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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 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]

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 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]

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has reached most countries in the world. In the field of political communication, it is an unprecedented challenge for world political leaders. The aim of this research is to analyze the war rhetoric of Pedro Sánchez, President of Spain, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic. It takes his official speeches delivered from March 10 to April 22 as a reference. Content analysis is used with a procedure created for this case, under the approach of the Critical Discourse Analysis and combining a quantitative and qualitative perspective. After a thorough bibliographical review on the use of war rhetoric in public discourse, a corpus of lexical units w identified and interpreted in context: 101 lexical units and 359 phrases or metaphors with war or military reminiscences are detected in the 13 discourses of the corpus. The greatest "warlike weight" concentrates on the most serious moments and on the victims and those infected during the crisis. The war is the transmission vehicle used by the President of the Spanish Government to convey, in a simple, visual, and moving way, a government decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has carried out the analysis of a Guidelines Proposal for Intervention with Women Victims of Gender Based Violence promoted by the Government Delegation of Spain for Gender Based Violence and aimed at professionals. From a Critical Discourse Analysis, the work has as objective to visualize the revictimizing framework from which the intervention against gender based violence is addressed. It also aims to evidence a lack of rigour extended to key processes that constitute what should be a profesional care and that inevitably impacts on the sensitive people who may need such care. Consequently, it can be seen the simplistic and reductionist conception that underlies the Social Intervention, and that devalues both the latter and its professionals (women mostly). Understanding this document as an institutional discursive production, it serves as an example of the current state of the issue. This paper points out the neccesity to improve the Intervention against Gender Based Violence, and also some of those invisible mechanisms that sustain the structural and systemic character of inequality, such as the individualization of the social issues or the perspective of scientific-professional devaluation of Social Intervention and, with that, of the involved disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Political debates on television were usually designed to provide viewers trustful information about the political candidates and their manifestos. Unfortunately, the political situation and the communication media have undergone such a change that those manifestos have become mere mediatic representations. In this article, we will analyze how the speech and the actantial position of the candidates get adjusted according to the mediatic show to become the winners, or in the best scenario, as television heroes, or maybe just the opposite. Method: Our main objective is not empirical but theoretical and methodological. We do not wish to describe the electoral debates in Spain. We are trying to highlight a model of analysis, which can be applied to different contexts, so we can contribute to fix a series of operative concepts, in a new framework. Results: To apply the suggested model will allow, among other things, to identify not only the political mediatization effects but also the marked tendency to create ceremonial gestalt in front of planned mediatic events. At the same, time it will allow to identify the aggressiveness and conflictive graduation of the different presidential candidates on the televised debates. Conclusions: From our point of view, it is a clear correlation with the polarization index that public opinion has experienced as well as a tendency to a conflictual spectacularization that television genres have developed in the last decades as a new way of doing politics and journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of the research framework of the R + D Research Project DIPURE (The Public Discourse on Refugees in Spain). The refugee crisis with which the media refers to the notable increase in refugees in 2015- especially-in the wake of the intensified conflict in Syria, our purpose is to analyze critically the discourse of written media (press) relating to educational issues. For which, the principles of the critical discourse analysis on which we base ourselves, as a research practice and instrument of social action, allow to reveal the form of symbolic construction of people, both individually and socially. Thus, the discursive representation of refugees in the press, in relation to education, with the education system or with the application -or not- of educational projects, evidences the treatment of the topic and its own social repercussion. The analysis of the data, composed of a corpus of 2943 news (April 2015-May 2017), is based on the works of discursive perspective of Brown and Yule (1983), Calsamiglia and Tusón (1999), Cortés and Camacho (2003), Íñiguez (2003) or López Alonso (2014), among others; as well as in the postulates of critical orientation of the discourse of Bañón (2002, 2003, 2004, 2007), Fairclough (1994, 1995, 2003), Fairclough and Wodak (2000), Sarangi and Coulthard (2000), Van Dijk (1997, 2000a, 2000b, 2003) and Wodak (2000) or Wodak and Meyer (2001), among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research on public opinion shows a high level of discredit of trade unions in Spain. This article focuses on one of the expressions of this discredit: the discourse on trade unionism by mass media. To this purpose, the anti-union discourse by the conservative newspaper La Razón during the first semester of 2012 is analysed. Firstly, 868 headlines of news relating to trade unions in this newspaper are explored and classified into neutral, negative or positive content. Secondly, the structure and elements of the anti-union discourse in a selection of news reports is analysed. The results reinforce the thesis that trade unions are subject to an intensive disparaging campaign which is seriously damaging their public image and their social power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades quantitative studies have documented an increase in paternal involvement. These changes have led to hypotheses of a new model of fatherhood. The aim of this paper is to explore the discourses of Spanish fathers regarding paternal involvement, identifying its structure and changing tendencies. The analysis is based on eight focus groups conducted in Madrid and Barcelona. Among the main findings we emphasize that the transition of fatherhood, not without contradictions, is causing the traditional homogeneous fatherhood to evolve toward a more complex and multidimensional conceptualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lengthy economic crisis that has been affecting Spain for over half a decade now has influenced the way in which Spaniards relate to consumption, not only in terms of spending but also in their very perception of the same. This article aims to explore the most recent social discourse regarding this issue in Spain, based on an empirical qualitative research study. To do so, data collected from a number of focus groups held during the first quarter of 2014 has been analyzed and discussed. Results reveal not only widespread saving practices, but also criticism of the idea that "we have lived beyond our means". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lengthy economic crisis that has been affecting Spain for over half a decade now has influenced the way in which Spaniards relate to consumption, not only in terms of spending but also in their very perception of the same. This article aims to explore the most recent social discourse regarding this issue in Spain, based on an empirical qualitative research study. To do so, data collected from a number of focus groups held during the first quarter of 2014 has been analyzed and discussed. Results reveal not only widespread saving practices, but also criticism of the idea that "we have lived beyond our means". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of a larger investigation in which, relying on the concept of interpretative repertoire put forward by Poter and Wetherell, we analyze the emerging discursive framework of the Andalusian Public Health System in terms of the arguments-ideas behind such framework. In a previous paper, we identified three major discursive groups that we labelled as critical, ontological, and legitimating. At this second stage, we address the subjectivities constructed on the basis of these repertoires and we emphasize three categories of subjects: healthcare, non-healthcare, and citizens. We draw attention to the multi-discursive nature of the organization and, therefore, the multi-referentiality inherent in the processes of subjectivity construction as well as the --potential-- organisational consequences of assuming one or another type of subjectivity. We conclude by proposing the need for a dialogic model of management that includes the system's multi-discursive variety toward a same direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Guidelines for Spanish university curricula include the descriptor Quantitative and Qualitative Methods, but the latter are still poorly represented. Method: To inform the argument for phenomenological methods, the last 20-year interval of ISI databases has been content-analyzed with the following codes: discourse analysis, grounded theory, narrative analysis, phenomenological analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, that is, four qualitative methods and a prototypical quantitative one. Results: In absolute terms, the most frequent qualitative method is grounded theory, followed by discourse analysis, phenomenological analysis and narrative analysis. However, taking into account content categories, only phenomenological analysis shows a clear psychological profile, similar to confirmatory factor analysis. Conclusions: We recommend starting qualitative training with a method that does not require either big groups, or big funding, and that has a procedural core that is simple, relatively well-delimited and "secularizable," a variety of thematic analysis. Historical reasons and the clear psychological profile evidenced by our results enhance our argument to foster the inclusion of phenomenological analysis in research method courses in psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to know how Catalonian citizens account water controversies in Spain, we analyzed six focus groups carried out in Catalonia in 2006. A concept of ‘urban social identity' is used for our interpretations, having been adapted to highlight its interactional character. Tracking the spatial categories used in the discussions, we identified the variety of denominations employed to debate water problems in Spain. The analysis is focused on the most frequent categories to establish their utility and identify discursive actions that participants produce. Results indicate that speakers account the “water problems" mobilizing a common sense political geography that highlights the socio-spatial and conflicting character of water issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research reported in this article is the result of an innovative teaching project carried out on the virtual campus of the University of Huelva involving the third-year students on practicum in the Social Education Diploma course. The collaborative learning processes within an asynchronic context of curricular practicals are examined by analysing speech and the depth and breadth of the social networks that emerged. This interpretation enables us to conceive future research and experiences to shape quality indicators for these learning methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze, as an example of oral political discourse, the songs of two main Spanish politics parties, during the general 2008 elections. As other texts of political discourse (such as speech, interviews, meetings, posters, advertisings, etc.), these songs that accompanied the electoral propaganda are part of a public and ideological discourse aimed at the election of a candidate (perlocutive object). The elector voting for the candidate must believe that he is the best option available. Thus, the candidate's discourse is directed so the elector knows that the candidate and his party are the best options (legitimation), while it presents the opposing candidate as the worst one (delegitimation). The results of the analysis show that these strategies, quite typical in political discourse, have some new elements such as their resemblance to commercial advertising, i.e. the testimonials by famous people. Even if the political songs are a traditional genre with conventional communicative aims (propaganda and persuasion), they display some typical features in contemporary and postmodern communication: colloquiality, informality, "carnivalization", syncretism and hibridation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of a research project on the dialogal genres of political discourse including parliamentarian debates. My aim, in this context, is to study the illocutionary modalities used by each MP in several subgenres of the Spanish parliamentary discourse on 'University' as a topic. The corpora are constituted by all discussions that took place between the first parliamentary session with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as President of Spain (16th of April 2004) and the end of the 8th legislature in 2007. I focus on the illocutionary modalities with dominance of the deontic type (suggestion, need, duty), which should show the range of aspirations that the different parties represented in the Spanish camera have for the Spanish university. Because the wishes and goals expressed by the MPs arise from their knowledge of reality or, to be more precise, from the representation that the different groups have of reality, these modalities are supported in epistemic modalities either implicitly or explicitly. I conclude by describing (i) the current perception that the citizens' representatives have of the University and the objectives for its future development, and (ii) the specific way in which each parliamentary group addresses this topic, which is manifested in the discourse of the different speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work offers a discursive analysis of questions in face to face political debates. From a corpus of five debates held in Spain during the General Elections of 1993 and 2008, the author analyses a wide range of question types which differ from other speech genres both from a quality and quantity standpoint. Next to questions meant by the speaker to get a reply and obtain information from his/her interlocutor, there are others that don't follow that pattern. However, among the latter we should distinguish between traditional rhetorical questions which do not need reply and others of a mixed nature since they share some characteristics of both types. On the one hand, just like rhetorical questions, they don't look for the interlocutor's response but, unlike diese ones, they follow the usual search for information of standard questions. Their peculiarity lies on the fact that this information is provided by the speaker and not by the opponent. At die same time, institutional constraints of these debates are such that die answer is not meant to solve the cognitive gap of the speaker or the interlocutor, but that of the audience, die final target of the politicians' messages in electoral campaigns. In addition to the interactional and informational analysis, the article reviews other functions of the referred and other questions, both at argumentative and interpersonal levels, as well as the influence of various contextual factors that help to explain die varied distribution of these utterances in the corpus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past few years have been witness to a significant progress of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Spain due to the development of several initiatives promoted, initially by the private sector, and from 2004 thanks to the determined governmental promotion. The most visible result of the new public policies of CSR promotion was the creation of three areas for dialogue (Parliamentary Subcommittee, Forum of Experts and The Table for Social Dialogue) where companies, union and business organizations, experts, mass media, academic and social organizations, along with public administrations, in order to supply the government with concrete guidelines for the promotion and dissemination of the practices of RSE. The present work analyzes the speeches made public by the three forums for dialogue with the aim to investigate to what extent this process of dialogue has contributed to clarify the objective and the road toward sustainability. Set against the general satisfaction with which the conclusions of the three areas of dialogue have been greeted, our work presents some reflections on the possible capture of the process and of its results on the part of the corporations' interests in detriment of the sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a discourse analysis of the Civic Ordinance of Barcelona, adopted by the City Hall of Barcelona- Spain in January of 2006, in order to typify and manage behaviour in the public spaces of the city. The textual corpus we used for this analysis is the Ordinance project in its two versions. The Discourse Analysis methodology used in this study has been proposed by different authors in this field (Martín Rojo, 2001; Parker, 1992; Potter & Wetherell, 1987; Van Dijk, 2003; Wetherell, 2001). Results point to the emergence of two kinds of discourses inside the text, as well as the strategies from which both discourses allow the construction of citizens' identities as a new way of governability in the spaces of contemporary European cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work I will look at conversational data collected in a water company in Galicia. The interactions will be analysed as processes related to the reproduction of institutional order, and also linked to processes of social change. In this sense, I will show how the interactions reflect, and built, in the particular situation, the "normal" democratic order, where citizens have rights and duties. On the other side, I will explain how communicative processes enact social change, and reflect the activation of different interpretative frames and power relations. Consequently, it is shown that a complex link exists between communicative processes and institutional processes. From a methodological point of view, I will emphasize the complexity of the relations between the interactional order and the institutional order, and will stress that the understanding of microsocial processes contribute to the understanding of macrosocial processes, and vice-versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]