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One of the main goals of the Catalan nationalist movement toward independence initiated in 2012 was to internationalize the conflict between, in theory, two sides: Catalonia and Spain. In the case of Catalonia, its storytelling tried to offer to the world the view of an entire society intensely mobilized in pro of freedom and independence by peaceful methods, while Spain would be incarnated in an elitist irreducible and defensive government closed to reason and negotiation. This article describes the use of strategic communication (mainly public diplomacy and public relations), a soft power and post-modern resource, by the pro-independence movement in opposition to the use of modern and hard power means by Spain's government (including appeal to courts, police, and financial pressure, among other means). It describes the efficient use of strategic communication, including para-diplomacy efforts as well as positive press coverage and even "fake news", by the Catalan pro-independence movement. Nonetheless, the movement was not able to gain the political support of supra-national organizations like the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN) or even some major powers such as Germany, which had supported other independence processes in the past. The conclusion is that an efficient use of strategic communication seems to have its limits in the internationalization of internal conflicts and in altering the political status quo when the threatened nation state, in this case Spain, has a solid international position and good democratic credentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to identify and analyse all the doctoral theses defended in Spain that refer to the concept of "internal communication" (hereinafter IC) over a period of 34 years from 1986 to 2019 (including both). It should be noted that not all of them are specialized in IC, but that some of them refer to the concept in some way. For this purpose, a descriptive and retrospective bibliometric analysis has been used, divided into three phases: 1) Search and identification in Dialnet Plus and TESEO; 2) Analysis of a total of (n= 81) theses; 3) Graphic representation with RStudio of the relationships between advisers and chairmen of the tribunal. For this, 30 variables distributed in three dimensions (work, research team and evaluation team) have been used. 32 universities are present (85,2% of them are state owned), of which the UCM (22,2%) is the most productive, followed by the UNAV, the ULL and the UAB (all with 6,2% each). If we analyse the origin of the theses by autonomous xommunities, Madrid (28,4%), Catalonia (14,8%) and Andalusia (12,3%) are in the lead. The most prolific decade is 2010-2019 (56,8%), especially 2016 with 12,3% and in terms of languages, the theses have been presented mainly in Spanish (92,6%), with English being almost anecdotal (3,7%). Its authorship is divided close to parity with 50,6% of women and 49,4% of men. It should be noted that there is individualism in management with 71,6% of sole advisers and an average of 1.3 advisers per thesis. In addition, there is a strong dispersion of advisers and a minimal relationship with chairpeople, as only 5,1% have repeated in the management and among them, only on one occasion, they have coincided with the same chairman. It is relevant to mention that 70,4% of the first advisers are men and 80% of the professionals who have occupied this function more than once are also men. In terms of the composition of the boards, the chairmen (76,5%), the secretaries (60,5%) and the male members (71%) are the most important, and once again the UCM is the university with the greatest presence. As might be expected, the terms most used in the theses' titles revolve around "communication" and "internal" with 82,7% and 50,6% respectively. Among the descriptors, "communication" decreases to 49,4% (although it is still the most repeated) but "internal" disappears completely. There is evidence of a great diversity of items in both questions, although it is important to emphasize the use of concepts such as "strategy", "information", "influence" or "behaviour" that demonstrate the direct link between IC and public relations. By way of conclusion, it can be stated that the production of theses on internal communication in Spain has experienced a boom in the last decade thanks to state owned universities and with the UCM as the main creative and evaluative entity. Among the academics of the discipline, the figure of Alfonso-Javier Fernández-del-Moral, professor at the UCM, stands out, with two theses supervised and seven evaluation panels (five presidencies, a secretariat and a membership). Although there are no gender differences in terms of their origin, it is evident both in the management and in the tribunals, where men take especial presence. There is also the almost inexistent connection between advisers and members of the boards, and among the boards themselves. For future research work in this field, it would be interesting to delve into the main sources cited in these theses or to analyse the methodologies and tools most commonly used in them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, Barcelona Football Club (BFC) has represented one of the pillars of Catalan identity, which earned it the slogan "more than a club." In recent times, especially under the presidency of Joan Laporla, management has radicalized the club's political positions by using BFC as a platform to openly promote the independence from Spain of the Catalan region. Despite the fact that most Barcelona fans in Catalonia, as well as in the rest of Spain, have much more moderate political positions, the radicalization of BFC does not appear to have eroded the relationship-building process with Barcelona fandom. This article argues that BFC as an institution still maintains a good relationship with its fans because the social, as well as individual, identity provided by allegiance to a soccer club such as BFC is ultimately more important to members and fans than the club's political positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. presidential campaign in 2008 signified a change on the paradigm of how the political parties deal with local communities. This means that grassroots techniques arose as a key factor for the triumph of Barack H. Obama. After the election, European political parties—even social movements—also adapted some strategies inspired by the U.S. presidential campaigns. The main objective of this article is to analyze how these grassroots techniques have been adapted in a specific scenario: the process of self-determination of Catalonia, an Autonomous Community of Spain that claims to be an independent country after the failing of Estado de las Autonomías (state of autonomies) model. Our method is to explore the parameters that drove the Obama’s first presidential campaign and how they have been applied into the self-determination campaign of Catalonia, such as the creation of local opinion platforms, media spin doctoring, social networking, and the social involvement of foreign actors. We realized that the social commitment with the self-determination process by regional community organizations has had a stronger leadership than the political parties. As a result, we state that political spin doctors in Catalonia could neither drive nor control the framing process of the last parliamentary regional campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: In this article, we explore ways to advance public relations approaches to nation building by drawing insights from stateless nations and by deploying two sets of theories uncommon in the field: the information society and noopolitik. The theoretical discussion is grounded in a study of Catalonia and we conclude by arguing for a shift of emphasis from nation-state governments to governance for both public and private actors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Research on agenda setting and framing has been dominated by studies of television and the daily press, developed mainly in the United States and in northern European countries and paying special attention to electoral periods. Far from this mainstream approach, our research focuses on agenda and frame building in radio in a non-electoral period in Catalonia (Spain). We conducted in-depth interviews with political party communication consultants and radio editors to analyse how strategies are set and how political issues are framed. We adopt and reconceptualize the concept of 'reframing', referring to the journalistic task of readdressing the direction of messages promoted by frame sponsors. The journalist who plays a weak reframing role is an easy target for political parties' public relations with vested interests and, in this model, communication consultants have a great capacity to influence the framing of the news aired. The strong reframer, on the other hand, minimizes political party influence on setting and framing issues. In this model, the journalists admit that they engage in an ongoing, strategic battle regarding control of media frames with professional spin doctors. The article also highlights the special conditions of the radio as a medium (ubiquity and immediacy) and its impact on the framing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this article, we provide a brief introduction to stateless nation-building and public diplomacy based on the case of Catalonia. On the basis of Manuel Castells' idea of informational society and the concepts of soft power of Joseph S. Nye, and 'noopolitik' of John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, we show the rich contribution of these phenomena in understanding the theory and practice of public diplomacy of non-state actors, such as stateless nations, in order to build their national identity. Furthermore, when we talk about public diplomacy, soft power and noopolitik, we are talking about governance rather than government (diplomacy, hard power and 'realpolitik'). Accordingly, we suggest that a noopolitikal model of public relations can contribute to effective governance for both public and private actors. Through some examples of the current policies in Catalonia, this article advances a public relations approach to governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]