourse of the agents and legislation on education and sustainability are analysed to generate substantive theory. By means of the theorization obtained, drivers and constraints are identified, establishing a probability and impact matrix that allows for the visualization of three possible futures. It concludes with a set of recommendations to strengthen the desired scenario and to reduce the possibilities of the dystopian scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is based on the conviction that poverty and social exclusion are closely related. The current context of crisis resulting from the global pandemic caused by Covid-19, neoliberal policies and the lack of employment are generating large pockets of social exclusion, which has led to a debate on the need to implement more solid social protection measures and to reinforce existing ones. This study analyzes in a comparative manner the effectiveness of the Minimum Insertion Income (RMI) in Spain and the Social Insertion Income (RSI) in Portugal in the face of the phenomenon of poverty. The study opted for a qualitative methodology, choosing discourse analysis to analyze the empirical material obtained through the 26 semi-structured interviews and the 3 focus groups conducted. Priority was given to the information in which the subjects described their contexts, actions, values and representations. In general terms, it can be stated that users have a negative conception of both social policies, as a result of their dissatisfaction with three major common areas of conflict, the most frequently mentioned problems being: delays in the granting of benefits; the low amount offered; and the limitation of insertion mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disinformation has become a core concept in communications research, related to media, technological and political phenomena that complexify its definition and diagnosis. Although its approach has been mainly quantitative, focus groups have also been used to understand the perception of the audience of this particular issue. This research is part of this second group of studies, and attempts to investigate the notions and discourses on disinformation in the case of Spain. For this purpose, seven discussion groups were conducted, with a structural sample constructed according to employment situation, ideology and age. The results show a perception of the communicative ecosystem structured in two chronological poles, which contrasts a past of reduced information supply – associated with traditional media – with a current informational environment where there is more media diversity, but also less trust in them. The groups point to the overabundance of information and associated disinformation with decontextualisation, low-quality journalism and the economic and political interests of different actors. Discourses outline a scenario of decline in journalism and the public sphere, which is perceived as polarised and emotional. Disinformation is therefore perceived as a multidimensional phenomenon that is associated with issues of major democratic transcendence rather than merely sending hoaxes through the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historic city, in both structural and morphological dimensions, has been settle down as a main heritage resource throughout the second half of the 20th century. However, in Spain, its legal protection through city planning tools was not effective until the beginning of this century. By means of a critical and targeted analysis of planning discourses, norms and management, this article displays the characteristics and consequences of its implementation on urban heritage during that period. The study case is Seville, a city with a complex and large historic center, which is an excellent example for extrapolating to other Spanish cities. The results evince that, in spite of an evolution progressively more respectful with the historic city, a combination of economic interests with ideological and professional approaches contributed, in a direct way, to a relevant destruction of the urban heritage of Seville. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastronomy is a thriving economic activity in Spain within the framework of a tourist destination of international excellence. Thought and philosophy allow us a critical analysis of the reality by means of Foucault's method of archeogenealogy. For this, two antagonistic realities are presented as a starting point: business sector practices and the precarious employment of the sector. The analysis of the discourses is carried out to gather two realities that coexist in the same space but do not represent a classic conflict of collective bargaining. In this study it is demonstrated that the dominant discourse of gastronomic power generates new poor people in the labor market and indicates a gastronomic work ethic incompatible with a sustainable growth of the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article shows the research carried out on the information projection of one of the largest mass media channels in Spain in relation to social mobilization. The methodology, from the structuralist sociological approach to communication and the new theories of mass communication, mixes quantitative and qualitative techniques. The initial hypothesis is that these media channels build their information processes around profit extraction and within the scheme of the hegemonic systemic order. The results tend to confirm this, revealing a framing of the news with high spectacular content and the application of a differentiating narrative that excludes various themes and social actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, popularly known as Brexit, has a great media coverage in Spain. Thus, this paper analyses the journalistic treatment and the ideological bias that this political event received. To do this, a study of the semantic prosody of the term 'Brexit' in the Spanish press was carried out. The study covers a broad period of time, from the exit referendum in June 2016 to the second extension in October 2019. To achieve the analysis, a corpus for specific purposes was compiled made up of the most widely read newspapers in Spain according to the Estudio General de Medios. Specifically, four generalist newspapers (El País, El Mundo, La Vanguardia and ABC) and three economic newspapers (Expansión, Cinco Días and El Economista). The data obtained showed that Brexit received mostly negative coverage in all newspapers, especially economic newspapers that presented a greater number of negative co-occurrences with the term Brexit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the final statements (“golden minutes”) of televised electoral debates in Spain between 1993 and 2019. The methodology is adjusted to the cognitive analysis of discourse, analyzing three pragmatic indicators that could reveal an evolution in three stages of Spanish politics: the bipartisan phase (1993-2011), an adjustment phase (2011-2015) and a multiparty phase (2015- 2019). The discursive spaces dependent on the predicative strategy, the predominant illocutionary force, and the use of superstructures are analyzed. It is concluded that, for the three phases, the variables referring to the use of enunciative persons (which points to the introduction of the ethos of discourse), and the recourse to speech acts of expressive illocutionality (which reinforce the introduction of the pathos) are especially relevant. These preponderances are reinforced by a high level of rhetorical elaboration and a preference for enumerative structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]