Dpto. Comunicación e Información Periodística

The Paralympic Games (PG) are the biggest showcase of disability. Thanks to their growing popularity, they are gradually getting a space in television and social networks and are conquering a space in the print and digital press. Therefore, it is important to guarantee the quality of the coverage of the event and of the messages that are sent about people with disabilities. It is also important to understand what factors interfere with this coverage and these messages. In this context, we developed a study that had as a goal to understand the process of news production about the 2016 Rio PG by Brazilian journalists. We used a descriptive, exploratory, and qualitative approach based on some attributes of the newsmaking and gatekeepers’ studies. We conducted 15 interviews with journalists and editors who covered the event on site or direct from the newsroom. Our results indicate that the main factors that interfered and structured the journalists conditions of production and routines during the coverage of the 2016 Rio PG were: some business issues (prioritization of audience interests and the exclusivity of broadcasting rights); some logistical issues (limitation of coverage to contents that could be accessed from the newsroom; accessibility barriers for journalists with disabilities; transportation between arenas, and reduced teams of journalists); and journalists’ level preparedness to cover the event. The interviews also revealed that the main news criteria for content selection were expected victories and medals, proximity, and curiosity. They said they emphasized content that valued athletes’ sportsmanship and narratives of overcoming adversity.

Cinema has always sought to be an art of synthesis, not only by wedding art and science and integrating the aesthetic beauty of the other art forms, but also through attempting to involve all of the viewer’s senses, not just the dominant ones of sight and hearing, in the artistic experience of motion pictures. Bearing witness to this are the previous century’s myriad initiatives to transform the movies into a multisensory experience. Nonetheless, none of these proposals has managed to take hold and, for now, film is an art form enjoyed strictly in audiovisual terms. That said, given the context of ever-dwindling movie theater audiences, could the incorporation of the olfactory attract spectators once again? In this paper we employ an empathy and identification with characters (EIC) scale to analyze whether the incorporation of smells increases enjoyment in the viewing of an audiovisual production – in this case, the multisensory short film Xmile – by an experimental group (with scents) and a control group (without scents). The results indicate that with the incorporation of scents viewers’ identify much more with the fictional characters and further enjoy the experience.

El objetivo de esta investigación es averiguar si, según los propios profesionales del periodismo, se ha producido en los últimos años algún cambio significativo en la cobertura de las migraciones y de las personas migrantes por parte de los medios españoles y sondear si –según estas opiniones expertas– estos cambios pueden persistir en el tiempo. Para abordar dicho objetivo, hemos realizado entrevistas semiestructuradas a 15 reporteros que han trabajado de manera especializada en esta materia. Los resultados indican que los periodistas observan en los últimos cinco años cambios positivos en el tratamiento de esta información. Sin embargo, también coinciden en que dichos cambios son minoritarios (pocos medios apuestan por consolidar estas mejoras) e inestables: la urgencia, la falta de especialización y la precariedad amenazan su permanencia en el futuro.

En las últimas décadas se ha desarrollado un importante campo de investigación en el ámbito de las Ciencias Sociales y en el de las Humanidades en torno a la representación de la inmigración (y de sus actores principales) en los medios de comunicación. La cobertura mediática de las minorías, en este caso, de la inmigración, y de los temas relacionados con este debate social, supone un factor relevante de cómo la sociedad percibe a estas minorías. En el caso concreto de la inmigración, muchos estudios apuntan que el lenguaje empleado tiende a la generalización y que ello contribuye a la deshumanización de las personas inmigrantes, lo que afecta decisivamente a la manera en que las percibimos y nos relacionamos con ellas: el “otro” pierde su personalidad individual y pasa a denominarse “el sin papeles”, “el extranjero”. En el presente artículo se realiza un análisis de contenido del tratamiento mediático en España del traslado y desembarco de 629 personas migrantes rescatadas en el Mediterráneo por el barco Aquarius mediante el estudio de 1.303 piezas publicadas en una muestra de 27 diarios estatales y regionales entre el 12 y el 23 de junio de 2018. Los resultados muestran que el lenguaje utilizado fue propicio a la generalización y la deshumanización del acontecimiento, que tendía a concebirse y transmitirse como un hecho político y no como un acontecimiento vital para un conjunto muy significativo de personas. / In recent decades, an important field of research has been developed in the Social Sciences and Humanities around the representation of immigration (and its main actors) in the media. The media coverage of minorities, in this case, immigration, and issues related to this social debate is a relevant factor in how society perceives these minorities. Specifically in the case of immigration, many studies suggest that the language used tends to generalization and that this contributes to the dehumanization of the migrants persons, which decisively affects the way we perceive them and relate to them: the conceived as “other” loses his individual personality and becomes "The undocumented", "the foreigner". In the present article, acontent analysis of the media treatment in Spain of the transfer and disembarkation of 629 migrant people rescued in the Mediterranean by the Aquarius ship is made through the study of 1,303 pieces published in a sample of 27 state and regional newspapers between 12 and on June 23, 2018. The results show that the language used was conducive to the generalization and dehumanization of the event, which tended to be conceived and transmitted as a political event and not as a vital event for a very important group of people.

The objective of the investigation was to characterize influences of image and transmission rights in production of news about the Rio/2016 Paralympic Games. This study was qualitative, descriptive, exploratory and inspired by some characteristics of news making studies. We interviewed 15 journalists and editors from different Brazilian media groups and newspapers that covered that sports mega event. The definitions and delimitations of journalistic making guided by commercial issues – such as time and space limits to interview athletes and occasional difficulty to access regional sports idols for news coverage directed to specific locations - indicate that, when broadcasting rights are not available, the breadth and complexity of the information collected by journalists for the production of news is restricted. / O objetivo da investigação foi caracterizar influências da detenção dos direitos de imagem e transmissão no processo de produção de notícias sobre os Jogos Paralímpicos Rio/2016. Esta pesquisa foi de cunho qualitativo, descritivo, exploratório e se inspirou em algumas características dos estudos de news making. Entrevistamos 15 jornalistas e editores de diferentes grupos de mídia e jornais do país que cobriram o megaevento esportivo. As definições e delimitações do fazer jornalístico pautadas pelas questões comerciais, como por exemplo os limites de tempo e espaço para entrevistar os atletas e a dificuldade de, por vezes, eles acessarem ídolos esportivos regionais para a cobertura noticiosa direcionada a localidades específicas, indicam que, quando não se possui os direitos de transmissão, se restringe a amplitude e a complexidade das informações a serem recolhidas pelos jornalistas para a produção das notícias. / El objetivo fue determinar las influencias de la posesión de los derechos de imagen y transmisión en el proceso de producción de noticias sobre los Juegos Paralímpicos de Rio / 2016. Esta investigación fue de cuño cualitativo, descriptivo, exploratorio y se inspiró en algunas características de los estudios de news making. Se ha entrevistado a 15 periodistas y editores de diferentes grupos de medios y periódicos del país que realizaron la cobertura del megaevento deportivo. Las definiciones y delimitaciones del hacer periodístico pautadas por las cuestiones comerciales, como por ejemplo los límites de tiempo y espacio para entrevistar a los atletas y, a veces, la dificultad de acceder a los ídolos deportivos regionales para la cobertura noticiosa dirigida a localidades específicas, indican que, cuando no se poseen los derechos de emisión, se restringe la amplitud y la complejidad de las informaciones recogidas por los periodistas para la producción de las noticias.

En las últimas décadas se ha desarrollado un importante campo de investigación en Ciencias Sociales y en Humanidades en torno a la representación de la inmigración (y de sus actores principales) en los medios de comunicación. Muchos estudios apuntan que el lenguaje empleado tiende a la generalización y que ello contribuye a la deshumanización de las personas inmigrantes, lo que afecta decisivamente a la manera en que las percibimos y nos relacionamos con ellas. Las aproximaciones a esta imagen se han realizado mayoritariamente a partir del análisis de contenido y del análisis crítico del discurso, pero se han hecho pocas incursiones en la perspectiva propia de los informadores. Por eso, el objetivo de nuestra investigación es incorporar al estudio de esta materia una aproximación más cualitativa, analizando la experiencia y la autopercepción de los propios periodistas a la comprensión del proceso de producción del discurso de la inmigración en España. Nuestra hipótesis es que el trabajo de los periodistas se desarrolla sin la especialización ni el tiempo necesarios para un afrontamiento de la información más contextualizado y riguroso. Con la finalidad de comprobar esta hipótesis, hemos realizado entrevistas semiestructuradas a 10 reporteros que han trabajado en esta materia en los últimos años. Estas entrevistas se han transcrito para detectar los asuntos, problemas y explicaciones más recurrentes en el discurso de los constructores de la imagen de la inmigración. Los resultados indican que los periodistas observan carencias claras en la producción (se necesita más especialización, más fuentes y más tiempo) y del enfoque (falta de contexto social e incluir los aspectos positivos de las migraciones). Por el contrario, coinciden en que sobra simplificación, fuentes oficiales, paternalismo y victimización. / In recent decades, an important field of Social Sciences and Humanities research has developed around the representation of immigration (and its main actors) in the media. Many studies have suggested that generalizing language tends to be used and that this contributes to the dehumanization of immigrants, decisively affecting the way in which we perceive and relate to them. This topic has mainly been approached based on content analysis and critical discourse analysis, but few inroads have been made into the perspective of the informants. Therefore, the objective of this research is to incorporate a more qualitative approach to the study of this topic by analyzing the experience and self-perception of journalists themselves in understanding the process producing the immigration discourse in Spain. Our hypothesis is that the work of journalists is developed without the specialization or time needed for a more contextualized and rigorous treatment of the information. To test this hypothesis, we conducted semistructured interviews with ten reporters who have worked on this subject in recent years. These interviews were transcribed to detect the most recurrent issues, problems, and explanations in the discourse of the constructors of the image of immigration. The results indicate that journalists perceive clear shortcomings in the production (greater specialization, more sources, and more time are needed) and focus (a lack of social context and including the positive aspects of migration). In contrast, they agree that simplification, official sources, paternalism, and victimization are unnecessary.

In recent years, there has been an increased emergence of studies focusing on the media coverage of the Paralympic Games. Until recently, studies have predominately used quantitative content analyses that, although providing useful interrogation of observational patterns, limits the understanding of and appreciation for the contexts that may have shaped the production of information. By focusing exclusively on the ‘what’ and on the ‘how much’ it is difficult to reveal the ‘why’ and to identify the underlying motives of any changes. This paper recognizes the nuances of the editorial decision-making process by using a mixed methods approach; employing quantitative and qualitative data drawn from a case study focusing on the Spanish media coverage of the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games. An initial content analysis of all news published in Spain’s twelve highest-circulation newspapers during Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Paralympic Games was undertaken. Subsequently, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with journalists that were also sent to these two iterations of the Paralympic Games by Spanish media. Drawing on conceptualisations of media framing, the results highlight that the numerical data alone shed insufficient light on the complexity of the news-making process. The semi-structured interviews brought to light issues such as editorial management buoyed by commercial imperatives, and organisational interjection in journalists’ narratives and authorship, that also contoured coverage and content. In addition to further debate about the complexities of media coverage of Paralympic sport, the study also underscores the utility of incorporating and combining qualitative methodologies within sport media and communication research.

La recerca en comunicació política en el País Valencià travessa un estadi primerenc i els seus resultats, a hores d’ara, es poden qualificar de dispersos. Tant els treballs personals primer, com les línies de recerca després, han anat configurant-se segons s’implantaven els estudis de comunicació a les universitats valencianes; la joventut d’aquests estudis permet intuir una certa adolescència a la investigació. Dels camps d’apropament a la comunicació política, l’anàlisi teorètica de fenòmens lligada a l’observació crítica de l’opinió pública és el que ha motivat un major interès entre els estudiosos valencians. Destaca també l’anàlisi de campanyes electorals i les ferramentes de comunicació, tant en comicis generals com autonòmics. Malgrat el voluntarisme dels investigadors, reflectit en el nombre i caràcter de la seua producció, la mancança d’un context de recerca promogut institucionalment dificulta un treball coordinat i d’entitat. Convindria omplir aquest buit i considerar la relació essencial que mantenen comunicació política i democràcia.