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Twitter data are used as alternative metrics (altmetrics) to measure the impact or attention of research. Tweets are used to communicate about papers. However, Twitter data can only be used for research evaluation purposes, if biases do not influence tweet decisions on papers. The existence of biases can only be reasonably investigated using an experimental design with controlled (marginal) manipulations. In this comment, we propose to undertake an experimental approach to study the decision of scientists to ‘tweet’ on a paper. We describe the design of a study that might allow the experimental investigation of tweet decisions including randomized variations and theoretically derived mechanisms for explaining the empirical results. The described study design should be adaptable to other social media platforms (e.g., Facebook or ResearchGate). This comment is intended to be a plea for using an experimental design to investigate biases in tweet decisions. It is an advantage of tweets –in contrast to citations– that an experimental approach can be applied to investigate the decision of scientists to communicate on papers.

The multi-channel and multi-platform technologies allow the mobility of information, which has a direct impact on the evolution of the electronic book. The change is dictated by the emergence of a new generation of electronic paper devices, as well as their own models of information management. In the present paper we review the electronic book concept and present the basic characteristics of the devices that can be found on the market; then we describe the elements needed to carry out projects that produce works designed for electronic ink devices. Las tecnologías multiplataforma y multicanal permiten la movilidad de la información, cosa que tiene una incidencia directa sobre la evolución del libro electrónico. El cambio viene dado por la aparición de una nueva generación de dispositivos de tinta electrónica, así como por los propios modelos de gestión de la información. En el presente trabajo se revisa el concepto de libro electrónico y se presentan las características básicas de los dispositivos que se pueden encontrar en el mercado, para a continuación exponer los elementos necesarios para la ejecución de proyectos de producción de obras para dispositivos de tinta electrónica.

This is both a historical overview of reader devices of electronic documents and a description of the current technology characterized by the so called “electronic paper”. Gyricon technologies are analysed as well as the electrophoretic screens and devices that use the electrowetting principle. A wide variety of file formats compatible with the different kinds of reader devices are shown, as well as the problems derived from reader incompatibility. The more outstanding models available in the market and their services are also described. A reflection is proposed about the different usages and their effectiveness, document dissemination, and the expectations that the e-readers have created regarding future development. Nowadays these devices make the reading of electronic documents easier and more comfortable.

This paper studies the social structure of Spanish and Latin American communication researchers through the representation and analysis of three coauthorship networks at the national, institutional, and individual level. Such networks are built from papers indexed in the ‘Communication’ category by Web of Science and published between 2000 and 2019 by authors attached to a Spanish or Latin American institution (n = 5,040). The goal is to characterize the structural features of each network, identify the most central actors, and illustrate the most relevant relationships among nodes. The results show that the most central country is Spain, followed by the USA and other European nations. Among the Latin American states, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico are placed at the most relevant nodes. Latin American collaboration is preferentially addressed to the USA, especially since 2015. Regarding institutions, Spanish public universities in Madrid and Catalonia achieve the highest degrees of centrality. However, the most central Latin American institutions are private universities. The most relevant authors are Spanish researchers until 2015, when they are replaced at the top by Latin American scholars. Collaboration at both the individual and institutional levels shows a deep regional tendency, while the internationalization of researchers and universities is only more visible since 2015. This work identifies a tendency towards internal cohesion at different network levels as the number of connected nodes grows in each period. We conclude that a proper Spanish-Latin America community of communication researchers does not exist. Resumen Se aborda la estructura social de la comunidad española y latinoamericana de investigadores en Comunicación. Para ello se representan y analizan las redes de coautorías en tres niveles: naciones, instituciones y autores. Estas redes se construyen a partir de los artículos de revistas indexadas en la Web of Science categorizadas dentro del área “Communication” y publicados entre 2000 y 2019 por autores con afiliación a un centro español o latinoamericano (n = 5.040). Se busca así caracterizar estructuralmente cada red, identificar los actores más centrales y delimitar las relaciones más relevantes entre los nodos y medir la cohesión de la red, así como trazar la evolución de las coautorías en el período analizado. Los resultados muestran que el país más central es España, seguido por Estados Unidos y otras naciones europeas. Entre los estados latinoamericanos, Brasil, Chile y México ocupan los lugares más relevantes. La colaboración de Latinoamérica se dirige preferentemente hacia Estados Unidos, especialmente a partir de 2015. En cuanto a las instituciones, las universidades públicas madrileñas y catalanas destacan por su centralidad. Por el contrario, las universidades latinoamericanas más centrales son centros privados. Respecto a los autores, los más centrales son especialmente investigadores españoles, pero a partir de 2015 son reemplazados en los puestos más relevantes por autores latinoamericanos. No obstante, la colaboración, tanto institucional como individual, es marcadamente regional. La internacionalización de individuos e instituciones sólo se hace más visible a partir de 2015. Se identifica una tendencia a la cohesión interna de las redes en sus distintos niveles en tanto que aumenta el número de nodos conectados entre sí. Se concluye que no existe una comunidad propiamente hispano-latinoamericana de investigación en Comunicación.

The disruption index (DI) based on bibliographic coupling and uncoupling between a document and its references was first proposed by Funk & Owen-Smith (2017) for citation relations among patents and then adapted for scholarly papers by Wu et al. (2019). However, Wu & Wu (2019) argued that this indicator would be inconsistent. We propose revised disruption indices (DI* and DI#) which make the indicator theoretically more robust and consistent. Along similar lines, Chen et al. (2020) developed the indicator into two dimensions: disruption and consolidation. We elaborate the improvements in simulations and empirically. The relations between disruption, consolidation, and bibliographic coupling are further specified. Bibliographic coupling of a focal paper with its cited references generates historical continuity. A two-dimensional framework is used to conceptualize dis-continuity not as a residual, but a dimension which can further be specified.

This paper aims to present, analyze, and compare the main deontological recommendations published by various international institutions and organizations since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis. A total of 10 codes were identified from the period between February and April 2020, during which the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak a global pandemic. Additionally, three general and transnational model deontological texts published before the crisis have been included in this analysis. The methodology used in this paper includes a content analysis based on four categories corresponding to the fundamental pillars of most deontological codes: truth, freedom, responsibility, and justice. Furthermore, this paper determines the most common ethical guidelines and criteria presented in all the analyzed texts and, with the goal of helping information and journalistic professionals, these guidelines are used as a reference point to propose an outline of recommendations for the responsible coverage of the Covid-19 crisis.

Since framing theory was incorporated into Communication studies, its use by researchers has increased steadily, to study the presence of frames both within the communicative process and especially in the different parts thereof. This paper reviews the evolution of this theory within Communication, paying special attention to various relevant aspects. Specifically, the main proposals for existing frame typologies are extracted and discussed. The debates about the visualization of framing as a research program or project as well as the fields in which it is studied are reviewed. In addition, this paper reviews the logic of such research in the three main fields of study within the theory: frame building, the presence of news frames in messages, and the framing effects on the audience, providing a review of the methodological approaches followed in each of these lines of work. Resumen Desde que la teoría del framing se incorporó a los estudios de la comunicación, su utilización por parte de los investigadores se ha incrementado de forma constante, tanto para estudiar la presencia de los encuadres dentro del proceso comunicativo en su conjunto, como sobre todo en las partes que lo conforman. En este artículo se realiza un repaso de la evolución de la teoría en la disciplina, prestando especial atención a algunos aspectos relevantes. En concreto, se recuperan las principales propuestas de tipologías de encuadres existentes, y se revisa el debate sostenido acerca de la visualización del framing como un programa o proyecto de investigación, y de los campos de su estudio. Además, en el texto se revisa la lógica de la investigación en los tres principales campos de estudio de la teoría: construcción de los encuadres, presencia de encuadres noticiosos en los mensajes, y efectos que el framing tiene sobre la audiencia, haciendo una revisión de los acercamientos metodológicos seguidos en cada una de esas líneas de trabajo.

In Scopus there are four times more documents in first-quartile publications than in fourth-quartile ones. Publishers intend to adjust the editorial supply to the demand from authors, which seems to focus primarily on Q1 publications. Since 44% of the papers are concentrated in Q1 journals, papers published in journals in this quartile will be more likely to exceed the global average of impact. To the extent that publications are in greater demand by authors, they tend to be absorbed in different ways by large publishing groups. It has not been the growth of the editorial offer that has caused this over-demand from authors, but rather the identification of part of the editorial offering by public regulators as reliable in the research evaluation processes, resulting in a concentration of demand for Q1 journals by researchers.

We analyzed the results obtained for the total count between 2007 and 2018 of (1) doctoral theses defended in the 55 universities with undergraduate and/or graduate studies in communication that offer doctoral degrees, (2) competitive projects in state calls in the social sciences and humanities areas where the object of study includes a socially significant dimension of “communication” practices, and (3) papers resulting from R&D projects published in reference journals in the area of communication. These documents are the most representative of the research activity of faculty, because they constitute the published results originating from research that is recognized and legitimized by academic life, without which such documents could not have been published. Thus, the articles collected here constitute a census of publications based on previous research, since all those articles whose object of study was not previous research were not selected, e.g., essays, or epistemological reviews of authors, schools, and/or theoretical or methodological trends. Papers presented at Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación (AE-IC) congresses, which are also being studied as part of the MapCom project, could also have been included; however, they are only considered tangentially herein because only a minority of them are expressly linked to research results. This overview of the productivity of communication research in Spain over a decade analyzes documents grouped by universities, Autonomous Communities, author gender, and years. A total of 4,158 documents have been analyzed. The results reflect the influence of the scientific policies of the research quality assessment agencies. Resumen Se analizan los resultados obtenidos entre 2007 y 2018 del cómputo total de, 1) tesis doctorales defendidas en las 55 universidades con Facultades de grados y/o postgrados en comunicación; 2) y en éstas, los proyectos competitivos en convocatorias estatales en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades y cuyo objeto de estudio sea una dimensión socialmente relevante de las prácticas de “Comunicación”; y 3) artículos derivados de estos proyectos I+D publicados en las revistas de referencia en Comunicación. Estos documentos son los más representativos de la actividad investigadora de los profesores universitarios, y constituyen un censo de publicaciones basadas en investigaciones previas. Los artículos cuyo objeto de estudio no ha sido una investigación previa no han sido seleccionados (ensayos, revisiones epistemológicas de autores, escuelas y/o tendencias teóricas o metodológicas). Las comunicaciones presentadas en congresos de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación (AE-IC) sólo son consideradas en esta exposición de forma tangencial, pues sólo una minoría de ellas es resultado de investigaciones originales. Con tales resultados se ha perfilado mediante un análisis comparativo de contenido, la productividad de la investigación en Comunicación en España durante una década, tomando en consideración los respectivos censos de documentos referidos según universidades, y que supone el análisis de Comunidades autónomas, género de sus autores y años. Se ha analizado un total de 4.158 documentos. Los resultados permiten contemplar, como conclusión más general, una evolución histórica marcada por la influencia de las políticas científicas derivadas de la imposición de las agencias de evaluación de la calidad investigadora.

Scholarly monographs provide a good example to show the evolution of the impact that digital publishing has had over the last few decades in the transmission and communication of scientific information. On the one hand, in the area of Social Sciences and Humanities relevance in quantitative terms has been undermined, giving prominence to other document types such as research papers published in academic journals. Moreover, their visibility and accessibility have been conditioned by a number of factors that form an intrinsic part of the digital medium itself. Based on these two fundamental premises, this paper aims to analyze only the situation of scholarly monographs in institutional systems for research assessment and tenure, from the perspective of the various proposed requirements regarding accreditation for the different figures of university teaching staff and the request for Spanish recognition of six-year research periods.

This paper analyzes this http URL, one of the most important altmetric data providers currently used. We have analyzed a set of publications with DOI number indexed in the Web of Science during the period 2011-2013 and collected their data with the Altmetric API. 19% of the original set of papers was retrieved from this http URL including some altmetric data. We identified 16 different social media sources from which this http URL retrieves data. However five of them cover 95.5% of the total set. Twitter (87.1%) and Mendeley (64.8%) have the highest coverage. We conclude that this http URL is a transparent, rich and accurate tool for altmetric data. Nevertheless, there are still potential limitations on its exhaustiveness as well as on the selection of social media sources that need further research.

Although there are many models for ranking higher education institutions, the SCImago Institutions Rankings methodology stands out for its ability to present quantitative and qualitative indicators of scientific output. Besides Total number of published papers, several indicators are concerned with quality dimensions of published papers, such as International collaboration, Scientific leadership or High quality publications . However, official rankings are provided solely on the basis of one indicator: Output (total number of published papers ). This paper presents a statistical I-distance method that integrates all the indicators into one value, which therefore represent a rank and show which of the input indicators is the most important for the process of ranking. Our results clearly showed that Excellence with Leadership occupies the most significant spot.

This paper considers the role of communication in the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a vital management system for achieving advantages and motivation in employees. The paper also highlights the relevant functions assumed by information professionals to overcome communication deficiencies and lack of knowledge about these relatively new areas of responsibility. A case study of Credit Agricole Espana (CAE) is presented, with results that highlight the importance of all the communication-related aspects of implementing CSR.

One of the products of Thomson-Reuters is the list of highly cited researchers, which became more important when it was incorporated into the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities . Scores on the Shanghai Ranking HiCi indicator are related to the number of highly cited researchers (HCR) by university. In the 2013 edition, methodological changes have been made in listing highly cited authors. The main aim of this paper is to analyze these changes and the new HCR distribution by country. The paper also lists the new HCR from Spain. At the national level, Spain increased its global representation to 2.52% and at the institutional level 23 universities are scored on the HiCi indicator, helping to configure a new map of research excellence. The paper concludes with a preliminary assessment of the impact of the new lists on the position of Spain’s universities in the Shanghai ranking .

Se muestran los sistemas de información geográfica (Geographic Information Systems, GIS) como tecnología de soporte a la toma de decisiones en bibliotecas y unidades de información. Se presenta el concepto de GIS y sus sinergias con las unidades de información a partir de la revisión de diferentes proyectos que los utilizan en bibliotecas. Finalmente se apuntan diferentes contextos relacionados con unidades de información en los que se pueden aplicar GIS para la mejora de servicios y productos por parte de profesionales de la información. The aim of the paper is to serve as a gateway to the world of geographic information systems (GIS), seen as technologies to support decision-making services in libraries and information units. Through the review of various projects that make use of GIS technologies in libraries, the concept of GIS and its synergies with information units is introduced. Finally, the paper points out different contexts and situations, in relation to information units, in which GIS could be used to improve services and products by information professionals.

The Internet, the new mobile devices and cloud storage are changing the way in which people deal with information; we still need great storage capacity and information readers but we also value ubiquity and data synchronization between the different devices that we are using. Access has become more important than storage. The web as a tool is leading to the obsolescence of digital media that are just 20 years old and boosts the multimedia possibilities of paper, an analog medium that facilitates the relationship between people and mobile devices. We go through some of the experiences carried out in the Muskiz public library exploring the new multimedia possibilities of paper.

This paper summarizes new trends and advances in Knowledge Organization from the perspective of linked open data (LOD). Although this is particularly important to galleries, libraries, archives and museums, the so-called GLAM community, it is of more general relevance, and part of the value of LOD lies in its adoption beyond that community. LOD includes descriptive metadata and vocabulary encoding schemes that are being “skosified” (encoded in the SKOS format) or rendered in OWL (the web ontology language) and made available not only “on” the web, but “for” the semantic web. The paper highlights a few exemplary initiatives in the field. The paper also introduces the HIVE (Helping Interdisciplinary Vocabularies Engineering) framework and discusses the HIVE-ES (Espana) extension for Spanish language vocabularies, leading to a more global approach for linked open vocabularies (LOV).

Practices for free digital content downloads in the publishing industry are referred to as a problem by cultural and business leaders worldwide. The creation of systems to protect the files, the emergence of national and international agencies to monitor illegal downloads, and the publishing industry’s reluctance to abandon the paper and embrace the digital formats, provide the context for a practice that is little studied when it comes to books. The aim of this paper is to analyze the conditions under which it occurs in Spain, examining the legal provision of content, and the availability of works in p2p networks and blogs. The hypothesis is that in the book arena, the content downloads do not have the relevance and scale they possess in music or film, and that in large part they are motivated by the lack of a legal offering that is varied and up-to-date, and by deficiencies in the sales and distribution platforms. The presence of the bestselling books in major sales platforms and in different file sharing networks is analyzed.

The new publishing and scientific communication environments have led to the emergence of new Web indicators. Along with usage metrics such as downloads there are many measures that are generated from Science 2.0. Journals published by the Public Library of Science systematically collect many of these new metrics. The objective of this paper is to present some of these new indicators and analyze them quantitatively through the case study of 8945 papers published in the journal PLoS One. The selected indicators were; comments, ratings, number of bookmarks, links from scientific weblogs, downloads views and citations. Basic descriptive statistics indicators and correlations have been calculated for all of them. The results show the low participation of scientists in Web 2.0 and how most of these indicators, except for downloads and visits, are poorly consolidated metrics.

Las citas periodísticas de revistas, autores y artículos científicos se han utilizado avant la letre para estudiar el impacto de la ciencia en la prensa generalista y algunas características del periodismo científico. En este artículo se revisa el estado de la cuestión y se perfilan los conceptos de cita periodística e impacto mediático por analogía con los de cita científica e impacto científico, estableciendo sus similitudes y diferencias. Se analizan las posibilidades de investigación que ofrece el recuento de citas periodísticas y el desarrollo de indicadores del impacto mediático de la ciencia. El análisis de citas periodísticas pre-senta ventajas frente a las métricas alternativas o altmétricas, pues la prensa es el principal productor de noticias y ofrece un producto más consolidado y con un filtro profesional. También presenta limitaciones, principalmente por la falta de una base de datos de citas periodísticas de las revistas científicas en la prensa generalista internacional. The news media’s citations of journals, authors, and papers have been used avant la letre to study the impact of science in the lay press and some characteristics of scientific journalism. In this paper, the concepts of press citation and media impact are outlined by analogy to those of scientific citation and scientific impact, establishing their similarities and differences. Some possibilities of study using press citations counts are also outlined, as well as the development of new bibliometric indicators to measure the media impact of science. The analysis of press citations has advantages over alternative metrics (altmetrics) because the press is the main news producer and offers a more consolidated product with a professional filter. However, press citations also have some limitations, mainly the lack of a database of press citations from scientific journals in the international lay press.

Se estudian las condiciones de autoarchivo de 3.495 trabajos publicados en 109 revistas que recogen el 50% de la producción científica de la Comunidad Valenciana en biomedicina y ciencias de la salud difundida en las bases de datos ISI (período 2000-2004). Se analiza el autoarchivado desde la perspectiva de la viabilidad de implantación de repositorios institucionales y temáticos de acceso abierto. La información se ha obtenido de la base de datos Romeo disponible en la web Sherpa. Las condiciones de autoarchivo son favorables para la implantación de repositorios institucionales ya que el 56,8% de los trabajos sería depositable inmediatamente, cifra que ascendería al 72% al considerar los depositables tras un período de embargo, y al 87% al incluir los trabajos publicados en revistas accesibles a texto completo. La viabilidad para establecer un repositorio temático de biomedicina y ciencias de la salud de la Comunidad Valenciana es cuestionable debido a que la mayoría de las editoriales condicionan el permiso para el depósito de trabajos a la existencia de un mandato de las agencias estatales y/o autonómicas responsables de la financiación de la investigación, algo inexistente en este momento. Self-archiving was studied in 3,495 papers in 109 core journals that published 50% of Valencia’s scientific production in biomedical and health sciences included in the 2000-2004 ISI databases. The effectiveness of self-archiving is analyzed with respect to the feasibility of launching open access institutional and subject-specific repositories. Data were obtained from the Sherpa/Romeo database. Self-archiving is favourable for the implementation of institutional repositories because 56.8% of papers could be immediately deposited, a percentage that increases to 72% after a period of embargo and to 87% when papers published in full text journals are included. The feasibility of establishing biomedical and health science repositories for the Valencian Community is questionable, due to the fact that most publishers will not grant permission for inclusion in a repository unless mandated by the research funding agency, a practice lacking in our country at present. Abad Garcia, Maria Francisca, Maria.F.Abad@uv.es ; Gonzalez Teruel, Aurora M., Aurora.Gonzalez@uv.es ; Martinez Catalan, Celeste, Celeste.Martinez@uv.es ; Gimenez Martinez, Francesc, Francesc.Gimenez@uv.es

En este artículo se presenta el uso de microformatos Dublin Core (DC), una manera de utilizar el conjunto de elementos DC en una forma especial de marcado muy utilizada en la web 2.0 y denominada genéricamente “microformatos”. Permiten la expresión de la semántica en el seno de una página xhtml de forma visible al usuario, estableciendo por tanto un alto nivel descriptivo para tipos de recursos concretos (tarjetas de visita, eventos, etc.). El caso concreto de los microformatos DC tiene un amplio potencial para la descripción de recursos en general, pero por su origen están especialmente indicados para describir recursos bibliográficos. Asimismo se presenta una forma sencilla de codificar DC en microformatos usando Dublin Core Metadata Gen, y otra aplicación que permite visualizar la información contenida dentro de estos microformatos, a través de una extensión de Mozilla Firefox creada a tal efecto. This paper describes the use of Dublin Core (DC) microformats that allow the DC Metadata Element Set to be marked up in a style commonly applied in web 2.0. Microformats allow the semantic expression inside xhtml pages to be displayed in a manner visible to the user, thereby enabling a high level of description for specific types of resources (business cards, events, etc.). This particular use of DC microformats offers great potential for resource description in general, and is especially suitable for describing bibliographic resources. Also presented in this paper is a simple way for encoding DC in microformats using the Dublin Core Metadata Gen software, as well as an application that allows information included in the microformats to be displayed using the Mozilla Firefox extension, created for this purpose.

This paper proposes an original model of the visual information retrieval interface (VIRI), aimed at websites described by metadata. The paper also describes the development of an experimental prototype based on the proposed model. The applied methodology for the prototype's development is a combination of three methods: Metadata mining, Multidimensional scaling (MDS), and a Focus+Context technique called Fisheye. Finally, a user test is conducted, whose results suggest that the proposed model of VIRI is useful for information browsing and retrieval, and is satisfying for the end-user as well.

[ES] No es concebible la gestión actual de recursos informativos sin la web. Para el tratamiento, conservación, difusión y acceso de la información electrónica en la Red es necesario disponer de una norma que asegure la independencia de fabricantes y permita extraer la mayor cantidad de posibilidades hipertexto e hipermedia de la web. Este trabajo presenta la norma sgml y su familia de adaptaciones (xml, xsl, xlink) como potencialmente ideales en su aplicación a los servicios de información. | Present management of information resources is inconceivable without the web. For the handling, preservation, dissemination and access to electronic information on the Net, a standard is needed to ensure independence from manufacturers and to take full advantage of the hypertext and hypermedia capabilities of the web. This paper presents the sgml standard and its family of variations (xml, xsl, xlink) as potentially ideal for information service applications., [EN] Present management of information resources is inconceivable without the web. For the handling, preservation, dissemination and access to electronic information on the Net, a standard is needed to ensure independence from manufacturers and to take full advantage of the hypertext and hypermedia capabilities of the web. This paper presents the sgml standard and its “family” of variations (xml, xsl, xlink) as potentially ideal for information service applications.

Given user choices and the commercial offerings of internet providers, WhatsApp has increasingly become established as a new standard for communication by audio, image, and text. This paper explores the role of misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic by using content disseminated through WhatsApp, thereby making three main contributions: a discussion about the potential shift toward nontextual and nonvisual forms of misinformation; the new social role of audio, namely related to the critique of policies and political actors during the early stage of the Covid-19 pandemic; and the questioning of the First Draft News disinformation conceptual model by proposing a complementary approach that focuses only on factuality. Conclusions were drawn after conducting a content analysis of 988 units of Covid-19-related audio files, images, videos, and texts shared via WhatsApp during the early stage of the pandemic. A typology was identified to address distinct claims that focus on five different topics (society, policy and politics, health science, pandemic, and other), as well as audio messaging trending as a novel format for spreading misinformation. The results help us to contextualize and discuss a potential shift toward nontextual and nonvisual forms of misinformation, reflecting the increasing adoption of the audio format among WhatsApp users and making WhatsApp a fertile environment for the circulation and dissemination of misinformation regarding Covid-19-related themes. In a society characterized by the rapid consumption of information, the idea that content must have a degree of falsehood to mislead is an indicator of the distance between theoretical models and social reality. This indicator is important to identify true content as potential misinformation on the basis of its factuality. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This paper focusses on the use of technology to improve democracy, comparing the cases of Estonia and Catalonia. Both examples are closely related in their use of technology to further democratize the decision-making processes, but have opposite starting points. Estonia’s internet voting system is an offshoot of the comprehensive e-governance system developed by the Estonian government. It is meant to make it more convenient for people to vote and, thus, easier for them to take part in elections. In Catalonia, the online participation system Decidim, initially set up in the city of Barcelona, represents a bottom-up project that emerged from the 15 May protests and aims to make the representative democratic system more direct and participatory. In our comparison we approach both paradigmatic cases from a theoretical reflection on the ideal types of democracy in relation to how decisions are made and by whom. Both projects have evolved and integrated new features that draw them together. First, internet voting is able to reach wider portions of society and digitally transform the Public Administration. Second, online participation platforms increase the potential for collecting citizens’ proposals and enriching discussions. These features make them more like a mixed model which, in the current model of representative democracy, creates spaces for a more direct and deliberative democracy.

En las sociedades democráticas los medios de comunicación juegan un papel clave como elemento facilitador de la conexión entre los poderes políticos y la ciudadanía. La percepción pública de la reputación mediática puede suponer un factor clave para fortalecer la confianza y activar el compromiso ciudadano. Este artículo presenta un estudio de la reputación de la prensa en papel, la prensa digital, la radio y la televisión en 10 países europeos: Austria, Bélgica, Francia, Alemania, Italia, Polonia, Portugal, Rumanía, Suecia y Reino Unido. El análisis desarrollado sigue una metodología empírica, basada en la realización de una encuesta para conocer la reputación atribuida a los medios de comunicación por parte de una muestra de la población informada de esos países (1000 residentes, mayores de edad, usuarios de medios al menos dos o tres veces por semana). Se caracteriza, así, el concepto de reputación en su asociación con medios de comunicación, identificándose los atributos integradores de la reputación mediática y valorando su incidencia en la reputación de cada medio. Los resultados indican que, aunque la televisión es el medio más usado, la prensa en papel goza de mayor reputación en la mayoría de los países analizados, apreciándose una destacada asociación de este medio con los atributos de credibilidad y rigor informativo. El artículo ofrece una detallada descripción de las valoraciones de cada atributo integrante de la reputación mediática en cada uno de los países analizados. Finalmente, se aporta un ranking de los medios que gozan de mayor reputación en los países europeos examinados, así como una descripción del posicionamiento reputacional de cada medio estudiado. Abstract Democracy is considered to be the ideal foundation of societies today. In a democratic society, news media play a highly relevant role as avenues by which public and political powers can interact with society and facilitate civic participation. The public’s perception of the news media’s reputation is a crucial factor for enhancing trust and citizen engagement. This article presents a study of the reputation of the media (paper press, digital press, radio and television) in ten European countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. A quantitative method was applied to the results of a survey conducted to determine the reputation of news media among a sample of the informed population in those countries (1,000 residents of legal age who used media at least two or three times a week). The concept of reputation is thereby characterized in its association with the media, identifying its integrating attributes and assessing its incidence in each type of medium. The results indicate that, although television is the most widely used medium, the printed press enjoys a higher reputation in most of the countries studied, being seen as having the attributes of credibility and informative rigor. This study provides a detailed analysis of the scores given to media reputation attributes in the considered countries. It also offers a ranking of the media with the highest reputation in the countries examined, as well as a description of the reputational position of each medium.

Communication studies in Spain have now become consolidated based on their evolution over the last 50 years. The aim of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the current state of Spanish higher education in Communication. To this end, an analysis is carried out of the structure and composition of the undergraduate and postgraduate degrees (master and PhD studies) in Communication at public and private universities in Spain, paying special attention to the centers that host these studies, the people who contribute to their operation, and their offerings and distribution. Using a descriptive methodology and the content analysis technique, an analysis form is applied to the universities composing the system of Communication studies in Spain, based on their offerings and the information available and accessible on their institutional websites. The results reveal the difficulty of accessing such data and the lack of common criteria (or compliance) for presenting such information on official websites. The results reveal a greater offering at the national level but a wide dispersion of the higher education offering in terms of type, location, type of university, and territorial distribution. We also highlight the gender gap in terms of faculty leadership as well as among teaching staff. We emphasize the phenomenon of double or combined degrees, especially at private universities. Resumen Los estudios de Comunicación en España se consolidan como resultado de la evolución experimentada en 50 años. Se pretende mostrar una radiografía que permita conocer el estado actual de la educación superior española en esta materia. Para ello se ha realizado un análisis de la estructura y composición de los grados y posgrados (masters oficiales y doctorado) de Comunicación de las universidades públicas y privadas de España, prestando especial atención a los centros que acogen estos estudios, las personas que con su desempeño contribuyen a su funcionamiento, su oferta y distribución. Mediante un diseño metodológico exploratorio y descriptivo, a través de la técnica del análisis de contenido, se han revelado las variables de estudio a partir de la oferta e información disponible y accesible en las webs institucionales de las universidades que conforman el sistema español en esta materia. Se destaca la dificultad para acceder a los datos y la falta de criterios comunes (o cumplimiento de estos) para presentar la información sobre la oferta formativa oficial. Los resultados arrojan una mayor oferta formativa a nivel nacional, pero evidencian su dispersión en cuanto a tipo, oferta de plaza, tipo de universidad y distribución territorial. Destaca la brecha de género en los responsables de los centros y entre la plantilla de profesorado; y el fenómeno creciente de los grados dobles o combinados, sobre todo en los centros privados.

The concept of algorithmic political communication has arisen through the joint development of propaganda and communication theories, as well as the findings of computer science. This is a field that generates results that amplify and extend to political communication, such as microsegmentation or automated diffusion of content; likewise, it produces some adverse effects that hinder citizen participation in the cybersphere. This paper presents a review of works published in three Latin American countries (Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico) with artificial intelligence, communication, and democracy as their constituent elements. The data come from a total of 206 documents, including reports from supranational organisms and associations, and publications in scientific journals indexed in databases such as Google Scholar and Scopus between 2011 and 2021. The selection criterion is based on the total or partial appearance of certain keywords, plus filters by relevance and impact factors. This systematic review is structured based along four axes that explain democracy according to Landman et al. (2009): electoral participation, participation of civil society, media integrity, and impartial administration. The main conclusions indicate that many of the practices in the studied countries are still at an incipient or experimental stage, with algorithmic political communication being used especially during electoral campaigns. Similarly, an increasing resistance from civil society to the influence of social networks is starting to be detected.

During the last decade, the Internet, and the social networks in particular, have gained relevance as spaces for interaction and socialization. The multiplication and penetration of social media, as well as the volume and intensity of interactions, have led to a migration of the public sphere towards these platforms. In this (apparently neutral) virtual context, where social networks contribute to the construction or amplification of social relations, the Internet is configured as a space of inequality where power relations and patriarchal practices are reproduced, amplified by the sensation of anonymity and its disinhibiting effect. This paper analyzes the presence of hate speech and misogyny in the Twitter conversation around 50 Spanish women with public visibility online and in the real world, belonging to diverse professional fields: science, communication, culture, sports, business, and politics. Based on an automated search for insults and other hate terms, a content analysis of the direct interactions and indirect mentions received by these women on this social platform over a period of 1 year was carried out. The results of this study highlight the toxicity of the Twittersphere for female users. Thus, 15% of direct interactions and 10% of indirect interactions directed at these women included some kind of insult or disqualification, although not necessarily of a sexist or misogynist nature. This violence is especially evident against women representatives of those areas with greater visibility and social influence such as communication and politics. Resumen En la última década, internet y, en concreto, las redes sociales, han cobrado relevancia como espacios de interacción y socialización. La multiplicación y penetración de las redes sociales, así como el volumen e intensidad de las interacciones, han propiciado un desplazamiento de la esfera pública hacia estas plataformas. Este contexto virtual aparentemente neutro, donde las redes sociales ayudan a la construcción o amplificación de las relaciones sociales, se configura como un espacio de desigualdad donde se reproducen las relaciones de poder y prácticas patriarcales, amplificadas por la sensación de anonimato y su efecto desinhibidor. El presente trabajo analiza la manifestación del discurso del odio y misoginia en la conversación en Twitter en torno a 50 mujeres españolas, con proyección pública en la Red y fuera de la Red, pertenecientes a diversos ámbitos profesionales: ciencia, comunicación, cultura, deporte, empresa y política. A partir de la búsqueda automatizada de insultos y otros términos de odio, se ha analizado el contenido de las interacciones directas y menciones indirectas que recibieron estas mujeres en esta plataforma social a lo largo de un año. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto la toxicidad de la tweetesfera para las usuarias. Así, el 15% de las interacciones directas y el 10% de las indirectas dirigidas a estas mujeres integran algún tipo de insulto o descalificación, aunque no necesariamente de carácter sexista o misógino. Una violencia que se hace especialmente patente contra las mujeres representantes de las áreas de mayor visibilidad e influencia social como la comunicación y la política.

The journalism being taught at universities in Spain is undergoing intensive changes as a result of the dual pressure exerted by the impact of digitisation in two specific aspects. The first is the journalistic system itself (business models, professional routines, information consumption, etc.). The second aspect involves the teaching guidelines established as a result of the implementation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Focusing on the latter issue, the current debate regarding the orientation of journalistic education is calling for this aspect not to be relegated or limited to training in technical skills, which are constantly being renewed by technological developments of the digital environment. On the contrary, journalism education must also take into account other skills that foster the achievement of critical thinking, which is fundamental for the exercise of the journalistic profession. However, in the face of an increasingly digitised, competitive labour market, journalism studies and their training programmes also have a duty to provide the skills and competencies demanded by this market. In this paper, we have conducted a systematic review of some of the experiences of innovative teaching that have been successfully carried out in Journalism degrees taught in Spain for this purpose (service-learning, project-based learning, content curation, and edublogs, among others). These experiences reflect the involvement of university professors in providing comprehensive education for future journalists, with a strong emphasis on the intensive use of the digital resources currently available.

High technology has been one of the main assets used by the media around the world to stand out from the masses and reach an increasingly fragmented audience, including drone journalism, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. In this regard, the mid-2010s saw a whole phase of experimentation that began with so-called immersive journalism, a new way of producing news content using virtual reality and 360° video, which introduced various novelties in the way stories are both told and consumed/watched. Among these, 360° real-image videos are the most common form, which can be partly explained by factors such as time and cost, although it is also possible to find completely computer-generated (CG) nonfiction experiences. Legacy media such as The New York Times, El País, or the BBC have been experimenting with the possibilities of this immersive storytelling, but what about digital native media? The aim of this paper is to explore the use of 360° video by Spanish digital native media in order to observe the degree of development of immersive storytelling, as well as the quality of the pieces available more than 5 years after the start of this phenomenon known as immersive journalism. For this purpose, a content analysis of 360° videos published during the period 2015-2019 by El español, eldiario.es, El independiente, and El HuffPost has been carried out. The study of these particular cases reveals the absence of a narrative strategy aligned with the immersive format; in general, these are simple videos that provide little added value compared with the conventional format. Furthermore, the results show that the history of immersive journalism by these cybermedia has been limited in terms of both volume and time, with little guarantee that it will continue into the future. Resumen La alta tecnología ha sido uno de los recursos a los que múltiples medios de comunicación en todo el mundo han recurrido para diferenciarse de la masa y llegar a una audiencia cada vez más fragmentada: periodismo dron, inteligencia artificial y realidad virtual. A este respecto, a mediados de la década de 2010 comenzó toda una etapa de experimentación con el llamado periodismo inmersivo, una forma de producir contenido periodístico con realidad virtual y vídeo 360º que introdujo múltiples novedades tanto en el modo de contar las historias como de consumirlas. La forma más común es el vídeo 360º de imagen real, por tiempo y por inversión, aunque también es posible encontrar experiencias de no ficción generadas completamente por ordenador. Medios legacy como The New York Times, El país o la BBC han estado experimentando con las posibilidades del formato inmersivo, pero… ¿qué sucede con los nativos digitales? Este trabajo explora precisamente el uso del vídeo 360º por parte de los cibermedios nativos digitales en España con el fin de observar el grado de desarrollo de la narración inmersiva, así como la calidad de los trabajos disponibles más de cinco años después del inicio del fenómeno. Para ello, se ha llevado a cabo un análisis de contenido de los vídeos 360º publicados entre 2015 y 2019 por El español, eldiario.es, El independiente y El HuffPost. El estudio de estos casos ha permitido advertir la ausencia de una estrategia narrativa acorde con el formato inmersivo, tratándose en general de vídeos simples que apenas aportan valor añadido frente al formato convencional. Además, los resultados permiten concluir que la historia del periodismo inmersivo en estos cibermedios ha sido tanto corta en volumen como breve en periodo de tiempo, sin apenas garantías de una continuidad futura.

Global rankings help boost the international reputation of universities, which thus attempt to achieve good positions on them. These rankings attract great interest each year and are followed attentively by stakeholders in higher education. This paper investigates the trajectory of Spanish universities in the ARWU and THE rankings over the last 5 years using the dynamic biplot technique to study the relationship between a multivariate dataset obtained at more than one time point. The results demonstrate that Spanish universities achieve low positions on international rankings when analyzed using this multivariate and dynamic approach. Indeed, only a small percentage occupy good positions in both studied rankings and stand out in terms of some of the indicators, whereas most achieve weak scores in the global context. Spanish universities should attempt to improve this situation, since the prestige resulting from a good position on these lists will always be beneficial in terms of the visibility of both the universities themselves and the whole Spanish university system.

The supply of public interest journalism that serves the needs of citizens in a democratic society has always been scarce in the media marketplace when compared with sensationalism, gossip, entertainment, propaganda, and misinformation. This scarce commodity, whose market value lies in its credibility and depends on costly investments of time and money in professional research, has frequently required a subsidy, which for more than a century was provided by advertising. Now that this subsidy has mostly been devoured by technological platforms such as Google and Facebook, the industry and profession are developing new models focused on user needs and wants with a trend toward public service rather than profit. This paper uses deductive and critical methodologies to identify the most promising business models used by media companies to counteract the decline in public-interest journalism. Our proposal is that an appropriate business model can be the best way to revitalize media companies. The research is based on Chesbrough’s business model framework applied to 20 leading digital news publications from 16 countries. In addition, we analyze how Covid-19 has impacted those business models.

Since 2015, Spanish local councils have had to comply with the Transparency Act, which includes the duty to publish information on their activity on a website, electronic headquarters, or transparency portal. To do so, they often have the help of provincial councils, autonomous communities, or the State. Previous studies on compliance with this rule ignored town councils with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, i.e., more than 90% of them. This paper presents an introductory analysis on the presence of transparency information on websites and transparency portals offered by municipalities of all populations. A sample of municipalities, divided into 14 population ranges, was studied, covering 20-30% of municipalities, extracted proportionally and randomly for each range and from each province. The analysis includes variables such as the existence of a municipal website and specific transparency portal, the connection and publicity between the two, and the minimum presence of information within such portals. Despite support from larger institutions, one out of six municipalities did not have a website, and half of the municipalities did not offer real information on transparency. The three main causes identified (in order) are that their transparency portals are empty, that they do not actively advertise their portal on the website, or to a lesser extent (one in ten) that they do not have a transparency portal. This result occurs mostly for municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. The municipalities that do offer transparency information mainly use tools provided by the State, which are associated with an electronic site. Efforts by other (autonomous or provincial) institutions to promote transparency are also detected, although only massively in some provinces. Resumen Desde 2015 los ayuntamientos españoles deben cumplir con la Ley de transparencia, que incluye el deber de publicar información sobre su actividad en una web, sede electrónica o portal de transparencia. Para ello, cuentan en muchos casos con la ayuda de diputaciones provinciales, comunidades autónomas o el Estado. Los estudios previos sobre el cumplimiento de esta norma han dejado aparte, en buena parte de los casos, a los ayuntamientos menores de 10.000 habitantes, es decir, a más del 90%. Este trabajo ofrece un análisis introductorio sobre la presencia de información de transparencia en webs y portales de transparencia ofrecida por ayuntamientos españoles de todos los rangos de población. Se ha estudiado una muestra de municipios, divididos en catorce rangos, que abarca entre un 20 y un 30% de municipios, extraídos proporcional y aleatoriamente para cada rango y cada provincia. El análisis incluye variables como la existencia de sitios web municipales y de portales de transparencia específicos, la conexión y publicidad entre ambos, y la presencia mínima de información dentro de los portales de transparencia. Los resultados muestran que, a pesar del apoyo de instituciones de ámbito mayor, uno de cada seis ayuntamientos no tiene web, y la mitad de los municipios no ofrece información real sobre transparencia. Esto es debido a tres causas: sus portales de transparencia están vacíos, no hacen publicidad activa de su portal en la web o, en menor medida (uno de cada diez) no tienen portal de transparencia. Este resultado ocurre en los municipios de menos de 20.000 habitantes. En cuanto a los municipios que sí ofrecen información sobre transparencia, emplean sobre todo la aplicación facilitada por el Estado que está asociada a una sede electrónica. La actividad de otras administraciones (autonómicas o provinciales) para fomentar esta transparencia municipal también aparece, aunque sólo de forma masiva en algunas provincias.

The protocol figure of the first lady is subject to media exposure, whether for directing an organization, when accompanying her husband at events, or because she is involved in conflicts of interest. Literature indicates that her role generates a narrative of how an exemplary woman should be in her country. In this context, this paper aims to identify, using the model of Winfield (1997), the news frames used to cover the first ladies of three countries, namely Argentina, USA, and Mexico. For this, three groups of first ladies were selected: a first group of expert politicians, including those who had a political career prior to their position and later sought the presidency of their country (Cristina Fernández, Hillary Clinton, and Margarita Zavala); a second group of novices who took the position without a previous career (Juliana Awada, Laura Bush, and Angélica Rivera); and a third group made up of those who currently hold the position (Fabiola Yáñez, Melania Trump, and Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller). The newspapers analyzed were La nación, Página/12, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Reforma, and La jornada. Content analysis and the framing model revealed that the most widely used frame was that of a political official, being more pronounced for expert politicians and in newspapers opposed to her husband’s government. Moreover, this allows presidential wives to express themselves via direct quotes. It can thus be concluded that the first ladies are preferably covered from political news frames, which endows them with soft power that allows them to intervene in elections, makes their opinion relevant, and shapes their political career. Resumen La figura protocolaria de la primera dama ha sido mediáticamente expuesta a escrutinio ya sea por dirigir un organismo, acompañar a su esposo en eventos o porque se ve incolucrada en conflictos de interés. La bibliografía señala que su papel genera una narrativa de cómo debe ser una mujer ejemplar en su país de origen. En dicho contexto, el presente trabajo tiene como objetivo detectar, a partir del modelo de Winfield (1997), cuáles son los encuadres noticiosos desde los que se cubre a las primeras damas de tres países: Argentina, Estados Unidos y México. Para ello, se seleccionarion tres grupos de primeras damas: uno denominado como las políticas expertas en las que se incluyen las que tenían una carrera política anterior a su cargo y que después buscaron la presidencia de su país (Cristina Fernández, Hillary Clinton y Margarita Zavala); el segundo grupo fue el de las novatas, las cuales llegaron al puesto sin una trayectoria previa (Juliana Awada, Laura Bush y Angélica Rivera); y un tercer grupo conformado por las que actualmente ocupan dicho cargo (Fabiola Yáñez, Melania Trump y Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller). Los diarios analizados fueron La nación, Página/12, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Reforma y La jornada. Por medio del análisis de contenido y del modelo del framing se encontró que el encuadre más utilizado fue el de funcionaria política, lo cual se pronuncia en mayor medida en las políticas expertas y en los diarios opositores al gobierno de su marido. Además, dicho frame les permite a las cónyuges presidenciales expresarse desde citas directas. Se concluye que las primeras damas son abordadas desde marcos noticiosos preferentemente políticos lo cual las dota de un poder blando que le permite intervenir en elecciones, vuelve relevante su opinión y les forma trayectoria política.

Institutional offices for the communication and dissemination of science are gaining in importance at Spanish universities, and their activities can contribute to increasing the visibility and reputation of researchers. The objective of this study is to analyze the relations between the institutional communication of research results to the public and the impact and academic visibility of scientific papers. For this purpose, science communication and dissemination undertaken through press releases on R+D+i results from the Science Culture and Innovation Unit (SCIU) at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) were selected as a case study. This SCIU was chosen because it has published yearly reports for more than a decade on the impact in the media of its press releases. Press dossiers of the last five years available (2014-2018) were examined, and a database was created of the citations received by texts published in scientific journals indexed in the Web of Science as well as their mentions on social networks through the company Altmetric.com. After that, this information was statistically analyzed. The main results show that the journal impact index is important for obtaining academic citations or appearing in Twitter conversations. However, the influence of the journal impact factor turns out to be lower when it comes to popularizing scientific publications in the media. Furthermore, the statistical evidence points to the fact that scientific publications disseminated through the SCIU receive proportionally more citations than research that has not been disseminated through the institutional channel. Resumen Las oficinas de comunicación y divulgación pública de la ciencia están ganando importancia en las universidades españolas y las actividades que realizan pueden contribuir al incremento de la visibilidad y reputación del personal de investigación. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar las relaciones entre la comunicación institucional pública de los resultados de investigación y el impacto y visibilidad académica de las publicaciones científicas. Para ello, se ha seleccionado como estudio de caso la comunicación y diseminación que realiza la Unidad de Cultura Científica y de Innovación (UCC+i) de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Se ha escogido esta UCC+i porque publica anualmente, desde hace más de una década, informes sobre el impacto que generan en medios de comunicación las notas de prensa que difunden. Se han examinado los dosieres de los últimos cinco años (2014-2018) y se ha creado una base de datos que incluye las citas recibidas por los documentos difundidos en revistas científicas indexadas en la Web of Science y las menciones en redes sociales utilizando Altmetric.com. Posteriormente se ha realizado un análisis estadístico de la información obtenida. Los principales resultados muestran que el factor de impacto de las revistas es importante para conseguir citaciones académicas o para figurar en la conversación que se genera en Twitter. Sin embargo, la influencia del factor de impacto de la revista resulta menor a la hora de conseguir que la publicación científica obtenga popularidad en medios de comunicación. Además, las pruebas estadísticas muestran que las publicaciones científicas divulgadas a través de la UCC+i obtienen proporcionalmente más citas que las que no han sido divulgados por vía institucional.

The objective of this study was to provide the global community of interested scholars with an updated understanding of digital humanities in Spain, in terms of researchers and research centres, disciplines involved and research topics of interest, trends in digital resources development, main funding bodies and the evolution of their investment since the early nineties. One of the characteristics that differentiates this study from previous approaches is the information used to carry out the research. It combines large datasets of publicly available data from trusted sources with a handpicked selection of records grouping information scattered over the Web. Most of the evidence detected by other studies has been numerically confirmed. At the same time, the new metrics and values established constitute a reference base for monitoring the future evolution of the discipline, and thus favour comparisons. Half of the researchers were found to be affiliated to only nine institutions, whereas the other half of them were scattered across 84 locations. Department affiliation showed a varied pattern of the different degrees of specialization in each institution. Although the major historic role played by Philology was confirmed, the rising interest of other areas of the Humanities and Social Science produces a wider picture, which helped to identify five large clusters of research topics, centred on major disciplines. The quantitative analysis of funding, a dimension almost unexplored in the Humanities, proved to be a valuable way to assess the discipline and its historical evolution. In fact, it revealed interesting trends that led to our proposal of a three-phase periodization in the consolidation of digital humanities in Spain. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations regarding how to deal with issues that could harm the future development of this research area and the role that Spanish researchers can play in the international context. The whole dataset analysed in this publication can be downloaded athttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3893546 A part of this dataset has been also analysed for this posterhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4256689

Within the digital media context which imposes brevity, immediacy, and superficiality of information, digital media outlets committed to slow journalism are opting for quality, depth, and credibility in their content. This is a journalistic model which, from new digital platforms, reappraises classical journalism genres such as reports, features, and extensive interviews and in-depth analysis. Immersed in a sea of free digital content, these media outlets are resisting the crisis affecting news companies. This article analyzes the business models developed by five Spanish media outlets committed to slow journalism: 5W, CTXT, Jot down, Panenka, and Yorokobu. The main challenge for this type of media lies in facing the difficulties of capitalizing on their digital audiences. The methodology used in this research combines case studies of the analyzed media, a Delphi survey of professionals and experts in the subject, and an opinion poll of digital press consumers. From the results of our research, we can conclude that these media outlets survive thanks to very tight business models which are struggling to take root and which limit the development of their journalistic projects. Similarly, we conclude that income from subscriptions and voluntary donations represents a significant proportion of their turnover, and that they are very mindful of the loyalty of the readership community. They also resort to business diversification strategies to balance their budgets through the sale of their own paper publications or by producing content for other companies. The native digital projects studied are based on a reduced staff complemented with work by a wide network of collaborators, mostly freelance journalists. Resumen En un contexto mediático digital donde se impone la brevedad, instantaneidad y superficialidad de las informaciones, medios digitales comprometidos con el periodismo reposado (slow journalism) apuestan por la calidad, la profundidad y la credibilidad de sus contenidos. Es un modelo de periodismo que, desde los nuevos soportes digitales, revaloriza géneros del periodismo clásico como reportajes, crónicas y entrevistas de largo recorrido y análisis en profundidad. Inmersos en un océano de contenidos digitales gratuitos, estos medios se resienten de la crisis que afecta a las empresas informativas. Este artículo analiza los modelos de negocio que han desarrollado cinco medios digitales españoles que apuestan por el periodismo reposado: 5W, CTXT, Jot down, Panenka y Yorokobu. El gran reto de este tipo de medios es hacer frente a las dificultades para rentabilizar sus audiencias digitales. La metodología utilizada en esta investigación combina estudios de caso de los medios analizados, una encuesta Delphi a profesionales y expertos en la materia, y una encuesta de opinión a consumidores de prensa digital. Del resultado de la investigación se deduce que estos medios sobreviven gracias a modelos empresariales muy ajustados que no acaban de afianzarse y que limitan el desarrollo de sus proyectos periodísticos. Así mismo, se concluye que los ingresos por suscripciones y las aportaciones voluntarias tienen gran peso en la facturación, y están muy atentos a la fidelización de la comunidad de lectores. También recurren a la diversificación para equilibrar su balance económico con la venta de publicaciones propias en papel o produciendo contenidos para otras empresas. Los proyectos nativos digitales estudiados se sustentan en plantillas reducidas complementadas con el trabajo de amplias redes de colaboradores, en su mayoría periodistas freelance.

International literature demonstrates the influence of news media on the political attitudes and behaviors of citizens, stemming from the coverage and framing of politics. In the context of election campaigns, this news framing effect has usually been analyzed based on experimental designs, mainly through the manipulation of strategic game and issue frames. However, the need to conduct studies with greater realism has recently been raised, to increase the external validity and generalization of the findings. This approach, called experimental realism, seeks to link media content with opinion measurements to generate consumption indicators of certain types of news frames. Taking this procedure as a reference, this paper presents results on the impact of informative content consumption, focused on either the electoral strategy or programmatic proposals, in the development of the political engagement of citizens during the 2018 Mexican presidential campaign. The findings reveal an important effect of issue frame consumption on citizen political engagement according to all the measured indicators. Resumen La bibliografía internacional ha permitido determinar la influencia de los medios de comunicación en la generación de actitudes y comportamientos políticos de los ciudadanos, a partir de su cobertura de la política y en particular del framing de las noticias durante las campañas, de tipo asunto político y juego estratégico. Aunque habitualmente estos estudios se han elaborado desde diseños experimentales clásicos, recientemente se ha planteado la necesidad de realizar estudios de mayor validez externa y capacidad de generalización, llamados de realismo experimental, que vinculan contenidos mediáticos con mediciones de opinión para generar indicadores de consumo de cierto tipo de encuadres. Tomando este procedimiento como referente, el artículo presenta los resultados sobre el impacto del consumo de contenido informativo, enfocado ya sea desde la estrategia electoral o bien en las propuestas programáticas, en el desarrollo del compromiso político de los ciudadanos durante la campaña presidencial mexicana de 2018. Los resultados muestran un importante efecto del consumo del encuadre de asunto político sobre el compromiso ciudadano en todos los indicadores medidos.

This study explores early career researchers’ (ECRs) appreciation and utilisation of open access (OA) publishing. The evidence reported here results from a questionnaire-based international survey with 1600 participants, which forms the second leg and final year of a four year long, mixed methods, longitudinal study that sought to discover whether ECRs will be the harbingers of change when it comes to scholarly communications. Proceeding from the notion that today’s neophyte researchers, believed to hold millennial values of openness to change, transparency and sharing, may be best placed to power the take-up of OA publishing, the study sought to discover: the extent to which ECRs publish OA papers; the main reasons for their doing or not doing so; and what were thought to be the broader advantages and disadvantages of OA publishing. The survey data is presented against a backdrop of the literature-based evidence on the subject, with the interview stage data providing contextualisation and qualitative depth. The findings show that the majority of ECRs published in OA journals and this varied by discipline and country. Most importantly, there were more advantages and fewer disadvantages to OA publishing, which may be indicative of problems to do with cost and availability, rather than reputational factors. Among the many reasons cited for publishing OA the most important one is societal, although OA is seen as especially benefiting ECRs in career progression. Cost is plainly considered the main downside.

The study of think tanks in Spain has been growing in the last few years with an equally increasing number of social and grassroots movements. This article offers content analysis results from a selection of eight Spanish think tanks in the digital press during a seven-year period, adding new conclusions to previous literature for the same period. Not only does this research explore the appearance on the media, but also the type of mentions and authorship of the articles and blogs included in the digital press, contributing to a deeper study of think tanks. The objective of this study is to analyse the limited presence of Spanish think tanks in media outlets and whether their appearance is ideologically motivated. The article built a constructed week sampling and followed a content analysis methodology to gather quantitative and qualitative elements from the selected sampling (n=1,101). The paper concludes that the presence of think tanks in the Spanish digital press is limited, causing not only a lack of knowledge of their existence but also raising questions about how they try to impact on the policymaking process.

This paper analyzes the information coverage by the Spanish newspapers El país, El mundo, ABC, and La vanguardia in Twitter on the electoral campaign prior to the 10 November 2019 general elections. A content analysis of all tweets published by these media regarding the elections (n = 1,462) between Friday 1 and Saturday 9 November reveals that, although there are differences in the production patterns and features of the messages, the subject received notable attention in all the newspapers. The coverage gravitated around two main themes: the 4N electoral debate, and campaign events. The results reveal that, although most of the tweets had a neutral tone, messages with clear positioning corresponding to the editorial line of the newspaper were also published, albeit to a lesser extent. During the electoral period, the media agenda revolved around this issue, accounting for around one-fifth of all pieces published on Twitter. Newspapers do not take advantage of the dialogic nature or possibilities offered by this social network to create a community among their readers, limiting themselves to the dissemination of content from their digital edition. Resumen Se analiza la cobertura informativa realizada en Twitter por los diarios españoles El país, El mundo, ABC y La vanguardia durante la campaña electoral previa a los comicios generales del 10 de noviembre de 2019. A través del análisis de contenido de todos los tweets publicados por estos medios referidos a las elecciones (n=1.462) entre el viernes 1 y sábado 9 de noviembre, se constata que, aunque existen divergencias en las pautas de producción del mensaje y los rasgos de éste, en todos los diarios este asunto registra una notable incidencia y la cobertura gravita en torno a dos temas principales: el debate electoral del 4N y los actos de la campaña. Los resultados reflejan también que, pese a que la mayoría de los tweets presentan un tono neutro, se cuantifican en menor medida mensajes con un posicionamiento claro, existiendo correspondencia con la línea editorial del medio. Se concluye que durante los períodos electorales la agenda mediática gira en torno a esta cuestión, suponiendo aproximadamente una quinta parte del total de las piezas publicadas en Twitter. Los diarios no aprovechan la naturaleza dialógica y las posibilidades que proporciona esta red social para crear comunidad entre sus lectores, limitándose a la difusión de los contenidos de la edición digital.

Doctoral dissertations enable the transfer of research skills and capacities to future generations and the consolidation of lines of research in a given area of knowledge. The field of Library and Information Science in public universities in Spain is characterized by the supervision of doctoral theses by academics in the area. We identified active professors during the 2019–2020 academic year, their date of appointment as civil servants within the public university system, the dissertations that they supervised, and their participation in papers published in scientific journals. The analysis included 644 theses. About a quarter (23%) of university faculty have never supervised a doctoral thesis, and most faculty members and tenured professors (60%) show a lower than average rate of adviserships per year since their academic appointment. There is a high concentration of PhD advisers in just a few institutions and academics (8% of university professors have supervised 42% of the dissertations), with an important gender imbalance: women supervised an average of 1.8 dissertations, compared with 2.6 for men. Information units and services, study metrics and scientific publications, and information sources are the topics of 47% of the dissertations. Many of the professors with 10 or more adviserships (n/N = 12/18) lack a subject area specialization, and their role in PhD supervision was not related to their participation in research activities oriented toward publishing in scientific journals. Our results suggest that considering supervision of doctoral theses as an important academic merit could contribute to a further concentration of power and social capital among a small group of advisers. This phenomenon could reduce the plurality of topics addressed and favor suboptimal adviserships. The imbalances described emerge as another threat, exacerbating the epistemological crisis in the discipline and in the university studies in this area of knowledge. Resumen Las tesis doctorales posibilitan la transmisión de la capacidad investigadora a las futuras generaciones y la consolidación de las líneas de investigación de un área de conocimiento. Se caracteriza la Biblioteconomía y Documentación de las universidades públicas españolas a partir de la dirección de tesis doctorales por los académicos del área. Se han identificado los docentes activos en el curso 2019-2020, su fecha de nombramiento como funcionarios, las tesis que han dirigido y su participación en publicaciones en revistas científicas. Se han analizado 644 tesis. Un 23% de los titulares de universidad nunca ha participado en la dirección de tesis y la mayoría de los titulares y catedráticos de universidad (60%) tienen un promedio de direcciones/año desde su nombramiento por debajo de la media del área. Existe una elevada concentración en unas pocas instituciones y directores (el 8% del profesorado ha dirigido el 42% de las tesis), con importantes desequilibrios en la participación de las mujeres (promedio de 1,8 tesis dirigidas frente a 2,6 en el caso de los hombres). Unidades y servicios de información, estudios métricos de la publicación científica y fuentes de información son los temas del 47% de las tesis. Muchos de los docentes con 10 o más direcciones (n=18) adolecen de una especialización temática, no existiendo una relación entre su relevante papel en las tareas de dirección y su participación en las actividades de investigación a través de publicaciones en revistas científicas. Los resultados alertan acerca de que la consideración de la dirección de tesis como un importante mérito curricular puede contribuir a reforzar el fenómeno de la concentración del poder y capital social en un reducido grupo de directores, provocando una reducción de la pluralidad de enfoques y direcciones menos eficientes. Los desequilibrios descritos se erigen como una amenaza más que se suma a la crisis epistemológica y de los estudios universitarios de esta área de conocimiento.

The content of the 847 papers presented by authors from Spanish universities at the six conferences of the Spanish Communication Research Association (AE-IC) is analyzed. The six conferences were held in Santiago de Compostela (2008), Malaga (2010), Tarragona (2012), Bilbao (2014), Madrid (2016), and Salamanca (2018). The research variables of study are: author’s profiles, geographic location, gender, home university, most commonly studied topics, and considered media. The results confirm that the gender divide no longer exist: in fact, there are more female than male authors. Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona exhibit the highest rates of participation, and Madrid and Catalonia are the most active regions, followed by Andalusia and Valencia. The topics treated are quite diverse, with the study of media content standing out, mainly those focused on political communication. Other common topics are the impact of the digital age, and audiovisual media structure. Resumen Se analiza el contenido de los 847 trabajos presentados por autores de universidades españolas en las 6 conferencias de la Asociación Española de Investigación en Comunicación (AE-IC). Las 6 conferencias se llevaron a cabo en Santiago de Compostela 2008, Málaga 2010, Tarragona 2012, Bilbao 2014, Madrid 2016 y Salamanca 2018. Las variables de investigación de estudio son: perfiles del autor, ubicación geográfica, género, universidad de origen, temas estudiados más comunes y medios involucrados. Los resultados confirman que ya no existe división de género: de hecho, hay más autoras que autores. La Universidad Complutense de Madrid y la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona son las que tienen las tasas de participación más altas, y Madrid y Catalunya son las regiones más activas, seguidas por Andalucía y Valencia. Los temas tratados son bastante diversos, destacando los estudios de contenidos de los medios, principalmente los centrados en la comunicación política. Otros temas comunes son el impacto de la era digital y la estructura de los medios audiovisuales.

Scientific research in the communication field has experienced great growth in recent years. Recent technological changes, as well as the emergence of Web 2.0 and 3.0 and new forms of communication, such as social networks, have led to new and varied studies in the discipline. This paper analyzes the scientific production of the 27 countries with the greatest scientific production in the communication field in the period from 2003 to 2018. The results indicate that: the most productive countries are the USA, UK, and Spain; there is less international collaboration than in other disciplines, but there is a network of European collaboration that is quite dense and has great impact, and another network in Pacific countries (Asia + Oceania), albeit with lower density and impact. Resumen En los últimos años la disciplina Comunicación ha experimentado un gran crecimiento en investigación. Los recientes cambios tecnológicos, así como la irrupción de la web 2.0 y 3.0 y nuevas formas de comunicación, como las redes sociales, han propiciado nuevos y variados estudios. En este trabajo se analiza la producción científica de los 27 países con mayor producción científica en Comunicación en el período 2003-2018. Algunos resultados son: los países más productivos son Estados Unidos, Reino Unido y España; y hay menos colaboración internacional que en otras disciplinas, sin embargo, existe una red de colaboración europea bastante densa y de gran impacto, y otra red de menor densidad e impacto de países del Pacífico (Asia + Oceanía).

Two studies, one qualitative and the other quantitative, have been carried out, each using two samples differentiated by the degree of knowledge of the performance of media: informed population and communication professionals. A quantitative analysis of the reputation of the Spanish media is carried out, based on a qualitative analysis of the professional and business reality of the media with the best reputation. It is concluded that there is a broad consensus that there is no confidence in the media because the information that they disseminate is manipulated. The credibility of a medium shows a high correlation with its history, consistent with the theory of reputation, because consolidation of a stable reputation requires time. The reputation of each type of media (paper press, digital press, radio, and television) is evaluated, yielding two rankings of the 16 media with the best reputation in Spain, corresponding to the two samples analyzed. Resumen Se han llevado a cabo dos estudios, uno cualitativo y otro cuantitativo, con dos muestras en cada uno. Cada muestra se diferenciaba por el grado de conocimiento del desempeño de los medios de comunicación –población informada y profesionales de la comunicación–. Se realiza un análisis cuantitativo de la reputación de los medios de comunicación de España, a partir de un análisis cualitativo de la realidad profesional y empresarial de los medios españoles con mejor reputación. Se concluye que existe un amplio consenso en que no existe confianza en los medios de comunicación al considerar que la información que difunden está manipulada. La credibilidad de un medio tiene una alta correlación con su trayectoria –algo coherente con la teoría de la reputación–, pues la reputación necesita tiempo para consolidarse como un valor estable. Se valora la reputación de cada tipo de medio –prensa en papel, prensa digital, radio y televisión–. Se incluyen dos rankings con los 16 medios con mejor reputación en España, correspondientes a las dos muestras citadas.

Spanish university libraries have had to adapt their services to the virtual environment after the classroom-based teaching lockdown in March 2020 due to Covid-19. Given the possibility of a greater virtual dimension of learning and teaching during the next academic year, these library services should be improved. This paper analyzes how university libraries are strengthening their support for online learning and are progressively being integrated into the virtual campus, as well as the actions that are necessary to enhance these services and the main difficulties perceived by their librarians. For this purpose, a sample of professionals from university libraries was interviewed, and the research literature on this subject was also reviewed to identify the main international experiences that can be considered as benchmarks for improving virtual library services. Both the research literature and the librarians interviewed agree on two aspects: the need to increase collaboration with other university departments and the wide scope for improvement in the integration of the library into online learning, which is currently limited. Resumen Las bibliotecas universitarias españolas se han visto obligadas a adaptar sus servicios al entorno virtual tras el cierre de las aulas en marzo de 2020 con motivo del estado de alarma decretado a causa de la Covid-19. Ante la perspectiva de un nuevo curso con un mayor componente digital en la docencia, estos servicios necesitarán fortalecerse. En este artículo se analiza qué acciones están desarrollando las bibliotecas universitarias para reforzar el apoyo a la enseñanza online y su integración en el campus virtual, así como las posibles mejoras y limitaciones que encuentran. Para ello se ha consultado a una selección de profesionales de bibliotecas universitarias y se ha revisado además la bibliografía en busca de experiencias en otros países que puedan servir como referente. Tanto la bibliografía como las personas consultadas coinciden en dos aspectos: la necesidad de colaboración con otros departamentos de la universidad y el amplio margen de mejora posible en la integración de la biblioteca en la enseñanza online, que en la actualidad es escasa.

In the context of the socioeconomic crisis of recent years in Spain, in which NGOs and social movements have had to face significant communication challenges and opportunities, this paper analyzes the case of Las Kellys, an organization for hotel maids created in 2016 that has used storytelling in its public relations actions with the media to successfully transfer to society its claims to improve their labor rights. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies are combined to evaluate the communication tools used and the impact of their actions, providing useful insights to maximize the communicative effectiveness of other organizations, especially NGOs, through first-person narratives, with fully authentic, familiar and colloquial language. Resumen En el contexto de la crisis socioeconómica de los últimos años en España en el que las ONGs y los movimientos sociales han tenido que enfrentarse a importantes retos y oportunidades de comunicación, este trabajo analiza el caso de Las Kellys, la organización de camareras de piso creada en 2016, que ha utilizado el storytelling en sus acciones de Relaciones Públicas con los medios para trasladar con éxito a la sociedad sus reivindicaciones de mejora de sus derechos laborales. Se ha combinado una metodología cualitativa y cuantitativa para evaluar los medios comunicativos empleados y el impacto de sus acciones, realizando aportaciones que pueden ser de utilidad para maximizar la eficacia comunicativa de otras organizaciones, especialmente de las ONGs, a través de las narrativas en primera persona, con un lenguaje cercano y coloquial que las dotan de plena autenticidad.

The aim of this paper is to review the current and most relevant literature on the use of altmetric providers since 2012. This review is supported by a meta-analysis of the coverage and metric counts obtained by more than 100 publications that have used these bibliographic platforms for altmetric studies. The article is the most comprehensive analysis of altmetric data providers (Lagotto, Altmetric.com, ImpactStory, Mendeley, PlumX, Crossref Event Data) and explores the coverage of publications, social media and events from a longitudinal view. Disciplinary differences were also analysed. The results show that most of the studies are based on Altmetric.com data. This provider is the service that captures most mentions from social media sites, blogs and news outlets. PlumX has better coverage, counting more Mendeley readers, but capturing fewer events. CED has a special coverage of mentions from Wikipedia, while Lagotto and ImpactStory are becoming disused products because of their limited reach.