The progressive disappearance of the forums as an already archaic element of conversation on the cyber-media is a fact with the closure of one of the last ones that remained active as is that of the Vogue magazine. A closing that is preceded by insults and threats to blogger Lovely Pepa that are what has triggered this closure. Methods: This qualitative research has been conducted through structured surveys to 47 users of the Vogue magazine forum. Results and discussion: The results obtained highlight the importance of synergies above all of sorority that have been created in a female community that was part of a medium but that was completely independent of it. A group with a need to be informed, to converse and to address richer and more varied topics than those proposed by the publication.
Facing Fake News: The case of the students of the University of the Basque Country
The politics and poetics of migrant narratives
Serving as the introduction to the special issue on ‘Migrant narratives’, this article proposes a multi-perspectival and multi-stakeholder analysis of how migration is narrated in the media in the last decade. This research agenda is developed by focussing on groups of actors that are commonly studied in isolation from each other: (1) migrants, (2) media professionals such as journalists and spokespersons from humanitarian organizations, (3) governments and corporations and (4) artists and activists. We take a relational approach to recognize how media power is articulated alongside a spectrum of more top-down and more bottom-up perspectives, through specific formats, genres and styles within and against larger frameworks of governmentality. Taken together, the poetics and politics of migrant narratives demand attention respectively for how stakeholders variously aesthetically present and politically represent migration. The opportunities, challenges, problems and commitments observed among the four groups of actors also provide the means to rethink our practice and responsibilities as media and migration scholars contributing to decentring media technologies and re-humanizing migrants.
Media and Twitter Agendas for Social Mobilizations: The Case of the Protests in Defense of the Public Healthcare System in Spain
This article analyzes the citizen movement in defense of the public health system and against the proposal of merging two hospitals in the city of Granada. The merger was scarcely covered by the mainstream media until a physician denounced the hospital system reform in a Facebook video that soon went viral. From that moment, a social online mobilization began facilitating greater involvement of citizens and civic organizations, reaching traditional political actors. Using a multimethod approach and based on content analysis, interviews, and social networks analysis, this case illustrates the mobilizing capacity of social media, highlighting the ability to overcome the traditional lack of agency that is associated with virtual mobilizations. It also demonstrates the ability of social media to set the social agenda and to influence the mainstream media, which are then “forced” to introduce the demand into their agenda. Finally, it also shows how new online social leaders become microcelebrities with high mobilizing capacities.
Female Candidate Word: The Limited Gender Impact on the Electoral Discourse in Twitter
This research develops a descriptive analysis of the topics promoted on Twitter by lehendakari candidates during the cybercampaign of the Basque Autonomous elections of September 2016. To this end, the study includes four categories of framing and three discursive strategies that have been analyzed in 411 messages from the front-runners of the five formations that obtained parliamentary
representation. The candidates have had an unequal activity on Twitter, although in all cases the policy issues have been the most common frame. It has not been possible to establish a relationship between the sex of the candidates and the issues addressed. Likewise, the presence of the gender perspective has been almost testimonial in its messages. For all these reasons, the study points out the contradiction between the institutionalized approach of the political parties and that of their candidates.
The transmedia initiatives of the Basque public broadcaster (EITB) to connect with young audiences
Transforming the Basque Public Radio and Television Broadcaster (EITB) into a transversal, digital and transmedia group has been a long process. This was initiated a decade ago with the Digibat Plan (2000-2007) and took shape as a result of grouping EITB’s radio, television and web newsrooms into a new digitalized headquarters, symbol of a new stage for this public broadcaster. At present, EITB is immersed in a context of changes in which European public radio and televisions are adapting to the multiplatform and transmedia ecosystem and exploring new trends to connect, primarily, with the young audiences. This paper thus focuses on the case of Euskal Irrati Telebista (EITB), a communication group that has been developing since the 2010 year innovative large scale productions useful for getting a better insight into the Basque language and culture through transmedia narratives. Based on a qualitative methodology of content analysis and in-depth interviews with media professionals, the study examines the most outstanding transmedia audiovisual productions of EITB in order to determine the characteristics and the main obstacles overtaken by the Basque public broadcaster in order to produce interactive journalistic proposals.
Feminist hashtag activism in Spain: measuring the degree of politicisation of online discourse on #YoSíTeCreo, #HermanaYoSíTeCreo, #Cuéntalo y #NoEstásSola
The use of Twitter as a tool for mobilisation has made digital social and political activism a growing area of interest in communication research. Scholars have underscored the effectiveness of Twitter in galvanising the opinion of broad sectors of the public and expressing the indignation of average citizens on issues of social concern (Bruns et al., 2015; Martínez, 2017). The rise of feminist social media activism has prompted a number of studies on the feminist movement’s use of hashtags to foster online conversations on specific issues (Jinsook, 2017; Turley & Fisher, 2018; etc.). This article examines the correlation between the degree of ideological commitment amongst social media users and the nature of their Twitter conversations on a given issue. The analysis focuses on Twitter conversations generated by feminists, influencers, journalists and politicians in reaction to the controversial sentencing of the Wolf Pack (La Manada) –a gang of men involved in a sexual assault perpetrated during the San Fermín festival in Pamplona. Big data techniques were used to explore the nature of messages containing four highly charged hashtags central to feminist discourse on this issue: #YoSiTeCreo (Yes, I believe you), #HermanaYoSíTeCreo (Yes, sister, I believe you), #Cuéntalo (Talk about it) and #NoEstásSola (You are not alone). Our findings indicate that the levels of ideological commitment of Twitter users participating in what was essentially a feminist conversation varied to an extent that impeded serious interaction amongst them, either online or offline. From the perspective of communication strategy, feminist hashtag activism would appear to be an intermediate step in a longer process of creating a higher consciousness regarding gender equality issues in Spain.
Political Communication in times of a New Political Culture

Scope and Difficulties of the Transmedia Practice. A Case Study on the Spanish PSM System
According to a growing volume of academic literature on the subject, transmedia fiction and non-fiction production is now one of the main areas driving innovation in media companies, thanks to the improvements it brings in numerous interconnected fields: narrative and content, management and productive strategy, brand promotion, etc. In this context the article focuses on transmedia linked to public broadcasting companies, starting with a qualitative study based on interviews with expert professionals from thirteen corporations in Spain, one operating at the national level (RTVE) and twelve at the regional level (A Punt Media, CARTV, CCMA, CRTVG, CMM, EITB, EPRTVIB, RTVM, RTPA, RTVA, RTRM and RTVC). The results show how professionals view the concept of transmedia production, its advantages, disadvantages and the challenges it poses, which depend on these corporations’ service and relationship with audiences. As the conclusions state, the keys factors for understanding the professional transmedia strategy of public broadcasting corporations are found in the characteristics of today’s media market, which is suffering from budget cuts and growing competition.
The university teaching of cyberjournalism in Brazil and Spain: formative responses and future challenges in convergent and social context
Brazil and Spain are two Iberoamerican countries that have evidenced up to date one of the highest dynamisms in the online professional and scholar fields. Taking into account the consolidation in the last years of social journalism and media convergence tendencies, this article analyses how online journalism teaching is currently being developed in six of the most relevant public and private universities of Brazil and Spain. The study aims to gain a depth insight into the response that University education is giving to the current and future needs of a society increasingly interconnected and influenced by technology, and thus more and more convergent and social. With this purpose, the study uses a methodological approach based on the analysis of several teaching curriculums in Grade and Posgrade, apart from considering the opinions of teachers in charge of online journalism subjects in both countries. The results provide specific data about training models, denomination of the courses and subjects, curricular development options, current theoretical and practical approach to online journalism related subjects and future challenges and opportunities. It was concluded that the professional change promoted at different levels by the processes of media convergence and the assimilation of the 2.0 productive routines has promoted a progressive adaptation of the Brazilian and Spanish curricula in terms of diversification, transversality and specialization. In these curricula, teaching around cyberjournalism responds to the need for journalists for an increasingly broader education.